In a world where we’re given daily reminders of man’s often incomprehensible cruelty and horrifying savagery (war, genocide, Sting’s recent duet with the Backstreet Boys), it’s heartening to know that the annual New Times Music Showcase can serve as a universal touchstone, a beacon of harmony and consensus that people…
“I’m not really that sick,” says Bruce Connole, coughing as he shuffles through his east-side apartment. While the singer was forced to cancel a recent gig with his bluegrass side project, the Pearl Chuckers, because of a cold, the spring sniffles have been the last thing on the mind of…
Local-music fans had a big surprise awaiting them on April Fools’ weekend at Nita’s Hideaway. The club, located in the heart of Tempe’s industrial district, played host to a Friday/Saturday outdoor double bill featuring Mesa indie rockers Jimmy Eat World and Okie-psych-pop legends the Flaming Lips. While both shows were…
There’s a full slate of news and shows worth mentioning this week, and it starts with word of the impending release of No Sense in Runnin’, the debut from local postpunk twangers Truckers on Speed. The group, which recently changed its named from Shoeless Joe, spent the better part of…
For local-music aficionados, there always seem to be a few trends without explanation, questions that go inexplicably unanswered. One that’s vexed most observers in recent years is the lack of capable (or even willing) exponents of the much-maligned alt-country genre. For a city with a rich history of country and…
Long before becoming a Hollywood lothario and Dreamworks Records executive, Robbie Robertson was rock ‘n’ roll hipster, Dylan confidante and guitarist for The Band. Those familiar with Mr. Robertson will also remember his turn as a pouty philosopher and unmitigated ham in director Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz — a…
One doesn’t approach the annual South by Southwest music festival like an average bout of nightclubbing. Music writers train weeks for this cacophonous conference, rigorously avoiding all kinds of music so that their hearing will be in fine fettle for a beat surrender to the senses. Otherwise they could overload…
There is an inherent irony in traveling a thousand miles to the world’s biggest musical festival, an internationally renowned event featuring acts from far and wide, and spending the bulk of your trip watching bands from your hometown. As the IRS can attest (after getting my 1999 return claiming $13,000…
Shamsi Ruhe, vocalist for long-lamented Tempe alt-rockers One, has spent much of the new year basking in the attentive glow of several record labels. Ruhe is reportedly in final negotiations with Palm Records, an imprint of Rykodisc. The eclectic chanteuse has been living in New York for the last few…
Can we talk? I’m almost a year into my tenure as music editor, and I feel a long-overdue clarification session is in order. The inspiration for this little heart-to-heart is the overwhelming response to my most recent column. Only a few hours after last week’s issue hit the streets, my…
The mailbag brings many things, some good, lots bad, but few things that can generate the weird mix of raging apathy that Dichromatic, the sophomore effort from Tempe’s Surf Ballistics, managed to elicit. The press kit for the self-described “high energy rock” combo — and, fair warning, there is nary…
A 2 Live Crew show was the last place Windigo front man Matt Strangeways expected to spend his Valentine’s Day. On a day that’s supposed to be filled with hearts and flowers, Strangeways’ mood couldn’t have been blacker. It wasn’t a girl that Strangeways was pining over, but rather the…
It’s about 15 minutes into the conversation with local power poppers Sugar High when it starts to happen. The feeling that I’ve somehow ended up in an episode of The Monkees, or maybe even been cast in a local remake of A Hard Day’s Night. It could be singer Adrian…
It’s late Friday evening. The reassuring suburban quiet of this south Tempe neighborhood is broken by the noise emanating from the garage at the end of the street. Yet it’s not the shambolic strains of “garage rock,” but an ornate, almost lush sound. Inside, the space is sparsely decorated. There…
It’s hard for even the most jaded and cynical of critics not to occasionally be swayed by the enthusiasm and personal charm of the artists we encounter. Such is the case with singer Mark Norman. It’s difficult to pin down exactly why he engenders such goodwill. It could be Norman’s…
Plopped into a sagging couch and framed against a wall full of signed concert fliers, DJ Radar isn’t quite the figure most would expect. Clad in baggy jeans and a sunken Kangol, the youthful, soft-spoken turntablist is a surprising study in contrast. His understated style belies an onstage persona that…
It’s 6 a.m. and there’s no one in the building. The morning begins just as the night has ended, in a dark cloud of self-doubt and heartbreak. Reeking of stale smoke and even staler beer, I wind through a dim labyrinth of hallways and cubicles. Still reeling from the night’s…
Paging through a recent issue of Rolling Stone (something we do frequently in the office when in need of a good laugh), we came upon the magazine’s annual music awards. The Rolling Stone Readers Poll, never a barometer of good taste or intelligence, was especially appalling this year as it…
As January ushers in the dead of winter — or at least our very mild Arizona version of it — the news and happenings in the local insurgent country ranks have been heating up. Here are a few morsels that found their way to our desk. Name Game: Local alt-country…
My original New Year’s Eve plan was to be in Redondo Beach, California, to see a rare solo performance by Beach Boy legend Brian Wilson. In my naiveté, I thought that ringing in the new millennium with a concert by a man whose music has been a symbol of all…
Someone once noted that if there was a local Punk Preservation Society charter, Keith Jackson would be its Chairman of the Bored. Few things, it seems, can excite the musician like the subject of his favorite rock revolutionaries. Perhaps the only thing that can generate that type of boyish exuberance…
Though we usually eschew the quick-hit news and notes format, we felt this would be a good opportunity to clean off the ol’ desk. With millennium chaos, mass hysteria and falling bullets rapidly approaching, it’s important that you keep abreast of local music happenings. Thrill-a-Minute: There’s a slew of news…
