The Hold Steady

The Gaslight Anthem - Marquee Theatre - 4/23/2013

A common complaint about the Phoenix live music scene is fan apathy. A show may be sold out, but many fans will keep their arms crossed and not move around much. That was not the case at Marquee Theatre Tuesday night. The Gaslight Anthem's fanbase showed what live music should be about. No matter ... More >>

That Damn Show feat. Bad Religion, The Faint, and More at Mesa Amphitheatre, 4/20/13

That Damn Show | Mesa Amphitheatre | April 20, 2013 The history of That Damn Show is full of fond memories. A decade or so ago, the festival combined punk bands with alt-radio favorites for a blistering day in the sun. Saturday, it was back with a vengeance, and hopefully it will make a return next ... More >>

How Can My Band Shake the "Christian Rock" Tag?

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

Jens Lekman, Crescent Ballroom, 11/9/12

Jens Lekman @ Crescent Ballroom|11/9/12Jens Lekman calls his songs "stories." Introducing "I Know What Love Isn't," the title track from his 2012 LP, Lekman described driving around in a friend's crappy old car, listening to classic rock radio, and talking about "life, love, and things that that." ... More >>

Is a Nirvana-Style Breakthrough Looming with '90s Revival?

Top Five Must-See Shows This Weekend

Curious about what's going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions where to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don't fret: These are our Five Shows to See This Weekend.

Jesse Malin Links The Clash and The Grateful Dead

See also: Chasers Sold to New Owners and Becomes Pub Rock, A Music Venue With an In-House Radio Broadcasting Studio Jesse Malin has done it all, or most of it at least. In his barely-teens he was fronting Jersey-based hardcore ensemble Heart Attack, then spent the '90s in glam-punk wreckers D-Gen ... More >>

Modern Art Records' Ben Collins on Why Bands Skip Phoenix on Tour

In this week's issue (on stands tomorrow and online later today) I spoke to Miniature Tigers frontman Charlie Brand about the new album, Mia Pharaoh. Call 'em a "Brooklyn band" if you must, but they're showing Phoenix plenty of love: There's that downtown mural, and they're performing twice tomorrow ... More >>

Replacements Fan Documentary Color Me Obsessed to Screen Tonight at Phoenix Art Museum

One of the preeminent rock bands of the 1980s finally has gotten the rock-doc treatment, and local fans of The Replacements will get a chance to see it at 7:30 p.m. today at the Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 North Central Avenue. Color Me Obsessed is self-admitted Replacements fanboy Gorman Bechard's lo ... More >>

Top 25 Lists of 13 New Times Contributors

A New Times Writer Fights "Aesthetic Atrophy" by Listening Only to New Music in 2010

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 >>

The Parting Gifts: Strychnine Dandelions

​Artist: The Parting Gifts Title: Strychnine Dandelions Release date: November 9 Label: In the Red Last week, I didn't have many good things to say about the new record from Kanye West. This morning, a white co-worker walked into my office and said, "I read what you said about Kanye West. Whe ... 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 >>

The 88: The 88

​Artist: The 88Title: The 88 Release date: September 28 Label: Rocket ScienceWhat do you do if you're a band like The 88? You're top-flight songwriters and musicians, you get your songs placed in all kinds of big-name TV shows and high-profile TV commercials, you tour the country opening ... More >>

Warpaint: The Fool

​Artist: Warpaint Title: The Fool Release date: October 25 Label: Rough Trade The musical path taken by L.A. foursome Warpaint is well trodden -- but this kind of ultra-moody, sort of experimental, Joy Division-indebted music is usually plied by men. But Warpaint is a quartet of women, and in ... More >>

Screaming Females: Castle Talk

​Artist: Screaming Females Title: Castle Talk Release date: September 14 Label: Don Giovanni Back in the day, I'd hate to miss a good show (I'm still not happy that my parents wouldn't let me drive to Kalamazoo one Monday night to see Scratch Acid and Big Black play, ditto the time I couldn't ... More >>

Kings of Leon: Come Around Sundown

​Artist: Kings of LeonTitle: Come Around SundownRelease date: October 19Label: RCAI think it's funny that people are getting all bent out of shape over the supposed "selling out" of Kings of Leon, saying their new record sucks worse than that sucky one that sold a bajillion copies a few years ago. ... 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 >>

Bryan Devendorf of The National Talks SB1070, Sounding British and Chick-fil-A

​Few bands are better suited to soundtrack a stiff drink and a contemplative stare than The National, who have been issuing literate, dark records for the past decade. High Violet, their latest, is another notch on their belt, full of powerful songs that combine their Midwest gravitas with New Yor ... 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 >>

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 >>

Pat Benatar: Soon-to-Be Hipster Icon?

Authority Zero: Stories of Survival

​Artist: Authority ZeroTitle: Stories of SurvivalRelease date: June 22Label: Suburban NoizeI have a friend who's a native Phoenician and longtime fixture in the Valley punk scene, both as fan and musician. He loves West Coast punk, thinks Southern California spawned the best of the best punk, espe ... 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 >>

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Mojo

​Artist: Tom Petty and the HeartbreakersTitle: MojoRelease date: June 15Label: RepriseHow many of you have acts that you'd never call yourself a fan of, would never buy one of their records, or pay money to see in concert, yet recognize that the acts have been around for so long and written songs ... 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 >>

Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma

​Artist: Flying LotusTitle: CosmogrammaRelease date: May 3Label: Warp RecordsA while back, a reader posted a comment on one of my Nothing Not New posts asking why I continued to listen to electronic/laptop music even though I don't care for it all that much.Well, first of all, in the spirit of the ... More >>

The New Pornographers: Together

​Artist: The New PornographersTitle: TogetherRelease date: May 4Label: MatadorFor me, the equation's always been real simple when it comes to the indie-pop group The New Pornographers: songs with Neko Case taking the vocal reins = yes; songs with the wanna-be British dude singing = maybe. Wel ... More >>

Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, May 21, 2009

M. Ward, Vetiver, Owen, and Sigur Ros are Just Some of What's Selling at Revolver Records

Mathew Ward and Zooey Deschanel (a.k.a. She & Him). We fully admit to our jealousy of Mathew Ward. Not only does the Portland guitarist have an obscene amount of talent (which he's demonstrated much over the past decade on seven separate full-length albums), Ward's collaborated musically with ... More >>

Pat Benatar: Soon-to-Be Hipster Icon?