I walked into Stinkweeds Record Exchange in Tempe last week and was stunned by what I heard. Hail to the Thief, the new album by British art-rock giants Radiohead,was blasting from the store’s speakers. I recognized the drum machine distortion that closes “Sit Down. Stand Up” immediately; it was something…

Somehow, someway, critical darling Richard Thompson still makes a go of it. Thompson is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most gifted everythings — guitarist, songwriter, singer, lyricist. The Brit helped shape U.K. folk rock with his Celtic-informed group Fairport Convention more than 30 years ago. Then, with his wife Linda,…

The rich man can have his green grass back next week. This is our field tonight. I stand surrounded by tens of thousands of party people on this terra-formed oasis. They look happy, smiling, throwing Frisbees, disco napping in pockets of shade, dancing in celebration, rushing from one attraction to…

At 4:20 p.m. on April 20, the hippies take over. They flock to the Sail Inn, a larger-than-average dive with an outdoor patio and stage tucked anonymously onto a quiet side street in central Tempe, for 4:20 Fest, an Easter Day party for the local jam-band faithful, though a few…

Redfield is a tough band to pigeonhole. It might count as punk. The Valley hopefuls seem to prefer that tag, having been profiled and hyped by local Web site AZPunk.com and given shout-outs to punk bands on the liner notes to their new EP The Hellfire Club. Plus, vocalist Alfie…

The Wednesday night broadcast of local hip-hop show “Under the Influence” is only halfway through its three hours, yet the vibe at the KFNX-AM 1100 studio on North Third Street is already well-defined. “This is the realest hip-hop spot in Arizona, yo,” says rapper Kamillion, an energetic 25-year-old hopeful, to…

The Phunk Junkeez and Illegal Substance mine the same material. The latter’s a group of Phoenix youngsters whose self-titled debut leads with the track “Let’s Get Fucked Up.” The Phunk Junkeez, meanwhile, have been tearing up stages since the Illegal Substance crew was still in grade school. But the sentiment…

John Logan, lead singer and guitarist for the Phoenix guerrilla rockers the MadCaPs, has been performing a song as part of his band’s sets lately called “Happy Baghdad.” His composition strongly opposes military action in Iraq and makes military aggression seem like a mortal sin. “You got nothing to be…

“I earned it. After 30 years in the desert, you deserve something, man.” Hans Olson sat in the spotlight Sunday, an iconic lonesome bluesman. He had come to Hayden Square in Tempe to play a song and collect our new Big Chihuahua award for lifetime achievement as part of the…

Bonnie Prince’ Billy is the alter ego of Will Oldham, who, along with Bill Callahan of Smog, is a crucial upholder of American folk tradition in modern popular music. Oldham is a brilliant, intense guy who has spent his career mostly hiding under a veil of monikers. “I never felt…

The White Stripes’ Elephant is not a five-star album. In fact, Elephant’s not even the fashionable two-piece garage band’s best record. That’s still 2000’s De Stijl, which years from now may be seen as essential, the blueprint that got this whole burgeoning march toward a renewed simplicity and joy rolling…

John Calleo, former roadie for Megadeth and ZZ Top, a concert producer, all-around rock ‘n’ roll guy and a storied prankster, died two weeks ago after a long, slow demise partially related to congenital heart disease. The response from local musicians has been overwhelming. At a benefit gathering held at…

Richie Cole doesn’t like to indulge in trade secrets, which is too bad, because he swears he can re-create a wild 18-piece big band solely through a four-horn arrangement. That’s some kind of dexterity. “I’ve always had this sound in my head,” says the legendary bebop alto saxophone player from…

Sigur Rós makes beautiful but utterly confounding music. The Reykjavik, Iceland, band’s songs often snake through eight to 12 minutes of near-orchestral prog-rock. Lead singer Jon Thor Birgisson has a startlingly high, feminine voice; he also prefers to make an instrument out of his voice, forgoing lyrics in either English…

Singer Chester Bennington remembers his 10 years of musical obscurity and near-poverty in Phoenix, which explains why he’s so hungry now to enjoy Linkin Park’s rocky ride. “There were a lot of great bands in Phoenix I watched disappear,” says Bennington, 27, a former Maricopa County map-making employee who moved…

AFI, an unusual hard-rock band, recruited veteran producers Butch Vig and Jerry Finn an unusual duo to produce its major-label debut, Sing the Sorrow. Vig made his name producing Nirvana’s Nevermind, and built on his heavy but dreamy style with Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage (for whom Vig drums). Conversely, Finn…

Tempe sucks a little less now. Two new clubs opened in the non-smoking-mandated, increasingly regulated, fashionably cynical college town this month, filling gaps in the local music scene for concertgoers and bands. The Clubhouse, formerly Eugene’s Rock Cafe, opened for business on March 7, tucked next to the Horse &…

Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger have chosen to relight the Doors’ fire with a “reunion” tour, with the Cult’s Ian Astbury stepping forward in Jim Morrison’s spot. But the two might have known problems would crop up, since, well, people are strange. Already, drummer John Densmore, who declined the tour,…

Follow heavy metal’s primary syllogism: Do you like to rock? Yeah! Do you want to rock? Hell yeah! Then let’s rock! You can laugh if you want, but concepts don’t come much more Zen than that. Rock ‘n’ roll, even in its most unbearable, screaming caveman form, doesn’t die, and…

So when’s that new Gang Starr album gonna drop? In May, now that you mention it. Hip-hop fans have been waiting impatiently since 1998’s gold-selling near-classic Moment of Truth and the 1999 retrospective Full Clip (one of only a few truly essential hip-hop compilations) for rapper Guru and the progressive…