On New Year’s Eve, Deon Foreman and a sport-utility-vehicle load of fellow Tempe ravers arrived at the Grand Olympic Auditorium near downtown Los Angeles about an hour before midnight. Shit was hectic. “There were cops on the freeway trying to block the auditorium exit, and looking down you could see…
1. Warrant, Belly to Belly (CMC/BMG) Duh. 2. Great White, Let It Rock (Imago) Long since abandoned by fans and glory, these bloated, balding bozos are still searching for that lost Mott/Bad Company riff and any stripper who still cares. 3. KISS, Unplugged (Mercury) Weren’t the lunchboxes, TV shows, comic…
Dr. Dre’s decision to bounce from Suge Knight’s enclave and renounce gangsta rap gets my nod for story of the year. Whether he was motivated by moral revelation, simple business acumen, artistic instinct or merely a desire to keep breathing doesn’t really matter. Bottom line: Kids in Ahwatukee may still…
Trunk Federation front man Jim Andreas says he should have known the deal his band got on its tour van–an ’88 Ford Econoline–was a little too sweet to be true. Low mileage, room for a crash mattress and gear, no serious mechanical problems, and some really bitchin,’ glass-encased running lights…
Inertia chain-smokes when he spins. He buys Marlboro reds, the sharpest of coffin nails, and furiously drives them into his lungs whenever he’s behind a pair of turntables at a rave. It’s the only stress fracture in a facade that’s otherwise solid ice. Unlike a lot of deejays, Inertia doesn’t…
Smashing Pumpkins America West Arena December 7, 1996 Billy Corgan’s legs were slack in his shiny silver pants as he smiled for the first time all night. “I feel no pain,” the great Pumpkin informed a near capacity crowd at America West Arena. “I feel no pain.” Seven minutes earlier,…
In an unprecedented action that runs counter to some available evidence, the state’s top liquor regulator has ordered a Tempe nightclub to close, based partially on criminal allegations that the county attorney deemed unworthy of prosecution. Late last month, Howard Adams, director of Arizona’s Department of Liquor Licensing and Control,…
Curious, this half-page ad for upcoming shows at the downtown Manhattan venue Irving Plaza that ran in the club section of last week’s Village Voice. Curious not only because it advertises a super-rare live show by underground heroes S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death)–headlining a bill that also includes Biohazard and Unsane…
Two band names have crumpled the brows of daily newspaper editors more than any others this decade. One is the Butthole Surfers. The other, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. In the first case, the cause of consternation is clear: No way can the word “butthole” appear in a mainstream newspaper, let alone…
I had a personal audience with Snoop Doggy Dogg scheduled once, but he canceled it at the last second because he and his entourage had just taken backstage delivery of several hundred dollars’ worth of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Snoop, who was due on stage in about 40 minutes, doesn’t…
Henry Rollins Electric Ballroom November 16, 1996 Damn. I wanted to rip into Henry Rollins so bad I could taste a bloody scrap of his black Gap tee shirt on my tongue. Power Book ad-posing, 7-Eleven coffee-chugging, “Baretta” guy in better days, stunt-double-looking, Charles Bukowski rip-off bad haiku writing, underground…
Charlie Hunter calls his music “antacid jazz,” a jab at the legion of critics who’ve tagged his new-school stylings “acid,” which in critic speak has come to mean “jazz by young people in tee shirts.” Hunter certainly fits the profile–he’s sworn never to wear a suit onstage. In that respect,…
High on the Vibe Saturday, November 9 Sixth Avenue and Jackson I am god. At least, that’s what Sunshine told me and 1,427 of my fellow deities near the climax of Dubtribe Sound System’s two-hour live house-music performance at High on the Vibe, a large rave in downtown Phoenix. Actually,…
Various artists Shots in the Dark (Delphonic Sound) Oranj Symphonette Oranj Symphonette Plays Mancini (Gramavision) Inspector Clouseau may still be the anti-Bond, but the man who wrote his theme song has become the very epitome of stereophonic savoir-faire. Henry Mancini, the posthumous commander in chief of cocktail nation, won 20…
Same day, October 19. Fireworks pop over Sun Devil Stadium and 74,947 fans cheer as Arizona State University kicks off to the University of Southern California. Four miles east, another football game is about to begin, this one with considerably less fanfare. Today, the Chandler Varrio Locos are scheduled to…
Strange, how it feels, thinking you would-be Tony Montanas may be gunning for me. Strange, and not much fun. What I notice most is the thirst. It started last Wednesday afternoon, about four hours after the first of several local promoters, musicians and gang members I know called to warn…
Playing inside at monstrous volume, a bass line from the Wu-Tang Clan hard-core rap track “Protect Your Neck” vibrates the black wreath nailed to the front door of Max Cavalera’s north Phoenix home. The music drops sharply when a visitor knocks hard, then rises again when Cavalera swings the door…
Dear fools– I caught your wack excuse for a live set at the local hip-hop talent showcase last Friday (10/18) at Electric Ballroom. Your beats were tired, your rhymes had more bites than the house virgin in a vampire’s castle, and your delivery choked and backfired like an old Impala…
The mood was surly in a dressing room inhabited by the Deftones, the ninth of ten bands scheduled to play at the 1996 U-Fest, an annual rock festival that erupted into a riot, causing a reported $150,000 in damage to Desert Sky Pavilion on October 5. The Deftones, a rap-flavored…
Angel hates hippies. “They smell bad and their music sucks.” She also doesn’t care for yuppies (“hair-gel assholes”), ravers (“Mickey Mouse idiots”) or being called a riot grrl (“don’t even start with that shit”). Myrtle Beach, Florida, isn’t high on her list, either. “It’s fucking boring here,” complains the gutter-mouthed…
Valley rave promoters and other denizens of the local dance-culture underground are breathing a tentative sigh of relief after a recent online statement by a Phoenix police officer that denies any organized law enforcement effort to stamp out the Valley rave scene. “The truth about the anti-rave task force is…
Rumor(s): The Gin Blossoms have broken up; the Gin Blossoms have decided to release one more album and then break up; the Gin Blossoms will never play in public again. True or false: Tough call. Several Tempe sources close to the band say consistently that the Gin Blossoms are together…
