If you can’t make something from scratch, customizing it is the next best thing. When I bought a new car, I could hardly stand to drive it until I got some new rims. If I get bored with my wardrobe, I start doing wacky things with accessories, or even (in…
It’s not hard to figure out why college students and ethnic restaurants go hand in hand. One demands food that’s a cheap, quick, and tasty alternative to instant ramen, and the other is happy to accommodate. So the pickings near the ASU campus are predictably diverse: Mexican, Indian, Ethiopian, and…
Multitasking is nothing new to downtown businesses, especially when it comes to nightlife. Think of Modified Arts (an art gallery/music venue), the OnePlace (an alternative church/music venue), or the Paper Heart (an art gallery/bar/performance space), places that successfully switch gears when the sun goes down. So I wasn’t entirely surprised…
Going out to dinner with my Uncle Jim feels like performance art. Uncle Jim’s encyclopedic knowledge of food comes from years spent paying his dues — as garde-manger, sous chef, kitchen manager — at a variety of upscale eateries. He hasn’t worked as a chef for a long time, but…
A few years ago, I moved to a historic district near downtown Phoenix, figuring that the best way to support the city’s renaissance was to live here, shop here, and eat here, frequenting the small, locally owned joints that dot the landscape. But the dots were few and far between,…
When I was a kid, I could not wait to become an adult, and my grandparents’ themed cocktail parties fueled my imagination. Not that my memories are based on actual experiences, mind you. These glitzy poolside affairs never included children. Instead, I got a vicarious thrill from the old Polaroids…
Just after sunset on a Monday in May, early summer heat is mellowing into a soft, balmy night, and the Arizona State University campus in Tempe is animated with end-of-the-semester buzz. A benefit concert hosted by local indie label Western Tread is starting late, and outside the Galvin Playhouse, a…
A vision of smeared red lipstick, smudgy eyeliner, and a cotton candy tangle of platinum hair, Theo Kogan was an early ’90s icon as the petulant, potty-mouthed front woman of all-girl punk band the Lunachicks, who ruled the New York club scene after the sea change of grunge unleashed a…
Unless I happen to stumble upon a great band at a live show, my laboratory for finding new music is my car. I’ll grab a random pile of CDs to play while driving back and forth to work on a familiar stretch of 16th Street, and depending on how much…
It’s a close race at breakneck speed, but Wolfmother’s escalation in popularity appears to be outpacing the growth of the trio’s wild, untamed Afros by just a hair. Since the band’s self-titled debut full-length only came out this week, it would be easy to mistake kudos for the Sydney, Australia,…
Relationship drama doesn’t always have to play out to a complicated, overproduced soundtrack. In the case of Phoenix quartet Huskies’ debut EP, the good fight, straightforward instrumentation only intensifies the soul-baring. Front woman Natalie Espinosa sings about love, betrayal, regret and longing in a low, velvety voice, accompanied by upbeat…
I’d love to say that I have a huge grudge against Marshall Beck and his heavy metal band, Rebirth. That would make this rant a lot more straightforward, because then I would just pinch him out of the air with my chopsticks, like an annoying fly. But the thing is,…
It’s hard to say whether Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the married music makers known as Mates of State, have inspired more flat-out envy for making lovey-dovey, knowing glances at each other onstage, or for simply defying that old rule about romance dooming a band (Bring It Back is their…
Roy Wasson Valle, 30, has been showing his colorful prints and sculptures of cartoonish beasts at 515 Gallery for a couple of years now, but you don’t have to be a First Friday regular to see his work. Just keep an eye on torsos across town – Valle’s surreal animal…
It’s not uncommon to see art galleries doing double duty as live music venues around town, but music and art museums still don’t seem to mix. Not unless you count the unsung jazz and chamber music ensembles that give ambiance to events where guests are more into the cheese platter…
New Times has been throwing this bash since 1996, and somewhere along the way, a clever employee must’ve figured out that early evening is a good time for everyone to come hang out — night owls and early birds included. Need proof? Just get a look at the 12,000 music…
Striking album cover art aside, Colorstore’s debut full-length revels in tortured artist glory with 10 moody tracks that swell and recede like the ocean reflecting a violet and tangerine sunset. The fact that it’s so gorgeous should only make fans more antsy to actually get their paws on it –…
It’s called Art Detour, but hey — music’s art, too, and the annual creative confab taking place this weekend is as much about sounds as it is about sights. These days, no chitchat about the downtown arts community is complete without major props for the music scene, which has noticeably…
Whether you know what to expect or it’s your very first time, nothing can actually prepare you for South By Southwest. Battalions of bands take over Austin, Texas, and Shiner Bock flows like water. The whole music industry food chain — major and indie label reps, publicists, booking agents, and…
Call it the great inevitable. Alt-rock trends in the 21st century have, so far, stuck to a pretty tight schedule, reviving retro sounds right around the 20-year mark. So it makes perfect sense that the successor to all the recent post-punk and early-New Wave imitators would firmly plant us somewhere…
It’s tempting to say that Bands on Grand will be a glimpse of what’s to come for downtown, when there’ll be nightlife galore and bands playing all the time. Really, though, is that such a stretch from reality, at least in a modest, seeing-signs-of-life-down-there way? To be sure, you won’t…
Something really cool came across my desk the other day. It was a package from a killer Detroit rock band called The Hard Lessons, who’ll kick out the jams at Hollywood Alley in Mesa on March 24. According to their bio, the band members ditched their teaching jobs for the…
