The Black Keys

Cold War Kids Headline New Times' Carnaval Electrico at Crescent Ballroom

Meet the New Times Carnaval Eléctrico Lineup: Cold War Kids, Hanni El Khatib, Mergence, and More

Following up last year's New Times Soundcheck, a two-day festival at Club Red in Tempe -- which featured performances by The Love Me Nots, Sugar Thieves, 2 Tone Lizard Kings, Jason Devore, The Insects, Crusher Sound System, and more -- was a serious task. But challenges are cool, right? Up on the S ... More >>

Grammy Awards 2013: Katy Clowns Bon Iver, Miguel Shows How It's Done, and Taylor Swift Dissed Her Ex

The Grammys are a huge night for music fans. While we tend to shake our head and wonder how some of these artists won (ie. "Album of the Year"), it's entertaining to watch the live performances and keep fingers crossed for our favorite artists. fun. won big last night, sweeping up the "Song of the Y ... More >>

Soul Singer Bettye LaVette Tells Detroit's Story

Frank Ocean and Michael Kiwanuka Craft Two Different "Traditional" Soul Records

His major label debut, channel ORANGE, was only released digitally a week ago and physically yesterday, but I'm going to wager a guess: You're sick of hearing about Frank Ocean. The singer/songwriter has been the subject of hundreds of insightful think-pieces, a talking point in the (necessary) di ... More >>

Our 10 Favorite Metro Phoenix Music Venues

It's a hard pill to swallow, but music venues in the Valley tend to come and go. Fact. Look no further than the closing of The Compound Grill within the past week or last month's nixing of Clubhouse Music Venue for proof. Some live music joints and concert halls have figured out the magic for ... More >>

Jessica Lea Mayfield Is Only 21, But She's No Stranger to the Tour Grind

Mavis Staples and Dr. John at Celebrity Theatre 6-16-11

Jason P. Woodbury​ Mavis Staples and Dr. JohnCelebrity TheatreThursday, June 16"Joyful noise." That's how Mavis Staples described what her and her band create onstage. It's an apt characterization, one that is appropriately loaded with gospel history, and one that connotes how the 71-year-old sing ... More >>

The Love Me Nots The Demon & the Devotee Release Show Last Night at Yucca Tap Room

Jonathan McNamara The Love Me Nots​ It's been a wild year for The Love Me Nots. Not only did the band take time off for lead singer/organist Nicole Laurenne to beat breast cancer -- which she has, we're happy to report --but the band has reunited with original drummer Jay Lien, and recorded a new ... More >>

Coachella 2011 Friday Recap

The Main Stage at Dusk​The 2011 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival got underway yesterday with the bad taste from 2010's fiasco still in the mouths of many -- myself included. It didn't help that Paul Tollett -- head of the festival's producer Goldenvoice -- recently admitted that he belie ... More >>

The Stone Foxes, "I Killed Robert Johnson"

​Song: The Stone Foxes, "I Killed Robert Johnson" Context: San Francisco's Stone Foxes have been impressing us for awhile. Glad to see them back in town tonight opening for The Black Keys. I Killed Robert Johnson by The Stone Foxes

Big 4 vs. Coachella: Which Will Reign Superior?

​The Empire Polo Club in Indio, California has booked a third event to go down on their grounds between Coachella and the Stagecoach country festival this April.Metal fans are rejoicing over The Big 4, a one-day concert featuring some of metal's most prominent acts: Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer, a ... More >>

Arcade Fire Wins 'Album of the Year' - But Is That A Good Thing?

