Tempe’s increasingly barren live music scene is about to get even more desolate as another landmark venue is about to go out of business. The Big Fish Pub, the infamous University Drive rock bar that’s been featuring local and touring bands for nearly 20 years, will close its doors and…
There were so many rad concerts going on this weekend we couldn’t just choose just five. Here are eight, ranging from hip-hop to metal to Americana to psych-rock. If you’re picky, you can always try our comprehensive concert listings. Stay cool this weekend, Phoenix…
[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on our sister blog West Coast Sound every Thursday.] By Henry Rollins Since the first time I saw photos of desert-dwelling people in National Geographic as a boy, I have been fascinated by people who choose…
Not sure if Spanish is indeed the loving tongue, but it wasn’t two minutes into “Peregrina,” the opening track of The Lovelost’s debut album, Foreign, before I decided I loved the Lovelost. It didn’t matter if Ixchel del Castillo was singing about a Mexican telenovela star or a mineral water;…
It’s safe to say that the new Club Red in Mesa has been a work in progress during its first three weeks. And booking manager Mattx Bentley is the first to agree, right before rattling off a list of things, mostly of a cosmetic nature, that the venue’s staff is…
Let’s face it: “Dad rock” isn’t really a positive term. It has an ugly suburban connotation, the sort of music that triggers nostalgia in the minivan on the way to soccer practice of the days before marriage and children shattered his independence. Abe Simpson swung pretty close to the definition…
Michael Carter lives in a Southern-style storybook, on a piece of meticulously maintained property in the heart of Tempe, covered in lush bermuda grass, pecan and mulberry trees. This is a common meeting place for Jared & The Mill, and given their country-infused folk-pop sound, it’s about as complementary a…
One of the more prolific bands in rock history (21 albums and counting), Guided by Voices has managed not only to have a hearty discography but also the ability to consistently write quality songs, keeping rabid fans addicted while getting new admirers to jump aboard the band’s eclectic ark. The…
Between The Mountain Goats that created early solo boom box recordings and the collaborative band that toured its 2012 album, Transcendental Youth, with a horn section were the duo years. And it’s as a duo that The Mountain Goats will perform at Crescent Ballroom on Wednesday, June 18…
I’m still stuck in 2008, being one of the few freaks without a smartphone, so I don’t really “get it.” All I need this chunk of plastic to do is occasionally make phone calls or send text messages. For me, constantly being connected to the Internet would be a living…
Many metal heads will know Massachusetts as the birthplace for many vital modern bands. There must be something in the chowder. Artists like All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and specifically, Unearth, all hail from the Bay State. Unearth is currently on tour with Texas In July, Cruel Hand,…
Things normally seem dead around these parts at this time of year, thanks in no small part to the heat kicking into high gear. So we were mighty surprised when the cats behind hip-hop lifestyle brand Coolin Out announced they were bringing back their club night Supreme Sundays this weekend,…
Thursday 12 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Baja Joe’s: Latin Live Thursdays with DJ Chop (Top 40, Latin) Bar Smith: Ladies Night with DJ AL3, & DJ Fantastico (hip-hop, EDM, trap, Latin) Bobby Q’s: All Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader,…
Mississippi songwriter Jimbo Mathus sounds as though he was ripped from the pages of Jack Kerouac or Mark Twain, like a blues allegory or some half-remembered hillbilly hero from lore. The former leader of vaudeville act Squirrel Nut Zippers, a band that crested to fame on the wave of the…
Once upon the ’90s, there was an underrated melodic grunge band named Failure. When it was seven years old and touring its third album, Fantastic Planet, the group fell off its proverbial horse. Its members subsequently wandered the music industry’s topography during a 15-year hiatus that ended February. And there’s…
Jared & the Mill was never meant to be a band. The group was never meant to garner national attention at South by Southwest, and it was never meant to become a local darling known for its vocal harmonies and relentless gigging. And it definitely was never meant to play…
Bobby Bare Jr. wants to make something very clear: Undefeated, his latest long-player isn’t a “breakup record”; it’s a “getting dumped” record. Written and composed following the parting with the mother of his youngest son, the record documents the end of a relationship, one that didn’t end on mutual terms…
You can blame Phish, but covering another band’s album in its entirety has become a cool and popular thing to do. Three Phoenix acts break from their normal routines in a benefit concert for the Lupus Foundation of Southern Arizona. Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra will perform Portishead’s Dummy, There Is Danger…
UPDATE, October 7, 2014, at 11:41 a.m.: Ain’t life grand? Due to expected rainfall, the Belle & Sebastian concert has been moved to Orpheum Theatre. How Civic Space Park functions as a concert venue is a question for another day. Indie critical darlings Belle & Sebastian are playing their first-ever…
Father’s Day is just around the corner (June 15 for you slackers), and whether you’ve had the pleasure of yielding your own spawn or owe it to your old man for teaching you life hacks, there’s a new reason to love fatherhood — it revived Failure…
The Vans Warped Tour offers an overwhelming selection of bands each year for its annual summer tour. The problem with the all-day event is that you have to know going in to the event which artists to see. Because of the huge list of performances, it’s impossible to watch them…
Bobby Bare Jr.’s new album Undefeated is a mixed bag stylistically, jumping from power pop to R&B, punk rock to cosmic Krautrock, but at its core the 47-year-old songwriter says it’s “all country.” Born to Country Hall of Famer Bobby Bare and singer Jeanie Bare, his Western roots make perfect…
