When the local bedroom producer who calls himself the Angel of Death dropped me off his demo, he made sure to point out the birth-control instructions he’d festooned the homemade CD with, which made me laugh, but not as much as the songs: choppy beats with sampled music and vocal…
Ben Harris used to stare out the window of his Indiana high school, watching cattle graze outside and daydreaming about performing music onstage. When he moved to Phoenix at age 16, he started rapping after school with friends who would bust out the karaoke machine and rhyme for hours. His…
The Last Five Years, which played briefly off-Broadway in 2002, chronicles a young couple’s romance using two different time lines. Her story starts at the end of their relationship, while his begins at the beginning, on the day they meet. The two stories collide briefly at the couple’s wedding, then…
Once upon a time, folks who kept their checkbooks balanced and hung up their clothes when they weren’t wearing them were considered well organized. Today, these people are Obsessive Compulsives, the scourge of the nation, strapped into recovery programs and ridiculed on Maury Povich because they occasionally polish their shoes…
There’s no fishing, swimming or boating on Arizona’s second largest lake, which has suddenly appeared in the desert about 80 miles southwest of Phoenix. It’s been 12 years since there was enough winter rainfall to swell the Gila River to the point that it creates the huge lake behind the…
Sometime soon, a marked man named Ike Diogu will make a momentous decision — whether to stick around Arizona State University for his senior season or set sail for the National Basketball Association. The Pac-10’s Player of the Year would be a probable first-round selection in the upcoming NBA draft…
THU 10 You’ve heard the joke about joining the Army, right? “Travel to exotic places, meet interesting people, and kill them.” Well, in James’ Journey to Jerusalem, which closes out the Phoenix Jewish Film Festival on Thursday, March 10, at the Harkins Camelview 5, 7001 East Highland in Scottsdale, our…
Thursday 10 Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with AKA (gothic, industrial) Axis/Radius: DJ MCB (hip-hop, dance) Big Fish Pub: Reggae Thursdays with Selector J-Cut & DJ Blackstar (reggae, dance hall) Bobby McGee’s: DJs Mark & Mikyl (Top 40, dance) Dos Gringos — Scottsdale: Block Party with Translator (all genres) Elixir:…
Al Singer, one of the Valley’s most prominent jazz promoters, died on March 3. He was 77 years old. Singer’s passion for jazz started in the 1930s, when movie Westerns exposed him to the sounds of swing. For Singer, it was an early stimulus for jazz, and by the 1940s,…
1. 50 Cent, The Massacre (Aftermath) 2. Mars Volta, Frances the Mute (Universal) 3. Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams (Universal) 4. Judas Priest, Angel of Retribution (Sony) 5. Green Day, American Idiot (Warner Bros.) 6. Norma Jean, O God the Aftermath (Tooth & Nail) 7. The Game, The Documentary (Aftermath)…
If you wonder why former Clive Davis wonderchild Whitney Houston is such a mess these days, look no further than current Clive Davis wonderchild Alicia Keys, who has not only excellent pipes but jaw-dropping songwriting skills that she’s been showcasing since age 14. Without the vocal conceit a diva like…
This Michigan quintet sounds like the orphaned children of several genres, mixing supple post-punk, a distortion-drenched wall of guitar riffing, and indie rock melodicism in a gumbo of dynamics and aggression. There are echoes of emo in the band’s ’90s alt-rock influences; some tracks stumble forward, limping with obvious pain…
If Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me didn’t steer you (no pun intended) away from the McDonald’s drive-through, listening to vegetarian grindcore warriors Cattle Decapitation’s “Lips & Assholes” as you’re about to pull up to order that Big Mac just might: “The juice off the floor becomes an additive/A…
Imagining next year’s alt-rock “Class of ’96” reunion . . . “Look over there,” says Duncan Sheik to Tracy Bonham. “It’s the singer from Dishwalla!” “Wow,” Bonham replies. “Instead of ‘Counting Blue Cars,’ I hear he’s washing blue cars these days.” “Oh, you are so terrible,” Sheik says, laughing. “Hey,…
Awrite, Alex Kapranos frae Franz Ferdinand here. Since ye can’t gie pest one article abit our friends an’ occasional toormates frae th’ U.K., The Futureheads, withit some loon “joornalist” comparin’ or relatin’ them tae mah bain, Franz Ferdinand, ah thoot I’d jist sae ‘a fook th’ trooble an’ shaw up…
This Northwestern quintet plays jagged post-punk with a dash of goth verve (thanks to keyboards and singer Andrea Zollo), sounding like Siouxsie Sue fronting Fugazi. Formed with ex-Murder City Devils bassist Derek Fudesco shortly after that act’s demise in 2001, Pretty Girls has put out two full-lengths, progressing from West…
Ben Nichols was a child of punk, inducted as a youth into the underground world of VFW halls, basement shows and illegal public park performances rife with underage drinking. When he started Lucero after moving to Memphis, it was something of a lark to cheese off his old punk cronies…
Kasabian is scheduled to perform with The Music, and Morningwood, on Tuesday, March 15, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe.
Shooter is the son of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and knows expectations can scuttle a career before it starts. Sound too much like dad and you’re a sellout; sound too different and you’re being ornery. Shooter left Nashville for Los Angeles, hoping to avoid the inevitable comparisons, and put…
Imagine for a moment that you’re at a diner, and you’ve just ordered one of those “man-size” breakfast combos, the kind that come with four eggs and three kinds of meat and griddle cakes and a side of hash browns and a little plate of toast. In the space of…
“I hate them guys,” explains my stepdad as he sits and watches me shoot Nazis through my XBox on my 32-inch Panasonic television, which he can’t stop raving about because of the colors. “Okay, Indy,” I say to Nick, who’s 74 years old and able to remember every great movie…
Playwright Oscar Wilde once quipped, “Work is the curse of the drinking class,” and we’re inclined to agree with the swishy scribe, especially when it comes to this year’s St. Patrick’s Day. Since the annual exercise in alcohol excess falls on a weekday, you’d better have a sick day up…
