“My meals are ravioli out of the can, and ramen. I came in here tonight with eight dollars in my pocket. I am so white trash.” Keith Mallette’s telling me all this to drive home that he’s not making any money with Hillgrass Bluebilly Entertainment, a local roots music promotion…

What’s that low, rumbling sound peppered with shouting and minor guitar chords? Is it The Jesus Lizard, crawling out from under a rock for a “reunion”? Is it Steve Albini reviving his post-punk band Shellac? Nope, it’s Seattle group Madraso, which has ripped several pages from the books of late…

Local hard-rock band Razer has quite the pedigree — the five-piece was founded by guitarist Paul Sullivan, bassist Chris Catero, and drummer Eric Bongiorno, all of whom were in Metal Blade act Wardog (Bongiorno also drums for Valley rock prodigy Nick Sterling). After nabbing guitarist Jeremy Graves and ex-Shift singer…

“Hellektro” group Combichrist has long been a favorite of the fetish community. Led by Norwegian-born Andy LaPlegua, Combichrist blends dark techno, agro beats, and synth noise to produce a wicked, hawkish soundscape that’s equally diabolical and danceable. The title track drowns in pulsating synths, while LaPlegua’s fuzzed-over voice floats to…

Just when I think I’ve seen everything, I find myself watching three hot chicks trying to play hacky sack with a big pink dildo. The women — known as Producer, Python, and Pinup — are all members of a local fetish burlesque troupe called the Pussy Posse Girls, and on…

The Weary Boys and Rose’s Pawn Shop show is the best double bill in bluegrass for both purists and evolutionists. RPS has a malleable alt-country sound, wrapped up in skillfully crafted songs with vocal harmonies and elaborate instrumentation, like “Lone Rider,” which opens with what sounds like a banjo sounding…

There’s just something so awesomely asinine about a hicked-out country cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” which is the leadoff track on this EP of eclectic, acoustic remakes. Mourning Woody turns the dark techno-pop hit into a jangly, upbeat hoedown of a song, and in the process accomplishes something almost…

The guys in White Demons may occasionally wear eyeliner and tight jeans, but there is not a single song about a chick on this CD and not one stinky whiff of shitty emo. What we’ve got here instead is explosive, trashy, borderline-glam punk ‘n’ roll with shouted choruses and crisp,…

When Swedish death metal band Arch Enemy announced in 2001 that original singer Johan Liiva had been asked to leave the band because guitarist Michael Amott wanted “a more dynamic front man,” few people expected that new “front man” would be a woman, a then-unknown German singer named Angela Gossow…

Desiree and Mindy Duponte are teenaged sisters, attractive blond girls who each stand around five feet tall and have unusually tiny hands. When they tell people they’re musicians, they usually get a reaction along the lines of, “Oh, you guys play in a band? That’s so cute. ” When I…

This is not an album that will translate into catchy ring tones or make you bounce in your car seat, bang your head, shake your booty with friends, or write angry/gushy diary entries about your recent ex. It’s thinking (wo)man’s music, a sweeping soundscape that re-creates a horrible moment in…

The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, alternately known as “Black Friday” and “Blitz Day,” when people get up at 4 a.m. to barrel over each other in shopping carts and take advantage of the ridiculous rollbacks. If you’re not in such a hurry to…

Face it, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen your friends make asses of themselves at karaoke. On a Saturday night in mid-November, I’m about to launch an alcohol-fueled audio assault on the croaky-oke crowd, along with my friends Bones, Chazz, Toxic JuJu, and JuJu’s dad Papa JuJu, who’s visiting P-town…

When I heard the Rolling Stones were coming to Phoenix on another of their supposed “final” tours, I overdrew my checking account to buy tickets. Usually, when I break the bank for music, it’s to buy rare vinyl pressings by obscure sludge/punk bands like Drunks With Guns, Lubricated Goat, Grong…

Here’s a group of girls who look like they’re dressed for a slutty, gender-bending slumber party, singing a song called “Titties” that asks a question like, “What makes you think we can fuck, just because you put your tongue in my mouth and twisted my titties, baby?” But The Trucks…

Everybody knows that Dubya is a diehard country music fan, but even the good ol’ boys would have wrinkled their noses if Trace Adkins had played “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Unfortunately, that hick-hop song didn’t surface until last year, so there was no chance…

Holy cowbell, biker babes! This co-ed stoner metal band sure has some gritty gee-tars and hard rock chops on its fourth studio effort, Their Rock Is Not Our Rock. The album takes its title from Deuteronomy 32:31, but the only gospel Fireball Ministry seems to be preaching is the gospel…

“Fetti Profoun” is a horrible hip-hop handle, but the hooks here are hot as hell. The CD opens with audio clips from local news stations, spliced together to sound like a big, controversial story about Fetti, then busts into the title track with hydraulic-bumpin’ beats and suspenseful synths, where Fetti…