If you think the theme of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll has been played out, a single listen to Gogol Bordello will restore your faith in the power of music to jolt you out of complacency. Gogol’s lead singer, songwriter and chief maniac, Eugene Hutz, and his cohorts continue…
When Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack put an ad in the NME for a bass player in 2000, the two Brits listed their influences as Sonic Youth, the Pixies, Joy Division, and DJ Shadow. That does a good job of describing Bloc Party’s subsequent sound, although it doesn’t hurt to…
With some 25 years of hindsight, the work of X sounds more and more like folk music “turned up to 11,” to plagiarize a phrase. These musicians may have been extreme in their attitude and energy, but their intelligent lyrics and acidic humor marked them as populists as well as…
I have a dream of a day when there are no longer formats, no longer genres. A day when hipsters, geeks, hillbillies, hip-hoppers, punkers and metalheads all see shows together, thanks to the continued miscegenation of musical styles. And if there’s evidence of progress toward that day, it’s the music…
Go ahead and schedule some time with a chiropractor, because after Metal Devastation Fest’s intense headbanging session, your neck will be misaligned. The folks from the “most Satanic brutal store” in the Valley have recruited great death- and grind-metal bands to pummel Phoenix on April 8 and 9. The lineup’s…
If you find the haughty high jinks of British pop bands — Pulp, Oasis, Blur, et al. — overly bothersome, it stands to reason you’d be annoyed by the pomposity of Brandon Flowers, front man for the Las Vegas-based indie outfit The Killers. But somehow, it’s possible to look past…
I hate Shakespeare. I always have. And you — if you’re unfortunate enough to have slogged through one of his interminable plays (or worse, a film adaptation of same) — probably hate him, too. That is, unless you’re a snooty dilettante who’s allowed himself to be convinced that every couplet…
Punk Rock. That’s right, Punk Rock. Where the hell are all my CDs you local bands are supposed to send me? The idea here is to get the word out about your music and your ideas. And that goes for you in the other arts as well. If I can…
SNOW BUSINESS Commerce in church: “Sacred Hypocrisy” is a well-written column with a most poignant ending (John Dougherty, March 31). But you seem to miss the point that this is a sacred area — in effect, a church — for Native Americans. The fact that the Snowbowl ski area covers…
Is it possible to predict a lousy dining experience as soon as you enter a chow house, without a peek at the bill of fare? You betcha. For instance, if the teenage hostess is on her cell phone calling her boyfriend, or the waitstaff’s forced to wear suspenders adorned with…
FRI 4/1 Get your ears spanked when the thick whip of verbal science comes crashing down Friday, April 1, at the PHiX gallery, 1113 Grand Avenue. A group of 15 Valley poets congregate to stir your minds and souls while laying down their collective abilities of articulation for the first…
TUE 4/5 To all the wanna-bes who love sushi and Bruce Lee, but whose best kung fu moves are limited to wax on and wax off, Tokyo Tuesdays are for you. Leave the coveted Enter the Dragon box set at home and karate-chop your way to Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant,…
SUN 4/3 Break out the gloves and fly your uncle down from Saskatchewan: Hockey is back. Witness some serious slap shots as the Phoenix Adult Hockey Association plays every Sunday night at the Arcadia Ice Arena, 3853 East Thomas Road. Old pros, wanna-be stars and enthusiasts take to the ice…
4/1-4/10 A souvenir shop in Dearborn, Michigan, once sold a rubber stamp that read, “People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it’s safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.” Obviously, the quotation predates the modern motorcycle frenzy of the middle-aged. In the 1960s, riding a motorcycle…
At last year’s Arizona Central Pride Festival, the guy in the hemp shorts and the hot-pink feather boa didn’t get to finish his fantastically ludicrous karaoke cover of “Like a Virgin.” A big rainstorm cut his performance short, just as he was simulating butt-flossing with said boa. It’s rained on…
Troy Glaus knows a thing or two about comebacks. After all, the new Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman was part of one of the greatest turnarounds in World Series history when he helped the Anaheim Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) avoid elimination during Game 6 of the 2002…
Give Dan Harris, the writer/director of Imaginary Heroes, plenty of credit for boldness and ambition. Not many kids fresh out of Columbia University would have the wherewithal to tackle a complex family-crisis drama with four or five different kinds of trouble running through it and half a dozen crucial minor…
If nothing else, Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City, co-directed with Frank Miller (and Quentin Tarantino, for a few seconds), will be remembered as the most faithful comic-book adaptation ever put on film (or high-def video, anyway). Rodriguez uses Miller’s hyper-noir serial, published over a 10-year period, as storyboards for the movie…
Are you kids out there ready to get tiny? Famed trance DJ Micro is stopping through the ‘Nix on Saturday, April 2, to lay down some of his hypnotic anthems for the one-year anniversary of Flux at Sports City Grill/Sky Lounge (132 East Washington Street). The New York native has…
Politics and music have always been uneasy bedfellows, but 27-year-old Maya Arulpragasam knows about unease. The Sri Lankan native’s family fled that country’s civil war for Britain more than 20 years ago, and her father — linked to the divisive revolutionary outfit the Tamil Tigers — remains M.I.A., a moniker…
With chiseled muscles drizzled in oil and an unspecified power that left him impervious to bullets, 50 Cent exploded onto the pop landscape like a Nietzsche-meets-Al-Capone Superman with a cadre of club-banging beats, itchy hooks and one-dimensional verses. For better and worse, The Massacre breaks little new ground. There are…
From the bright crackle and spark-spewing pop of Throwing Muses to the smoldering intensity of her semi-acoustic solo career, the songwriting fire inside Kristin Hersh has burned for more than 20 years. Golden Ocean — the debut longplayer from her new trio, 50 Foot Wave (following last year’s self-titled EP)…
