Funky house vets the East Coast Boogiemen won’t be here in full, but you’ll get a half-dose when Ken Christensen hits the Real Bar (formerly P.I./Boston’s) on Friday, June 17, as part of his “Ken You Dig It” tour. Christensen, and ECBM partner Juan Zapata, launched Odds and Ends Records…
I’ve been having nightmares lately, populated by drug addicts, orphans, a woman with her mouth sewn up, and occasionally two skinny Afroed Chicano guys who whisper sinister things in Spanish. They didn’t go away even after I saw the band that’s causing them — the Mars Volta — play live…
Hey, tweakers — hurry up and finish reassembling your El Camino, stop grinding your teeth for a minute, put down the glass dick, and listen up. I’ve got good news: Your favorite non-inhalable muscle motivator is coming to town. On Friday, June 10, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland, a.k.a. breakbeat…
“Hey, you got your Rancid in my Mars Volta!” “You got your No Doubt in my Postal Service!” “Now you’ve got your Sublime in my Radiohead!” No, I’m not talking about the latest mash-ups by Z-Trip or Danger Mouse. Rather, this was my internalized conversation with local independent alternative radio…
“Pure devastation” is how the boys in local screamo outfit Greeley Estates jokingly describe their band on the mini-documentary “The Life of Greeley Estates,” included on this recently released DVD. While they certainly have some devastating riffage, Greeley’s live songs included here are more remarkable for their affability. Crowds of…
New England progressive house DJ Steve Porter cleverly dubs his sound “Porterhouse,” referencing not only his signature style but the gargantuan grooves he lays down live and on his debut album, Homegrown, on FDS Recordings. A protg of Sasha and Sander Kleinenberg, Porter has established himself as a dance-music visionary,…
I’m completely out of my indie rock element, but it’s quite the scene at the Sail Inn on a recent Sunday afternoon: pretty (and friendly) granola girls twirling around in flowing skirts, squealing little kids running around with bubble-blowing machines, gray-haired guys in tie-dyed shirts with their guts stretching the…
Though they’re known for their laptop beat acrobatics, Canadian duo Junior Boys will actually be putting the needle on the records after their show with fellow Canuck Caribou on the evening of Saturday, May 21. The show with Caribou (recently known as Manitoba) is at Modified Arts, but the DJ…
It’s Kentucky Derby Saturday and I’m sitting at the bar of the Fiesta Inn in Tempe with Charlie Levy, the promoter behind Stateside Presents and man-behind-the-curtain at Western Tread Records, which he runs with Jimmy Eat World front man Jim Adkins. I’ve asked him here because I’ve known the bespectacled,…
The Valley’s original underground massive dance event, Swell Records’ Acid Reign VII, is returning this Saturday, May 14, with headlining performances by legends such as Woody McBride (a regular at the Acid Reign events), who’s appearing as part of the “Midwest Acid Pyramid” three-DJ, four-turntable set with DJ Hyperactive from…
“Fuck trout! Trout are pussies!” my good friend John Rupp declared into the microphone while dancing onstage at the Rogue late last year during local roots/bluegrass/hillbilly trio Flathead’s set. Dressed in a homemade catfish costume (originally fabricated for Halloween), complemented by metal-tipped snakeskin shoes, Catfish John made his debut appearance…
If you just can’t wait for this weekend’s big StreetDreams hip-hop festival at the Old Brickhouse Grill, stop in at Hollywood Alley (2610 West Baseline Road in Mesa) Thursday night, May 5, for the Blunt Club’s pre-party, featuring local up-and-comer Kid Vicious alongside the residents, Tricky T, Hyder, and Element,…
The Valley seems to have finally come into its own within the sphere of hip-hop, with nary a night lacking a jam-packed beats and rhymes expo somewhere in town, and national touring acts hitting metro Phoenix all the time. “We’re putting Arizona on the map,” local promoter Adam “Dumperfoo” Dumper…
It wouldn’t be quite fair to call trance kingpin Josh Wink a hippie, but hell, we will anyway, because of his vegan lifestyle and the years he wore his blond hair in long dreadlocks. But then again, hippies aren’t known for being anti-drug — for that matter, neither are trance…
A couple of Sunday afternoons ago, about an hour before the New Times Music Showcase began, I was drinking a beer at the Tavern on Mill with Natalie Espinosa, guitarist and singer for local girl trio and Best Indie Rock nominee Bella, talking about her band’s impending last-ever show, trying…
You’ve probably never had the chance to party and dance the night away on the island electro-mecca of Ibiza, Spain, or shake it down at Club TLV in Tel Aviv, Israel, but this Saturday, April 23, you can pretend you’ve escaped the desert for more exotic climes when legendary tribal…
Ahhh, free pornography. I’m happily back on the grid and into the glaring free light of the digital world now that broadband Internet service has returned to my home office. Free to download 20-second sample video clips off a billion girlie sites, or pull them from others’ computers with peer-to-peer…
Da Nutz — Power 92’s afternoon disc jockey personalities Joey Boy (the right nut) and J. Philla (the left nut) — have become an airwave institution here in the ‘Nix, not only bumpin’ the hottest commercial hip-hop and R&B, but making legions of listeners piss their pants with laughter on…
In a town full of Mormons and mega-churches and one of the largest Christian hip-hop movements in the country, Cole Massey couldn’t find religion. “I went to a bunch of churches around town, asking them what they offered for a 29-year-old single guy looking for some hard-core theology,” Massey, co-founder…
This Thursday, April 7, local artist and impresario Dumperfoo moves his long-running Blunt Club hip-hop night to a new location, Hollywood Alley, 2610 West Baseline Road in Mesa (northeast corner of Price and Baseline roads). Along with the usual bag of tricks — live art, b-boys and b-girls, resident DJs…
Zombies, mummies and vampires populate local trio Calabrese’s first full-length, 13 Halloweens, the follow-up to the three brothers’ much-hyped EP Midnight Spookshow. Some Spookshow tracks are revisited here, but these 13 horror-rock songs (hence the title), in the vein of the Misfits and the Ramones, show a fleshed-out, slickly produced,…
Are you kids out there ready to get tiny? Famed trance DJ Micro is stopping through the ‘Nix on Saturday, April 2, to lay down some of his hypnotic anthems for the one-year anniversary of Flux at Sports City Grill/Sky Lounge (132 East Washington Street). The New York native has…
