SAT 8/27Club Freedom’s been closed for more than a year now, but that doesn’t mean there’s nowhere in Phoenix for renowned DJs to drop their stacks of wax. On Saturday, August 27, several local organizations, including IONAZ magazine and dance station Energy 92.3, prove the beat goes on with “Splash…
Think women in the United States are under a lot of pressure to be thin, young and pretty? Try being a girl in Asia, says Hong Kong-born artist Stella Lai (pronounced “Lie”). “There’s a commercial in China where a woman says, ‘I’d rather be dead than fat,'” Lai says by…
Friends and fans of the late and greatly lamented MARS Artspace — one of the pioneers of Phoenix alt-art and a precursor of today’s downtown scene — will witness MARS’ last gasp at “Wasteland Circus: The Final Curtain” on Saturday, August 27, at the Paper Heart — appropriate given that…
“I always cannot understand why girls don’t wanna be with me for a long time,” says Timothy Treadwell, subject of the documentary Grizzly Man. “I have really a nice personality — I’m fun, I’m very, very good in the . . . umm, well, you’re not supposed to say that…
Terry Gilliam’s last film featured the former Monty Python troupe member as an eccentric, demanding and difficult director prone to destroying his ambitious projects before a single frame of footage was ever shot. “If it’s easy,” he says in the movie, “I don’t do it.” Alas, this was not a…
Pity the daily newspaper critic who must review The Aristocrats without using such phrases as “a longshoreman’s arm up a little girl’s ass,” “then my wife goes down on my son while the dog’s licking his balls,” “my grandmother’s covered in my come,” and “is it shit before piss, or…
It’s been a long fucking summer, and the end’s still not in sight, so when you need a break from the pummeling sunshine and simmering concrete, check out Aqwela Entertainment’s Summer Oasis at Earl’s Tin Palace (15784 North Pima Road in Scottsdale) on Monday nights. DJ Tranzl8r spins all styles…
C’mon, A.J., pick up the damn phone, Nick thought to himself. “Hello?” “A.J., it’s Nick, what’s up?” “Hey, Nick, how’s it goin’? Wait a sec, lemme mute the TV . . .” “Whatcha watchin’?” “Oh, just this thing on the History Channel about Hitler invading Russia and how he fucked…
In Memoriam: Destiny’s Child (1990-2005) The multi-platinum pop-R&B trio Destiny’s Child died of an unspecified illness at GM Place in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday, September 10, 2005, following a long farewell tour. Friends, family, and several thousand fans were on hand to say their final goodbyes to the trio, which…
When music fans utter the phrase “gay metalhead,” it’s usually in derision of some aging, teased-hair ’80s throwback. But with Ben Aqua, the 23-year-old Austin, Texas, headbanger behind the one-man thrash/noise/metal act Assacre, it’s the literal truth. For most of the past two years, the openly homosexual guitarist has spewed…
The Glass Heroes proudly proclaim their allegiance to “unadulterated and undiluted punk,” and listening to their self-titled Malt Soda debut, it takes no guesswork to trace their influences straight back to the late ’70s. For one thing, they’ve completely nailed covers of two of the best songs from that era…
Everyone goes through a phase where they wish they’d lived in the ’60s. You know, the world roils outside, but in the bedroom, the record player is turned up to the latest thing — musical bliss. Well, guess what? We’ve got soldiers slogging through a dead-end war, and now we’ve…
With a Hammer of the Gods voice and enough street cred to be the ghetto president, Slim Thug is the latest import from the scorching Houston underground. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that his major-label debut, the optimistically titled Already Platinum, is a collaborative effort with reigning pop kings the…
If you believe what he said on 60 Minutes not long ago, even Bob Dylan is in awe of the staggering leaps he took when he made a mountain of art from the molehill folk scene he transcended in the early ’60s. This change wasn’t a simple organic process of…
This week The Thrifty Ear celebrates the individual, probably because he can’t find a comrade who’ll sit and listen to this music without killing him. Kylie Minogue Ultimate Kylie Source: eBay Price: $4.99 + $3.50 S&H Ultimate Guilty Pleasure is more like it, purchased in its Japanese digipack form to…
It took Dave Insley only about four decades to realize his real life story would make a great country album. “You know, it’s the craziest thing,” Insley says, taking a cigarette break outside Tempe’s Yucca Tap Room after wrapping up the last set of the night with his topnotch honky-tonk…
It will take the average reader about three minutes to read this newspaper column in which I, a person who is paid to share my opinion, will reveal the ways in which Black, White and Read All Over is a play totally lacking in substance and utterly devoid of entertainment…
Freethinkers and activists across the Valley have been wringing their hands ever since the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona announced earlier this month that its executive director, Eleanor Eisenberg, will retire. Eisenberg, who is 65 and has been with the local ACLU chapter for eight years, left her post…
I am standing on an earthen berm beyond the right-field fence during the second game of the Arizona Little League Majors State Tournament. If my oldest son’s team wins this tournament, the boys are off to San Bernardino, California, to play in the Little League Western Regionals. If they win…
THU 25When those “I Want You” propaganda posters of Uncle Sam first came out, Will Stockdale must have thought ol’ Sam was pointing at the grits on the porch behind him, because when the country bumpkin joins the U.S. Air Force in No Time for Sergeants, he’s clearly clueless. After…
You just can’t hate Chris Martin. Oh, you can find him overrated and his tunes sappy, but aside from the occasional run-in with a photographer, Martin is that rare gentleman rock star with a modest mouth. He married a glamorous Oscar winner, he named his kid Apple, and yet the…
Musically, the ’90s boil down to this: In January 1992, Nirvana knocked Michael Jackson out of the No. 1 position on Billboard’s album chart. And for the next eight years, alternative was the word, and the airwaves were unusually diverse. Taken one tune at a time, the just-released Whatever: The…
