The Steel Horse Saloon hopes that Buzz Fowler and First String can make their club into a destination blues venue just as they have for the El Dorado Bar & Grill in Scottsdale. The idea is to establish the Steel Horse Saloon as the North Valley’s blues venue. Every Wednesday…
Acclaimed filmmaker Robert Rodriguez has tapped Phoenix band Fayuca for his new TV series. Matador will premiere Wednesday, July 15, at 9 p.m. on the new El Rey Network, which was also started by Rodriguez. The show follows Antonio “Matador” Bravo, who quietly works for a branch of the CIA,…
Turn the question of what’s familiar around and it becomes an examination of what’s different. For The Antlers’ fifth album, Familiars, vocalist-guitarist Peter Silberman found himself writing in the middle ground, searching for what’s changed and what’s stayed the same in his own life – and in the band’s sound…
It’s sometimes easy to forget the preparations needed when going to a show of any kind. The Summer Slaughter Tour is no exception and planning for it ahead of time is important. The tour markets itself as “The Most Extreme Tour of the Year” and with such a death metal…
Heavy metal and hip-hop hybrid outfit Animus Divine (AD) is one of many low-profile and yet highly talented bands operating in the scorching deserts of Arizona. Based out of Tucson, the streetcore musicians have their eye on the prize to master the entertainment industry, but AD lead singer Chuck Clark…
It was a night of active rock radio hits, pyro, and more of what we’ve come to know from the best traveling hard rock music festival out there, as the 7th annual Rockstar Mayhem Festival made its way through Ak-Chin Pavilion on Friday. Nu metal pioneers Korn and Avenged Sevenfold…
Let there be rock, said Ronnie James Dio from atop his gnarled throne in metal heaven last week. And lo, did Dio send a monsoon of rock ‘n’ roll on Phoenix, from KISS/Def Leppard to Mayhem Festival. Someone prayed to a different god this week, because this week is (almost)…
Thus Owls’ is the result of the marriage of two people, but also the two countries they hail from. Husband and wife team of Simon and Erika Angell, from Canada and Sweden, respectively, each forged careers — he on guitar, she as a vocalist — that would one day intersect…
Snazzy slot machines and other flashy electronic gambling games won’t be the only sort of glitzy and glittery distractions vying for your attention at Wild Horse Pass starting this weekend. That’s because the Chandler hotel and casino is unveiling its posh new Chrome Nightclub later this evening during its two-night…
Summertime sucks. But you know doesn’t suck? Air conditioned music venues, that’s what. Check out these six shows this weekend, and peruse our comprehensive concert listings for many more options…
If there is one thing that can never be taken away from the decade-old downtown Phoenix DIY venue The Trunk Space it is the bookers’ uncanny ability to put together a lineup that will leave the audience scratching its head. Such was definitely the case last night when the Rhode…
More than anything musically, it could be said that Sun Bones’ primary influence is Newton’s laws of motion. A continuum of momentum and velocity is everything to the Tucson-based, self described “chamber punk” band. Establishing themselves immediately with their 2013 self released debut, Sentinel Peak, their relentless touring, songwriting and…
There is a freckled Playmobil figure on the cover of East Valley musician Jeff Gonzales’ 2013 six-track EP The Lights Just Went Out. His eyebrows are raised upward and his mouth is in the shape of a frown. Is this disappointed-looking childhood toy meant to represent the 32-year-old songwriter? “That’s…
Jim LouvauKISS. Full slideshow here. The surroundings of a KISS and Def Leppard concert are one of the most entertaining parts about it, aside from the legends performing on stage. Wednesday’s concert contained a huge range of age groups, but the most amusing of them is what I like to…
For more than 40 years, Judas Priest has embodied all that is exhilarating, innovative, ridiculous, and wonderful in heavy metal. From their beginnings as a blues-influenced hard rock ensemble in Birmingham, England, through a string of genre-defining albums, surviving both the ’80s and what can only be known as the…
By Chris Walker Charlie “Bird” Parker has been called the greatest saxophonist who ever lived, a jazz legend who not only spearheaded the bebop movement but also laid the foundations of modern jazz. He was also a party animal. In 1952, Los Angeles would play host to one of Parker’s…
Editor’s note: Since Oct. 6, 2012 (the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles’ debut single “Love Me Do”) we’ve been on a half-century celebration cycle in which we are scheduled to relive every Beatles innovation, every release of the Beatles’ landmark career in real time, right until the…
Ice-T admitted to “mailing it in” for his band Body Count’s 2006 album Murder 4 Hire. The rapper was knee-deep in being a full-time actor at the time and didn’t have the time or energy to give it his all, especially in the wake of the death of founding member…
Poncho Sanchez has cancelled his Friday, July 11, show at the Musical Instrument Museum Theater due to personal issues. Sanchez also canceled a show in Las Vegas as well. MIM is looking at rescheduling the show…
The live music scene in Scottsdale’s entertainment district has gotten a little, well, livelier, thanks to the recent arrival of new nightspot Wasted Grain. The combination bar, dance club, and music venue opened this past weekend in the sprawling property at Stetson Drive and Drinkwater Boulevard that formerly housed Martini…
Phoenix hardcore band Gay Kiss released Fault in December 2012, and some consider it to one of the better heavy albums to come out of Phoenix in recent memory. Now, the quartet’s work has paid off in the form of an opening slot touring for punk supergroup Off! — a…
In the video for Yellow Ostrich’s “Mary,” a young girl dashes through woods, then trips and falls in slow motion. The cover for Ostrich’s fifth album, Cosmos, features a still from videographer Bas Jan Ader tilting sideways, ready to fall. Likewise, the album features a track called “Things Are Fallin’.”…
