See also: A Hot Ghetto Mess of Hip-Hop, Art, and B-Boys – The 10-Year Journey of The Blunt Club This is proving to be a great time for the Valley’s hip-hop circuit. Mouse Powell’s music video for his Arizona anthem “Holding Home” dropped only a week ago, and already the…
Ana Tijoux Puente Arizona Headquarters Sunday, May 13, 2012 While most of us celebrated Mother’s Day with flowers, cards, and family dinners, Latina rapper Ana Tijoux spent the afternoon receiving a crash course in Arizona’s twisted political landscape and Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s regime. Her “Arizona-fication,” as it were. The French-born…
George Sarah The Lost Leaf Friday, May 11, 2012 As I nuzzled my way through the standing crowd of George Sarah’s performance last night at the Lost Leaf, it dawned on me that I haven’t been to the downtown hideaway in quite some time. It’s still crowded as always on…
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads; just a synthesizer, eyeliner, and a touch of androgyny. Welcome to Flashback Friday. Los Angeles-based rockers Ozomatli reminded me of a cold hard fact at last month’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival; if you’re a Latino, particularly a Chicano like myself, you have an…
Mother’s Day is all about celebrating moms, motherhood, and maternal bonds (to quote Wikipedia), but why do we stop there? What about celebrating all women? That’s what the National Day Labor Organizing Network and human rights movement Puente Arizona is planning to do on Sunday, May 13, with the event…
Mouse Powell’s latest video plays like a real-time tour around some of the Valley’s unofficial historic landmarks. From sunshine, palm trees, and his “first show at the Modified,” “Holding Home” off of his debut album, Where It’s Cloudy, chronicles the young MC’s time growing up in the Copper State. Set…
Music Maker Workshops Battle of the Bands Club Red Sunday, May 6, 2012 Pint-size rockers of Ahwatukee’s Music Maker Workshops dueled it out at the school’s first battle of the bands of the year Sunday night at Club Red in Tempe. The school takes kids between the ages of 8…
Memorial services have been set for fallen Arizona musician Marco Holt. On Sunday, May 6, family and friends will gather to commemorate the passing of The Tremulants singer/guitarist, who lost a bout with cancer last month. The service will be held at the Sister Cities Garden at Kiwanis Park in…
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads; just a synthesizer, eyeliner, and a touch of androgyny. Welcome to Flashback Friday. The post-punk and new wave bands that emerged from the late ’70s began their emotional cutting long before it was actually cool to be a self-loathing sycophant; sprucing up the…
Local rapper Jaron Ikner has a varied palate when it comes to musical tastes, but it’s a little-known fact that the man who calls himself Black One has roots in turntablism and EDM. Ikner released a new track Wednesday called “Turning Out the Lights.” The song which he says is…
Although Cinco de Mayo is a more celebrated holiday in the United States than it is in Mexico, nothing marks the occasion like a little mariachi music. A traditional mariachi band combines trumpets, violins, a large five-string guitar called a jarana, a smaller guitar called a vilhuela, and the guitarrón,…
As a recent graduate from Arizona State University, I can attest to the student showcases the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication regularly hosts. The second floor of the school’s downtown building houses the First Amendment Forum, where CNN constantly airs. The public space normally is used as…
See also: Kelly Clarkson Is Coming to Town (But You Might Have to Sit Through The Fray Before Watching Her) I don’t have cable and I don’t have one of them there digital converter boxes plugged into my TV, so it’s not often I get to catch commercials. On Saturday…
Don’t let yesterday’s drizzle fool you, it’s “summer, summer, summer, time”(To borrow a hook from DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince). With temperatures and gas prices rising, commuters and everyday working stiffs alike are gonna need an infectious, feel good jam to brighten the day. Local music producer and…
It’s not a new idea: Sex sells. Scottsdale-based hip-hop duo J Beam and Knawledg, known by their nom de rhyme Mathmadix, get it. The album cover of their long-awaited In a Class of Our Own, depicting the pair, a young lady in a short Catholic school skirt, and one foreboding-looking ruler,…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has made a living off making sensational accusations and remarks. For better or worse, he has been a media darling who’s done his best over the past 20 years to prove that there’s no such thing as bad press (not that we don’t try). On Monday, April…
As the shortened NBA season comes to an end, last night’s game between the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers signified more than just the end of a dismal season for the Nets. It also marked the team’s last home game in the Garden State. After 36 years in New…
As our dear friend Sheriff Joe has reminded us on many occasions, you don’t have to go far to find traces of Mexico around the Valley. One of those places is the restaurant/music hall, La Casa Del Mariachi, in Phoenix. As the name implies, this spot is host to some…
Tempe bandmates Johnny Hayward, Andy Higgins, Graham Corrington, and John Wong know each other pretty well. The quartet presently known as rock group Neato, have played in bands in the local circuit over the past decade but before that, the four friends were actually roommates. “The coolest part about Neato,…
If you find yourself stomping the grounds of Old Town Scottsdale next Thursday night you might want to heed the haunting melodies dwindling from the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Inside you’ll find visual artist/vocalist Anna Vivette performing songs off of her debut album, Coloratura; a dark operatic take on…
The Arizona music community lost a prominent figure and friend when Marco Holt from local rock group The Tremulants passed away this weekend following a bout with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since 2003, Holt served as the indie rock band’s primary creative force and lone consistent member, doubling as guitarist and singer…
As we inch closer to Record Store Day we’re directing our attention to the wonderful independent storefronts participating in this weekend’s revered event. In recent years the indie-moniker has been thrown around so much that it’s almost diluted the meaning of the word. Luckily RSD helps us revel in the…
