Spice Girls

The Best and Worst Beatles Conspiracies (NSFW)

Conspiracy theories are my comfort food. After all, all a conspiracy is "the action of plotting or conspiring," and not just about tin-foil hats and Reptillians. When Reagan's cronies illegally sold weapons to Iran in the Iran-Contra Scandal, that was a conspiracy. When the CIA sold crack to kids in ... More >>

Gwen Stefani Rules (As a Rude Girl and/or Pop Princess)

I'm glad I grew up in the '90s. I had strong, independent, beautiful women as musical role models, and they ruled the airwaves. The Spice Girls preached girl power, Lilith Fair paraded feminine gusto across the country, and No Doubt , fronted by Gwen Stefani, assured us that being treated like "just ... More >>

BroLoaf Brings Its "A Game" to the Marquee

BroLoaf: Ben Brah and Coach Grundy in the Raw

Craig CohenBen Brah and Junior Junior​Editor's note: We barely knew what we were getting into when we sent Serene Dominic to interview BroLoaf -- but we damn sure ended up with more of it than could fit in our paper. So, for your high-fiving, beer-ponging pleasure, here's Serene's extended int ... More >>

NKOTBSB at US Airways Center, 6-30-11

Photos by Luke HolwerdaNKOTBSB gets beamed down to the US Airways Center stage.​REVIEW BY MELISSA FOSSUM AND DANIEL RAVEN New Kids On the Block and Backstreet Boys have grown up a bit since their heydays on MTV and the music charts, and so have their fans. But that hasn't stopped the bands fr ... More >>

Hanson at Mesa Arts Center Last Night

Luke Holwerda​ HansonSeptember 14, 2010Piper Theater at Mesa Arts CenterRight now, as I write this sentence, I'm listening to Middle of Nowhere, Hanson's major label debut from 1997. That record of course contains "MMMBop" but it's the first verse of "Thinking of You" that I'm spinning -- it's und ... More >>

Small World

Radio Disney feeds the new pop underground with music for tweens

Laugh, Riot

Neil Hamburger died for your grins

Tigre Beat

Former Bikini Kill leader Kathleen Hanna's new group is the cat's meow

Driven to Ecstacy

Victims in Ecstacy will do whatever it takes to become stars. They'll even dress like boys.

Oh, Donnas

Shaping themselves after rock 'n' roll's bad girls (and boys), the Donnas get punk bitchy

Big in Japan

How does one tiny island nation create so much disposable pop?

Christ on a Crutch

End of Days is neither as spiritual nor as action-packed as it needs to be

Letters

I Want My MP3!

Wondermeat's Will Nerini and Eric Long have seen the future of Phoenix rock, and it's downloadable

Night & Day

August 20 - 26, 1998

The Best Laid Plans of Nikki Lynn

Somewhere in a nondescript Kingman subdivision, a mother and wife is poised to ascend to pornographic heights

Munificent Seven

Tempe's other funk junkies have ambition, groove, and yeah, they've got drugs, too

Recordings

Windigo's Strange Ways

Sharing high times and tall tales with Tempe's heaviest tripcore band and its first full-length CD

Recordings

Now Playing

Marcy Playground shrugs its way to the head of the class

Critics' Choice

A year-end recap of the albums that made it worthwhile to own a stereo in 1997

R.C. Lair: House Keeper

American Without Tears

Blur trades its status as Britpop laureate for a dose of Amerindie messiness

Dancing Shoes

The Sneaker Pimps, the U.K.'s newest electronica export, gain a foothold in the U.S.