Today’s youngsters may have familiarized themselves with the Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom” through Guitar Hero II, but in the game’s multicolored dots and horrendously processed guitar tone, it’s hard to comprehend how foreign and chilling the Dallas band’s bass-driven post-grunge masterpiece sounded in its mid-’90s context. As part of a weirdo…
Local hard rockers Digital Summer are one of the few local bands that can book a headlining gig at the spacious Marquee Theatre in Tempe and actually sell it out. The band’s slick shtick of mid-to-late ‘90s hard-edged radio rock (a la Staind and Linkin Park) has garnered them hordes…
There’s a reason we don’t hear too much anymore about ’80s rappers like Kool Moe Dee, Doug E. Fresh, and EPMD. It’s because the music outgrew their particular rapping style. Shut, it’s not even called rap no mo’, you dig? DJ Quik, who got his start in 1987, is one…
It’s been a letdown of a season for last year’s WNBA champions, the Phoenix Mercury. At the time of this writing, the Merc were in last place in the Western Conference with little to no chance of making it to the postseason. But that doesn’t mean the lady ballers are…
The PSO’s 2008-2009 season kicks off with a tribute to the works of Richard Wagner, featuring a performance by Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen. Sat., Sept. 6, 8 p.m., 2008…
The controversial former guitarist for Korn, who New Times covered earlier this summer (“Former Korn guitarist Brian Welch finds Jesus,” John Dickerson, June 19, 2008, www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-06-19/news/former-korn-guitarist-brian-welch-finds-jesus), signs copies of his solo debut, Save Me From Myself. Tue., Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m., 2008…
Richard Andrews of Skystone Foundation, the firm overseeing construction of Turrell’s Roden Crater Project near Flagstaff (pictured), speaks about Turrell and Lin and the artists’ use of landscape and light to “direct attention to our connection to the Earth and cosmos, as well as the role of memory and awareness…
By Lilia Menconi Bats II If you’re at all a part of the downtown art scene, you’ve surely found yourself sharing a Bikini Lounge booth with strangers. That’s how I met Kathryn Pinto. She graciously let my best friend and I join her highly coveted booth on the evening of…
Despite his reputation as that rarest of creatures — a Hollywood intellectual — new evidence suggests that Steve Martin reads (prepare yourself) thrillers and spy novels. Or at least that’s the only conclusion one can draw from the “Story by” credit the comedian receives on Traitor, an uneven yet engrossing…
When I’d heard that Quentin Tarantino handed the Grand Jury Prize for best feature to Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, telling the audience that the movie “put my heart in a vise and proceeded to twist that vise until the last frame,” my jaw went…
A glint in his eye and a grin on his lips, artist Don Bachardy looks into the camera and explains the dynamic of his three-decade relationship with the late literary icon Christopher Isherwood as if it were a fairy tale. “His role,” says Bachardy, “could be described as that of…
In the 25 years or so I’ve been playing games, never once have I encountered an earnest conversation about what a game means. You see every other sort of discussion — people talking about how a game looks, or how it plays, how long or short or difficult or easy…
Something hilarious happens within the first few minutes of Chyro Arts’ Dearly Departed: A woman, played by Jacqueline Gaston, reads a wickedly amusing letter to her husband, who suddenly falls over in a dead heap just after she finishes. It’s a moment that’s shocking and witty and holds a good…
Remember how much fun it was to swim at the public pool as a kid? Unfortunately, when you grew up, you realized that the oasis of your memory was just a chlorinated hole filled with grimy little creatures who got pleasure from peeing in the water and stewing in their…
The under-30 crowd made one helluva showing in the 2004 primaries, contributing to a leap from a measly 9 percent of the electorate in 2000 to 17 percent this year, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. We’re hoping the ballot-boothin’ kids keep kicking…
Brandon Wronski, frontman for the band Eye Alaska, characterizes his group’s sound as “genre-less.” It’s an appropriate description given that the foursome sounds very little like its stable-mates on Fearless Records or the majority of its peers from Orange County, California. However, nature and alt music abhor a vacuum, and…
Among comedy geeks, Frank Caliendo is a divider like no other. First off, he’s an impressionist, and not since the halcyon days of Rich Little-as-George Burns has the skill been comparatively viable to, say, humorous hypnotism or ventriloquism. Second, his interpretations of Dubya, John Madden, and Jack Nicholson haven’t really…
Every year, like clockwork, New Times bestows our Best of Phoenix Bookstore award on Tempe’s Changing Hands. There’s no collusion or favoritism; the long-lived indie’s indisputably the best. While the new Dog-Eared Pages Used Books is unlikely to dethrone Changing Hands, any biz that’s both indie and literate is a…
Fan or hater, you’ve kept tabs on Ryan Avery. If you weren’t already up on his exploits, then the New Times cover story piqued your interest (“Hi, My Name Is Ryan,” August 3, 2006, Benjamin Leatherman). Then you heard about Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose’s documentary Hi My Name Is…
Hey, gringos, look what you’ve been missing. Namely, Silverio, a south-of-the-border sensation who will seduce all five of your senses with a wink of his eye and a thrust of his pelvis. The Mexican love child of Peaches and Günther (you know, the gold lamé-loving Swedish sex panther who sings…
A bumper sticker proclaims, “Enjoy weekends? Thank unions!” Alas, don’t forget an extra tip of the hat for the extended Labor Day weekend, when Sway Events and the Clarendon Hotel spin summer’s sunset into the Splash Bash Labor Day Weekend Party. The Splash Bash pool pachanga lights the fuse on…
But for being born white, San Francisco chanteuse Lavay Smith might be the latter-day Billie Holiday. Smith has Lady Day’s throaty purr, though it might be more appropriate to say that Smith has Holiday’s purr down. Smith, see, is a natural-born self-promoter whose business is channeling swing/bebop legends such as…
