Thursday 30 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with AKA (gothic, industrial) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Barcelona: DJ Rob (dance) Draft House: DJ Dave outta NYC (hip-hop) Exit Seven: DJ Martin Soliz (dance) Garcia’s: Latin Dance Night (Spanish…
For those who’ve longed for the poetic license of Morrissey crammed into the keyboard-tinted riffs of the Cars, leave it to the limeys to satisfy the demand. Maximo Park has already received panting pre-emptive praise, and A Certain Trigger actually bears out much of that premature ejaculation. “Apply Some Pressure”…
“Retro World,” from the Black Halos’ debut, remains rock’s most relevant self-critique six years after it was released. In it, grubby-voiced Billy Hopeless croaks, “Here it comes, baby, there it goes/It’s getting harder to shoot my load/Nothing’s really dangerous, just a retro world.” Here was an anti-nostalgia anthem rendered in…
Lamb of God exudes metal — long hair, a gregarious nature, and insane solos — and puts on a superb live show, as this two-hour flick shows in detail. One of the best parts of the band’s performance is the extravagance that is Chris Adler’s drumming. The man has 18…
The most impressive thing about Cowboy Troy’s major-label debut is what it took to make a black country-rapper feasible. Hip-hop, the great assimilationist art, had to become the dominant musical form. A long line of experiments, from Charlie Daniels’ spoken-word songs to Timbaland’s hoedowns with Bubba Sparxxx, had to lay…
Tussle doesn’t claim to be a dance band. In fact, Tussle doesn’t claim any musical genre as its own. But in spite of its transcendent aspirations, this band is bound to get people moving. These gentlemen from San Francisco combine disco, noise, punk, and dub to create kinetic grooves that…
The Faint were only the first to tap nascent New Wave nostalgia. Action Action is another that’s wandered away from the whole emo/screamo/punk-pop thing, harking back twenty years for its sound. Of course, it’s not exactly a new phenomenon for singer/guitarist Mark Kluepfel. A couple years ago, he headed the…
Surprisingly durable and devoted, rockabilly is a vigorous American subculture, much like the Elvis-ites. The slicked-back pompadours, tattered sleeveless oxfords, tattoos and souped-up cars at rockabilly shows make it hard to tell whether you’re in a dusty Stray Cats video or cavorting with Eddie Cochran’s first fans. Kim Nekroman, a…
Casting a Smell Something’s fishy: I read John Dougherty’s column about the purchase by Mary Rose and Earl Wilcox from APS of a parcel of property across the street from their [El Portal] restaurant in south Phoenix. According to Dougherty, the property was sold by the APS to Maricopa County…
SUN 7/3The local hip-hop underground goes above ground, as the true record playas of the Valley will turn on their turntablism talents during Reign of the Tech on Sunday, July 3, at the Old Brickhouse Grill, 1 East Jackson. Myriad mixmasters from around the PHX will mass for the 21-and-over…
7/1-7/30 While typecast TV stars have quotation-marked middle names for faster recognition — witness Jaleel “Urkel” White — it’s quite uncommon for a fine artist and portraitist. But avant photographer Heidi “Bluegirl” Calvert, whose photographic retrospective opens with a reception from 6:30 p.m. to midnight at Perihelion Arts on Friday,…
MON 7/4If you have a hot jalopy that you’re dying to show off to a group of ogling, salivating spectators, gas it up and drive to Chandler, where the Arizona Veteran Rodders Club hosts a classic car show at Tumbleweed Park on Monday, July 4, as part of the Lions…
MON 7/4 This year, you can choose to fire up the grill and celebrate America’s independence by inviting over your near-and-dears, replete with the usual band of screaming kids and unruly pets, or you can go to the City of Phoenix’s 20th annual “Fabulous Fourth” celebration at Steele Indian School…
Look out for the 22-foot blonde with the boob job! She’s part of Phoenix artist Hector Ruiz’s room-size installation Westernization, a tragicomic take on America’s image in the world, and part of his “La Realidad (Reality)” show opening Friday, July 1, at the Heard Museum. “America is so appealing to…
Ditch the masses on the grasses this Independence Day and revel in your freedom with bouncy swing tempos, jazzy brass instruments, dance-igniting beats, and most importantly, a powerful swamp cooler. On Monday, July 4, several Arizona bands, including Captain Squeegee and the Soap Suds, The Dietrichs, and Tucson’s Kool Shades,…
You’re a talented young resident at a New York hospital, first-generation Chinese, and you happen to be gay. In fact, you’re dating a new and exciting woman, a dancer with the city ballet, and she wants you to share the relationship with the world — and your family. But can…
Martin Lawrence has never exactly been among the world’s more gifted comedians, yet his movies seem to keep raking in the cash, so there must be legions of loyal Lawrenceheads out there somewhere. But even they, who made financial successes of Black Knight and Big Momma’s House and National Security,…
Quite simply and quite literally, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds is Close Encounters of the Third Kind turned inside out: They’re still out there, only this time the aliens are out for our blood, which they spray all over the countryside like so much red…
Chef Christopher Gross never misses a lick when it comes to reminding you of all the plaudits he’s picked up in his day. There’s a fairly exhaustive list on the take-home menu for Christopher’s Fermier Brasserie, Gross’ acclaimed Biltmore Fashion Park grub shack, and the list includes everything from his…
Your heart won’t be the only thing pounding if you’re in the middle of the dance floor at Myst on Thursday, June 30. There’ll be loud, irresistible beats courtesy of the Planet of the Drums collective: Dara, AK1200, and Dieselboy (with MC Messinian), a trio of turntable messiahs who should…
If not for the mass appeal of emotional exhibitionism, Billy Corgan would have been an acquired taste. Think about it: those vaporous guitar tones, the over-the-top Victoriana, and, of course, that whine, uniquely irksome in pop history. It wasn’t until Zwan — his 2003 attempt at banddom, now regularly and…
The Buzzcocks’ sly Pete Shelley was “surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come,” but for most backward-looking bands of recent decades, the ’60s will do just fine. And ’60s necrophilia is practically a tradition compared to the current ’80s vogue, which explains why it’s getting…
