The Melvins Maybe the most misunderstood band still out slogging it out on tour today. Maybe (definitely) brilliant, maybe mad, always noisily rocking out some of the best heavy sludge you’ll ever hear, Buzz Osborne (guitar and vocals) and Dale Crover (drums) have been the core of the band which…
What could be better than a beautiful lake, some great music, and the opportunity to spend a few days jamming out, fishing, and camping? For many, there isn’t anything much better, and the Apache Lake Music Festival offers the opportunity to combine several different pleasure about 60 miles from Phoenix…
UPDATE: The opening date for The Marvel Experience has been pushed back to Friday, December 19. If you have ever sat there in a movie theater or on your couch at home and wondered what it would be like to actually be in one of the Marvel movies you love…
Punk rock comes in all shapes, all sizes, all colors, and all genders. Originally, it was a badge of courage with the ability to supersede all of the aforementioned labels, but somewhere along the way, it has segmented itself like other aspects of society — probably because of the stupid…
“It’s just me and my guitar,” said Kris Kristofferson when I asked him about his upcoming show at Phoenix’s Celebrity Theatre on Tuesday, October 14. Songwriter, actor, Army captain, Golden Gloves boxer, helicopter pilot, football player, Rhodes Scholar, and husband, Kristofferson has done multiple things many of us would be…
It’s on. It’s off. It’s the end of the world. The sky is falling and I might die without ever seeing The Replacements. What a crazy, rain-filled day Saturday, September 27, was as torrential downpours, micro bursts, and low levels of chaos hit Tempe and almost ruined the fun for…
It is not often a review of a book is longer than the book itself, at least in number of words, but this is not just any book review and the book in question is not just any book. What Every Child Needs to Know About Punk Rock, by Valley…
Let’s face it. The fall TV season, especially for network television, has lost a lot of its luster over the last decade. With all of the other options for awesome things to watch on cable channels, Netflix, Hulu, and every other Tom, Dick, and Harry Internet site getting ready to…
Cable television is confounding, for sure, and the inevitable question often arises: “All these channels and nothing to watch? What the ______?” Recently, I was having one of these moments until I stumbled across an interview/live performance show on the Audience Network called Guitar Center Sessions. This one caught my…
It’s odd that people who have never met me want to punch me in the throat. Perhaps it’s akin to what people like Sean Hannity and Joe Arpaio experience on a daily basis, although I would never want to be compared to them. Luckily, I feel safe in saying there…
Typically held in August, the D-Low show is a double-edged sword for many of us. It is both celebration and painful reminder wrapped in a tremendous rock ‘n’ roll show that Dana “D-Low” Wells, son (and stepson) of Gloria and Max Cavalera would have loved. For the uninitiated, Dana was…
I put on The Ramones’ classic 1977 record Rocket To Russia recently in an attempt to join all of my Facebook friends in their collective sadness at the recent death of Tommy (Erdyli) Ramone. I used to love this record, but now, even though I wanted to feel some sense…
Blag Dahlia (birth name: Paul Cafaro) of the Dwarves is looking for women to come to the band’s show tonight at Yucca Tap Room with the Queers, Masked Intruder, and the Atom Age buck-naked and ready for fun. He knows it gets hot in Phoenix, so “Why not be comfortable?”…
Ten years ago, writer Tom Reardon had a front-row seat to see the punch heard ’round the punk world. Reardon was playing bass for Phoenix punk act North Side Kings, which was in Tuba City, Arizona, to open for Danzig, the metal band fronted by former Misfits singer and punk…
Right about now is a great time to saddle up the couch, turn the fan on, and watch some movies. As comedy fans, we remember often being sad about summer because, at one point, Saturday Night Live was actually funny on a consistent basis. When SNL would stop airing new…
What do you say about a performer like Sage Francis? He plays with words? He slays them? He engages his audience using a medium that rarely witnesses such a truly spectacular mastery of the vernacular? His repertoire of rhetoric is frenetic, authentic, and polemic while being transcendent, resplendent, and a…
On June 20, Sage Francis graces Central Phoenix with his uniquely eloquent version of hip-hop. The Providence, Rhode Island, native has a delivery and style that is not for everyone, mind you, but it is certainly compelling enough to make any fan of a cleverly turned phrase sit up and…
True Blood, HBO’s supernatural orgy of ridiculousness, ends its seven-season run this summer. It’s a sad day for fans, of course, but we’d like to think that somewhere supporters of Charlaine Harris (who penned The Southern Vampire Mysteries, or The Sookie Stackhouse Novel, which the show’s based on), are feeling…
For fans of The Turtles, CSN&Y, and Jefferson Airplane/Starship, as well as patrons of Milano’s Music in Mesa, June 7 promises to be, at very least, an opportunity to meet an interesting member of rock ‘n’ roll’s expansive past. Johny Barbata, who played drums for all of the previously mentioned…
It is with heavy heart and fond memories that I write this piece as Louis “Louie” Bocchini, whose Vans California Daze (and the off-shoot, Whatever) were integral parts of the Phoenix punk rock and skateboarding community, died on Saturday, May 17. Many longtime Phoenicians will recognize, at very least, his…
For Floor, Florida’s coolest export since medium-pulp orange juice, the opportunity to be both influential and derivative is a badge of honor the band should wear with pride. The sludgy stoner rock trio has existed for the better part of 22 years now, even though it took years-long hiatuses and…
There are reviews you wish would just write themselves. Peek behind the curtain, if you will, and see my struggle. I really wanted to write an über-positive review of the Black Flag show at Pub Rock on Saturday, May 17. I wanted to write that the punk rock fury I…
