Let’s face it: As a Valley resident, life as you know it right now is all about seeking refuge in a series of refrigerated boxes until the scorch outside subsides enough to become tolerable. Its a sad state of affairs, frankly, but is just one of the realities of surviving…
It’s a warm Wednesday night in Phoenix at Carly’s, and songwriter Lonna Kelley’s thoughts flow out in a steady stream, punctuated by sips from her Lumberyard IPA. She’s speaking about how life influenced her new EP of swooning noise pop, Take Me Home Spiderman: her desire to live honestly, being…
According to Phoenix hip-hop maven Mike Cosentino there aren’t enough hip-hop nights going on in the Valley on Friday nights, and when they do exist there is just too much “bull shit” attached. Whether it be a cover charge, dress codes, bad vibes, or bad music, something about the current…
Bassist Chris Squire of the seminal prog-rock band YES died Saturday night at a hospital in Phoenix. He was 67. “It’s with the heaviest of hearts and unbearable sadness that we must inform you of the passing of our dear friend and YES co-founder, Chris Squire,” read a post on…
Since its founding in 2008, Electric Forest has split the difference between jam bands and EDM. On Friday night Skrillex, playing a guitar, joined String Cheese for a medley of Doors’ songs “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” and “L.A. Woman.” It wasn’t as bad as it sounds! Though…
At big music festivals like Electric Forest, totems are critical for meeting up with your friends — just stick ’em in the sky and your people will stop wandering in circles. These decorated placards-on-sticks have become tremendously popular in recent years, and Electric Forest attendees had some definite winners. For…
We all know kids die at raves. It happens all the time, including most recently at EDC last weekend in Las Vegas. Usually, the cause is drugs. But not everyone who takes drugs die; those who know what they’re actually taking, stay hydrated and take other precautions have a better…
It’s nothing new for actors to want to be musicians and musicians to want to be actors. Unfortunately, few do both well (Donald Glover/Childish Gambino is one of the rare exceptions). Thankfully, rock stars and rappers can still get their fill of the Hollywood life by popping up (often unexpectedly)…
It’s July. In Phoenix. Which means that the streets are devoid of college students and snowbirds, and steering wheels are best handled with oven mitts. Days average around 110 degrees, which means that bands — at the peak of their summer touring schedules—probably dread heading our way. However, the rest…
So you want to be a rock ‘n’ roll star and be a part of the best punk rock summer camp? Don’t be speak so soon, as we got the lowdown on what it’s really like being apart of the Vans Warped Tour from two musicians who grew up in…
If you’re headed to Electric Forest this weekend, you might not want to advertise it by decorating your car. Police are profiling the shit out of anyone driving in the greater Michigan area who looks like they might enjoy bass in their face. Police representing numerous small Michigan municipalities —…
Harper and The Moths – “Walk Through Fire” I would be hard pressed to admit that Harper and The Moths were not my favorite local band right now. Their 18-month old debut Love Songs For The Damned is still on daily rotation. Since February they have released a cavalcade of…
It’s difficult to get a dream off the ground. Valley native Seth Smades knows it as much as anyone. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter had fits and starts trying to steer his passion for music in the right direction, but none of them seemed right until he and a high school friend,…
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…
Members of the local music scene are in mourning today after the sudden death of the owner of a prominent Valley music venue. Kim Commons, the owner and proprietor of Club Red in Mesa, passed away last night after suffering a major stroke over the weekend. He was 63. Commons,…
The John Butler Trio is all about making good music. Sure, every band says that, but Butler takes a more spiritual approach to his songwriting. His intention is to let the listener not only into his world, but perhaps become him. “It’s with intention, a sense of purpose, and a…
By sheer coincidence, when we call Aaron Weiss, it is exactly one year to the day from his getting married. If you know a little about the mewithoutYou frontman, you understand how bizarre tying the knot was for him. But for a band that is consistently and creatively reinventing itself,…
Electric Daisy Carnival is such a massive assault on the senses that, after the dust has settled (mostly in one’s lungs), it can be hard to pick out the highlights and lowlights. We’re still processing everything we heard and saw out there on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but here…
At least Nickelback chose not to subject its fans to a terrible Chad Kroeger. The band announced today that it has canceled all of its North American tour dates due to the frayed vocal chords of its lead singer. Kroeger has an “operable cyst” on his vocal chords, according to…
Last week, Killer Mike revealed the unfortunate news that he cannot run for the Georgia House of Representatives as a write-in candidate because he didn’t register for the position in advance. He still has his sights set on the 2016 race, which got us thinking—which other musicians would make good…
Ill Niño is a fitting name for a heavy metal act that has been whipping through festivals and speakers non-stop since the year 2000. It was in 2003 that the American Latin metal band garnered the attention of the mainstream with their second album Confession. Over the course of seven studio…
Warped Tour was once a showcase for punk and its various subgenres, but recent years have seen a wider spectrum, even including pop and spoken word artists. These artists represent both classic and newer genres on this year’s ticket, so at least one of them is bound to catch your…
