Those who showed up early to the Bombay Bicycle Club show in April at Crescent Ballroom were privy to the layered experimental sounds of Winnipeg’s Royal Canoe. The sextet, making its inaugural trip to the Valley, stood like a group of mad scientists over their boards and laptops to create…
In 2011, Icelandic musician Bjork took on the ambitious and epic undertaking Biophilia. The multimedia project, which at one time was supposed to include an IMAX film directed by Michel Gondry, was a hybrid between a high-concept album and field trip to the science museum. Its goal was to edify…
The release of the David Fincher film Gone Girl, featuring a soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, continues a trend that began a few years ago: prominent electronic/industrial musicians from the 1990s and 2000s carving out a new niche for themselves by scoring feature films. The big beats of…
Arizona State University film student Chris Calzada needed a subject for his final project. The 29-year-old Yuma native, who’s been a punk rock fan for years, initially reached out to The Venomous Pinks, who he had seen at Yucca Tap Room a few months ago. Calzada knew an all-female punk…
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in the world of music no one appreciates a copycat, especially those working for months and years to bring something new and original into the world. Tribute bands — that is, bands whose sole purpose is to cover…
The new documentary film David Bowie is does not tackle the epic career of the legendary rock star, but rather takes you inside London’s Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) exhibition, where more than 300 pieces of Bowie history are on display. Stories behind the extraordinary stage costumes, handwritten lyrics, sketches,…
San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Sean Hayes knows you heard about him from your folk-music-loving lady friend. He says he gets that a lot. “I feel like women are the gateway,” he jokes…
Despite putting on a fantastic show at the Marquee Theatre last Wednesday, the New York kids collectively known as Interpol put on a set that clocked in at just under 60 minutes. It wasn’t exactly the Rolling Stones at Altamont, but there were many in the crowd who were vocal…
Has Tony Bennett ever played a bad show? It would be hard to find anyone who attended such a mediocre performance in the 50-plus years the man has been recording, let alone have it documented in print. Truthfully, it doesn’t seem possible. The 88-year-old legend came out dressed to the…
Your favorite band played for only an hour. Not an hour and 15 minutes. The big hand went around the clock just once. No further. The content of the show review below won’t matter to anyone who saw Interpol at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe in person. You left that…
It seemed the unlikeliest of pairings when it was announced last week. Surrealist filmmaker David Lynch, co-creator of the influential TV show Twin Peaks and the celebrated director of 10 feature films, including Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, and The Elephant Man, has teamed up with very mainstream ’80s pop stars…
Think of every wedding you’ve ever been to. Between the toasts and the bouquet toss, the traditions can feel so run into the ground you forget why you are there in the first place: to celebrate a couple who found each other in this crazy world and fell in love…
It’s very easy to be seduced by the Nashville-based country/garage-rock quartet Those Darlins. Like a classic issue of Playboy, you pick it up because you love the cover, but you keep reading because the articles are good. The cover of their latest album, titled Blur The Line, displays the four…
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, led by singer-songwriter and Philadelphia native Alec Ounsworth, set the standard for being independent artists. In 2005, the band combined the guitarist’s unique vocals with a post-punk beat to critical acclaim on their self-titled debut. They were living proof that hard work and grassroots marketing…
Tori Amos, wearing leather pants underneath a long flowing dress, straddled herself on the piano bench in a position that would seem uncomfortable to anyone who played the 88 keys on a regular basis. She played “Parasol” from the 2005 album The Beekeeper with her right hand on a keyboard…
There’s that saying “the more things change the more things stay the same.” In the 22 years since Tori Amos released her debut album, Little Earthquakes, the world has changed dramatically, but the singer has stayed remarkably true to herself. Of the topical and occasionally confrontational nature of her music,…
It’s that catchy song you’ve heard a million times on the radio or playing overhead while shopping at the mall. When someone asks you who sings it, your eyes roll up and you draw a huge blank. Before you go clamoring for the answer on your music app on your…
There is a freckled Playmobil figure on the cover of East Valley musician Jeff Gonzales’ 2013 six-track EP The Lights Just Went Out. His eyebrows are raised upward and his mouth is in the shape of a frown. Is this disappointed-looking childhood toy meant to represent the 32-year-old songwriter? “That’s…
In the three years following Wye Oak released its breakthrough album, Civilian, the band toured endlessly, returning depressed and creatively drained. Guitarist Jenn Wasner was emptied of the passion she had for music. Playing the same songs every night had become redundant for her. From discord arose discovery. The six-string…
The Fray haven’t always tried to make songs that appeal to the mainstream. It’s that strategy that earned them success in 2005 when the singles, “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and “How to Save a Life” made the Denver band practically inescapable to anyone with the ability to listen to…
Jack White was still upholstering furniture in southwest Detroit when the Detroit Cobras formed nearly two decades ago. Inspired by classic rhythm and blues, the band was known for giving obscure tunes a garage rock varnish, with former exotic dancer Rachel Nagy’s sassy vocals hitting you below the waistline. As…
There are scores of musicians from the ’90s who don’t get the chance to pull off a second act. Many of the one-hit wonders of the decade are coasting off the fumes of audiences craving nostalgia and play the grandstands of state fairs and the early afternoon schedule of your…
