In the post-punk days of the early 1980s, the music world and press got sucked into the vacuum that was new wave and its futuristic synthesized beats. Artists who fell under this broad and eclectic new genre differentiated themselves as much by their futuristic fashion (non)sense as by their actual…
Leave it to the Arizona State Fair to bring in a consistently entertaining concert lineup each year. Last year, the fair hosted Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, an d Wiz Khalifa. At one point, Nirvana played the fair. The fair announced this year’s lineup today, and Meat Loaf, Flo…
My Favorite 15 (Songs of All Time): AZ Record Label Edition – Monday, August 10 – Crescent Ballroom This cool concept night at Crescent Ballroom brings together five representatives from local record labels and asks them to curate a playlist of their 15 favorite songs. On the bill will be…
Do you know the secret language of hair flips? Ally Brooke Hernandez, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane Hansen, Camila Cabello, and Lauren Jauregui — the five ladies of Fifth Harmony — have the same length of locks. They reach just short of halfway down their backs. Most girls recognize this as…
With everyone reminiscing over how great/terrible rap was in the ‘90s and how much worse/better it is today, people seem to forget that there was an entire decade in between that just got skipped over. The ‘00s happened, and saw some of the greatest hip hop releases of all time,…
Fifth Harmony – Friday, August 7 – Comerica Theatre Fifth Harmony began when all five members auditioned on X Factor, and the five ladies have since taken the pop music world by the throat. The group’s debut album, Reflection, sold more than any girl group since the Pussycat Dolls released…
Rodney Carrington – Saturday, August 8 – Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino Rodney Carrington takes blue collar comedy and adds a cowboy hat and a thick Southern drawl to create his uniquely “hick-and-proud” comedy and country music routine. For those who aren’t familiar with the boyish-faced standup star and…
Two years ago, when Heavy Metal Television held its first open auditions for video hosts at Zia Records Exchange, the Internet network was barely more than a year old and always seemed like it could be in danger of being squashed like a bug by Google TV, Vevo, Apple or…
Last year’s inaugural Arizona Hip Hop Festival drew thousands of people to Comerica Theatre and featured around a hundred artists, all from the Copper State. The festival is on again this year. Mark your calendar for Saturday, November 14, again at Comerica. This year’s festival plans to increase the scope…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
Though people don’t really go to strip clubs for the music, it’s hard to imagine what they would be like without songs. Imagine going into a club that offered no background noise to obscure the verbal exchanges between dancer and club patron, the stomps of thick heels on the stage,…
Steff Koeppen sits in a sun-drenched alcove of Hotel Congress in her native Tucson, explaining her latest motives in the late afternoon light, a hour shy of a blanketing summer monsoon. Koeppen is the bandleader of Steff & the Articles, her art-pop four-piece that tends to frequent Phoenix as much…
Grace Potter has been known as the guitar-wielding, gravel-and-satin-voiced frontwoman of blues rock group Grace Potter and the Nocturnals for the past 13 years. Though the Vermont band earned its success slowly, Potter has always demonstrated a commanding onstage presence, whether it’s alongside the Nocturnals, the Rolling Stones, or country…
Developing the rootsy edge that inhabits Jackie Greene’s latest album — and first in five years — Back to Birth, has been a long time coming. Though Greene was once hailed as the “New Dylan” for his acoustic guitar/harmonica soirées during the coffeehouse period that informed much of his teenage…
You know you have an opinion on what makes living in Phoenix worth the summer. It’s the people, places, and culture that make a city worthwhile. Head on over to our annual Best of Phoenix Readers Poll and cast your vote for everything music-related, so your favorite venue, bartender, or…
August 21. The hottest day of the year everywhere — especially Phoenix. But hey? Guess what? We have a ton of awesome metal shows to look forward to this month. And since it’s waaay to hot to figure out the best shows to attend, we do it for you. This…
Steve Miller is one of the best songwriters ever. For my money, he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. His show last night at the pool at Talking Stick Casino and Resort was way more entertaining than I thought it would be, and that is not to say I was…
Today’s Billboard charts are populated with an endless list of performers whose fame comes as much from their shared personal lives via social media as much as the success of their music. For many, their fame is fleeting. The term legend has come pretty cheaply in recent time, and yet…
I hope you’re ready for something completely different. Newcomers W.A.S.H. is hitting the local EDM scene and they hope to take it by storm with their maniacal duck heads, offensive t-shirts, and amazing beats. Today, they release what is their second song and their first video for the infectiously catchy…
After opener Carlene Carter’s set ended at Comerica Theatre last night and the stagehands began setting for headliner John Mellencamp, a beer vendor walked through the aisles of the grand theater, shouting out to the crowd as if it were a ballgame and not a seated event at one of…
What Jamie xx is trying to create and what he’s handed are often at odds. Jamie xx is best known as a member of acclaimed English trio the xx, purveyors of minimalist, somber pop-rock. Outside of the band, he’s also a sought-after DJ and producer who has worked with everyone…
Sweet Ghosts – “Wreckage” Sweet Ghosts is technically the stunning duo of Katherine Byrnes and Ryan Alfred, who hail from Tucson, but on their records and often live they employ many more musicians that the two individuals in the center of this Americana vortex of sound. On “Wreckage” their first…
