It’s not even Christmas, but we have our first piece of big summer concert news today: Dave Matthews Band is coming to Cricket Wireless Pavilion on May 6.Yes, it’s time for “Dave” again, already.DMB’s first studio record in four years (oddly produced by Rob Cavallo of Green Day and My…
Last week, I called out Andy Rourke of the Smiths for standing me up not once, not twice, but thrice. As you may know, Rourke of The Smiths took my advice and showed up to spin this weekend at the Ruby Room. And me? Well, I took the opportunity to…
In their review of Bloc Party’s latest record Intimacy, the guys over at Pitchfork went in to a long and arduous comparison between the band and U2. I didn’t really see it, until last night’s show at The Marquee.Playing for an impressively packed house – Sunday night shows are risky…
Almost every slip of paper the publicist for Bloc Party sends out has some mention of how much Kele Okereke doesn’t like interviews. Without fail, the articles in their publicity packet have some bit about how shy the singer is, or how he hates to discuss his personal life, or…
It’s not often that a bassist leaving your band can make you somehow much more popular, but that’s just what happened to Black Label Society. Of course the situation wasn’t exactly normal, what with Robert Trujillo leaving the band to join The Beatles of Metal, Metallica. Soon after Bobby T…
This one comes from the “leave your number at the beginning of any voice mail you leave me” file: I got a call from the front man of Glass Heroes yesterday about the Joe Strummer benefit and memorial the band is hosting this Saturday at George and Dragon downtown. His…
It just wouldn’t be Christmas in Arizona without Alice Cooper’s annual event, Christmas Pudding, where the shock rocker turned radio jock assembles local and national talent to raise money for The Solid Rock Center, a Christian center aiming to keep teens out of trouble and teach them about the Way…
Rolling Stone, that music magazine that felt it necessary to feature the ladies from MTV’s The Hills on the cover of its May issue, just released its list of top 50 albums of 2008. Wouldn’t you know it; they put Bob Dylan at number two. Why not number one, Rolling…
So, from our sister paper in Broward County/Palm Beach comes news that DMX was again popped by the cops yesterday. He’s been arrested seven times in 2008 alone for charges that range from identity theft and animal cruelty to drug possession and failure to appear in court, several times here…
This morning I woke up thinking “Hmmm, I’m pretty much done compiling my list of the top ten local releases of the year, I should write that column soon,” when I got an unexpected e-mail that threw the whole operation to disarray.That’s right, The Loveblisters record, The Nowhere West is done…
So I’ve been getting raked over the coals by Tokio Hotel fans over the last few days because I wrote a blog pointing out that, well, it’s kinda weird for teenage girls to be attracted to a guy who looks a lot like them. I asked why, I got a few thoughtful…
Normally the tasting team and I go in to these pop culture reviews on essentially equal footing, none of us terribly familiar with the product at hand. This time I threw the tasters — Jonathan, Jasmine, Peter and Jay — a bit of a curve ball, serving up one of my all-time favorite sodas, Wal-mart’s…
I usually feel like I have to come up with the defining words about a show myself since, you know, I get paid to be there and all, but I really can’t do any better than the simple statement made by my friend Ashley last night at Snow Patrol’s Clubhouse…
Perhaps recognizing that the tanking economy has hit the blue-collar sorts you’ll find at a massive multi-day country music festival especially hard, Country Thunder is introducing an installment purchase plan. Or, as we like to call it, “layaway.” Now on countrythunder.com you can get your tickets at the early bird…
Tractor Pull DivasLove Songs for (Insert Your Name Here)(Self released)I haven’t been overly enamored of local alt-country bands since I started doing You Asked For It back in September. The New Westerns had a nice sound, but spotty vocals, and suffer from occasional self-indulgence. Instant Hobo won points for being hobo-themed, but…
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before: After Thanksgiving, I was so bloated from overindulgence, I overslept and missed an opportunity to make a Zia Records run. My friends came over and presented me with a postcard gift. Andy Rourke of the THE SMITHS spinning… somewhere. I…
Arizona’s own Maynard James Keenan, best known as the front man of Tool and A Perfect Circle, has scheduled a show with his new band, Puscifer and it’s nothing like what you’d expect from the enigmatic singer who was the subject of a New Times’ cover story last month. On…
Where: Rolling Hills Golf Course (1415 N. Mill Ave.) is a 10 to 15 minute walk, uphill, from the station. Drink: A pitcher of Bud Light ($6.50) Scene: Our lofty goal with this bar crawl was to find someplace at every stop that was within walking distance and not actually…
The last time I saw Wu Tang Clan was possibly the most disappointing concert-going experience of my life. I was in high school when the boys from Staten Island stopped by Cleveland to open for Rage Against The Machine. It was awful. They were over an hour late — O.D.B. having gotten arrested…
Click here to read previous posts from our light rail bar crawl, Night Train. For a full explanation of the month-long project read the first post…
Where: Paradise Hawaiian BBQ (580 S. College Ave. #103) is a 3 minute walk from the stop. East from the station, then south on College Ave. Drink: Kona Longboard Island Lager, $5 for a draft. Scene: If it’s game day you’ll have no problem getting a free beer at this…
So I’ve never pretended to be an expert on the mind of the adolescent female, and I hate to sound like an out-of-touch old man, but I really don’t get this Tokio Hotel thing. Last night at Phooson, they prompted a wave of shrieks at almost every turn, being topped only by…
