Few American cities have suffered a corporate dicking as thoroughly as Phoenix, what with every one of its stadiums bearing names like U.S. Airways Center, Chase Field, Wells Fargo Arena, Jobing.com Arena, and, though a little outside city limits, our personal favorite, Tim’s Toyota Center. It seems sports teams are…

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, we here at New Times have spent a lot of time mulling over what makes a great mom. In the end, we each wrote down a trait, tossed these little slips of wonderful into a hat, and then, with a stick of glue, assembled them…

These days, there’s nothing trendier in rock than a green tour. Even if you’re not environmentally friendly on the road, you’re at least joining the fight to build awareness of global warming. To celebrate Earth Day on April 22, let’s take a look back at an early era in the…

In comic books, one of the coolest things that can happen is when two great superheroes — like, say, Superman and the Flash or Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk — join forces for a one-off adventure that, if executed properly, will be remembered by fanboys for years to come. Marvel…

The HorrorPops have been called psychobilly for years, but these genre-hopping Danish rockers don’t like boxes. We chatted with a few of the bands’ members about their rebellious streak, their homeland, and their new album, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill. New Times: Your music has always been defined by an anti-status…

Every Easter, millions of Americans celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a rebirth that, if you follow the tenets of Christianity, saves the believer’s soul. We music lovers here at New Times, however, can’t help but wonder what musical artists could be resurrected this holiday to save their genres instead?…

There are a lot of bad band names out there, but no genre suffers from titular uncoolness like metalcore (which we’ll admit we’re not fans of). The Firestorm Fest — a mega-event meant to give the frustrated and angry fans of the genre a place to scream and jump into…

Los Angeles is, at best, a transient city filled with transitory dreamers. They come in all varieties these days: actors from Sioux Falls, rockers from Detroit, photographers from Reno, and immigrants from places most of us will never bother to find on a map. Consequently, the people in the City…

Some people diversify their stock portfolios. Andre Benjamin, best known as Andre 3000 of hip-hop super-duo OutKast, diversified his career. Now, learning to play in different artistic mediums, even branching out into brand marketing, ain’t exactly a rare feat amongst the megastars (and, sadly, even shooting stars) of rap and…

Rose McGowan. Dita Von Teese. Evan Rachel Wood. They’re all talented, beautiful, and they’ve all been to bed with super-freak Marilyn Manson. Though this will never make sense to us, we can’t help wondering what other entertainment types might satisfy Manson’s appetite for the bizarre. Lindsay Lohan: Lohan is beautiful;…

Every man has made at least one. The romantic mix CD is a sure-fire way to woo a woman’s heart or, if your goals are more base, get laid. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, here’s a list of songs you should never, ever include on a mix when trying…

In 2002, Maroon 5 released Songs About Jane, which went on to sell something like a bajillion copies around the world. Consequently, the band hit the road for so many years that it didn’t have time to record anything other than live albums until this year’s It Won’t Be Soon…

Every year around the office, it’s the same old pickle: What do you buy for the Secret Santa gift exchange? You don’t want to go super-cheap, because somehow everyone always figures out you were the jackass who bought the stupid Bush-isms desk calendar, but you also don’t want to spend…

Since 1996, Jay Vance (a.k.a. JBOT) has been a prisoner of robots he originally created to serve as his onstage death metal band. That’s the gist of Captured! By Robots’ bio — that, and Vance has a problem playing with others, necessitating animatronic bandmates. But the reality of the situation…

These days, most gentiles (that’s non-Jews, folks) think Hanukkah is some sort of Christmas equivalent for God’s Chosen People, but the truth is, it’s one of Judaism’s minor holidays and has moved to the forefront only since secular pop culture felt the religion was getting the shaft during the “holiday…

Not all music interviews aspire to get at the pith of an artist or band’s identity, or to say anything all that insightful about them. No, sometimes interviews exist just as a means to give an artist a chance to voice a bit of his or her personality and, if…

As an Australian and occasional resident of his mum’s homeland, this writer has a serious passion for Aussie rock. Unfortunately, it’s been a few years since he’s called Australia home and, because of that, he’s a little behind on what’s happening Down Under. For a little help, he turned to…

It’s been 22 years since Celine Dion turned the Colosseum at Caesars Palace into the place where female pop stars go to die as publicly as Roman gladiators once did, but, of course, for a hell of a lot more money. Last night, Kelly Clarkson joined the club that, since…

Say Anything frontman Max Bemis was diagnosed three years ago as bipolar, which, he says, made absolute sense considering the manic episodes he had been experiencing for some time. If that wasn’t enough, he was also trying to survive a volatile breakup with his first love, an experience that, along…

It just seems wrong to call Russian émigré Regina Spektor Russian, because her family fled the USSR during the freeing days of perestroika in 1989. This kind of makes her a Soviet-American, even if she might disagree. The point is, Spektor is a product of a collapsed communist empire that,…