“Stoner rock” has yet to gain entry in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but few bands define the genre better than Fu Manchu. Yet, like so many genres, the name hardly fits the sound. Pink Floyd is stoner rock, while Fu Manchu storms in all heavy, sludgy, psychedelic and fuzzy with plenty…
I love Billy Joel. I can get pretentious about the music I like, but at the end of the day, I always go back to the Piano Man. He could be soft or edgy. Songs like “Pressure” were futuristic and others like “Uptown Girl” could wax nostalgic. He was the…
By now you may have heard about the story of how Sublime With Rome singer Rome Ramirez alleged on his Twitter account that Linkin Park had snitched on the band for smoking weed, prompting “cops” (Rome’s words) to seize the band’s drugs. Read a detailed play-by-play of the “Linkin Nark”…
Update 5/29 12:45 p.m.: Sublime With Rome’s manager said that Brad Delson, Linkin Park guitarist, is responsible for alerting the police to Sublime’s stash. Read more here. Update 5/28 4:30 p.m.: Read the entire police report here. Update 5/28 1:57 p.m.: We are starting to get somewhere. The Pima County…
Linkin Park headlined the 2014 edition of Tucson rock station KFMA’s annual radio show on Saturday at Electric Park in Tucson, where the band debuted new material from its forthcoming The Hunting Party record, due out next month, and played a lengthy number of mash-ups and medleys of their back…
Looking at local musician Brian Chartrand’s musical biography, you might say he has an identity crisis. There are his solo acoustic releases, which include his unique arrangements of well-known songs from contemporary artists as well as strong guitar work on his original numbers. There’s his work with the critically-acclaimed local…
It is with heavy heart and fond memories that I write this piece as Louis “Louie” Bocchini, whose Vans California Daze (and the off-shoot, Whatever) were integral parts of the Phoenix punk rock and skateboarding community, died on Saturday, May 17. Many longtime Phoenicians will recognize, at very least, his…
When it comes to list compilations of the “hottest” musicians in rock, there’s no shortage by any means. In the heavy metal genre alone, you can Google endless lists detailing the sexiest guitarists, frontmen, drummers, bassists, keyboardists — you name it. But the majority of these lists are based completely…
Bacchus and the Demonsluts put on one of the best album release parties of 2014 on Sunday for the release of their debut studio recording, The Rumors of Our Demise Have Been Grossly Underestimated. The band really just did everything right for the show. The party had a stacked lineup…
Demon tied to a chair in my brain/ black bird a-tapping on the window pane/ sittin’ and smilin’ at a stray dog in the rain/ demon tied to a chair in my brain. With these haunting, bluesy lyrics, Dax Riggs opens with on the first track of his 2007 album…
Press PhotoBuckcherry, who really should be on this list six times. Especially that second guy from the left, with the sociopatch on his face. In the most head-shaking article unleashed on the Internet in recent memory, it was revealed that rapper/necrophiliac/federal agent impersonator DMX has been in talks to fight…
So you’ve written some songs. Recruited your best friend to play bass. Taught your neighbor the drums. Rehearsed a little. Played some house parties. Now you’re ready to take the next step and play an actual venue. But where do you go? First gigs are like losing your virginity. You…
Memorial Day is when we, as a nation, proudly get together and celebrate the men and women of the armed services who have died in order to give us an extra day off. Bad joke. But the reality is so damned depressing it’s hard to think of anything else. It…
Will the real Pink Floyd please stand up? Actually, the real one has decided to sit it out for the foreseeable future, but in its place stands the live spectacle known as Brit Floyd, perhaps the closest thing to the real McCoy. With a syncopated psychedelic light show complete with…
Against Me! has a somewhat embattled history. The group started its career as an anarcho-punk band, releasing Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose in 2002 and gaining the respect of punk rock kids in the band’s hometown of Gainesville, Florida, and beyond. But then the band signed to Fat Mike’s…
In the 12 years the Blunt Club has been around it has built a reputation as the Valley’s premier weekly hip-hop show. Its founders, Dumper Foo, Aran “Catalyst” Kelly Emerge McVay, and Keith Nickels (among others) are local legends in their own right. And some of the acts they’ve managed…
Performing, writing, or even living, Greg Brown is at his best when he can settle into a groove. With 25 studio albums, the 64-year-old Brown has carved out a distinct path among folk singer-songwriters. His rich baritone, with a rounded, cozy Midwestern drawl, delivers songs with wry humor, existentially yearning…
What better way to label yourself Phoenix’s ultimate party band than naming your group after the Roman god of merry-making, theater, getting wasted, and feeling “ecstasy”? Bacchus and the Demonsluts did just that, but its roiling river of funk, jazz freakouts, and frenetic, instrumental jamborees is just the tip of…
The past several years have been quite the whirlwind for Lindsey Stirling. Since reaching the quarterfinals of America’s Got Talent in 2010 by fusing classical and dubstep music together, the world-renowned violinist has released an EP (2010’s Lindsey Stomp), a self-titled full-length album, and created more than a dozen YouTube…
For Floor, Florida’s coolest export since medium-pulp orange juice, the opportunity to be both influential and derivative is a badge of honor the band should wear with pride. The sludgy stoner rock trio has existed for the better part of 22 years now, even though it took years-long hiatuses and…
Saxophonist Maceo Parker calls his band “the tightest little funk orchestra on Earth.” It should be. Parker was schooled in tightness as the bandleader for James Brown in the 1960s. Brown was notorious for his demanding ways, but Parker, despite not being a hard-ass, still knows exactly how to keep…
It was 10 years ago when indie rock started to seep into pop culture. The Internet had emerged as a way to distribute music (legally and illegally) and became a barometer for 20-somethings who wanted to discover something new and obscure. The popular television show The O.C. was actually shining…
