Don’t be fooled by the naysayers. Those who say Phoenix doesn’t have live music options in the summer are either lying or basing their statements off of the dark days before engineers mastered central air conditioning. There’s enough music going on this weekend to keep Bomont barn-dancing for years. Here’s…
They’re the oldest type of supergroup. Husband-wife team Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks have tightened the screws on their blues-rock for second album, Made Up Mind, loosening the caboose even as they sharpened their focus on song and melody over their 2011 Grammy-winning debut Revelator. The musical pair met when…
Everyone likes a good poop joke now and then — but Nashville’s Diarrhea Planet are quick to point out they are “not a joke band with a joke name. We are a very serious band with a joke name.” The weird moniker was chosen as a “fuck you” to the…
Rapper Wiz Khalifa is a mere three years my junior. What this means, perhaps of more importance than any other similarity, is that he and I shared a significant adolescent infatuation with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. None of us were immune. Turtle action figures were a mainstay across many…
We’re officially hip deep into the time of year that’s officially know as the dog days of summer, which — if you’re not familiar with the term — refers to the most sweltering period of the season. But while the weather might be keeping your ass glued to the couch,…
Dr. John’s August 8 concert at Talking Stick Resort has been postponed until further notice, the casino announced yesterday. “”Due to illness, Dr. John is forced to postpone his performance this Friday at the Talking Stick Resort Showroom, and looks forward to making it up to his fans in the…
At 72, Paul McCartney has had a long, illustrious career — most of it post-Beatles, though all too many forget that the Beatles lasted a mere 10 years. Still, Sir Paul’s history starts with the Quarrymen, which morphed into the Beatles, the most popular rock band, and one of the…
Dirty Bourbon River Show has been rocking out of New Orleans, Louisiana, with their brand of gypsy circus brass stylings for the past five or six years. In that time, they were able to assemble a cast of highly skilled players and multi-instrumentalists, made easier by the city’s high supply…
Believe it or not, Phoenix has a storied history of experimentalism. For Sir Richard Bishop (co-founder of the legendary Sun City Girls) and W David Oliphant, that history began in 1981, when Bishop saw Oliphant and immediately considered him to be “the leading exponent” of that scene. Fast-forward nearly 35…
Fame, for most artists, is short-lived. When stars come and go, a core network of lyricists, producers, crew members and musicians persists through the decades, typically unseen, giving support from one fresh face to the next. Errol Brown is a sound engineer who, within the industry, carries much name recognition…
Seminal jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis “Satch” Armstrong gets revitalized in 2014 thanks to New Orleans music maestro Dr. John. It’s not that Armstrong’s music isn’t forever popular; it’s just that the good Doctor has taken it upon himself to reinvent 13 Armstrong tracks — using funk to blues to…
Over a career spanning two-plus decades, Dan Potthast has never been short on new ideas. From six full-lengths with “psycho-ska” outfit MU330, to two full-lengths with indie-rock group The Stitch Up, five (soon to be six) solo records, an album leading the California traditional ska collective The Bricks, and an…
Hip-hop moves at the lightning-fast pace of the Internet these days, and Futuristic, a Tempe rapper on the verge of making it big, knows that better than anyone. In the past two years, the 23-year-old Bloomington, Illinois, native has written dozens of songs, released two albums, recorded enough tracks to…
As Josiah Johnson of Seattle’s folk-rock sextet the Head and the Heart describes it, the band has evolved from bright and sunny to darker and deeper. “The first record was very optimistic, ‘Follow your heart,’ and the second was ‘Even if you follow your heart, there are going to be…
Band rockumentaries can typically be watched in two ways: for those unfamiliar with the film’s subject, it’s usually an insightful peak into the world of professional musicians. For fans, however, these movies can induce what I like to call the Wizard of Oz effect. By the end of it, you’ll…
It’s been six years since Phoenix has seen Amos Lee. With his Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song album climbing the charts, it’s only fitting that he plays intimate shows across the country, and last night’s Mesa Arts show was intimacy paired with dark sunglasses and Americana flare. It was…
Galleries aren’t for every artist. For NXOEED, better known as James B. Hunt, he’d prefer to reveal his art out in the open by hiding his deranged paintings where anyone can stumble upon them. Hopefully, it’s you. He posts clues on his website of the alleys, ditches, trash cans, sewers…
Wow, what a show. The Hold Steady made a long overdue appearance at Crescent Ballroom last night on the Teeth Dreams tour, but mostly stuck to older material. The music was far from perfect, but that’s the beauty of going to a Hold Steady show…
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, led by singer-songwriter and Philadelphia native Alec Ounsworth, set the standard for being independent artists. In 2005, the band combined the guitarist’s unique vocals with a post-punk beat to critical acclaim on their self-titled debut. They were living proof that hard work and grassroots marketing…
Former Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver axeman Slash brought plenty of nostalgia to Talking Stick Resort Friday night, visiting the Valley for a one-off date in the middle of his North American Tour with Aerosmith. The 49-year-old still looks almost identical to how he looked in the ’80s, still sporting his…
August has begun, and with it, the countdown to the end of summer. (And there’s non-literal meaning to that as well — the Summer Ends Music Festival, which happens just after fall begins at the end of September in Tempe.) Blessed are the rains down in Phoenix this past weekend,…
When I saw this viral video the other week of the “most metal first dance at a wedding,” I couldn’t help but feel a little warm and fuzzy. The goth couple created a playlist that included song snippets from Grave Digger, Pantera, Devil Drive, Cannibal Corpse, Lamb of God and…