Arcade Fire​ It's been less than twenty-four hours since Arcade Fire's amazingly good album The Suburbs won 'Album of the Year' at this year's Grammy Awards. Frankly, I'm still a little shocked that the Grammys got it right for once. When I first heard that the band was nominated I thought for s ... More >>

15 Good Songs You Might've Missed in 2010

Peter Storch​I listened to more than 3,000 songs in 2010, so I was asked to come up with a list of the best of the year. But you've probably heard "Swim" by Surfer Blood and "Boyfriend" by Best Coast and "Helicopter" by Deerhunter and "Hustle and Cuss" by the Dead Weather, so I came up with a ... More >>

Neil Young: Le Noise

​Artist: Neil Young Title: Le Noise Release date: September 28 Label: Reprise Neil Young is a first-rate iconoclast and one of the few successful rock artists who has remained truly uncompromising throughout his long and storied career. Of course, uncompromising can result in inconsistency, ... More >>

Girl Talk: All Day

​Artist: Girl Talk Title: All Day Release date: November 15 Label: Illegal Art Whether sample-happy mash-up act Girl Talk is "good" or "not good" and whether you "like" or "dislike" Girl Talk are completely irrelevant to any discussion regarding Girl Talk. The only things I care about when it ... More >>

Tierra del Fuego: Queen of the Rendezvous

​Artist: Tierra del Fuego Title: Queen of the Rendezvous Release date: December 11 Label: Scapular Winging Through pure happenstance, I witnessed this local band, Tierra del Fuego, on Saturday night play as they played to a small but appreciative crowd at Trunk Space. It just happened to be t ... More >>

Odds 'n' Sods: Helmet, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Charlatans, Small Black, and more

​It's amazing how much music is released in a year. I've listened to nearly 270 records in their entirety this year, yet I still have a huge stack of unlistened CDs on my desk, several unlistened digital downloads in my iTunes, and a lengthy list of high-profile stuff I never got a chance to h ... More >>

Mini Mansions: Mini Mansions

​Artist: Mini Mansions Title: Mini Mansions Release date: November 2 Label: Ipecac One of the biggest musical curveballs of the year has to be the debut record by the Southern California trio Mini Mansions. I say it's a curveball because I wouldn't have guessed such a Beatles-esque display o ... More >>

Sun City Girls: Funeral Mariachi

​Artist: Sun City Girls Title: Funeral Mariachi Release date: October 26 Label: Abduction Sun City Girls' last-ever record -- they've made dozens since forming in Phoenix way back in the early days of West Coast punk -- comes off as a more somber affair. And some of it is downright -- odd to ... More >>

Daft Punk: Tron Legacy (Original Soundtrack)

​Artist: Daft Punk Title: Tron Legacy (Original Soundtrack) Release date: December 7 Label: Walt Disney Records I'm a little surprised by the buzz surrounding the release of a soundtrack to a Disney movie. I understand that the kids love the helmeted French house duo Daft Punk and that said ... More >>

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

​Artist: Kanye West Title: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Release date: November 22 Label: Roc-A-Fella Fitting, perhaps, that Kanye West's new record, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is one of the final 15 or so new records that I'll be listening to before this Nothing Not New project t ... More >>

Sharon Van Etten: Epic

​Artist: Sharon Van Etten Title: Epic Release date: September 21 Label: Ba Da Bing! If you're relatively unknown as a musical artist, as is Sharon Van Etten, and you name your record Epic, you'd better be damn sure your record doesn't suck. The good news for Van Etten is that her seven-song r ... More >>

OFF!: First Four EPs

​Artist: OFF! Title: First Four EPs Release date: November 23 Label: Vice Records In 2010, few things seem more ridiculous than a punk supergroup anchored by two guys who made their most indelible marks on American punk rock nearly 30 years ago. But, damn, OFF! pulled off an unlikely feat, ma ... More >>

Robyn: Body Talk

​Artist: Robyn Title: Body Talk Release date: November 22 Label: Interscope The critics sure do love the Swedish dance-pop star Robyn, who's been releasing Body Talk in chunks throughout 2010 and now has finally dropped the entire album as one 15-song compendium. But there seems to be a commo ... More >>

The Fresh & Onlys: Play It Strange

Fresh & Onlys, Play It Strange​Artist: The Fresh & OnlysTitle: Play It StrangeRelease date: October 12Label: In the RedAnd just like that, I find myself a little bored by the sound plied and, possibly, perfected by San Francisco's The Fresh & Onlys. It's the sound that has passed for g ... More >>

Matt & Kim: Sidewalks

​Artist: Matt & KimTitle: SidewalksRelease date: November 2Label: FaderI suppose I should mention up front that I didn't like Tears for Fears in 1985 and I still don't 25 years later, even in a nostalgic sense. So it stands to reason that I have little use for Matt & Kim in 2010.It's not t ... More >>

