Located just an hour and a half north of the Valley and home to more retirees than the average small town, Prescott is better known as a premier Christmas getaway than as an arts community. But it’s a town with strong local values and arms open to touring acts and…
I admit it: When I got the chance to talk to Robert Bell — that’s Kool — of Kool & the Gang ahead of tonight’s show at Ak-Chin Pavilion, I couldn’t resist asking the obvious question, much as I usually try to avoid them: Hey, how and why are you…
I never quite understood it until yesterday, but my favorite Andy Warhol quote has always been, “In the future, everyone will be famous enough to have the Internet come to their rescue for 15 minutes, or until some more really goofy Anthony Weiner sexts leak.” Phoenix’s own Random — alias…
Glassjaw Rocky Point Cantina, Tempe Tuesday, July 23, 2013 Before Glassjaw took the stage, the atmosphere at Rocky Point Cantina was tense, punctuated by fans shouting things like “where the fuck have you been?” as they stared anxiously at the green room door. Watching the band perform a 90-minute set…
Lost in love? Your relationship too weird for Ann Landers to understand? Trying to discover what comes next in your life or your music? Bring your problems to Ask Magic, your chance to ask Arizona’s reigning slow-jam king for advice on whatever life throws at you. (Click here to ask…
He’s called himself a cowboy, an American badass, and a host of other names over the years, all in his mission to let us know his one unmistakable message: Kid Rock is an outlaw. He’s done his best to cut a wide swath in the music world, making a splash…
Hollywood Alley is closing at the end of the month, and the move looks to have been sudden for everybody concerned; as recently as July 10, they were still planning a Labor Day blowout for the Mesa venue’s 25th anniversary. Since the abrupt announcement, Hollywood Alley’s Facebook page has become…
Ahhh, the ceremonial first pitch of a baseball game. When it’s done right, nobody in the stands pays you any attention. When you screw it up, you’re on YouTube forever. Often celebrities are chosen to uphold this grand tradition, and often — most recently Carly Rae Jepsen — they fail…
Folk musicians, for the most part, have it rough. Blindly thrust into the Dylan-esque pantheon, the overarching image of a folk-based singer-songwriter is that of the introspective introvert that shyly picks at an acoustic guitar before gracefully exiting whatever forum he holds. Yet when you’re young and influenced by the croonings of Damian Jurado and David Bazan, both exceptionally dynamic musicians in their own right, you’re bound to take a different approach to such a storied genre. Justin Moody, operating under the moniker The Balcony Scene, is such an example, having recently returned to his native Arcadia after spending the majority of his teens in Prescott. Breaking out of the coffee shop mentality for the first time, Moody is making his biggest debut yet with Tempe powerhouses Dust Jacket and Sundressed tomorrow at Crescent Ballroom.
Only one of the shows in this week’s Top Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Week will feed the homeless, but I don’t think you should really hold that against the other four. I guess it’s harder not to hold it against the other four when it’s framed that way. But…
It’s not often that a band’s social media bio nails it, but Tempe metal band TOAD’s is a rare exception. There’s no hyperbole, no invoking the names of far-out influences to seem “cultured.” It’s straight and honest: “An American rock ‘n’ roll band from the 1970s trapped inside of a…
Few things pique my interest more than authentic, hardcore Satanic metal musicians. But at the same time, there’s a part of me that is convinced that most satanic metallers are a bunch of prima donnas. I do know that it’s important to tread lightly when discussing the terms atheistic Satanism…
American Idol Live!, coming to Comerica Theatre next week, is a testament to how much smaller American Idol gets every year as a cultural institution. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still big. Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips’ debut single is still impossible to avoid if you are or have…
So this one time, my brother left a large tube of salami under our bunk bed — because he likes to hoard food — and totally forgot about it for three weeks, until it started to smell so bad that we almost called the paramedics. We looked down there and…
Have you ever played a Final Fantasy game? If you have, you’ll know that many-if-not-all of them involve collecting an arbitrary number of crystals that a megalomaniacal villain is also chasing, so that they won’t fall into the wrong hands and be used to enslave the world or shoot down…
The proprietors of Hollywood Alley dropped an atomic bombshell on Facebook Thursday afternoon, and its devastating news: The venerated Mesa rock bar will be closing for business on July 31, just shy of its 25th anniversary. It would be safe to say that the announcement was a massive shock to…
One of the most important parts of being a baseball fan is the crushing certainty that you are The Underdogs and your rivals are getting special treatment from ESPN or Bud Selig or New York-biased media outlets. (If you’re a Mets or Yankees fan, your rivals are getting special treatment…
When people hear I’m new to Phoenix, they immediately want to tell me a few things. The first thing is that it may seem hot at that exact moment, but it will in fact get much hotter, so hot that I will surely die. The second thing — well, something-something…
I’ll bet when you read that headline you thought, “Here we go again . . . Some old dude is going to bash on today’s music.” Wrong, Spanky. In my 48 years, I’ve never said “There’s no good new music these days.” In fact, after 26 years in the music…
An inordinate passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young, or so sayeth Oscar Wilde. His eccentric wit is a perfect fit for L.A.’s Kitten, fronted by the just barely legal Chloe Chaidez, who co-founded the band when she was just 15. By now, she’s likely tired of hearing…
It’s almost scary to think about the music that guitarist John Scofield would have created as a heavy metal artist or as someone who dabbled in psychedelic, prog, or surf rock. Instead, Scofield touches on all these areas together, with his mostly jazz-fusion-ish construct Überjam. Maybe deconstruct would be a…
Rancid is the perfect starter punk band. The group has the punk image down pat — just look at frontman Tim Armstrong’s liberty spikes and numerous tattoos. The cover of . . . And Out Come the Wolves is enough to make any aspiring young punk pick up the record to find out more…
