[The Valley is a big place, and it puts out more interesting music than we could ever hope to cover. Every week or so, Mike Bogumill will use this space to cover a little more of it. – Ed.] The goal of this column is to document, explore, and create…
Welcome to Ask Willie D, where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, “funny, serious or unpredictable.” Something on your mind? Ask Willie D! Photo courtesy of Peter BesteBURNED BY THE RELATIVE I LOANED MONEY Dear Willie D: I loaned my cousin $500 more…
I have never once been so confused by a song as I was the first time someone told me to listen to “Stick Stickly,” by Attack Attack! All I’d been told was that it was the source of the animated GIFs I’d started seeing all over the internet, in which…
Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman died of cirrhosis on May 2, the same day as the Golden Gods Awards. It was devastating that on a day meant to celebrate the lives of the best musicians in metal, one of those artists was taken from the world of music. It also came…
Had Baz Luhrmann decided to take things even remotely seriously in his adaptation of The Great Gatsby, he could’ve just used the Bryan Ferry Orchestra’s 2012 album The Jazz Age in its entirety, instead of merely inviting Ferry to supply two incongruous songs for its soundtrack. But nothing about Luhrmann’s…
Arrested Development ruined the Segway. Lots of things ruined the Segway — don’t get me wrong — but the first time Gob Bluth made his dramatic, perfectly self-confident entrance into the frame on his fanny-packed Segway, he instantly summed up all the worries people had about them. Will this make…
If the recent death of Storm Thorgerson was any indication, music is often married to its album art. All the more reason to take something incredibly iconic in the age of Pirate Bay and iPods and turn it on its head, like the graphic reinventions of Christophe Gowans. The former…
The Marsh is a house venue whose main room’s dimensions I estimate to be around 16 x 20. In this room, there is an alcove where some lights that change color are installed. There is a fog machine somewhere that, in conjunction with the lights, is intermittently successful in creating…
Markus Schulz The Venue Scottsdale Friday, May 10, 2013 Three sets within five hours can be a bit ambitious for most. Sometimes the line-up just isn’t your thing. But it was hard to be steered wrong by the Markus Schulz SCREAM tour, with Schulz and support from KhoMha and The…
David Dimmick isn’t much of a braggart — at least as far as we can tell — but he’s got every effin’ right to be. Since becoming a DJ in 1996, the dude’s C.V. includes sharing stages with some pretty stellar icons from hip-hop history, like the Wu-Tang Clan, Pharohe…
Ratt and Dokken (view the full slideshow.)Celebrity TheatreMay 9, 2013 The ’80s paid a visit to the Celebrity Theatre Thursday night, when hair metal rockers Dokken and Ratt hit the Valley for a night full of Aquanet-infused anthems. Dokken might be one of the most underrated ’80s bands still standing;…
Jimmy Eat WorldParamount Theatre, Casa Grande, ArizonaThursday, May 9, 2013 Jimmy Eat World’s Arizona tour turned out to be excellent news for local fans of the band, who get a belated chance to see them in the kind of venues they played before their national breakout more than a decade…
So are you a Tribute-John guy, or a Tribute-Paul guy? Or a Tribute-George guy, I guess? This question and more answered in this week’s list of five Phoenix-area shows this weekend…
Matchbox Twenty tickets go on sale today at noon — the show’s July 26 at Comerica Theatre — which means that this weekend is a time for you to reflect on whether, why, and how much you love America’s most indestructible post-grunge band. For me those answers are yes, because…
Like certain cosmological phenomena streaking through the infinite heavens above, a chance to see Man of Astro-man? pulling a live gig in Phoenix is a rare occurance. It wasn’t always that way; the science fiction-obsessed surf-rock space oddities used to set course for renowned local rock bars like Boston’s (now…
By Chris Parker Syracuse’s Ra Ra Riot — set to play Du Hot Club De Bizarre Thursday night — began playing college parties, and before long they’d found a strange, intoxicating sweet spot between spiky Pixies-inflected post-punk and chamber pop that earned them comparisons to fellow emerging New Yorkers Vampire…
Du Hot Club de BizarreCrescent BallroomMay 8, 2013 Turquoise Jeep looks and sounds like a novelty act at first, but that doesn’t quite explain their appeal. What they’re really doing with their bizarre slow jams and paeans to stretchy pants and choreographed dance moves is hitting the basic tropes that…
of MontrealCrescent BallroomMay 8, 2013 You didn’t need to be an of Montreal fan to enjoy Wednesday night’s headlining set at day one of Du Hot Club de Bizarre. The band’s performance was part circus act and part acid trip, providing plenty of entertainment for the casual fan. of Montreal’s…
Nineteen-ninety-three saw the birth of Korn, Jimmy Eat World, Jurassic 5, At the Drive-In, the Crystal Method, and Shaq’s hip-hop career. A more obscure name to arrive that year was Rotten Sound, a Finland-rooted grindcore four-piece currently celebrating its big 2-0 with big things. Along with international touring and festival…
Everyone is aware you’re all hopped up because Neutral Milk Hotel is reuniting for the first time since Jesus fed the 5,000 and because Boards of Canada will have a new album for the first time since Hatshepsut constructed the Temple of Karnak. But before you pee your pants a…
Few bands mix God and rock ‘n’ roll like Switchfoot, who hit the mainstream with the anthemic “Meant to Live” a decade ago. Their ninth album, Fading West, is due out in June, but their previous album, 2011’s Vice Verses, offered further evidence that Jon Foreman is one of today’s…
In 2013, we’ve reached the point where Beatles tribute bands should, given the time that’s elapsed, have some of their own tribute bands by now. 1964 the Tribute — that’s their name — has been re-creating the British Invasion-era Beatles since 1984, which means they’re now coming up on a…
