Do it on your own. Get uncomfortable. Learn, create something, be a voice for those without one, tell a tale in the hopes that it might inspire the listener. Alynda Lee Segarra will not tell you these things outright, but give a listen to Hurray for the Riff Raff, her…
Saguaros, roadrunners and palo verde trees rarely call country music to mind for most aficionados of the genre. For Chelsea Bain, the Arizona-raised 25-year-old country artist who’s made waves with her single “James Dean,” it’s the desert that’s most conducive to her upbringing and music, that inspires her most. She’s…
When Christian Berishaj writes music, he disconnects. The iPhone is turned off, the e-mail and texts and phone calls reach an electronic dead end, and the Los Angeles-via-Detroit artist seeks out space. For now, that space is the North Hollywood apartment he rents, yet another place of his own he’s…
Following the path of other Arizona artists (you know who you are) who fled Arizona in search of greener country pastures in Nashville, mother-and-daughters trio Lucy Angel, originally from Mesa, has launched a budding career in Tennessee capital. With it has come the requisite highbrow opening slots — Jake Owen,…
Let’s get this out of the way first: This tour only has Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis playing. Yes, there are Rilo Kiley songs. Yes, there are songs from Heartbreaker. Yes, the show is almost three and a half hours. And, yes, if you’re going to pull out your iPhone…
In 2008, a video surfaced of four Portland residents, clad in chain mail and medieval armor made solely of beer cans, going head-to-head with live-action role players. In 2011, the same four Portlanders appeared again, blowing a record label advance check on a beatup station wagon and a plethora of…
The concept of living a Kerouac-inspired lifestyle will, at some point, seem attractive to even the most jaded readers of On the Road, a tome that extolls the virtues and pitfalls of years spent doing just that. For Chris Rutledge of Antique Scream, this nomadic spirit is less a passing…
Snowstorm, flipped cars littering the highway, middle of tour, canceled show, apathetic promoter, frustrated band. This is a common scenario for any touring act, but here we are talking about De Lux, the critically acclaimed post-disco duo from the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, comprising guitarist/vocalist Sean Guerin and bassist…
Blake Shelton, The Band Perry and Neal McCoy Ak-Chin Pavilion 9/5/14 It’s the beginning of September, and it’s still more than 100 degrees after dark. Everyone within a seven-row radius is fanning themselves or buying water bottles to roll on themselves. All musicians, by the end of their sets, looked…
If you’re a diehard music fan in Arizona, you know that one of our state’s crown jewels is Jimmy Eat World. Active for over two decades now, and regarded as a forerunner of the mid-’00s pop-punk movement, Jimmy Eat World invokes as much, if not more, pride as references to…
Mindy DuPonte sees the big picture. No matter what aspect of her life is in question, she’s prepped with an answer, a plan, or an approach, whether she’s talking about songwriting, one-year plans, or mixtape rollouts. It’s likely the best way to operate at the moment, as DuPonte’s hip-hop career…
“I know where every exit in this room is.” Luna Aura’s eyes scan the room, peripherally watching everyone in it as we speak just inside the door of Jobot Coffee on a particularly blistering day. You’d think it would be a distracting trait, the indication of someone uninterested with engaging,…
Billy Joe Shaver slides out of his battered white Ford Econoline van with surprisingly agility for a man celebrating his 75th birthday tonight. There’s already a small crowd gathered around the outside of The Satellite in Los Angeles, an unlikely venue for such an act and such an evening, but…
Alex Nauth and I can’t seem to make it work. The Foxy Shazam horn player and I have been attempting to link up for the better part of a month, barely missing the other’s phone calls as the Cincinnati, Ohio-based glam rock band bounces between U.S. and Canadian tour dates…
After nine years as a band, the fire can easily burn out if there’s not fun to be had. This isn’t the case for Arsonists Get All The Girls, by any means — like most bands of their ilk, they keep that fire burning by staying out on the road,…
Michael Carter lives in a Southern-style storybook, on a piece of meticulously maintained property in the heart of Tempe, covered in lush bermuda grass, pecan and mulberry trees. This is a common meeting place for Jared & The Mill, and given their country-infused folk-pop sound, it’s about as complementary a…
Jared & the Mill was never meant to be a band. The group was never meant to garner national attention at South by Southwest, and it was never meant to become a local darling known for its vocal harmonies and relentless gigging. And it definitely was never meant to play…
Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez are about to hit the ground running. The husband-and-wife team are home in Los Angeles for all of three hours, hustling to get laundry done in their Toluca Lake apartment, only hours before leaving for another tour stretch again. Such tribulations are nothing new for…
Ahead of the forthcoming LP Stay Gold, Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit is bringing its shimmering Americana-tinged folk pop back to the States. There’s no trace of international influence with the Söderberg sisters, however — their writing is firmly in the dream pop vein, with all the steel guitar…
With hardly a whisper from the collective music community in the past two weeks, the 10th anniversary of a defining record for one of this generation’s most prolific musicians came and went. Ryan Adams’ Love Is Hell, his fifth solo record and what may be his darkest offering to date,…
Music that leaves you with a sense of unease is often some of the most poignant work you will come across. Whether it’s a theme of loss, unrequited love or some common displacement, it’s the stark human relativity that makes the work of Eels’ frontman, E, that much more memorable…
NEEDTOBREATHE Marquee Theatre 5/5/14 NEEDTOBREATHE is a band of strong suits — that’s not to say that they don’t know how to put on a lively show (they do), that they can’t play their instruments (they can), or that they can’t draw a crowd (they did). Rather, they’re a band…
