“In all the times he’s played here, I think he’s said maybe three words to me,” Bob Corritore, proprietor of the Rhythm Room mused last night about Leon Russell, who literally rolled into the Phoenix blues bar last night (Russell piloted a Rascal Scooter off the tour bus) to deliver…
It’s safe to say that they don’t make them like Leon Russell anymore. An authority no less than T-Bone Burnett said about Russell, in an April interview with The Onion A.V. Club, “I haven’t been intimidated for a really long time, but Leon was scary-good. He understood Henry Mancini, he…
It’s safe to say that they don’t make them like Leon Russell anymore. An authority no less than T-Bone Burnett said about Russell, in an April interview with The Onion A.V. Club, “I haven’t been intimidated for a really long time, but Leon was scary-good. He understood Henry Mancini, he…
“Feeling the west coast pull. One week left of tour,” Damien Jurado wearily tweeted on the 27th, and pulling into the Rhythm Room’s parking lot, I witnessed the singer/songwriter sprawled out on the hot pavement behind his van — a clear sign that the road was taking its toll.But despite…
Though he currently resides in much greener pastures, singer-songwriter Damien Jurado seems to have a pretty solid connection to the Grand Canyon State, specifically a few of our dustiest locales. He sang about an Arizona gal on his 1997 debut St. Waters Ave, in a song called “Yuma, AZ,” and…
I’m not generally a fan of angular haircuts or leering, dramatic promo photos, but in the case of a band like Portland-via-Omaha-via-Saint Joseph band The Prids, it’s easy to push at that superficial stuff to the side and just focus on the goods: smart, guitar-driven pop music, with sexy boy-girl…
“What the fuck is chillwave?????” Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast tweeted back in April, when MTVU blogger Lindsay Hood described her band as “chillwave,” after dismissing genres like “lo-fi,” “glo-fi” and “Gorillavsbearcore” in her blurb advancing the video for the band’s single “When I’m With You.” To be fair to…
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. They practiced, they planned, they were ambitious and optimistic. Then, like so many rock musicians before them, excessive use of alcohol took it all away. Before they knew it, Hooves had embarrassed themselves at probably the biggest annual event in the Phoenix rock…
One of the weekend’s best concerts has to be the Secret Garden Rendezvous Grown & Sexy Tour. Now, if the name doesn’t have you chomping at the bit, then the lineup sure will: Bobby Brown, Christopher Williams & Al B. Sure. That’s right, Al B. Sure, of “Nite & Day”…
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. They practiced, they planned, they were ambitious and optimistic. Then, like so many rock musicians before them, excessive use of alcohol took it all away. Before they knew it, Hooves had embarrassed themselves at probably the biggest annual event in the Phoenix rock…
Looks like Stephen Steinbrink has decided to “get the band back together.” May 17 marks the release date of It’s Not Just Kissing and marks the full-length return of French Quarter, the “band name” under which Steinbrink recorded and toured for several years. Steinbrink, aided in concert by Chase Kamp, Preston…
Phoenix-based swamp-rock band Hogjaw couldn’t have picked a better time to release their new album, Ironwood. After all, Arizona is descending into redneck depravity with the “birther” bill, SB 1070, and, most pertinent to Hogjaw, the legalization of carrying a concealed weapon without permit. We’re going to need a crazed…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we offer a peek into “The Iron Lady,” an alleged former brothel in CenPho where scuzzy power poppers Naive practice. If you would like…
“We should just close our eyes, and maybe they’ll sound the same,” she says about The Eagles, the band we’re headed to see. I’m sitting next to her in our crowded light-rail car. She smells of strong perfume, too strong, but her visibly excited manner makes her fun to listen…
It’s not a bad time to be a hipster who loves “yacht rock,” or album-oriented rock, or whatever term you want to use to describe the kind of breezy soft rock that rules the airwaves of classic-rock stations and mellow VH1 Classic programming aimed at adults (read: old folks). Everyone…
It’s not a bad time to be a hipster who loves “yacht rock,” or album-oriented rock, or whatever term you want to use to describe the kind of breezy soft rock that rules the airwaves of classic-rock stations and mellow VH1 Classic programming aimed at adults (read: old folks). Everyone…
Record Store Day is upon us this weekend, the day set aside by, well, record stores, to showcase their goods, and debut a whole mess of exclusive collector items. Phoenix-area shops are planning all sorts of special events to sweeten the deal. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve got…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the cavernous Fransisco Studios, where Phoenix hard rockers Smokus Pocus . If you would like your band featured,…
When an artist’s repertoire is as wide and varied as Elvis Costello’s, it’s hard to know exactly what one will get when attending his concert. Last night’s show at Scottsdale Civic Center Amphitheater had all the trappings of a toned-down affair: The amphitheater’s lush lawn was covered in blankets and…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the vintage movie-poster adorned practice space of Tempe/Yuma post-punk band Earthmen & Strangers. If you would like your…
My Elvis Costello phase started pretty much by accident. I found a cassette copy of Blood and Chocolate in a thrift store, marked at 50 cents, and bought it not knowing much about Costello or his work. I did, however, have the concrete sense that I was supposed to know…
Darkness Dear Boy play Bro Rock. What’s Bro Rock? To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart’s words about hardcore pornography, “bro rock is hard to define, but I know it when I hear it.” What exactly constitutes Bro Rock is, indeed, tough to pin down, because Bro Rock encompasses many genres, spanning…
