Let’s eliminate any potential confusion right off the top: The Explosion is not the Blues Explosion. Besides, the Explosion couldn’t be more different from Jon Spencer’s garage-rock project. This Boston five-piece digs into punk rock the way it was done in Berkeley’s Gilman Street club, D.C.’s F Street club, and…
There’s something about an emo band that talks shit about emo — the genre dedicated to self-deprecation — that seems overly appropriate. The Letter Kills are that band. The Southern California five-piece is highly vocal about its disapproval of the notion that being classified as emo makes one popular. Sure,…
Laurie Anderson worked for the Olympic organization in Athens, was NASA’s artist-in-residence for a time, and has been finding some satori taking long walks down archaic roads in Greece, Sri Lanka and England. Add on the fact that Anderson lives only a handful of blocks from the scar of 9/11,…
The roster reads like a list of things you wouldn’t want to relate to: Heroes Dead and Gone, Obskurity, Coercion, Lifeless Embrace, Kill the Last Hour, And the Hero Fails, Learn to Suffer, Men Shall Fall, Fate to Fall, and Desolate Demise. But really, death comes sooner or later, so…
Call me cynical, but when someone approaches me and offers up a review copy of a CD unavailable in stores, the first thing I think is, “How many different ways is this going to suck?” However, I’d just seen Chopper, L.S. perform “one for the ladies” titled “Baby What Up?”…
Shortly after last week’s Revolver column appeared (“Tom’s Tax,” January 13), detailing the hidden charges tacked on to the face value of tickets for events promoted by Lucky Man Productions, the Marquee Theatre, and its owner, Tom Lapenna, New Times’ sources contacted us to let us know that Lapenna had…
“Brian Alfred: The Future Is Now!” at the Phoenix Art Museum: New York-based artist Brian Alfred ponders corporate culture and rampant industrialization in his latest exhibition. Although Alfred’s retro-futuristic paintings and collages emphasize society’s fascination with the digital age and subsequent sensory overload, his collection of work is surprisingly sensory-friendly…
Sounds of Silence Supporting the scene: Here’s a summary of the article titled “Last Dance” (Brendan Joel Kelley, January 6): A musical guy with a day job hasn’t gotten a record deal. Boo-f*cking-hoo! Phoenix New Times thinks that’s somehow newsworthy? Shame on you! Living in Phoenix for those of us…
One of the most popular cats on the FM dial locally is Power 92.3’s JX3, who keeps things fresh and fantabulous weeknights from 7 to 10 p.m. on the Valley’s No. 1 hip-hop station. That is, there’s always something different going down on his show, whether it’s Suns stud Amaré…
It’s the third week of January. By now, if you’re like everyone else we know, you’ve broken your New Year’s resolution — popped that Vicodin, lost your gym membership card, hit the drive-through at Jack in the Box. We know a guy who resolved not to make any resolutions –…
I’m convinced there’s a conspiracy of dunces out there, hell-bent on making the dining experience as consistently staid and by-the-numbers as an effin’ copy of Reader’s Digest. Scribblers of that pinkie-in-the-air genre known as “food writing” — the unfortunate tribe in which I’m lumped — are by far the worst…
SAT 1/15 Few poets and authors deserve a posthumous roasting more than Edgar Allan Poe. The Master of the Macabre, whose tales of woe and fright have haunted us for more than 150 years, will be “slammed” both literally and figuratively, again, on Saturday, January 15, at the fourth annual…
SUN 1/16 Very bad thoughts equal very bad health. Okay, so it’s not that simple, but you try boiling down the quirky indie film What the #$*! Do We Know!? to something rather elementary, Einstein! Still, Dr. Joe Dispenza, an Olympia, Washington-based chiropractor/author who makes a memorable appearance in the…
The November election once again showed Arizona to be a “red” state, but our conservative political bent doesn’t equate to always playing by the rules. For proof, look no further than Scottsdale, where this weekend a beer festival will celebrate Arizona’s best brews that just happen to be banned in…
Tony Hawk talks as fast as he skates. When describing his “Boom Boom HuckJam Tour,” the legendary skateboarder races through an explanation of the tour’s title. “We use the term ‘hucking’ to refer to launching yourself in the air,” Hawk says. “And it’s not a competition. It’s more of a…
An underappreciated art, vocal performance can make or break an animated film, as well as live-action movies that “star” talking animals. It’s Eddie Murphy’s exuberant line readings — not what he says but how he says it — that confer personality upon the garrulous Donkey in Shrek. And the sheep-herding…
The story is simple enough: Sometime during the dying days of the T’ang Dynasty in China, though it could really be any time and any place, two cops named Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) sit in a station house drinking tea. They decide one of them will go…
The grim little green-walled apartment where Walter finds himself after his release has the look of a jail cell — with one apparent easement. What seems to be the only window in the place faces a school playground across the street. When Walter looks outside, he often sees kids running…
Y’all rellies ready to get your gurp on? Kill Mill resident DJs Foundation, Dirty Napz, and Ether One are bringing that crazy-ass Z-Man, the verbal innovator, and Awol One, of the Shape Shifters, to town on Tuesday, January 18. It’s a duo not to be missed; Z-Man is one of…
Tempe’s “Burrito Brothers” (Chelsea Ide, December 16) in Bluewall Audience will soon be strutting across their high school campuses rocking Chipotle Mexican Grill backpacks. The five teenagers have been using the burrito joint as a spot to conduct official business with their record label, as long as Turnpike Records has…
Perhaps it’s the omnipresent gray skies, but whatever the cause, the Brits are masters of a strain of gloomy romanticism traceable from Bowie to Blancmange to Morrissey. NYC quartet Elefant channels this dark, synth-driven pop sound (which hit its high-water mark during New Wave’s ’80s reign) with supple melodies and…
Punk has grown as a term to encompass an eclectic array of approaches, and its infiltration of guitar-based underground music is now so complete that everything that’s at least midtempo seems to bear some imprint of the style. It’s to the point where calling a band punk is no more…
