You may not be familiar with the name, but chances are you’re more familiar with the band Trapt than you realize, especially if you’ve been to the movies in the past seven years. The band’s 2003 single “Headstrong” has been featured on the soundtrack to such cinema classics as Never…

Most of the audience that discovered the screamo-metalcore act Atreyu in 2003 (via MySpace, of course) has gone on to college, where their musical tastes have likely matured into more sensitive indie-rock types like Sufjan Stevens or Conor Oberst. Yet Atreyu is still chugging along. As David Wooderson famously said…

Nowhere is the phrase “out of sight, out of mind” more applicable than the music business. This is why you could probably use a refresher course on Los Angeles fuzz-rockers Autolux. Six years ago — that’s nearly two decades in blog time — Autolux had a lot going for them…

It’s seems unlikely that Valley residents are unfamiliar with Soulfly. After all, the band is fronted by a longtime Phoenix resident, Max Cavalera, and has been rocking out and destroying eardrums for 13 years. Just take a look at the track list on the band’s latest album Omen: “Bloodbath &…

Lots of bands say their music transcends genres. Rarely does it. And contrary to what it says on the band’s MySpace page, it doesn’t really seem to be the case with Yonder Mountain String Band. Not really, anyway. The Colorado band doesn’t transcend genres so much as it avoids being…

The Sail Inn seems an unlikely place to catch a marching band perform. You’d expect to find a marching band at a parade or somewhere they could, you know, actually march. But there isn’t very much traditional about Portland’s MarchFourth Marching Band. On paper, the group is built just like…

Concept albums can be tricky. Get it just right and you’ll earn plenty of critical praise. Make it too complicated and your average listener may not get it. Of course, if you’re already in a successful band and you don’t want a forgettable record on your discography, your best bet…

One of the major problems facing the organizers of Valley music festivals is the weather. Residents are used to the heat, but most bands that are familiar with Arizona summers have little interest in playing an outdoor music festival at 2 on a sweltering June afternoon. Not that you can…

A recent trend in the indie music world seems to be bands comprising simple two-person setups who try to make their music as distorted and lo-fi as possible. Though the trend may not be for everyone, it has produced some decent music so far — just look at bands like…

Only a few days before British prog-rockers Muse are scheduled to headline the second night of Coachella, they’ll make a stop in Phoenix to play the US Airways Center. The band is on tour in support of its 2009 album, Resistance, their most ambitious record to date. The fifth album…

On the band’s MySpace page, The Hypo Twins eloquently describe their particular brand of rock as “disco party scum rock.” If that gem of information doesn’t inspire you to give their music a listen, I’m not sure what will. Not to mention that the band’s description is not too far…

When most married couples enter their 60s, they think about retirement and all that comes with it. You know, buying a cozy little home in Scottsdale where they can spend the remainder of their golden years just taking it easy, playing golf, and spending time with the grandkids. Fred and…

Mike Herrera made a name for himself as the frontman of the Bremerton, Washington, three-piece punk band MxPx. That band formed in 1993 when the original members of the group — vocalist/bassist Herrera, drummer Yuri Ruley, and guitarist Andy Husted — were in high school. The band quickly became a…

When a guy like Martin Scorsese likes your music enough to release a best-of compilation of your music as part of his Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues series, you have to feel pretty good about yourself. Especially when you consider that some of the other artists included in the series…

Long before the practice of combining hardcore punk and thrash metal became commonplace, there were The Cro-Mags. The New York hardcore band is often credited with giving birth to the musical genre of “crossover thrash” or “metalcore” (depending on whom you’re asking) with the 1986 release of their classic debut…

The first things you notice about the Japanese new wave band Polysics are their glaring similarities to Devo — the most obvious of which are the band’s orange jumpsuits and their straight-bar sunglasses. Of course, the similarities aren’t completely unintentional. In 1997, when the founder of Polysics, Hiroyuki Hayashi, was…