I've really got to wonder about these so-called "Christians" who spend all of their time hating on Mexican immigrants, legal and otherwise. I mean, did they ever go to Sunday school? Hear the parable of the good Samaritan? Read the Sermon on the Mount? Or any of the New Testament,...
"I haven't seen a band with that much intensity in a long time." That's what Korn frontman Jonathan Davis had to say last summer about his Family Values tourmates Dir en grey, a versatile quasi-metal Japanese band that has met with baffling success in Europe and, more recently, the United...
Since this Pandemic Poll thing is meant to be democratic, we even let your ordinary average music fan throw in their two cents about what transpired in 2006. This submission is from a guy named Joe Soares, and I have to say, he's pretty goddamn correct about what's overrated in...
Tyler King's been an institution in the hardcore scene for years, with a background (as you'll read later in his Pandemic Poll results) booking matinee acts at CBGB's. Lately you can catch him behind the bar at the Stray Cat in Tempe when he's not booking acts like Witchcraft around...
Local manager and impresario Psyko Steve has spent much of the last year touring and managing DeSole, and is currently managing the Stilletto Formal. He got creative with his Top 5 list for the Pandemic Poll (it's open for interpretation like that) and sent over his list of the top...
Throwdown on the Interweb; Ear Infection's in Your Corner Seems a little pissing match has erupted on the interweb in the masturbatory little world of music criticism, between my own company and sister paper Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll and Gawker media's too-cool-for-school Idolator music blog. The...
Rob Locker of local skateboard/record label/promotion company AZPX does what many folks only wish they could do - release records by great local artists past and present like Junior Achievement and the Smoky Mountain Skullbusters and throw shows by skate rock greats like JFA. Here's what Locker has to say...
Today's edition of the 2006 invite-only Pandemic Poll of local artists and music scene players features the inimitable William Fucking Reed, who carries with him a list of impressive credits: DJ/promoter for both Shake! at the Rogue and Pretty Vacant at Anderson's Fifth Estate, radio DJ for the Last Broadcast...
So Much Silence is an awesome little music/mp3 blog run by a guy named Kevin Murphy, who seems to have pretty goddamn good taste in music. He also does some pretty nifty shit, like putting together a mix of the "Essential Q-Tip Mix," side A of which he posted today...
Brodie's a fave of singer/songwriter fans from around the 'Nix, and many of us are sad to hear he's leaving town, headed back to Cali. He's leaving in style though, with a "celebrity" roast next Saturday, the 16th, at Trunk Space appropriately entitled Fuck You, Brodie Hubbard. Here's his submission...
Luke & Danny of North Side Kings I spent last night listening to the punk rock go down at BANNED in Tempe!, listening to DJ's Alvin, Nate Dogg and Cro-Mag throw down the dope shit at the Stray Cat (which you'll be able to read more about in my column...
Hella props to Lawrence for fashioning the Pandemic logo, which is making its debut in this post. If you didn't hear already, I've asked a plethora of local artists, promoters, and playaz to submit their various Top 5 lists. This is the debut of the returns. If you think you...
Haven't you always wondered what Ralph Nader groupies look like? I have. Nader's a sort of celebrity in the way that tofu's a sort of food, and in these effervescent days of cable exposure, all politicians -- even a serial scold -- are national personalities. The best-kept political secret is...
"These pieces -- well, they're kind of strange," laughs choreographer and former Arizona State University dance teacher Marion Kirk Jones. "But don't put that in the article." By "strange," Jones means diverse works ranging from Arachne, about the weaver who dared to challenge Athena and was turned into a spider...
Phoenix Body Positive, an HIV and AIDS research and resource center, is presenting "HIV Through the Eyes of Parents," an art exhibition of collaborative pieces by artists and family members affected by HIV and AIDS. It opens at downtown's APS Gallery on Monday, September 29. For the project, which Body...
Machine-gun nests manned by teenage Indians in Mexico's army confront the eco-tourist intent on whale watching in today's Baja. The soldiers are there to search you and your sports utility vehicle for drugs. In Canada, interdiction dogs sniff for, of all things, pirated abalone. You may yearn for what Henry...
Rotting bodies, leering skulls, flickering candles, droopy roses -- not one of these creaky, well-worn symbols for death and the passage of time makes an appearance in "Memento Mori," the latest national juried exhibition organized by Mesa Contemporary Arts. Formerly operating under the name of Galeria Mesa, Mesa Contemporary Arts...
What a relief finally to see a perfect production of The Baltimore Waltz. I've witnessed four near-miss interpretations of this difficult play by other companies, but the Actors Theatre of Phoenix production currently at the Herberger is so well-realized that I discovered elements I didn't realize I was missing when...
A kid limps up and offers his palm. He wears a black Misfits tour shirt and Marine fatigues, glittery combat boots and a teal-colored mess of hair. Framed by the hazy hues of Mill Avenue on a Friday night, he seems an antagonistic juxtaposition to the street's sugary chain-store harmony...
Theater has been braving the AIDS pandemic for more than a decade. Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart in 1985 was the first of a subgenre of plays that has evolved beyond commentary on the crisis to a more artful form of entertainment. Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz, which is being...
Get out your Raybans and suntan lotion because the Valley's art season opens with a nuclear blast this year. Ground Zero is Scottsdale Center for the Arts, currently housing "Critical Mass" and "The P2 Project," two exhibitions which examine the relationship between human beings and their seemingly genetic propensity for...
