T Bone Burnett is back, and in a big way. Burnett is a songwriter, singer, righteous and religious hepcat, architect of Americana, child of rockabilly, Tex-Mex and Louisiana music, as well as an influence on Bob Dylan, who clearly influenced him. He’s cut brilliant albums dating back to 1972, but…
In the current business climate for live music venues here in the ‘Nix, a three-year anniversary is definitely something to celebrate. Last Exit, the rock and Americana club at Priest Drive and Southern Avenue in Tempe, is throwing a third birthday party for itself on Saturday, May 13, with Dramarama,…
This is the first release from local music maven Will “Vil Vodka” Tynor’s Vodka Tonic Media, and rather than highlight the talents of one band via a studio album, Tynor’s opted to showcase the sounds of six Arizona bands on this quirky comp. The synthesizer-saturated “Come On Feel It,” a…
Nothing personal, Meg, but working with new playmates has set Jack White free. “I’m through ripping myself off,” he screeches on the title track. If you didn’t catch that, he repeats, “I’m done ripping myself off.” From the lighthearted ease that oozes from every track, it’s obvious that White has…
If A Tribe Called Quest had jettisoned the bong-jazz flow and picked up where Afrika Bambaataa left off, the group would have created something like the simultaneously amped-up and chilled-out atmosphere of the debut by Baltimore duo Spank Rock. Naeem Juwan doesn’t blaze any trails with his booty-call braggart lyrics,…
The comparisons to Dido and Joss Stone that surround KT Tunstall are inevitable. She’s British and pretty, she sings wonderfully, and she was successful right out of the gate. But similarities to her fellow countrywomen end there. Whereas Dido and Stone are content to mine one stylistic vein, Tunstall has…
Aloha’s MySpace page lists the group’s hometown as “Cleveland, Cincinnati, Rochester and Washington, D.C.” — a rather nomadic declaration for a band four albums into its career. But since Tony Cavallario and Matthew Gengler formed Aloha in 1997, the quartet’s ability to avoid settling in one place has only been…
“Hey, man, have you seen any cool concerts lately?” “Oh yeah, man! I saw Queen with Paul Rodgers — it was awesome! I gotta tell you, I didn’t miss Freddie Mercury’s unique voice and stage presence one bit.” “Yeah, I thought the same thing when I saw INXS a couple…
A tour pairing Dirty South hit-makers Juvenile and Bubba Sparxxx may seem incongruous. On the surface, the rappers don’t share much in common: Juvenile’s upbringing in the rough Magnolia Projects of New Orleans is in contrast to Sparxxx’s childhood on a Georgia farm. Juvenile is known for slinging hoe-rific rhymes…
Christopher Lawrence is one of the overlords of techno trance, a globally lauded maestro of seizure-inducing beat alchemy. His harder, sometimes melancholic brand of trance and techno has made him America’s premier purveyor and innovator of the 4/4 trance genre. Homeboy just dropped his latest mix CD — his first…
New York City-based Lansing-Dreiden produces videos and art projects as well as music, but eschews interviews and live performance. Exactly how many members there are and what they play is unknown, the same ploy The Residents once used to force people to focus on the music, rather than the musicians…
Mark Pickerel, onetime drummer for Seattle cult faves The Screaming Trees, and who even did a short stint with Nirvana, steps up to center stage with a collection of dark, sullen tunes that blend country, rock and pop into a vaguely supernatural stew. Pickerel has a deep, sinister baritone with…
The last time I caught up with Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen — just before the 2004 election, when he was opening shows by beating and simulating anal rape on a guy in a George W. Bush mask — the nearing-50 industrial-rock icon laid out his future plans: one or two…
Thursday 11 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial), Panic! with DJ Manchester, (Britpop, indie, new wave, mod) Barcelona: DJ Rob (dance) The Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Camus: KURRENT_affairs with Pablo Gomez (electronic, rock, pop, avant-garde) The…
Thirty-three years old is too damn young to die. That’s what keeps running through my head when I think about the passing of Sidney Copeland, the proprietor of stalwart punk rock bar Jugheads on McDowell Road in Phoenix. I never got to know the guy, but the shock of losing…
As an acclaimed hip-hop producer, RJD2 balances auteur ambitions — meticulously crafting instrumental hip-hop opuses such as his own Deadringer and Since We Last Spoke — with a gift for cranking out hot boom-bap beats for the likes of Aesop Rock, Massive Attack, Souls of Mischief, El-P, and others. This…
When he was 30, Mark E. Smith, iconoclastic front man for The Fall, wrote “Living Too Late,” an odd reflection on mortality where he sang of crow’s-feet ingrained on his face. Now almost 50, one of rock’s most original and recognizable voices sees no reason to reflect or dwell on…
Andre Williams — the Godfather of Rap, the last rock ‘n’ roller, the don of dirty R&B — has lots of kids. There are the five he sired himself, who have mixed feelings about his music. “They hated it — they didn’t even want to be represented by it,” says…
Continuing through his Rolodex of distinguished sub-popular MCs, producer Danger Mouse moves on from last year’s MF Doom collaboration, The Mouse and the Mask, to this potent (if less amazing) team-up with former Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo. Lacking Mask’s Adult Swim tie-in gimmick as a comedic conceptual thrust, Elsewhere is…
Expectations are dangerous beasts; anyone expecting an update of Brazilian vocalist Cibelle’s debut is in for a shock. Fortunately, no one will feel let down — The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves proves as ingenious as the title. Whereas the killer Cibelle was the very definition of post-Suba electronica, The…
Raging rats in rattling cages? Surgical sound pollution? Bring it on, say San Francisco electronic duo Matmos — it’s all grist for the mill of appropriated aural byproducts they operate. Their most collaborative, conceptual, and spirited full-length to date, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast consists…
From Nirvana to The Donnas in just three moves! Those of you who only remember the post-grunge urgings of “Get Free” but let The Vines suffer the slings of sophomore slump alone might be surprised to find the abundance of tambourines, handclaps and songs under two minutes (seven out of…
