If Phoenix band Motive has an actual motive, it’s having a good time, and that means booze, metal, sex, and — wait, did we say booze? Plus, these guys make some crushingly heavy music that’s a blend of Testament, Obituary, and Amon Amarth. To understand Motive’s sound in a single…
SAT 8/27Club Freedom’s been closed for more than a year now, but that doesn’t mean there’s nowhere in Phoenix for renowned DJs to drop their stacks of wax. On Saturday, August 27, several local organizations, including IONAZ magazine and dance station Energy 92.3, prove the beat goes on with “Splash…
Want to get more out of Ozzfest than watching Ozzy stumble around on stage? If so, the place to be is the second stage, where you’ll find the bands that still play small clubs and sleep in their vans. Most of these bands have the dedication to become huge, but…
Every Time I Die isn’t a hardcore band — at least, it isn’t anymore. On Gutter Phenomenon, the Buffalo band adopts a much more straightforward rock sound in tracks like the heavy “Tusk and Temper.” ETID exemplifies hardcore’s roots in punk rock as well, keeping things high-speed and gritty (the…
Can you imagine The Knack as a death metal band? We didn’t think so, either, until we heard The Number 12 Looks Like You’s cover of the late ’70s New Wavers’ classic “My Sharona.” After experiencing The Number 12’s guttural growling followed by the chorus’ cheesy, high-pitched “woo!”, we knew…
The Red Chord must be familiar with European theater; the Boston band took its name from a German play in which a schizophrenic man slits his lover’s throat and then reverts to his normal self, asking, “My love, what is that red cord across your neck?” It’s both poetic and…
A Wilhelm Scream may win the award for best song titles this year. Here are the top three: “The Kids Can Eat a Bag of Dicks,” a quick post-hardcore tune with a nice bass solo and an emo breakdown (no, that’s not a joke); “Me vs. Morrissey in the Pretentiousness…
No matter which members of Minnesota’s The Soviettes are belting out the lyrics, they yell their brash vocals with a sense of urgency. Maybe it’s because the 14 songs on LP III are fast — and punk rock is always played fast, right? Sure, it’s easy to make “Fuck yeah!”…
A Perfect Murder isn’t the same band it was two years ago. Back then, the Montreal group was likely to get tapped to open for Eighteen Visions. It was generic hardcore, “required” breakdowns and all, complete with unimaginative “I hate this world” lyrics. Then, three of the original members, including…
Apparently, no one told CKY it’s dangerous to hate on your boss. Or maybe someone did and CKY just doesn’t give a fuck. Either way, that’s just what the Pennsylvania band does. In their audacious, straightforward rock ‘n’ roll style, the instigators in CKY make a point to tell everyone…
TUE 8/9Sammy Hagar’s career spans 30 years, including 10 years with Van Halen. “The Red Rocker’s” biggest solo hit, “I Can’t Drive 55,” was released in 1984, which begs the question: When is he going to update the lyrics to reflect current speed limits? “I changed the song,” Hagar tells…
WED 8/10As an artist who’s been kicking around the Phoenix art scene for more than 20 years, Stephen Michael Barnes has had his fill of noisy Art Detours. “I’ve been to art exhibitions where there’s a lot of wine and cheese and crowds, but you really can’t see the art,”…
Pelican is the Mars Volta for metalheads. It’s transcendent, complex and experimental. Unlike the Mars Volta, however, Pelican’s music flows so smoothly, a vocalist isn’t necessary to help the listener navigate the intricate aural landscape created by these four Chicago men. After inking with Hydrahead Records (Isis, Pig Destroyer), the…
Head Automatica is the brainchild of Daryl Palumbo — you probably know him as “that guy from Glassjaw.” He may have started out screaming for a rap-metal band, but he says he always wanted to make party music. So he picked the perfect partner in Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, a…
Darkest Hour’s new disc, Undoing Ruin, could easily beat up its first album, Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation, where the band was trying to be At the Gates. For that effort, Darkest Hour went so far as to record in Sweden with Fredrik Nordstrom (At the Gates, In Flames)…
Before punk bands had their own summer festivals, punk bands were just that: a group of punks who had to load their own equipment, drive their own vans, and finance their own one-take records. Witness the spirit of punk before the cash cows started to moo, when Modified Arts hosts…
Alkaline Trio has had a revolving door for band members since its inception in 1997. Yet somehow the three-piece emo band sounds consistent. With pop-driven music and lyrics depicting the agony and self-deprecation of breaking up and being rejected, the Chicago band has captured the broken hearts of emo kids…
The Lawrence Arms are three Midwestern guys who know how to party. These Chicago punk rockers keep with the old-school style of short songs played fast, and on Cocktails & Dreams, vocalist and bassist Brendan Kelly (formerly of the Broadways) preaches the joys of a good night at the bar…
Two of the most promising bands in the local metal scene are performing together this weekend. Autumn’s End keeps it dark and heavy, and pretty much exemplifies Arizona metal: shredding guitars and growling guys in black cowboy hats. The band was formed by vocalist and guitarist Chris Cannella, former N17…
SAT 7/9Get your geek on with the members of the United Federation of Phoenix, the nation’s second-oldest continuous Star Trek fan club, as they party poolside on Saturday, July 9, sipping sodas and swapping stories of Klingon valor. The universe may be a lonely place for some people, but not…
Do you ever wish Andrew W.K. would just die? Well, thanks to the creators of Punk Rock Holocaust, which screens Friday, July 8, at the Paper Heart, you can watch the W.K. and several bands on the 2003 Vans Warped Tour be murdered in disgusting, bloody, and all-around violent ways…
Lamb of God exudes metal — long hair, a gregarious nature, and insane solos — and puts on a superb live show, as this two-hour flick shows in detail. One of the best parts of the band’s performance is the extravagance that is Chris Adler’s drumming. The man has 18…
