Andrew Jackson Jihad might be the best band Phoenix has produced. And unlike certain local punk bands from the ’80s, they remain relevant. Unlike most musicians who move elsewhere to “make it,” totally neglecting their hometown later, Sean Bonnette and Ben Gallaty have made every effort to stay involved in…
You think you’re at a show, but as you walk in, you’re greeted by a “doctor,” who takes your cover charge. You’re whisked away from your friends and led into another room, guarded by two “nurses,” who begin to ask you a series of rapid-fire questions: “Do you go through…
Well, it was bound to happen anyway. As one Facebook commenter put it, “They were responding to a call they got in the goddamn ’90s.” I’m talking about W___ S____, a South Phoenix storage unit turned underground show space that’s been hosting shows for nearly two decades — and was…
Phoenix’s the Holy Coast didn’t exactly intend for the band to have the initials THC, but the coincidence couldn’t be more fitting, says Keith Walker, the synth-drizzled trio’s maestro of beats and programming. Plus, when singer Brett Davis suggested the name after their first jam session, he slowly reached into…
Perhaps the reason garage rock fits so well at The Trunk Space is because the venue is the size and shape of a good-sized garage. The acoustics are just perfect for it. I never realized that before and that makes me like the small venue that much more. Straight Straws…
Ever wonder what kind of music aliens would play if they made a pit stop on Earth? Maybe dubstep? Droning metal machine music? Lady Gaga covers? Turns out, they’d probably be into a mix of surf rock and punk, as Alabama’s Man or Astro-Man? demonstrate. Claiming to be extraterrestrials that…
In the video for Yellow Ostrich’s “Mary,” a young girl dashes through woods, then trips and falls in slow motion. The cover for Ostrich’s fifth album, Cosmos, features a still from videographer Bas Jan Ader tilting sideways, ready to fall. Likewise, the album features a track called “Things Are Fallin’.”…
I went to a Deafheaven show, but you probably haven’t heard of them. That’s a deaf joke, because my ears are ringing and won’t stop and I’m a little terrified I have tinnitus. I get called a hipster every so often, which is kind of stupid, but whatever; I’ve been…
These days, music videos are essential to the whole music making process. It’s one of the easiest, most effective ways to really burn into someone’s head whatever you’re trying to play. It also tends to make your lo-fi Bandcamp “release” more “official.” And the best thing is, these days you…
I’m not sure what went wrong with this show. All the bands were talented, smart individuals, yet it seemed like no one could be bothered to even pretend to be interested. First, this gig started off with tickets around $7, but Crescent Ballroom made the event free, presumably because they…
The story goes, Mr. Picasso is sitting in a posh Paris café when he is approached by a young woman. She instantly recognizes the famous painter and begs him to draw for her. He snorts, until the lady offers to pay him. So Pablo whips out his pen, doodles something…
When you learn that Youceff Yunque Kabal, better known as YUS, is studying accounting and economics, it makes sense how precise and organized his chillwave tunes are. Now he’s released Talisman, his second full-length, not counting three remix albums. It’s the kind of conscientious craftsmanship found in Daphni or Burial…
Someone who compiles these things (Metacritic, apparently) averaged all the reviews for all the records released last year, and Deafheaven’s Sunbather came in at number one. In fact, the album with the starkly pink cover is the seventh-highest-scoring record in Metacritic’s entire database, dating back to 1999. That means it…
I’m still stuck in 2008, being one of the few freaks without a smartphone, so I don’t really “get it.” All I need this chunk of plastic to do is occasionally make phone calls or send text messages. For me, constantly being connected to the Internet would be a living…
I’ve been to maybe 100 shows at Crescent Ballroom, yet I’ve never seen the place so packed for an opener. Someone screamed, “We’re here for you,” so apparently Sylvan Esso has some fans in town. Their glockenspiel samples and soft, pitter-patter vocals made Esso feel like a modern version of…
On a recent trip to Denver (to totally get stoned LOLJK), I found myself in some giant cathedral that was converted into a five-story dance club. Each level had a different DJ and mood, but the bottom had this chill guy and his girlfriend who, before starting a DJ set,…
Following her critically acclaimed sophomore album Whokill, it seems tUnE-yArDs’ brainchild Merrill Garbus was crippled with self-doubt, perhaps gripped by a feeling known as the Imposter Syndrome. As she chirps in her song “My Country,” “The worst thing about living a lie / Is just wondering when they’ll find out.”…
What better way to label yourself Phoenix’s ultimate party band than naming your group after the Roman god of merry-making, theater, getting wasted, and feeling “ecstasy”? Bacchus and the Demonsluts did just that, but its roiling river of funk, jazz freakouts, and frenetic, instrumental jamborees is just the tip of…
Whether it’s through his digital design work or his post-rock music outfit, A Cloud for Climbing (AC4C), Brock Lefferts has one goal in mind: “organically distorting what is perfect.” In AC4C, Lefferts flies solo, using audio software Ableton Live to manufacture loops and beats for him to play alongside on…
You could say Andrew Jackson Jihad — once an acoustic folk punk duo now a five-piece rock ‘n’ roll machine — is going places. After five studio albums, two tours with Frank Turner (including a stint in Europe), sharing stages with Against Me! and Future of the Left, plus an…
On the cover of his just-released sophomore album, Neon Icon, Riff Raff stands in front of hot pink and blue laser beams clutching a Husky puppy in one arm and a dumbstruck toddler in the other. You might not want the Houston-based rapper to watch your kids or dog, but…
Dandys rule, okay? They have never not ruled, they still rule, and I suspect they always will. Turning 20 years old, Portland’s premier rock band, the Dandy Warhols, can claim one of its generation’s most eccentric careers, making the quartet one of the last great rock ‘n’ roll acts in…
