The New Pornographers

Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix This Week

First, a "dumb drummer" joke: How do you get a drummer off of your porch? Pay him 10 bucks for the pizza. Now, our Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix This Week.

Mother Mother @ Rhythm Room

Metallica, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys and More of April In Concert Photos

The Black Keys at Mesa Amphitheatre ​May already? Yup. In case you are in the same work-induced haze that I am, you may need a reminder that April is, in fact, over. Luckily hindsight is twenty-twenty. You'll appreciate that as you look back at the best concert shots from April. April was one ... More >>

The New Pornographers, "Your Hands (Together)"

​Song: The New Pornographers, "Your Hands (Together)"Context: The New Pornographers will play Marquee Theatre tonight. New Pornographers - (Your Hands Together) by Perriquin79

The New Pornographers @ Marquee Theatre

Lil Wayne, David Hernandez, Stevie Nicks, Black Keys and More in This Week's Issue

​Is Weezy sober as good as the Weezy who was getting blazed and freestyling about Al Sharpon in a 9 minute song? Now that Lil Wayne is out of jail and on probation he's supposed to stay straight, which is bound to have an impact on his work. So is it for the better or not? Ben Westhoff tackles tha ... More >>

Incoming: CSS, The New Pornographers, Pinback, Titus Andronicus, Slick Rick

Slick Rick The Ruler​This week's just announced shows list is one of the longest in quite some time. There's a higher quotient of indie rock upcoming shows announced this week, with plenty of Coachella scraps.Yes, even if certain music-related boycotts recently gussied up their websites, bands are ... More >>

Feb. 7 In Blogs: Super Bowl, Pinback, Caramelpalooza, and Bristol Palin

​​​In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times' blogs. Today's entries:

Rihanna Gets Her Material Banned in 11 Countries

​Barbadian pop star Rihanna's music video for her song "S&M" has taken things too fa according to censorship guidelines and MTV News.Eleven countries, and possibly more to come, have already restricted any airplay on television. Even BBC 1 radio refuses to play Rihanna's song during most hours ... More >>

Duran Duran, The Strokes Tapped For Coachella; Official Lineup Coming Soon UPDATE

​Coachella's official lineup should be announced very, very soon -- lest anyone forget that this week is usually when the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival makes it big announcement.In lieu of the entire festival lineup, a few acts have already been confirmed for the festival's 2011 editi ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

13 Must-Hear Songs from the First Half of 2010

Dum Dum Girls​Today marks the halfway point of Nothing Not New. That means I've listen to nearly 140 records in their entirety in the first six months of 2010. Just another 140 or so to go before I can retreat to the familiarity of my record collection.To recognize the occasion, the Up on the Sun ... More >>

Foals: Total Life Forever

​Artist: FoalsTitle: Total Life ForeverRelease date: June 22Label: Sub PopThough I disagree with a commenter on one of my posts this week (Shawn from excellent local music blog Electric Mustache) about the merits of electro-punk Sleigh Bells, I agree with him that S.B. are a band that you either l ... 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 >>

Odds 'n' Sods: Delta Spirit, Stereo Total, The Tallest Man on Earth, The Cringe, The Dig, and more

​Let's clear off the desk, shall we?Stereo Total: Baby Ouh! -- This band on the Kill Rock Stars label is a multi-lingual new-New Wave boy-girl band with songs sung in English, German, and French. It's quirky with a capital "Q" and not nearly as charming as it thinks it is. Still, most songs are un ... More >>

Nothing Not New: Podcast #6

Peter M. Storch​Hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend. Now that you're back on the clock, use company time to give a listen to the sixth Nothing Not New podcast. In this installment, music editor Martin Cizmar and I play 11 songs from recent new releases and discuss the industrial roots of ... More >>

Odds 'n' Sods: CocoRosie, Natalie Merchant, Disco Biscuits, The Sadies, Small Black, and more

​It's been a pretty big past two weeks for indie rock: Hold Steady, New Pornographers, Flying Lotus, The National, The Dead Weather. That's a lot of heavy-hitters. Meanwhile, some lower-profile stuff has been piling up on my desk, so it's time to give you a rundown of the other stuff I've been lis ... More >>

Male Bonding: Nothing Hurts

​Artist: Male BondingTitle: Nothing HurtsRelease date: May 11Label: Sub PopRemember all the buzz about Wavves last year? I thought they were just okay. Hopefully, their next record (slated for release this year) will be better. In the meantime, I'll be listening to the new record by Male Bonding, ... 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 >>

Owl City Side Project: What's the Point?

The equation: Owl City - synths more attempts at sounding like Ben Gibbard = Sky Sailing​While some of our writers are fans of Owl City, others are clearly not.Idolator reports that Owl City's frontman Adam Young has started a side project titled Sky Sailing with an album due out on July 13. And ... 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 >>

Calexico, Sharon Jones, Andrew Bird, to Play Newport Folk Festival

Arizona's Calexico.​The Newport Folk Festival is historically significant, not just because of its ever-exciting, often bleeding edge lineup, but because in 1965 Bob Dylan decided to plug in and play electric, much to the dismay of a large portion of the crowd. That set forever changed people's id ... More >>

Sasquatch Announces 2010 Lineup

The 2010 lineup for the Sasquatch! Music Festival has been announced, and it is, my friends, rather impressive (finally)​​It's been a long time coming, but the Sasquatch! Music Festival -- held annually at Washington's Gorge Amphitheater over Memorial Day weekend -- has come of age. Too long the ... More >>

The Voodoo Organist

Amazon Trots out Their "100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time"

Amazon takes their shot at indie rock's 100 greatest albumsThe fine folks over at amazon.com decided that the time was ripe to assemble a list of the best indie rock albums of all time. Indie rock is a genre either really easy to define or kind of confusing to define, but that sentiment did not hol ... More >>

The Matches

The Shins

Kicking it

Let There Be Rock

Ten albums that make it easy to avoid fretting about your old-fashioned, Rockist ways

Top 10 best-selling releases at Stinkweeds Records in Tempe

Chart-busters for the week

The New Pornographers

(Matador)
Twin Cinema

Neko Case

The toolbox is full

Two Much

Tegan and Sara's twin-powered pop is no ordinary sister act

Rogue Wave

Out of the Shadow
(Sub Pop)

A.C. Newman

The Slow Wonder (Matador)

Original Soul

This time, it's personal: Our look back at an intimate year in music.

Subpoena Me!

The record industry thinks I'm a criminal. Here's the evidence.

Light Fantastic Tripping

Easing into an unscripted night out with the New Pornographers

Texas State of Mind

The South by Southwest music conference might've been a disappointment this year, but there are still plenty of questions left to be answered

Retro No More

Singer-songwriter Neko Case and her musical pals bring country music out of the curio cabinet