Let’s be honest: Most of us have had some type of fetish-related experience. Perhaps that’s why Phoenix has such a thriving scene; just say the words “fetish ball” and nearly everyone’s ears (and other parts) perk up. Having the right soundtrack’s almost as important as having the right brand of…

Which is weirder: the fact that Balthrop, Alabama (the town), has a population of approximately 11, or that Balthrop, Alabama (the band), is actually located in New York City? Truthfully, neither fact seems all that strange after watching one of (the band’s) videos. The quirky, anti-folk group performs ditties about…

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if it is broke, make like the folks of Scottsdale’s giantONE dance night and start the hell over. After a brief hiatus, the weekly returns with a new look, new crew, and new sounds from house/techno guru Joe DiPadova as well as…

These days, you can’t check your MySpace bulletins without being bombarded by epileptic-seizure-inducing fliers for hipster dance nights. But none of these L.A. runoff, faux-Ray-Ban-wearing affairs would exist if not for Panic!, Phoenix’s original alternative dance party. While the days of the $2.50 Long Island iced tea at Anderson’s Fifth…

You don’t have to be a baller to start a record label. In fact, if you can’t splurge on a posh studio space in Manhattan, you might consider settling for an “abnormally messy apartment in Tempe,” which seems to have worked for the cats at Sunwarped Records. The experimental electronica…

Instead of spending the Fourth of July drinking Coronas and trying to find a house party, then showing up at a house party where a couple of other losers have wasted the day away drinking Coronas, you might consider rocking out to great bands and DJs at a poolside, rooftop…

Give yourself five Phoenician points if you used to frequent the Emerald Lounge back in its glory-hole-in-the-wall days. Take those points right the hell back if you haven’t checked out its chic, cleaner — but still uniquely Phoenix — successor, SideBar. The atmosphere at this upstairs urban loft adorned with…

If you think Air is the be-all, end-all of French electronic music, you’d be wise to take that soundtrack from The Virgin Suicides out of your Discman and check out DAT Politics, one of France’s most maniacal (albeit lesser known in the U.S.) beat-making machines. The band’s quadruple-laptop convergence produces…

Citizens of Arizona, prepare for a hostile takeover. The man who has already conquered the UK and much of China is about to invade Scottsdale. Internationally-acclaimed house, breakbeat, and non genre-specific DJ Lee Burridge has spent the last two decades composing and entertaining club-goers across the globe and leaving behind…

Just because North Dakota ranks 48th in the country in terms of population doesn’t mean it can’t be a mecca of popular culture. Singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau might just be the best thing to come out of The Peace Garden State since the phrase “don’t ‘cha know.” Brosseau’s latest album, Posthumous…

Paul van Dyk may or may not be the “best” DJ in the world today (although he was given the title in 2005 and 2006 by DJ Magazine), but he’s definitely among the most famous. Since hitting the trance scene in the early ’90s, PvD’s groundbreaking mixes have had a…

Nightlife becomes day life in the Arizona summer heat, and hotels pop off all-day pool parties like they’re Corona Light caps. But with so many wet-hot happenings, the party-throwers need something extra to drown out the competition. Mondrian Scottsdale Resort is juicing up its Poolside Sundays series on Sunday, June…

Best known by laypersons as “the chick with the mustache” in the feminist punk/electronic group Le Tigre, JD Samson is also an artist, film producer, director, pin-up model, dancer, LGBT activist and icon, and DJ. On the turntable tip, this gender-bending culture aficionado has sharpened her mash-up skills over the…

These days, you don’t need a Willie Nelson biker braid to be an outlaw-country artist. You just need the right attitude and some kickass musical skills. From his Midwestern popularity with The Homestead Grays to his three-time-Grammy-nominated work with alt-country group BR549 (named for a comedy sketch on the TV…

There’s nothin’ like a good old-fashioned drag show to kick off a CD-release party. Back in 2007, in what was quite possibly the wildest performance ever to grace the stage at Yucca Tap Room, a swarm of drag kings and queens danced, spanked, and stripped the roof off the joint…

He may not have Rod Stewart’s cat-scratched vocal cords or Mick Jagger’s haughty strut, but Ian McLagan is one of the most solid and underrated musicians to swim across the pond during the 1960s British Invasion. From his signature Hammond B-3 organ sound in Small Faces (“Itchycoo Park,” anyone?) to…

Needless to say, we won’t be hitting up Dan Deacon for Web design anytime soon. Just check out the musician’s ode-to-1991 homepage. We’re talking HTML your kid sister would scoff at. (Think we’re exaggerating? Try www.dandeacon.com.) However, Deacon makes up for his general lack of Internet know-how (and who really…

If Pete Doherty starred in the next three James Bond movies, he’d be the perfect incarnation of Italian garage-rock sextet Movie Star Junkies. Now, don’t get all ethnocentric, because these aren’t the Italians who groped your girlfriend at a club during her summer abroad. Rather, the Junkies – with their…