Just west of Manhattan, across the Hudson River, lies the burg of Jersey City, the second most populous township in New Jersey. It’s a city littered with a history of corruption and mob influence, thanks to its Depression-era mayor, “Boss” Frank Hague, an FDR crony, and his successor, John V…
This story, like so many in the music press lately, begins in the unlikely creative haven of Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha is home to the incestuous Saddle Creek stable of bands, which includes Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos, the Faint, and Lullaby for the Working Class, as well as the…
The following is a sad story, in a sense. Not for its protagonist, former Valley resident and much-ballyhooed turntable artist DJ Z-Trip, because this is the story of his triumphs. It’s a story about the machinations of success in the music industry, the story of a Phoenix boy who moved…
It all starts with the butterflies, those giddy whirlwinds in the stomach — the antithesis of nausea combined with dopey smiles and too many hours spent styling your hair. Then the elation that comes with the chemical pheromone combustion of two people falling for one another. The complexities really begin…
Screw the Duff — when Groundskeeper Willie is lookin’ to get his swerve on, he’s likely to be sipping one of the arse-kickin’ brews featured at the second annual Strong Beer & Ale Festival, put on by the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild at Papago Brewing Company in Scottsdale. The libations…
Last we heard from Nathaniel Merriweather, he and partner Chest Rockwell were handing out the syllabus for their Handsome Boy Modeling School back in ’99. Since then, Merriweather’s been reabsorbed into his alter ego, Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, who piloted Deltron 3030’s spaceship into our galaxy back in the 2K…
Five young men. One band, three years old, with two acclaimed EPs released. This is where it starts. At the end of 1999, Chris Simpson, Jeremy Gomez, Ben Houtman, Brian Hubbard, and Brian Malone entered a recording studio in Austin, Texas, to purge themselves, to whip through the catalogue of…
College football’s bowl days are here, those glorious excuses to sit on your ass in front of the tube and drink beer through game after game after game. But since you’re in the Valley of the Sun, you can get off your duff and go catch a bowl game firsthand…
The look on the face of Homer “The Rock” Moore as he pounds his fists and elbows in vicious combinations against a trainer’s gloves is pure intensity, wide-eyed and emotionless, in stark contrast to the homicidal punishment his 205-pound frame is unleashing. Moore is at Brausa Academy, preparing for his…
“This song will become the anthem of your underground.” This first line of “At Your Funeral,” the first track on New Jersey emo quintet Saves the Day’s album Stay What You Are, is proving far more prophetic than its author, eager-voiced Chris Conley, could’ve intended. Though written as a tongue-in-cheek…
The fliers for the art show “Quixotic,” which opens this Sunday, thoughtfully provide a definition of the show’s title, to aid the less-bookish of us: “adj. Extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary; impractical.” The dictionary adds a term, as well: “idealistic.” It’s those qualities that curator Matt Dickson says drive the…
The music industry is a joke. — Drunken Immortals, “Ambush” A&R men . . . bidding wars . . . contracts . . . demo recordings . . . promotional budgets . . . sales expectations . . . units moved . . . points earned per unit . …
Walk around on Mill Avenue, or any other disaffected-youth-magnet sort of locale, and you’re bound to see a proliferation of bad tattoos. It’s symptomatic of a generation of 20- to 30-year-olds who years ago grew an affection for tattoos as a mark of rebellion and not artistry; scratchwork is omnipresent…
Pornography. Say the word out loud — do you spit it out with disgust or roll the syllables off your tongue gently, dreamily? Does the mere thought of pornography revolt you, make you muse about the decline of Western civilization in the 21st century? Does it weigh you down with…
Early last November, in a vacant area of the Glendale swap mart, the most important underground hip-hop event of the year kicked off, and chances are you heard nothing about it. The fourth annual Styles Crew Anniversary Show didn’t attract crowds of Power 92 listeners, DMX fans, club kids or…
Death Cab for Cutie’s Forbidden Love EP is not, strictly speaking, an acoustic album. But in comparison to the group’s recent We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes long player, it’s a stripped-down affair of varying degrees. The opener, “Photobooth,” rides a simple drumbeat and playful bass line with…
Deep in hyperspace, there’s a climactic battle brewing with damning implications for the rest of the universe. The insidious space pirate Red Worm, on orders from the evil High Lord Ook-Nod-Zeek-Oot, is fighting to take possession of the Wave Twister, a powerful scratch weapon from ancient times. The Inner Space…
Valley DJ Z-Trip is effectively at the top of the hip-hop game. He tours incessantly — recently headlining the International B-Boy Battle of the Year in Hanover, Germany — rocks raves in the Far East, and performs in different cities across the United States every weekend. Spin named Z-Trip’s Bombshelter…
If you are un patron des arts, hip to the street-artist-cum-gallery-phenom tip, you’ve probably seen Basquiat five times and even own a Keith Haring tie you picked up at the Museum Store at Scottsdale Fashion Square. You may have even heard of “Lalo Land,” the installation at Thought Crime Gallery…
In the bloated pantheon of sensitive-boy rock, with all its journal scribbling and conspicuous self-pity, it’s an accomplishment to rise above simple mediocrity — something that stellar virtuosos like Jonah Matranga (onelinedrawing) and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) do effortlessly, while Kind of Like Spitting’s Ben Barnett struggles and stumbles upon…
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that Joan of Arc mastermind Tim Kinsellas is acutely peculiar, at least as far as his compositions are concerned. A random sampling of songs from Joan of Arc’s past three records would prove as much — from the “too smart…
Long dysfunctional relationships can be trying for anyone; therefore, in the spirit of purging, it’s best to celebrate the conclusions when they finally arrive. Local indie-rock demigods Jimmy Eat World have celebrated the end of their tortuous relationship with Capitol Records by releasing two records that bookend the band’s current…
