Michigan native and old-school rocker Ted Nugent may always be looking to ruffle a few feathers, but he is a bit of a softie at heart. Sure, he’s incredibly outspoken politically and musically and to about every hunted animal on the planet. He’s the same guy who named his 2013…
Black Flag Club Red Thursday, July 11, 2013 The idea of Black Flag coming to town works in principle. Seeing the remnants of an iconic punk band that hasn’t performed in Phoenix in decades sounds good in theory, but the reality is that Black Flag has gone through so many…
Thanks to its close proximity to Arizona State University’s main campus, wild times are often afoot on Mill Avenue. And most nights, you can find Damion Hernandez helping stoke things up at some of the rowdier bars along the Downtown Tempe thoroughfare. The 33-year-old, known to the scene as DJ…
Nostalgia acts are heartier than the rest of us. Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé booked themselves all the way into December, when Phoenicians will once again gloat about the weather; everywhere else across the music-act spectrum, things seem to be slowing down, hibernating. But if you’re into campy, accomplished new wave,…
by Chaz Kangas Everybody’s favorite boy band template New Kids on the Block have been taking the stage all summer for their tour with 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men. (They’re coming to Jobing.com Arena on Sunday, July 14.) While most of our New Kids memories could be attributed to…
Almost all of us are waiting for some special night, some particular time slot, set on some specific channel. Some of us worship our favorite TV shows more fervently than others, but everybody I know seems to have at least one show they love so much it’s become an experience…
The B-52s’ funky, flirty and groovalicious party sound is as unmistakable today as it was when the band formed unexpectedly in 1976 after founding members Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, and Cindy and Ricky Wilson downed a flaming volcano drink at an Athens, Georgia restaurant. “We never planned on…
If you’ve been following the hugely popular video-game music scene over the past few years, you’ve no doubt known what a chiptune is. If you have, and you have any self-respect, you won’t admit it. If you’re a normal adult, meanwhile, you have no idea what I’m talking about. Allow…
Since 1983, the Melvins have influenced countless bands and carved out a path that is all their own. They constantly explore unexpected paths, even relative to their own work — with every album they wind up even further away from what people have finally pegged as a their “sound.” Over…
The B-52s’ funky, flirty, and groovalicious party sound is as unmistakable today as it was when the band formed unexpectedly in 1976, after the founding members downed a flaming volcano drink at an Athens, Georgia, restaurant. “We never planned on having a band. We were friends and crashed parties together…
Certain records seem to appear, somehow, at virtually every yard sale: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Foreigner 4, Carole King’s Tapestry . . . and Psychedelic Furs’ Talk Talk Talk. The first three make sense, given how ubiquitous they were, but the latter is harder to explain. Released in 1981, Talk Talk Talk,…
Rodrigo y Gabriela are known for taking plenty of extra guitars with them on tour, and for good reason: The force with which they play the instruments usually leads them to a grisly end. The duo tends to wield their guitars as though the only thing standing between the virtuoso…
June was an incredible month for hip-hop releases, with new records by Kanye West, Mac Miller, J. Cole, and Quasimoto, among others, hitting the market. The downside to the deluge of hype was the failure to acknowledge the world-class work of Dessa. The Minneapolis-based MC (and slam poet and author),…
High in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Widespread Panic takes the stage at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, as its done many times before. But the day is June 30, 2013, and this isn’t just another performance. With this show, Widespread Panic will leave holding another impressive attendance record: 42 sellouts,…
You’ll have to forgive The Crystal Method for taking a little longer than expected to unveil its latest studio album. Yes, the follow-up to 2009’s Grammy-nominated Divided by Night has been more than four years in the making, but the venerable electronica twosome of Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland have…
The Baptist Generals are coming, but we’re not talking Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee. Rather, July marks the return of a psychedelic folk band from Denton, Texas, last heard from circa 2003. Back then they were touring behind their debut release, No Silver/No Gold, a crash-bang-boom rush of…
Spend some time with the guys in Slightly Stoopid, and you’re bound to walk away with a fascination for the band’s business model and a new cologne — of the skunk variety. For almost 15 years, the members of Slightly Stoopid have made music together, and somehow they’ve perfected one…
Smashboxx:
At 43 years old, it seems safe to say that Jay-Z is on top of the world. Within the past year, he’s become the face of an NBA basketball franchise, had a beautiful child with his tremendously famous wife, and had a mega-collaboration with Justin Timberlake. Hell, he even picked…
Spend some time with the guys from Slightly Stoopid, and you’re bound to walk away with a fascination for the band’s business model and a new cologne — of the skunk variety. For almost 15 years the members of Slightly Stoopid have made music together, and somehow they’ve perfected one…
Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman David Lowery is royally pissed. Make that royalty pissed for the lack of compensation he’s received for the use of his songs on online webcasts, most notably Pandora. On June 23, The Trichordist, a website for artists for an ethical and sustainable Internet, ran…
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…
