Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins defies a cut-and-dried definition. Influenced by everybody from the Violent Femmes and James Taylor to contemporaries like the Indigo Girls (whose co-founder, Amy Ray, attended Clarkston High School in Georgia with Mullins), the folk rocker maintains a homey pop vibe throughout his albums but doesn’t feel compelled…
What’s that noise? If it sounds like anarchy in the PC, it’s probably the wondrous effectual whirlpool of Valley circuit bender The Coitus. Using “instruments” such as old Atari gaming systems, Casio keyboards, and Commodore computers in combination with modified kids’ toys, synthcarts, and homemade sound contraptions, The Coitus calls…
Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins defies a cut-and-dried definition. Influenced by everybody from the Violent Femmes and James Taylor to contemporaries like the Indigo Girls (whose co-founder, Amy Ray, attended Clarkston High School in Georgia with Mullins), the folk rocker maintains a homey pop vibe throughout his albums but doesn’t feel compelled…
Mark Zubia is one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the Valley. He’s seen some success with his Americana bands Los Guys and The Chimeras, but his solo work is equally compelling. Here we have 10 tunes, all of which manage to tell a story alongside a nice melody, in…
Mark David Chapman was denied parole yesterday, for the fifth time. The man who murdered John Lennon on December 8, 1980 was sentenced to 20 years to life for his crime. The week before his parole hearing, the parole board received 50 letters and a petition signed by 1000 people opposing Chapman’s release. He had three letters of support.
Back in May, I launched this “You Asked for It” blog. There were so many Phoenix bands complaining that Phoenix New Times didn’t give them enough coverage, even while we’ve been covering local music extensively for more than a decade. The main reason I never reviewed EVERY local CD that came my way was because, quite frankly, many of them sucked and I didn’t feel like giving bad press to a struggling Valley band. Still, local musicians griped and moaned that we were covering all the wrong local bands (read: not their bands), so the original idea behind this blog was to review every single local CD sent to me, in the order it was received, regardless of whether or not I thought the album blew chunks. Surprisingly, I’ve only received a few CDs since the blog launch that I just wanted to melt in the microwave; many of the local CDs landing on my desk have been quite good. There’s still the occasional underwhelming effort (see this week’s review), but for the most part, I’m impressed and I want to hear more local CDs.
This weekend, I checked out a new weekly event and a groovy local music show, both in downtown Phoenix.
Here’s a handful of upcoming shows that were recently announced.
This week’s “Flier of the Week” comes (once again) from the local rave scene, which is known for its glossy, two-sided event fliers (perpetually hanging out at a Zia Record Exchange near you). The picture below is the front side of a themed event that pays homage to Stewie, that smart ass “baby” character from the animated TV series Family Guy.
“California’s original punk/surf power trio” released a new Greatest Hits album in May, the appropriately-titled Surfing to Some F#*ked Up S@!t. Of course the compilation includes the classic “Bloodstains” (an old favorite of DJ Rodney Bingenheimer on L.A.’s KROQ station), and “Everything Turns Grey,” another track from the band’s seminal…
“California’s original punk/surf power trio” released a greatest hits album in May, the appropriately titled Surfing to Some F#*ked Up S@!t. Of course the compilation includes the classic “Bloodstains” (an old favorite of DJ Rodney Bingenheimer on L.A.’s KROQ station), and “Everything Turns Grey,” another track from the band’s seminal 1981…
The arrest of DJ Double-O, one half of East Coast hip-hop duo Kidz in the Hall on Saturday, July 26, has been the talk of the town this week. Double-O, whose real name is Michael Aguilar, was arrested in Tempe and charged with assault and disorderly conduct after a performance at Cherry Lounge & Pit. As reported in The Arizona Republic this week, Aguilar was walking around the venue with a bottle of Grey Goose vodka. When venue security tried to take the bottle from Aguilar, he held on to it. Video shot by witnesses shows Aguilar holding a bouncer on the floor, before several bouncers jumped in the fray and began punching Aguilar. The 29-year-old performer was taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery for a broken eye socket.
I had already planned to review the new CD from local hip-hop icon Roca Dolla when I received a phone call from local MC Justus yesterday. Justus is a veteran of the Phoenix hip-hop scene, and he’s recently started doing a guest blog for us, called “Ear to the Street.” He asked if we were writing something on Roca’s new CD, because he said he felt it was “Arizona hip-hop” to the max and a really great record that’s representative of the best talent AZ has to offer.
This past weekend marked the Phoenix New Times Summer of Sound metal show. The event, on Saturday, August 2, was jam packed with bands. In addition to headliners Godhead and local SoS bands The AMPutatiONs, Malakai, The Human Condition, and Fracture Point in Club Red, the venue had four other Valley metal bands playing on the Red Owl side of the club.
While people have often picked on Lovett for his looks (they’re just jealous they didn’t have a brief marriage to Julia Roberts), you can’t really argue with Lovett’s merits as a performer — the man’s released 13 albums, won four Grammy Awards, and appeared in more than a dozen films…
Given the band/album name and cover image, I half-expected this band to sound like either cheesy ’80s cock-rock throwbacks or raucous hardcore punk. It’s neither. Although the band describes its music as “metal/hardcore/Southern rock” on its MySpace page, I’d say that description’s only about two-thirds accurate. It’s definitely hardcore metal,…
I expected a big show rock show. I saw Stone Temple Pilots perform at the Arizona State Fair in 2000, back in Veterans Memorial Coliseum’s “big crack in the ceiling” days. The band sounded great in spite of the venue’s structural damage, and I remember I left that show thinking Scott Weiland was the consummate front man.
This week’s review is the new solo album from Mark Zubia.
If you’re hankering for some hard rock but haven’t had the dough to check out Cruefest this Thursday, July 31 at Cricket Wireless Pavilion, take heed: you can purchase lawn seats for $10 a piece. The catch is, these tickets are only available today (Monday, July 28). Visit www.ticketmaster.com or www.livenation.com to get some.
I’ll admit it: I didn’t do jack this weekend. There were some cool shows going on, but this past weekend was the first one in several months where I decided to just hang completely low for two days in a row. But the local music scene charged on, and I did keep an eye on my incoming e-mails. Hence, this week’s (and the first ever) local music news wrap!
Here are a handful of shows that were just announced this week.
This week’s “Flier of the Week” is for local garage pop band The Love Me Nots’ CD release party. Groovy.
