It’s probably bad form to mention CD artwork before the music, sort of like extolling the virtues of a blind date’s winning personality, but the dramatic Jason Oda graphics beg first-paragraph acknowledgement for totally syncing up to the emo-melancholia housed within this Gilbert band’s powerful debut. There’s a slacker goddess…
Everyone from Alec Baldwin and Eddie Vedder to film director Robert Altman threatened to leave the country if George W. Bush was elected, but only got as far as backpedaling. But Emily Haines and James Shaw of the neo-New Wave band Metric actually vamoosed to Canada on the eve of…
While the record industry keeps wailing the lost-revenue blues, Tracks in Wax, Central Avenue’s used and collectible records mainstay since 1982, which mostly moves vinyl, has just spawned another store. TRX2 Multi-Media Exchange, which opened in the northwest Valley on October 22, also carries vinyl and CDs, but also specializes…
When somebody tells you that his new album is divided into four musical acts with Roman numerals and movements, well, you run, quite frankly. But when it’s Eddie Kelly of Blessedbethyname, you sit and listen. Because when it comes to manufacturing personal drama and overcoming it, Kelly’s already on his…
On April 13, 2003, two-time New Times Music Showcase “Best Pop Band” winner Haggis found itself nominated in the “Most Entertaining Live Show” category, which necessitated a big, dramatic finish — like breaking up onstage! Singer/guitarist Brian Talenti recalls, “It was the end of the set, something wasn’t sounding right,…
If you end a sentence containing the phrase “Asian American hip-hopper” with a question mark, you probably haven’t heard of Tom Shimura, formerly known as Asia Born, now known as Lyrics Born. He started rapping in the Bay Area, but when he could find no takers for his music, he…
Iron and Wine isn’t an “it,” but a “he” — one Samuel Beam, a Floridian who was discovered by Sub Pop via his introverted lo-fi bedroom tapes. His beautifully calm, almost whispered music was widely heard in the film Garden State alongside Nick Drake, which makes Beam a shoo-in for…
With caterwaulin’ wanna-beasts everywhere you look, it’s hard to know where real hardcore ends and mainstream screaming begins. But judging by the ear-shredding received after one application of Art Damage, the second album from this scrawny Aurora, Colorado, foursome, these guys are the for-real deal. They’ve got the growl call-and-response…
If you were a Phoenician and a Beatlemaniac between 1964 and 1966, you had your choice of venues to see the Fab Four: the Convention Center in Las Vegas, the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, the Cow Palace in San Francisco, or the Hollywood Bowl. But John, Paul, George and…
It never could’ve happened with Throbbing Gristle or Merzbow. But the fact that these are different times and that these accomplished clatter merchants have signed to Sub Pop gives us hope that we’re in for a new noise infusion. Everyone’s hedging their bets — even the VH1 Web site has…
Maybe frontman Peter Hayes was getting in touch with his dysfunctional Brian Jonestown Massacre roots, or maybe things were getting to be too much like the Black Straitjacket Motorcycle Club. Infighting led to drummer Nick Juno quitting the band, and when he asked to come back a few months later,…
As reports of rock’s resurgence in the music world have continued to flood the press, so has there been an increase in stories of rock breaking down on concert stages in the U.S. and abroad: Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age collapsing onstage. Nine Inch Nails drummer Jerome…
As this issue was going to press, we received the sad news that Donnie Chiesa had died earlier this month, from complications following a stomach operation. He was 52. Anybody in the Valley who’s owned a working turntable has shopped at Tracks in Wax, the record store on Central Avenue…
Battle Acts for week of September 29 through October 5 Battle Act: Green Day Where & When: Wednesday, October 5, America West Arena, $37 to $42.50 Strongest Selling Point: They’ve scored a career milestone by claiming American Idiot is “the first punk rock opera.” Somewhere, Meat Loaf is furiously mopping…
Promised for June 2004, A Time 2 Love failed to appear even by December 31, the last day Stevie Wonder could’ve delivered it in that year and still been a man of his word. Fans were hotter than July under the collar, leaving angry posts on steviewonder.com that were beyond…
“God save me from my past and present sins,” growls Freddy Cricien (rhymes with Christian) on the Kings of New York Hardcore’s latest aggro epistle, “Heaven – Hell.” Past sins include being an offshoot of a band you may have heard of called Agnostic Front, releasing albums that clock in…
Only because this is Arizona do we make this disclaimer: If you think this is the Rich Little of Jethro Tull tribute bands, don’t hold your locomotive breath. England’s Aqualung is Matt Hales, and according to his official bio, he was a child prodigy who wrote his first songs at…
Everyone’s worst nightmare: Z-Trip is getting his mix on at the Clubhouse Music Venue, the floor is jumping like a fleshy lava lamp, and suddenly a representative of ASCAP weaves his way through the crowd, finds some Aerosmith vinyl in the just-played crate, and demands a check for $600. Ah,…
Sure, we’ve got Americana up the wazoo in this dry-heated home state, but what about “Britannicana,” Britpop-rooted music made in three-digit temperatures? Could it ever happen here? It has, mate, in the form of Eurovox, a classic mod three-piece band styled after the Jam and the Who but without either…
Admittedly I’m a little bit behind on my Dave Matthews clones — once he quit the Blues Traveler harping of his earlier hits, I couldn’t even tell the DMB from Hootie. Then came that John Mayer guy who performed at the Grammys honoring James Taylor, mumbling his hit “Your Body…
The Thrifty Ear wants to thank all you Little Stevie Hawkings out there who dutifully reminded him he hasn’t been deducting sales tax on all of the items he purchased last month, leaving him with a deficit this week of about, oh, 10 dollars. Bah! After serving you with a…
While it burst from the same U.K. post-punk explosion that produced other such earnest and humorless flag wavers as U2 and The Alarm, New Model Army’s continued to mine the battlefield long after the former dropped politics for messianic introspection and the latter proved to be just an excuse to…
