Is there any doubt by now that whenever Neko Case opens her mouth, amazing things happen? Through a string of fantastic solo albums beginning in 1997, the flame-haired, 34-year-old Virginia native has established herself as one of the most dynamic country singer-songwriters around. Her pipes are powerful but frayed in…
If you haven’t been to Japan or watched the Cartoon Network of late, you might be unaware of the aidorus known as Puffy AmiYumi — the female twosome that’s at least as big, if not bigger, on the streets of Tokyo than even heyday Britney or the Backstreet Boys ever…
If your short memory of this group begins and ends with its alt-rock-before-it-was-alt-rock hit “Anything Anything (I’ll Give You),” you’re in good company. This Wayne, New Jersey, group relocated to California when “Anything Anything” became the most requested song in KROQ’s history after Rodney Bingenheimer gave it his endorsement (founding…
The wonder of music is its ability to transcend cultural barriers and speak in a booming voice directly to the heart. Rory Block is white and a woman, but she’s a truly gifted “bluesman” who knew and trained with the best. The daughter of a Greenwich Village sandal maker at…
“I don’t go to singer-songwriter shows anymore because they’re boring,” Seattle alt-folkie Damien Jurado recently told Paste magazine. “I don’t care if you’re Conor Oberst or Nick Drake. Boring. Who wants to stand there? Not me.” While I respect Jurado’s opinion, he’s dead wrong, at least when it comes to…
Blind Justice Prosecute the prosecutors: After reading Robert Nelson’s story regarding Ray Krone (“About Face,” April 21), I now do not believe O.J. Simpson committed murder(s). What utter incompetence! I advocate putting those who convicted Mr. Krone in the slammer and let them feel real justice. Why are these clowns…
If you’re fresh to P-town, and know the lay of the cit-tay about as well as Ashlee Simpson knows how to hold a musical note, then let Professor Kreme school your ignorant ass on the chillest spot in the PHX, the Zona’s world-renowned lounge paradise Chez Nous, at 675 West…
I may pique the interest of Michael Jackson fans by saying so, but who knew that the, uh, cojónes of young calves would make such a mouth-watering appetizer? Not me, as I must admit to never partaking of this well-known Western delicacy before stopping by the reopened and revitalized Stockyards…
SAT 4/23 The last thing you’d expect from Bisbee indie-folk darlings Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl is a cover album. “It seems kind of cheesy,” admits vocalist Amy Ross, “but we’re covering songs by our friends’ bands. It’s not like we’re doing ‘Hotel California.’ These are songs people keep…
SAT 4/23 When it comes to the Tostitos Southwest Salsa Challenge, these chips crunch some high numbers. “We have 63 contestants, and some of them enter more than one salsa,” says Mary Masters, the event organizer. “For each recipe, they have to make 13 gallons of salsa.” That’s more than…
SUN 4/24 We’ve gotta admit that when it comes to our participation in Valley Metro’s annual Bike to BOB event, the season’s the reason. That is, if it’s shaping up to be a banner year for the hometown Diamondbacks, we don’t mind pedaling down Central Avenue for a win at…
4/22-4/23 Some things are worth the wait — like, for instance, the Mesa Arts Center. After nearly five decades of false starts, failed bond elections, tax hikes and tumult, the suburb’s sleepy downtown finally gets a one-megaton wake-up call as Arizona’s largest cultural complex, located at 1 East Main Street,…
Fox Mulder’s undeniable hotness, er, relentless pursuit of the truth regarding alien existence on Earth kept believers and skeptics alike glued to the tube on Sunday nights for nine years via The X-Files. Dr. Stephen Greer, meanwhile, as the founder and director of the nonprofit organization The Disclosure Project, has…
Professional volleyball players will do just about anything for their fans. They’ll sign whatever they’re handed, they’ll hang out and party after tournaments, and — if they’re three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly — they’ll even propose for you. “There was a couple from Phoenix who came up to me…
“No more soccer!” declares small-time thug Sing (writer/director/star Stephen Chow) as he vigorously stomps on a child’s ball. In the context of Kung Fu Hustle, it’s a pathetic attempt by Sing to make himself look tough. The larger signal, however, is to followers of Chow’s work — it’s a direct…
Amanda Peet. Ashton Kutcher. Romantic comedy. Who’d have thought it could work? And yet A Lot Like Love is an entertainment success, a triple threat of fresh writing, inspired directing and, yes, good acting. Fortified with a healthy dose of intelligence, it manages to leap clear across an entire field…
Among the many mysteries surrounding The Interpreter is the one that finds Sydney Pollack heralded as a major American director, a maker of Serious and Important Movies. His filmography, marked by mawkish mediocrities (Out of Africa, as vibrant as a coffee-table book; The Way We Were, its romance as plausible…
You’ve probably never had the chance to party and dance the night away on the island electro-mecca of Ibiza, Spain, or shake it down at Club TLV in Tel Aviv, Israel, but this Saturday, April 23, you can pretend you’ve escaped the desert for more exotic climes when legendary tribal…
Leader of the indie rock band Cursive and his side project, The Good Life, Tim Kasher performs drunken, woebegone tales of relational dysfunction that have crowned him heir to Lou Barlow as the most emotionally besotted individual in indie rock. Like Barlow, Kasher shares unerring aim for the heart of…
Jason Molina is an itinerant artist, driven to challenge himself and change up his material and approach in search of new “moments.” Molina’s done things such as recruiting players unfamiliar with the songs and recording them as they discovered them, or decamping to an abandoned factory to get the perfect…
The B-52’s for the post-Simpsons era, the five members of Detroit’s Electric Six make dancing not only fun again, but funny. In the proud tradition of the band’s 2003 debut, Fire, there’s an emergency in progress on the new Señor Smoke, and the only solution is to dance as if…
If Ronnie Van Zant had replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath sometime around 1974, the result probably would have sounded a lot like the latest disc from North Carolina’s Corrosion of Conformity. In the Arms of God is a fierce, impressive comeback effort from these guys, and after five years…