Gospel Claws: C-L-A-W-S

​Artist: Gospel Claws Title: C-L-A-W-S Release date: October 26 Label: Common Wall Media Gospel Claws are a local band (Tempe, I've been told) that is currently enjoying a little bit of national exposure, residing in a reasonably high position on some relatively obscure indie-rock-tallying ch ... More >>

Elvis Costello: National Ransom

​Artist: Elvis Costello Title: National Ransom Release date: November 2 Label: Hear Music I really wish it weren't the case, but I'd have to file the new record by Elvis Costello under "For Completists Only" (of which I'm sure there many when it comes to Elvis Costello fans). If you heard hi ... More >>

Foxy Shazam at the Rhythm Room Last Night

​Foxy Shazam October 25, 2010 Rhythm Room Foxy Shazam left the crowd buzzing about a performance they'll be discussing for days after an exciting, action-packed show at the Rhythm Room last night. Singer Eric Nally came out spinning in circles with a huge grin while wearing face-eater sunglasses ... More >>

Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz

​Artist: Sufjan Stevens Title: The Age of Adz Release date: October 21 Label: Asthmatic Kitty The new record by indie-music deity Sufjan Stevens is an hour-and-12-minute endurance test, one who's raison d'etre is revealed in the closing seconds of the record's final song, "Impossible Soul." A ... More >>

The Corin Tucker Band: 1,000 Years

​Artist: The Corin Tucker BandTitle: 1,000 YearsRelease date: October 5Label: Kill Rock Stars Who else loves Sleater-Kinney and was disappointed to hear they'd gone on indefinite hiatus after the release of one of their best records, The Woods, in 2006? In my opinion, we're one of the finer bands ... More >>

Grinderman: Grinderman 2

​Artist: GrindermanTitle: Grinderman 2Release date: September 14Label: Anti-Most of the indie rock I've heard this year (well over 200 records and counting, with 11 weeks to go in this series) is really pretty toothless. Even the harder-rocking stuff, with its big drums or wall-of-sound guitars or ... More >>

Top 10 Celebrity Cameos in Indie Rock Videos

These days, the lines between indie and mainstream music are difficult to pinpoint. With indie artists featured prominently in mainstream media (I'm looking at you, Twilight soundtrack), it's hard to see what makes indie music, well, indie. When you add celebrities to the mix, it becomes even more d ... More >>

Nothing Not New: Podcast #9

​Welcome to our latest podcast, in which Martin Cizmar and I play some new music and about it, too. On today's program, we discuss the merits of such bands as Wavves, Arcade Fire, The Budos Band, Jimmy Eat World, and local superstars Snake! Snake! Snakes!Here's the playlist:Jaill -- "The Stroller" ... More >>

Odds 'n' Sods: Cowboy Junkies, Winnie Cooper, Grieves, Shelby Lynne, and more

​Holy crap, only five-plus months left of Nothing Not New. I gotta get to a lot more new(-ish) releases. Let's roll . . .Cowboy Junkies -- Remnin Park: Who knew these dour Canadians were even still around? Remnin Park is a concept album inspired the Timmins' family month-long sojourn to China. Out ... More >>

Devo: Something for Everybody

​Artist: DevoTitle: Something for EverybodyRelease date: June 15Label: Warner Bros.You may be asking yourself, "Why does Devo have a new record out?" Is it for the money? Doubtful, because how much money could they possibly make by releasing a major-label record in 2010? And, anyway, aren't these ... More >>

Band of Horses: Infinite Arms

​Artist: Band of HorsesTitle: Infinite ArmsRelease date: May 18Label: ColumbiaTake a look at the cover art to the right of these words. If you were browsing through the racks at your local record store, this cover is nearly all that you'd need to know about the new of Band of Horses.From the band ... More >>

Hooves: The Decline of Western Civilization, Part IV

Cloven-Hoofed Devils

The Decline of Western Civilization, Part IV: Hooves

Rock Around the Blocks: A SxSW preview