Japanese culture is simultaneously strange and awesome. Sushi and sake are delicious, while the bizarro blog WTF Japan, Seriously? speaks for itself. Fortunately, most of the country’s inherent strangeness is pretty entertaining. It’s difficult not to love it when folks take their Hello Kitty, samurai, and Hello Kitty-samurai costumes a…
School of Rock’s name is a little deceptive–Jack Black doesn’t hang out at the Tempe bar and legendary guitarists aren’t on hand to teach ASU students how to rock. On Saturday nights, the bar is only “rock” in name, though being located above Fascinations is pretty bangin’ (pun intended). See…
Tired of “Gangnam Style” yet? Don’t worry — current meme “Harlem Shake,” featuring students, office workers, and your mom getting down to Baauer’s song of the same name — is currently all anyone can talk about. The viral phenomenon has caught on like, uh, a virus, partly because it’s really…
Allow us to bring a heavy hammer to your post-Valentine’s Day romantic bliss: Even if you can get past your partner’s baggage and commit to settling down, the national divorce rate is floating right around 50 percent. The harsh reality is that your brand-new and exciting relationship probably isn’t going…
The xx @ Rialto Theatre|2/17/13The rivalry between Phoenix and Tucson is well-documented, but I’m not about to talk crap: The Old Pueblo’s Rialto Theatre is a gorgeous, well-organized venue, and it was a perfect place to watch as The xx closed out its current tour. Last night’s show sold out…
The Warped Tour lineup was released yesterday afternoon, and while we were (foolishly) hoping that Kevin Lyman would have a change of heart and model the long-running festival after something like Punk Rock Bowling or The Fest, the lineup, unsurprisingly, still caters to Hot Topic tweens. There are two noticeable…
For less-adventurous drinkers, finding new beers can be a bit of a challenge. Not that we blame those wary of trying out funky flavors; Kiltlifter is delicious and no sub-par ale will do. But those fraidy-cats have the opportunity to get adventurous at the 13th Annual Strong Beer Festival.The event…
Terror @ The Underground|2/12/13 H2O and Terror are in the midst of a co-headlining tour that made its way to The Underground last night, until H2O canceled the show a few hours before doors opened. We reached out to Mantooth and Bridge Nine records to find out why H2O canceled…
Mesa’s reggae/punk outfit Authority Zero has come a long way over the course of its nearly two-decade career. The band quickly moved up from intimate (often free) local shows to playing Warped Tour and, eventually, touring the world. Authority Zero is now a household name in the local scene, an…
The Grammys are a huge night for music fans. While we tend to shake our head and wonder how some of these artists won (ie. “Album of the Year”), it’s entertaining to watch the live performances and keep fingers crossed for our favorite artists. fun. won big last night, sweeping…
New Times’ Carnaval Eléctrico at Crescent Ballroom has locked in its lineup: DJ Seduce, Sir Sly, and singer/songwriter Sareena Dominguez will join national headliners Cold War Kids, Hanni El Khatib, In the Valley Below, and locals Mergence, Wooden Indian, Diners, and Stan Devereaux & The Funky Suns on Friday, March…
The night following Super Bowl is a weird time. A bunch of people are probably passed out at home, or on their new best friend’s floor. It’s not exactly a busy time for nightlife, believe it or not, a couple folks kept raging. Depending on who you were rooting for,…
Valentine’s Day comes with ridiculously high expectations and plenty of potential for hurt feelings. What if your super-expensive dinner sucks and your date gets you a lousy teddy bear? Lame. Romance is nice and all, but maybe V-Day would be best spent releasing some sexual tension. Everyone has a little…
The Benefit Dinner Concert for Pueblo Band combines two goods — music and charity. Pueblo del Sol School will host performances by Field Tripp, Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Catfish Mustache, and A Life of Science so that the eighth-grade class can raise money to perform in a music showcase in Anaheim,…
Pinback @ Crescent Ballroom|1/31/13After interviewing singer/guitarist Rob Crow and having an at-length discussion of Star Wars, my expectations for Pinback’s live show were set pretty high. He said somewhat vaguely, “Everybody agrees these are the best shows that we’ve ever played,” which made me feel a little skeptical, but the…
Local DJ and jack of all trades William Reed is a busy guy. When we spoke a couple months ago about the end of the weekly Sticky Fingers dance party, he revealed his plans to start Risky Business, a Thursday night dance party at Gypsy Bar, and his plans to…
Zia Records’ “You Heard Us Back When” compilation has a solid history. The comp has been going strong since 2008, giving a bevy of local acts from Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas a chance to shine. The likes of Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Kinch, Courtney Marie Andrews, Scorpion vs. Tarantula, Dry…
Reality TV gets a bad rap, and usually for good reason. Fortunately for us tube-addicts, most shows aren’t as ridiculous as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Sure, RuPaul’s Drag Race can be pretty over the top (especially when queens imitate celebrities in “The Snatch Game”). But who doesn’t love seeing…
After a five-year break, Pinback is back and better than ever. Not that this San Diego math-rock-meets-subdued-pop band really went anywhere — the group has been consistently touring since the release of 2007’s Autumn of the Seraphs. It’s just that duo Rob Crow and Zach Smith took a break from…
Enough time has finally passed for ’90s parties to be acceptable. It couldn’t have happened a few years ago — the decade was still a little too fresh. But like a nostalgia juggernaut, you can’t stop it: ’90s fashions are making a comeback (have you stepped into a Forever 21…
As expected, this year’s Coachella sold out pretty fast. Scalpers are already selling tickets for upwards of $1,000 for a single pass–for the love of god, please email this person and offer them $200. That’s a bit of an anomaly, since most resales are going for around $500, but sometimes…
22 years after the shoegaze masterpiece Loveless was released, My Bloody Valentine main man Kevin Shields has announced that the band could finally release its third album any day now. According to the band’s Facebook page, the album was mastered on December 21, meaning the long-awaited release might actually see…
