Sir Mix-A-Lot, Blackalicious, MURS, Z-Trip Viva PHX’s Crescent Ballroom Outdoor Stage 3/7/14 Crescent Ballroom’s outdoor stage at the first-ever Viva PHX festival featured traditional hip-hop sounds, an energetic audience and a show stopping set by hometown hero Z-Trip. With the liquor flowing and hundreds of people thirsting for quality hip-hop,…
The Technicolors, Kitten, Pinback and The Neighbourhood Viva PHX’s Central Avenue Stage at Cityscape 3/8/14 While it was expected to be one of the most diverse lineups of any stage at Friday night’s Viva Phoenix Festival, the CityScape main stage offered up rock performance after rock performance. Local darlings The…
Xavier Mosley (a.k.a. Chief Xcel) has always been about the craft. Known as one of the co-founders of Quannum MCs, Xcel has helped carve out lanes for artists like Lyrics Born, Pigeon John, and DJ Shadow. As the DJ/producer half of the legendary hip-hop duo, Blackalicious (which also features the…
Hear that? It’s the clock counting down the hours until your weekend begins and it’s nearing the magic moment known as quitting time. To help the time pass more quickly, you might consider what it is you’ll actually be doing during the next couple days and nights of work-free bliss…
Chances are, if you met me — I’m a tall, goofy-looking, middle-aged white guy with a Canadian accent (it’s actually North Dakotan) — you wouldn’t think, “Hey, I should get some recommendations on fantastic soul albums from this cat.” Of course, I’m stereotyping myself, and you would be, too. I…
Banana Gun has an odd tale of how the band ended up in Phoenix. As bass player Ross Troost tells it, he and drummer Ian Breslin and guitarist Nick Dehaan were on a West Coast tour nearly a decade ago in their old band, Fat Rabbit, when they swung through…
Like a good watch, beautiful machines require intricate movements and many parts to work right. Kan Wakan, the grandiose and dark pop act that’s fronted by vocalist Kristianne Bautista with composer Gueorgui Linev and guitarist Peter Potyondy at its production core, is such a finely tuned act. With a sound…
It’s 2014 and high time you got some new music into your playlist — seriously. It’ll help that Phoenix’s music scene has plenty of fresh jams and brand-new tunes to offer, as there’s an overflow of gifted and prolific musicians cranking out sounds. Since many local acts will make waves,…
If KONGOS had not officially “made it” before Wednesday night, they certainly have now. The South African-born, Phoenix-based rock quartet made their national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and while their single “Come With Me Now” did not sound quite as buff as it does on Lunatic, their latest…
Three decades is a long time to be involved in hip-hop. And many have tried to put an expiration date on the art form, believing that it’s taboo to be in hip-hop after the age of 30. As time goes on, however, artists like Jay-Z, Eminem, and 2 Chainz have…
With age comes wisdom. Like the common sense notion that the best way to tackle an event as big and complex as tonight’s Viva PHX music festival is to have a plan, and a good one at that. And given the sheer number of bands and venues involved (more than…
If you’re a fan of blues music, particularly the kind proffered by local bands and artists, plan to spend part of this weekend soaking up some 12-bar down-home sounds in the great outdoors. The latest Blues Blast, the Valley’s premier festival celebrating the genre, will be held on Saturday at…
Time can be unkind to indie’s progenitors. Bands either burn out or fade away, eclipsed by the newest trend with careers measured in years rather than decades. Pinback, the Southern California forerunner of both indie rock and the home recording movement, is an exception to such aging, keeping true to…
February was most certainly a busy month for the Club Candids crew. Each and every week, we hit up hot nightspots and dance joints in both Tempe and Scottsdale and grabbed snaps of some of the mass revelry that was taking place within. And believe us, there was a lot…
Some of the best things in life are misunderstood by most, and even better things are often worth waiting for. Such is the case for Los Angeles’ In the Valley Below, a duo consisting of vocalists/instrumentalists Jeffrey Jacob and Angela Gail, whose success with their thumping, melodic hit “Peaches” last…
Austin has South by Southwest, San Francisco has Outside Lands, Manchester, Tennessee has Bonnaroo, and locally, now there’s Viva Phoenix. Viva Phoenix: A Downtown Music Festival is the Valley’s latest all-encompassing music festival. Last December, there was the disjointed True Music Festival, and the McDowell Mountain Music Festival has been…
Mavis Staples can be found in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s traveling “Women Who Rock” exhibit, currently on display at the Musical Instrument Museum. However, the soul icon, who ironically won a 2012 Grammy Award in the Americana category, easily could fit in several of the loosely genre-demarcated…
Dee Dee Penny, founder and frontwoman of Dum Dum Girls, is known for her shy disposition. She’s probably also tired of hearing about it in the press, but only one second into our phone call, it’s obvious how reserved, quiet, and thoughtful she is. The way she speaks is absolutely…
If you know a thing or three about electronic dance music, no doubt you’ve heard of Pete Tong or listened to the highly influential DJ’s popular BBC Radio 1 program, Essential Mix. At the very least, you’ve raged to some of the formerly neophyte EDM artists, producers, and beatsmiths whom…
Thursday 6 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bobby Q’s: All Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, Top 40, reggae) Dos Gringos (Scottsdale): DJ Switch (rock, Top 40, remixes) Fat Tuesday: DJ Eli (Top 40, EDM) Firehouse Scottsdale:…
It’s 2014 and high time you got some new music into your playlist — seriously. It’ll help that Phoenix’s music scene has plenty of fresh jams and brand-new tunes to offer, as there’s an overflow of gifted and prolific musicians cranking out sounds. Since many local acts will make waves,…
