Who knows why Americans have such abhorrence to foreign languages. Someone says ‘¿Cómo estás?’ you’ll hear ‘English, motherfucker. Do you speak it?’ Movie spoken in some other mother tongue? Let’s just have David Fincher remake it. But France’s Yelle defies that, saying her native vocabulary is all she feels comfortable…
It’s anyone’s guess why the world’s largest porn site is trying to get into music (maybe because no one likes paying for either?), but that’s exactly what Pornhub is attempting to do. First they tried to make Coolio relevant again with a boring video featuring chicks wagging their silicon-filled breasts…
After his band broke up in Virginia, Bryan Preston, better known as Dadadoh, wasn’t sure what to do with himself. After visiting the Valley in July 2009, he decided to move to Tempe, despite not knowing anyone. He’s been here ever since. Yet for the next two years, Dadadoh avoided…
Before Thursday night, I hadn’t been to the state fair in close to a decade. I spent most of the day there, frolicking through the bright, bursting animal smells and the tantalizing stench of grease. The whole day was an adventure, filled with overstimulation, unbridled joy, and thoughts of “Wow,…
The whole ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ adage was actually an anti-littering campaign, but damn if that state don’t have attitude. And while not exactly weirder than many other American cities (including this one), Austin does breed a distinct kind of freak, Christian Bland being one of the most notable. The…
UPDATE, October 7, 1:30 p.m.: We reached Asylum Records owner Scott Robenalt, and have added his perspective at the bottom of the story. Slowly but surely, Tempe’s dying music scene seems to be drifting east. In the latest development, Asylum Records, once a Tempe fixture, has relocated to Mesa in…
Sure, music is the highest form of art, but it rarely gets as abstract and conceptual as Black MIDI, a genre of electronic music that’s pretty hard to dance to. But be warned: Black MIDI might give you nightmares, or, if you’re epileptic, a seizure. Dealing with literally millions of…
Khayree Billingslea has some pretty strong feelings about the Tempe Police Department’s Safe and Sober Campaign, the city’s annual zero-tolerance crackdown on parties, underage drinking, and impaired driving. “The city of Tempe turned this place into a police state for three weeks under the guise of preventing people from drinking…
Sure, you know about Record Store Day, but some people don’t have $15 to drop on a 7″ single and maybe some people are just a little bit nostalgic for lo-fi. If that sounds like you, then get ready for Cassette Store Day, coming to you worldwide this Saturday September…
Vermont’s King Tuff might have synesthesia, (the neurological phenomenon which activates multiple senses at once i.e. ‘smelling’ words or ‘hearing’ colors), and not even know it. Speaking to SPIN, the King (real name: Kyle Thomas) described the grungy sounds on his latest album, Black Moon Spell, in vivid colors -…
Right now, the world is the S.S. Turdboat and its fecal-matter hull is slowly dissolving in the piss that is society. By proxy, the United States is at war with Russia, not to mention Iraq again (or did that occupation ever really end?) as the war on drugs continues to…
These days, it’s hard to disappear. Like Sting, the National Security Agency is watching every move you make, while your phone chirps out every check-in and banal thought you have, not to mention nothing you ‘delete’ online ever really gets deleted — there’s always a backup somewhere. Let’s not even…
With all the city’s venue closings, Yucca Tap Room remains one of the few reasons to visit Tempe for live music. There are all the house shows, of course, but with Parliament and Long Wong’s gone, Yucca stands out the most. And Friday, it hosted a mini-showcase of the Valley’s…
With all this talk about Ebola hemorrhagic fever, perhaps we should think about something to take our minds off it, something like Dengue Fever. No, not the tropical mosquito-borne virus (that’d probably only increase hypochondriacal feelings), let’s talk about the six-piece Los Angeles psychedelic rock band who skillfully combine Cambodian…
Ever since Karl Ferdinand Braun graced the world with his cathode ray tube, the masses have looked to their screens for generational guidance. In 1981, MTV appeared like an oracle and descended on the population, sinking its vampiric teeth into the neck of every suburbanite family with a cable subscription…
For several hours this week, I’ve been listening to The Oasis 95.1 FM, a radio station that underwent a format change two weeks ago. Branded as ‘Lite & Refreshing,’ it goes down exactly like a diet Sprite — zero calories, a vague hint of flavor, leaving an empty, fizzy feeling…
Even if it still looks a little greasy to some, Grand Avenue near downtown just keeps getting better and better, what with the addition of Grand Avenue Pizza and the recently renovated ThirdSpace restaurant and bar. Soon to join the many quirky galleries and mechanic shops is Allred Guitars &…
Because you are probably reading this on a cell phone or laptop, it’s likely quite difficult to imagine what it was like living in the days of the traveling salesman. Some weirdo rolls into town, sets up shop for a bit, tells you what you want to hear, and rolls…
There’s something about catching a band at a festival, especially when you don’t know them prior to seeing them,” says Marcus Pepperell, one half of London’s alt-pop duo Thumpers. He should know, given how many festival gigs his band has graced: MIDI Festival, Camden Crawl, Blissfields, South by Southwest, and…
When I got in the door to Funny World, I asked Space-Alien Donald how he was doing. “I have music,” he said. “So I’m happy.” And it turned out, it indeed was a good night for music. A great night actually, from a variety of weird backgrounds from all over…
Everyone likes a good poop joke now and then — but Nashville’s Diarrhea Planet are quick to point out they are “not a joke band with a joke name. We are a very serious band with a joke name.” The weird moniker was chosen as a “fuck you” to the…
Galleries aren’t for every artist. For NXOEED, better known as James B. Hunt, he’d prefer to reveal his art out in the open by hiding his deranged paintings where anyone can stumble upon them. Hopefully, it’s you. He posts clues on his website of the alleys, ditches, trash cans, sewers…
