If you’re old enough to be reading this post, there’s a fair chance your parents carried a comically large camcorder around to capture your every toddle in the years before you were old enough to either love or hate the camera a little too much. You’ve seen the video enough…
The weird fuss people are making over Mumford & Sons’ recent self-parodic music video — “Hopeless Wanderer,” embedded here after the jump — has taken two forms, in particular. One: People seem to be glad that Mumford & Sons is “self-aware” and therefore can be liked without fear of not…
The Monkees have survived so many backlashes and revivals that Micky Dolenz can answer most of your questions before you even consider asking them. Just say “TV show” or “actors” or “instruments,” by way of priming the pump, and he’ll generate an interview that touches on every important piece of…
The Jonas Brothers are coming to Phoenix this week, and if I’m counting right, they’re at least two major boy band generations old — Justin Bieber stole their thunder, and then One Direction became the subject of more fanfiction than any other real people on earth (unless you’ve read either…
When you’re talking to Random–aka Mega Ran, aka (to Caller ID) Raheem–it’s not hard to detect the former-teacher in his voice. When he’s not rapping about video games or not giving into self-doubt, he’s talking in the methodical, well-practiced way of somebody who spent a lot of weekdays lecturing patiently…
This feels a little like Barnes and Noble offering combined subscriptions to Teen People and Adbusters because they’re both in the magazine section, but I guess I can’t fault the Phoenix Suns and US Airways Center for trying something new: The team is now offering a season ticket package that…
It’s called the “Good Vibes Summer Tour,” it’s going to feature performances by a band called Rebelution and a guy named Collie Buddz, and Matisyahu’s there. This is a show so perfectly fitted into its niche that it really obviates the need for a preview — either that sounds like…
Trevvor Riley is presumably a very busy guy. Not very long ago at all, we were talking about Emby Alexander’s new single, “Drag the Long Way Home,” its Riley-directed video and the caveworms therein. Earlier this month, Vial of Sound got its own precision-creepy treatment, for “The Day We Both…
It can’t be easy being the other members of Sublime in 2013. On a cynical — but very real — level, you reached your peak fame and earning power in 1996, at the moment your band’s lead singer died and ensured you wouldn’t reach it again. On an idealistic –…
Without using a time-turner — and those things are dangerous — it’s impossible to see every show in Phoenix every week. It’s not even possible to see all five shows in this list. But I really don’t think you should resort to time-travel. There’ll be five more must-see shows this…
The MaineCrescent BallroomJuly 27, 2013 (Check out the complete slideshow for more photos.)Ten years ago, a local band selling out a venue the size of the Crescent as convincingly as The Maine did Saturday would be on its way to a major label deal. The Maine, of course, are now…
The week a once-ubiquitous band rolls through town on its comeback tour is a good time to reflect on whether, why, and how much you enjoyed it in the first place. For me and Matchbox Twenty, America’s most indestructible post-grunge band, those answers are “yes,” “because they’re so overproduced,” and…
I admit it: When I got the chance to talk to Robert Bell — that’s Kool — of Kool & the Gang ahead of tonight’s show at Ak-Chin Pavilion, I couldn’t resist asking the obvious question, much as I usually try to avoid them: Hey, how and why are you…
I never quite understood it until yesterday, but my favorite Andy Warhol quote has always been, “In the future, everyone will be famous enough to have the Internet come to their rescue for 15 minutes, or until some more really goofy Anthony Weiner sexts leak.” Phoenix’s own Random — alias…
Hollywood Alley is closing at the end of the month, and the move looks to have been sudden for everybody concerned; as recently as July 10, they were still planning a Labor Day blowout for the Mesa venue’s 25th anniversary. Since the abrupt announcement, Hollywood Alley’s Facebook page has become…
Only one of the shows in this week’s Top Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Week will feed the homeless, but I don’t think you should really hold that against the other four. I guess it’s harder not to hold it against the other four when it’s framed that way. But…
American Idol Live!, coming to Comerica Theatre next week, is a testament to how much smaller American Idol gets every year as a cultural institution. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still big. Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips’ debut single is still impossible to avoid if you are or have…
One of the most important parts of being a baseball fan is the crushing certainty that you are The Underdogs and your rivals are getting special treatment from ESPN or Bud Selig or New York-biased media outlets. (If you’re a Mets or Yankees fan, your rivals are getting special treatment…
When people hear I’m new to Phoenix, they immediately want to tell me a few things. The first thing is that it may seem hot at that exact moment, but it will in fact get much hotter, so hot that I will surely die. The second thing — well, something-something…
American Idol Live! is a testament to how much smaller American Idol gets every year as a cultural institution. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still big. Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips’ debut single is still ubiquitous. But at the show’s peak, being a runner-up was its own way to…
You heard about all that #FreeJahar stuff after the Boston Marathon bombings, right? Basically, surviving bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — thanks to some combination of his floppy boy-band hair and whatever it is that causes women to propose to Scott Peterson in jail — has become a bit of a sex-symbol-slash-online-community,…
Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail is–well, I haven’t listened to it yet. (iPhone 3GS users are actually barred from owning it until they upgrade to a newer device.) This isn’t a review of the album, except to say that I think “BBC,” with its bizarre, layered production and conciliatory Nas…
