Remember Tomas Tovar Rascon, a.k.a. Tito Torbellino, the Phoenix-born banda singer who was brutally assassinated in a restaurant in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, in late May? News came late July that Mexican police shot and killed one of the men responsible for the murder…
Even if it still looks a little greasy to some, Grand Avenue near downtown just keeps getting better and better, what with the addition of Grand Avenue Pizza and the recently renovated ThirdSpace restaurant and bar. Soon to join the many quirky galleries and mechanic shops is Allred Guitars &…
By Luke Winkie Why did you like Yeezus? Did you find it anarchic? Did you like how it challenged racial norms in a confrontational, blacked-out way? Did you like its minimalism? Or its maximalism? Did you find the songs to speak to a larger narrative of where Kanye West is…
Electrisad has had a very punctuated emergence as a fixture in the Phoenix scene. In the space of a few months, the band has opened up for several prominent acts in the national DIY indie scene such as Julie Byrne, Emperor X, and Your Heart Breaks. Saying that isn’t meant…
Black Moods fans eagerly anticipating the release of the rock band’s follow-up to their eclectic self-titled debut album will have to hold their breath a little longer. The Phoenix-based trio is tabling their upcoming album for a short time in an effort to strengthen the material, lengthen the album, and…
It’s time to locate the CD binder somewhere in a closet. Thumb through the inserts, and as nostalgia washes over, pull out 1994’s “required listening” album for angst-filled teenagers and brush up on the Offspring’s Smash. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the record that exposed the Huntington Beach,…
Though not obvious, the connection is strong between punk and country music. Both genres can be rough around the edges, feature bad-boy frontmen, and contain songs about societal woes. Hank Williams III has turned his country music into a thrashing, moshing affair. Less outwardly abrasive, but no less fun, is…
By Keith Plocek This week, 68,000 revelers will descend on Nevada’s remote Black Rock Desert. (That is, assuming the rain lets up.) They will travel from Los Angeles, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, and places you’ve never heard of. They will take part in the temporary city that is Burning Man…
Fairy Bones frontwoman Chelsey Louise Richard said that every song on the band’s upcoming album, Dramabot, is going to have a video to go with it, and they are starting out with the album’s first single, “Waiting.” The video depicts what is essentially the scariest house party you’ve ever seen…
In May, Phoenix-based hip-hop duo Shining Soul — Franco Habre, a.k.a. Bronze Candidate, and Alex Soto, a.k.a. Liason — made a video for their track “No Mercy,” off their album, released in September 2013. The video mostly is protest footage mixed with clips of the group performing in concert, but…
The Big Bang in Tempe are about to go silent after more than a decade. Owners of the underground piano bar, a hallmark of Mill Avenue’s nightlife scene since it opened 2003, have announced that it will closing its doors on September 6. Recent messages on both the bar’s voicemail…
Barn. Abandoned hotel. Log cabin. These are just a few locations outside the recording studio that bands have recorded their music. And now: record store. Jared Cox and TJ Jordan of Revolver Records are the masterminds behind Recorded in a Record Store, a compilation album of local bands who did…
Tucson’s Copper & Congress is a self-described “indie soul” trio of singer/guitarist/keyboardist Katie Haverly, bassist Patrick Morris, and drummer Julius Schlosburg. “We formed in 2012,” Haverly recalls. “We had a different drummer and guitar player. Patrick and I have been together since the beginning. Our guitar player quit and our…
Despite putting on a fantastic show at the Marquee Theatre last Wednesday, the New York kids collectively known as Interpol put on a set that clocked in at just under 60 minutes. It wasn’t exactly the Rolling Stones at Altamont, but there were many in the crowd who were vocal…
If you’re a fan of local DIY label Rubber Brother Records, any of its associated bands, or Tempe’s fringe music scene, you’re might hate the bad news we’re about to tell you: Parliament is closed. No joke. Earlier today, its staff pulled the plug on the all-ages music and arts…
Heshers, hard rock fans, and metalheads alike have a lot to look forward to in the weeks and months ahead. Besides much-anticipated upcoming concerts by such living legends as Judas Priest and Slayer, the fall also bring with it the annual Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, the debut of Rob…
It’s odd that people who have never met me want to punch me in the throat. Perhaps it’s akin to what people like Sean Hannity and Joe Arpaio experience on a daily basis, although I would never want to be compared to them. Luckily, I feel safe in saying there…
Has Tony Bennett ever played a bad show? It would be hard to find anyone who attended such a mediocre performance in the 50-plus years the man has been recording, let alone have it documented in print. Truthfully, it doesn’t seem possible. The 88-year-old legend came out dressed to the…
Keep going, y’all — the end of summer is almost here. And by that, we mean that the officially recognized transition into the season known as the fall will take place in less than a month’s time. Anyone who’s lived in the Valley longer than five minutes, however, knows that…
It’s been seven years or so since the last time the music world has seen or heard anything from Nickel Creek. But now, in honor of the progressive bluegrass trio’s twenty-fifth anniversary, musical siblings Sara and Sean Watkins and their longtime friend Chris Thile have dusted off their respective instruments…
“I don’t want to talk about music, that’s so boring,” declares Travis James as he sits inside the Neverland House. And the local musician certainly has every right to call the shots, since the curiously named bungalow and DIY performance space in the Garfield Historic District is sort of his…
When Mayra Sias got into the DJ game about five years ago, she probably couldn’t have asked for a better instructor — namely, her husband Les, who’s renowned around the Valley hip-hop scene as turntablism guru LES735. Getting schooled on the ones and twos by her better half, who placed…
