When we last spoke to John O’Callaghan of The Maine, a year and a half ago, things were a little nebulous. Pioneer had just been rejected by the major label that had signed them to a seven-album contract one album ago, and it wasn’t clear what The Maine’s followup would…
We talked to John O’Callaghan of The Maine Monday afternoon about their upcoming tour, the way moving to analog recording changed their sound on Forever Halloween, and what their goals are after a brief stint with Warner Bros. But before they kick their tour off with a free performance at…
In 1997, when a heavy, rock-influenced sound and record label meddling gave Insane Clown Posse their first brush with the mainstream, it was hard to imagine Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope remaining relevant in 2003, let alone 2013. That’s because none of us were taking the Juggalos into account…
Imagine Dragons’ debut LP, Night Visions, begins with a guitar intro that might remind you a little of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Then it descends into a heavy, current-sounding verse anchored by the stuttery, wub-wubbing bass made famous by dubstep — or at least movie trailers with dubstep…
Taylor Swift (See the complete slideshow here.)Jobing.com Arena, GlendaleMay 28, 2013 First, you’ll notice the makeup — you’ll notice, more generally, the feeling of being underdressed in the company of 9-year-olds. All around Westgate, which feels itself like a mock downtown, a big occasion to play-act at sophistication, you’ll notice…
Taylor Swift is just hours away from Prince-ing Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, and people are — well, people are conflicted about it. It isn’t that individuals are conflicted — it’s just that the music fans of the Valley are, to a [wo]man, either incredibly excited or aggressively, vocally indifferent. Taylor…
Eventually, Kanye West is going to run out of progressively larger things to project himself onto. But he hasn’t yet: According to an update to his website Friday, he’s planning to do the whole “New Slaves” video reveal in several Phoenix locations Saturday night. That is, he plans on trying…
Captain Squeegee sounds like a character at Phoenix Comicon, which is convenient but not quite accurate. It’s actually a band at Comicon, with a performance coming up Saturday night at Comikaze. We talked Friday afternoon with lead squeegee Danny Torgersen — just before his appearance on a panel at Comicon…
I’m not sure this is a conventional reason to feel civic pride, but I’m going to put it out there: Phoenix completed Taylor Swift’s Willy Wonka scavenger hunt in two hours flat, with two of eight sets of tickets going out in less than 30 minutes. That’s faster, in my…
It is impossible to ignore Taylor Swift, which makes it incredibly easy for music fans to dislike her — people just don’t like to have their attention monopolized, whether they enjoy somebody’s music or not. Her music is explicitly autobiographical, which means that every new song about never getting back…
The Lonely Island is a lot like one of those cans that’s filled with spring-loaded snakes — most of their humor comes from how long it takes for the joke to reveal itself, and how surprising it still is when it finally does. Their current string of #WACKWEDNESDAY releases –…
Let’s face it: We’re always going to be the red-headed step-artform at comic book conventions. Superheroes have dominated movies for years, and videogames hit the comic-culture demographic pretty naturally, but music — Jonathan Coulton and J-Pop and all the filkers on Livejournal aside — has been (naturally) resistant to adopt…
When people and brands re-create the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket promotion, they don’t always seem aware that Willy Wonka is kind of a sociopath. Regardless: Taylor Swift is re-creating the Golden Ticket promotion, and it’s coming to Phoenix. If you can connect a series of clues on Diet Coke’s Twitter…
One brand-new way to validate your musical tastes in front of your friends: Tell them that you were a fan of Huey Lewis and the News before he put on a raincoat and murdered Weird Al Yankovic with an ax. Murdering Weird Al is a classic sell-out move, but you…
Justin Timberlake is coming to Phoenix in December, and because he’s Justin Timberlake that means tickets are on sale today at 10 a.m. Also because he’s Justin Timberlake: The tickets, at least during limited presages, ranged in price from $62.50 to $1,950. That $62.50 ticket will get you high enough…
Season 2 of the American version of The Office is my favorite TV show ever, and because I am a glutton for punishment, I’ve been using tonight’s series finale mostly as an excuse to understand how old I and my tastes (and the DVDs I watched all those Jim and…
There’s a new Spotify competitor in town, and its name is — take a breath here, if you’re reading out loud — Google Play Music All Access. What separates it from Spotify, besides the increased time it will take to type (or speak into your Google Glass)? It always costs…
It’s been a little more than a year and a half since Crescent Ballroom opened, and about nine months since the downtown Phoenix venue celebrated its first anniversary a little early with the first Los Dias de la Crescent. The second Los Dias de la Crescent is Friday and Saturday…
Christianity wants to change your life and make you feel born again, and rock ‘n’ roll wants to change your life and make you feel born again. Contemporary Christian Music, then — that’s the genre’s full name in the trade papers — isn’t quite so strange a chimera as it…
San Francisco’s Callow makes music for standing alone in a hallway after somebody important to you has just let you know they don’t feel anything you’re feeling. It’s not that it’s sad or self-indulgent (the way we want to be in those moments); it’s that nothing in these songs insists…
Begin applying your facepaint now, just for the practice: Insane Clown Posse is coming to Flagstaff on June 2. They’ll be playing the Pepsi Amphitheater, and they promise that “even the most diehard, longest, longtime Juggalos who’ve seen ICP 100 times will be schooled.” Why will they be schooled? I’m…
I don’t come by country music fandom naturally; people who do tell me that there are many reasons to enjoy the music of Miranda Lambert. But the most accessible route to Miranda Lambert appreciation ahead of Thursday’s concert at Desert Sky Pavilion, so far as I can tell, is through…
