Five Places to Spoil Your Pet in Metro Phoenix

One thing we love even more than hanging out with our pets? Spoiling them. There are a bunch of generic pet stores to shop for toys, accessories, and food, but a few of our favorite, locally owned shops have kicked it up a notch. From selections of gourmet, baked treats to handmade…

Phoenix Author James Sallis on His Book-Turned-Movie, Drive

Phoenix-based author James Sallis has been through the Hollywood wringer discussing his novella Drive. Sallis’ 200-page book was picked up by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. Next week, the book goes to the silver screen in a neo-noir flick, directed by Refn and starring Ryan Gosling.Between Hollywood screenings and everyday life –…

Top 5 Things to Do This Weekend

From body builders strutting their stuff at the Natural Physique Competition to Steve-O’s stand-up show, this weekend’s chockfull of things to keep you entertained.Arguably the biggest of bashes is Hell City Tattoo Fest, which brings A-plus tattoo artists to the Arizona Biltmore. But in the event that oogling ink and/or…

Samurai Comics Opens Temporary Location in Mesa

Central Phoenix’s Samurai Comics opened a temporary location in Mesa this Wednesday — and it’s right next to Atomic Comics’ former Mesa location.”It’s been insane,” says Samurai owner Mike Banks.On Sunday night Banks got a call from Atomic Comics owner Mike Malve, who said Atomic was closing. Banks says he…

Shoot Up

Frontiersmen are tough to come by these days. Face it. Securing decent insurance when your listed profession is “horse thief” would prove nightmarish. But no matter how far past the heyday of legendary characters like Butch Cassidy and Jesse James, the allure of life on the sprawling American frontier prevails…

Local Documentary Beadle Architecture Screens at The Clarendon

Note: this post has been edited. Beadle Architecture will screen next Tuesday, August 30. Modernist architect Alfred Newman Beadle was notorious for adhering to an unwavering vision. But when it came to design, compromise wasn’t in his vocabulary. The man behind Phoenix’s Executive Towers and Mountain Bell building worked in absolutes…

Vintage Shop Sweet Salvage Opens in Downtown Phoenix

Vintage market Sweet Salvage opened its doors last Thursday  at 4809 North 7th Avenue. But don’t drop by just any old day. Sweet Salvage is a vintage “occasion sale,” meaning it’s only open on the third Thursday of every month through the following Sunday (for a total of four days each month)…

Top 5 Things to Do This Weekend

ASU’s fall semester started this week, and Valley streets near downtown Tempe and Phoenix have repopulated with pedestrians and unyielding traffic to match. But fall promises more than traffic jams and tipsy co-eds.  From sporting skimpy unmentionables in public at Lingerieve 5, to getting your Animal House on at the…

Sion Sono’s Cold Fish screens at The Royale

Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono’s skin-crawler Cold Fish tells the tale of a mild-mannered fishmonger sucked into the bloodcurdling world of a murderous fellow seafood salesman. The hair-raiser screens at The Royale in Mesa on Friday, August 19, at 11 p.m., and Saturday, August 20, at 9 p.m.”Cold Fish is a…

Tommy Cannon Gets Political at Trunk Space

Between the debt ceiling crisis, a yo-yoing stock market and early campaigning for the next presidential election, it’s tempting to tune out of the 24-hour news cycle that chronicles — in painstaking detail — every cloud on the horizon in this volatile political climate. Opening at Trunk Space this weekend, Tommy…

theSPACE Closes Its Doors with Final Show “Vibration”

Downtown Phoenix gallery theSPACE announced it will shutters its doors after one final shindig this Friday, August 19. The music and art venue’s co-owners, Jim Coletti and Adam Smith, were bought out of their lease by Xavier College Prep, which sits adjacent to the art space. After demolishing the building,…

Ra Ra Riot @ Clubhouse

Syracuse is famed for a few things: basketball, the college that has the basketball, and, according to my viewing of a Syracuse-based episode of Man vs. Food, hearty American grub. Those pop-rockers with a hint of chamber, Ra Ra Riot, formed there, too, and took off during the East Coast…

Jonsi @ Marquee Theatre

Let’s begin with the costuming: Multi-colored ribbons hang like bunched-up fringe on a deconstructed jacket, with feather embellishments and mismatched swatches patched on. If as a 5-year-old I could’ve gotten away with dressing like a fairy tale creature, I certainly would’ve been on board. Jonsi projects this childlike aura, not…

21 Questions: Chuckie Duff

Welcome to 21 Questions, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com goes to the favorite hangout of a notable Phoenician and asks the “big” questions. This week we met up with Common Wall Media founder Chuckie Duff at the Ford Graduate Suite at Arizona State University.Name: Chuckie DuffAge: 30Occupation: Student, Founder and…

The Walkmen at Clubhouse Last Night

The WalkmenSeptember 17, 2010The Clubhouse​Hamilton Leithauser smiled between songs during The Walkmen’s set last night. Those smiles stood in stark contrast to his intensely focused, on-the-brink of-destruction singing and pointed lyrics.It was a businesslike show. There was minimal exchange between singer and audience, with most of the music being presented…

The Walkmen

A simple, straightforward, bullshit-free piece of work. That’s what Lisbon, The Walkmen’s upcoming album, sounds like. These post-punk rejectionists were formed in the muck and mayhem of the garage rock revival, along with a slew of other “the” bands – namely that quintet who were dubbed the saviors of rock:…

The Walkmen @ The Clubhouse

A simple, straightforward, bullshit-free piece of work. That’s what Lisbon, The Walkmen’s upcoming album, sounds like. These post-punk rejectionists were formed in the muck and mayhem of the garage-rock revival, along with a slew of other “the” bands — namely that quintet who were dubbed the saviors of rock: The…

Hanson at Mesa Arts Center Last Night

HansonSeptember 14, 2010Piper Theater at Mesa Arts CenterRight now, as I write this sentence, I’m listening to Middle of Nowhere, Hanson’s major label debut from 1997. That record of course contains “MMMBop” but it’s the first verse of “Thinking of You” that I’m spinning — it’s undeniable pop goodness.I got…

Zac Hanson on Writing Music, Growing Up & Rocking Out

A few weeks back, a publicist  with what I think was a British accent connected my cellular line with Zac Hanson’s. Mid-morning coffee in hand, I wasn’t sure which one of the three brothers I’d be interviewing, until he answered. The seemingly groggy drummer of the 90s teen sensation Hanson…