Not that long ago, my friend Jason and I got ourselves in hot water with our girlfriends when we went on a double date to a nice restaurant and, after several shots, began acting like drunken jackasses — literally. We were running through all of the farm animal noises we…
Damn, brah, what to do on 4/20, yo? The magically puffalicious date only rolls around once a year, and any hardcore smoke aficionado uses it as an excuse for a day filled with bong rips and heavy snacking — kind of funny, since according to Snopes.com, our favorite urban-legend debunker,…
Opportunities for guilt-free — no, make that philanthropic — partying just don’t seem to happen enough, but this Saturday night’s MasquerAID gives you the chance to do just that. MasquerAID, at the Icehouse (429 West Jackson Street), is a benefit for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the…
Musically, this sure as hell can be an incestuous town. I see it more and more all the time, with the same musicians playing in multiple bands with different sonic flavors, often on different instruments. Especially in Tempe, where a relatively small group of musicians hold down a scene where…
When it comes to turntablists in this town, nobody can fuck with DJ Radar. Not only has Radar composed and performed his classical Concerto for Turntable at Carnegie Hall, but the scratchmaster’s designed and built his own custom looping machine for making his beats, scratches, and wahh’s cascade over one…
Watching the Loveblisters play on the small stage at Last Exit in Tempe, you kind of have to feel sorry for Ethan Hillis, the curly-haired drummer and youngest member of the band. He’s barely visible behind the line of the five other musicians — flanked by keyboardists Jessica Stanley and…
This month marks 10 years since I started covering music in the ‘Nix for New Times, and in that swath of time, I’ve met a plethora of promoters and venue managers around here — many of whom, let’s just say, I wouldn’t introduce to anyone I actually care about. It’s…
Local beat manipulators DJ Delikacy and DJ Xtra-E, of Foreign Affair at the Hidden House, are hosting an underground hip-hop blowout at the Hidden House (607 W. Osborn Rd.) this Monday, March 27, in association with the west side collective Modurn Languaj Asosiashun (whose members rhyme much better than they…
As a 17-year-old skateboarder up in Anchorage, Alaska, where I worked at the only skateboard shop in town, I was sprung on the skaterock that was the soundtrack of my crew’s four-wheeled adventures. Bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Agent Orange, and especially JFA (Jodie Foster’s Army) provided the extra energy we…
Criteria waited until its second full-length to release a record on its hometown label, Saddle Creek, and it’s none too soon, as Saddle Creek needed a huge blast of rock music to complement its recent roster of softie releases. Criteria is the brainchild of Stephen Pederson, the original guitarist for…
It’s been quite some time since the underground rave scene was thriving and everybody was out all night on the weekends, twisted up in cuddle puddles while bass thumps were rattling their spines. The days of PLUR — which we think stands for “Peace, Love, Understanding, Respect,” but then again…
Once a year, we at New Times have the pleasure of sending a local beat-mechanic off to Miami during the dance-centric Winter Music Conference to play for thousands of people at the Ultra Music Festival. But before that happens, you have the chance to see the contenders throw down, with…
It’s got to be a bitch being a young band called March Against Fear. You’ll inevitably be mistaken for Denver’s Fear Before the March of Flames, which has a record deal with Equal Vision Records and boasts almost 27,000 friends on MySpace.com. And you might end up with some very…
“I feel like I come off as a crackpot,” local singer-songwriter Brodie Hubbard admits to me. We’re discussing his travails as a young solo artist in a city that’s not especially conducive to such endeavors. “It’s really easy to make a joke out of me. I’m not a real musician.”…
Local impresario Joe DiPadova’s StraightNoChaser night at The Loft in Tempe has blown up to the point where he’s expanding the sophisticated, jazzy lounge night to Los Angeles this spring. Meanwhile, SNC continues to bring in top-tier talent to rock the decks alongside the eclectic roster of local residents. This…
All right, kids, since we haven’t had much of a winter here in the ‘Nix (not that we ever do), I’ve got a cold blast of reality for you. Your rock star aspirations, the getting signed to a major label or even a cool indie, the touring with My Chemical…
DJ Drez cemented his impact on the underground DJ scene in 2004, when he dropped his groundbreaking album The Capture of Sound, a whipped-smooth blend of reggae and jazz with hip-hop. Ordinarily we’re a little suspicious of white dudes with dreads, but Drez’s are long enough — and his message…
On a recent Saturday night at Hollywood Alley, after Vin-Fiz and The Threads have run through their sets, Jared Christy, singer for The Liar’s Handshake, is perched on a stool onstage, smoking a cigarette. His bandmates Billy Culbertson and Nolan Thompson are setting up their acoustic guitar and upright bass,…
For the glam-trash rocker set that’s infiltrated seemingly every club in town for at least one night a week, it really doesn’t get much bigger than this: Marky Ramone throwing down on the turntables at Hot Pink. There’s mad competition in the rawk DJ scene these days, and that’s a…
Ordinarily we wouldn’t encourage anyone to patronize a fraternity-sponsored event, but since all y’all collegiate would-be intellectuals are back clocking hours with the professors, you probably need a chance to cut loose while the semester’s still fresh. The local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha — the first intercollegiate African-American fraternity,…
“My made-up age is 38,” Ryan Greene tells me while we’re sitting in his new recording studio before the immense console, overlooked by a flat wide-screen TV monitor showing some inscrutable B-movie. The legendary producer, who’s probably best known among ambitiously audiophiliac pop-punk fans, moved down to Scottsdale from the…
Puerto Rican born and raised house DJ Robbie Rivera earned his chops the hard way on the island, spinning for whomever would hire him — without the benefit of pitch control on his tables. Now a worldwide house phenomenon, he’s got the pitch modulation down perfectly, as you can hear…
