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Christopher O'Connor

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Latest Articles

Problem Child

Steppchild's rock 'n' zeal is missionary, despite the jokes about your wife

By Christopher O'Connor
Jan 8, 2009

Adam Jacobson is a big man. His goal is just as big – to subvert the sourpuss patrol that controls modern rock 'n' roll and pump a little fun back into its veins with Steppchild, the viscerally enjoyable Tempe band for which he plays bass and sings. "It's like the...
Spying Cool

Marco Polo Saldana mines a largely forgotten genre for his retro inspiration

By Christopher O'Connor
Oct 30, 2008

Retro's been a fad for so long now that it, too, seems almost retro. But cool will always be cool, and Marco Polo Saldana, who sings and plays standup bass for local "psychobilly" band the Curse of the Pink Hearse, knows cool. He carries cool with him in an old...
Retail in Blood

Phoenix's Metal Devastation fills the hole in the Valley death metal lover's heart

By Christopher O'Connor
Feb 26, 2004

Gerardo Montenegro, who owns a strip mall mom-and-pop death metal shop called Metal Devastation here in Phoenix, says his goal is to approach underground perfection. The storefront sign promises, after all, that his shop specializes in "only real death/black metal" and "extreme and obscure musical art." In other words, if...
Air

Talkie Walkie (Virgin)

By Christopher O'Connor
Feb 19, 2004

Air makes great soft-core-porn music. At least seven of the 10 songs on the new Air album Talkie Walkie could back the drawn-out slow-motion sex scenes to those old dubbed-in-English Emmanuelle skin flicks and, in some of those instances, actually improve the aesthetic. The tunes really are that evocative of...
God Forbid

Tooth & Nail Records celebrates 10 years of punk fire -- and quiet Christian devotion

By Christopher O'Connor
Feb 12, 2004

Mabybe Jesus Christ invented hard-core. Christians, after all, believe the man from Nazareth died for our sins with nails through his hands. It just doesn't get much hard-core than that. Perhaps that explains why the Christians who release their music through the independent punk label Tooth & Nail Records have...

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