Rockabilly devotees, possibly more than any other dedicated music fans, put the cult in subculture. Daddy-Os and pin-up wannabes nurture time-capsule caricatures of ‘50s rebellion as if their lives depended on it. And when the Fourth Annual Lake Havasu Rockabilly Reunion descends on the city of the same name, it’ll…
What happens when you put five frontmen from prominent bands on the same bill? You get Where’s the Band? Seeing so many chiefs without any Indians might leave the audience wondering: Who needs a band? Either way, solo performances from Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, Chris Conley from…
As long as Tempe’s Yucca Tap Room, the Valley’s most venerated dive bar, continues to meet the perfunctory requirements of a live music venue (a P.A. and an occasional sound man) it will continue to be a premier destination for diamond-in-the-rough rockers looking for a gig, and aural gourmandizers alike…
When celebrities procreate the results are often newsworthy for all the wrong reasons. It’s typically the woeful tale of a wanton trust funder defaming his already tarnished father’s name. That is, unless that parent is a man who claims to have smoked marijuana on the roof of the White House…
There are plenty of perfectly acceptable reasons for folks to disrobe. The usual suspects include: sex, sleep, showering, and, once a year, the No Pants Light Rail Ride. That’s right, as in pantsless masses boarding mass transit. Conceptualized by New York comedy group Improv Everywhere in 2002, Arizona’s annual version…
It seems fitting that while perennial Tempe rockers The Gin Blossoms ring 2012 on AZ’s largest stage, headlining the Fiesta Bowl block party, fellow Tempe vets Meat Puppets will rock “Auld Lang Syne” on a slightly less glamorous stage. While not without their fair share of success, the Meat Puppets…
This Christmas, should you wake to find that, amidst Santa’s tapestry of toys and joys, your desired treasures have again left you bereft — if the glittering ornaments and lights on the tree have morphed into flickering reminders of neglect — weep no more partner; there’s somewhere you can hang…
If you’re a valley resident who hasn’t heard of guitarist Carvin Jones, it’s likely that you’ve been doing a little carvin’ of your own, holed up in some cavernous hermitage. Since 1989, Carvin has been sauntering his way across the universe with Phoenix as his launchpad, and his six-string the…
The music biz can be as ferocious as any heartless entity. That is, unless you’re a pair of gorgeous twins from Australia, in which case high-powered execs tend to roll out the red carpet for you. So it has been with down under dance divas Nervo. Not that their rise…
Perhaps the thought of sunbathing while sipping a brisk, summery libation isn’t a welcome one for winter starved Phoenicians this time of year. But don’t let the sweltry moniker of Los Angeles-based duo Poolside dissuade you, the band is every bit as chill as the chilliest of Sonoran evenings. DJs/producers…
Even the severest of turkey hangovers can be cured with a little hair of the dog. For Black Friday shoppers, a sale will get them outta bed just as easily. That’s why Americans make a post-Thanksgiving holiday of gorging on department store sales and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels as a means…
Had it not been for the murkiness of Jack and Meg White’s relationship during the debutante days of The White Stripes, we might not be enjoying the tremendous guy/girl duo resurgence that currently seems to have the indie world in the cutest of chokeholds. Since Sonny & Cher, such duos…
Just two weeks after the rest of us have put away the candy and the costumes, perpetual Halloweeners and veteran shock-rockers GWAR will return to Tempe’s Marquee Theater, to, yet again, school their devotees in the fine art of the mutant masquerade. Since 1984 the Virginian heavy metal outfit has…
Considering its proximity to the country that spawned the Beatles, Stones, and Radiohead, you’d think France might’ve caught some of England’s musical fairy dust by now, but that ever-so-snooty country to the south has historically churned out little more than the wine that everyone enjoys while listening to non-French music…
If you find yourself in a group of silent, bald, and blue guys, chances are you’re either in a men’s support group, or seeing the Blue Man Group. We can’t vouch for the success of the support group, which Arrested Development character Tobias Fünke famously attended. But the BMG has…
Be it the gluttonous stylings of Junior Senior, or Aqua’s dreadful “Barbie Girl,” Denmark has exported enough bubblegum pop to give the entire western world a cavity. It’s also why you’ve probably never heard of Anders Trentemøller. The antithesis of all things Danish pop, Anders crept onto radars worldwide with…
Whether their name was intended to be a catchall for perverts trolling for celebrity nip-slips is beside the point. The Naked And Famous is certainly living up to its unique moniker — at least the famous part. Prior to their sudden emergence in 2010, Googling “naked and famous” might have…
If it weren’t for sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and a torrid obsession with fire, Detroit’s Electric Six would be up a very boring creek. Instead, the rambunctious sextet has made a prolific career of embodying little else but those aforementioned fascinations. Newcomers would be hard pressed to find a…
Some bands sputter along for years before hitting their stride, others come out swinging and deliver a knockout. Brooklyn’s Gang Gang Dance is one of the latter. Since their 2001 debut, the contrarian rockers have been firmly planted on the fringe, honing their genre-bending pop pastiche into something uniquely their…
Few celebrities have attained the carte blanche sufferance that Bill Murray enjoys. Every facet of his closely scrutinized life, praiseworthy or bothersome, seems only to bolster the iconic actor’s already enormous popularity. Always endearing, even when cavalier, Murray has managed to supersede acting altogether. Characters and scripts are mere formalities…
Canadian rockers Japandroids claim that the title of their debut album, Post Nothing, was a pithy rebuke to those who might pigeonhole the duo in any particular sub-genre. But we know better. When Brian King and David Prowse combine the daydreamy washout of shoegaze with the spastic shrill of punk…
If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then Douglas Benson dispatches flowery love letters to the Man in Black every time he performs with his tribute band, Cash’d Out. Not only does the frontman for the San Diego-based Johnny Cash tribute band rumble his way to a pitch-perfect…
