The Internet is a perfectly efficient outrage generator. People need things to be super-pissed about so that they can express their social positions to their friends; they burn through that outrage in an orgy of vague, well-intentioned social media protest; they look for something else to be super-pissed about, having…
Following the success of last year’s Bloom, an album that landed on many year-end best lists, you could say that Baltimore’s Beach House has outdone itself. Unlike many contemporary artists, however, vocalist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally have avoided many genre tropes and firmly remained true to their dreamy,…
As I announced a couple of weeks ago, I’m stepping down from the music editor position here at New Times, but it’s with great pleasure that I announce that a more than capable gentleman by the name of Dan Moore will be stepping into the role…
With Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix’s breakthrough into the public eye (don’t you dare say mainstream, hipster), Paris’ favorite quartet lampooned lady-swooning Liszt and classical rock star Mozart. The synth pop heroes are set to return with Bankrupt!, an album that promises to be more experimental. It helps that Phoenix has been working with creative hurricanes, including director…
Who’s Aaron Carter, you ask? What — you have more important things to do than check what’s trending on Twitter? It’s been a very long time since this little blond boner of a Backstreet brother (his big bro is Nick Carter of BSB) burst on the scene with bubbly pop…
It took three whole years for Stellacutta to finish its self-titled debut album, which finally saw the sweet monitor glow of the group’s Bandcamp page in January. The record is a pristine showcase of the Tempe outfit’s bombastic, jazz-inflected indie rock. The melodic heights reached within the songs show that…
Singer/songwriter Angel Olsen skipped out on SXSW 2013. Though she’s hardly strident or indignant about it, the industry showcase just doesn’t speak to the sensibilities displayed on Olsen’s gorgeous noir-folk LP Half Way Home, released by Bathetic Records in 2012. Those songs, like the wounded but sensual “Lonely Universe” and…
Following the success of last year’s Bloom, an album that landed on many year-end lists, you could say that Baltimore’s Beach House has outdone itself. Unlike many contemporary artists, vocalist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally have avoided many genre tropes and firmly remained true to their dreamy, poppy sound. In essence,…
Adam Dumper admits he’d “do practically anything and everything” to help a friend in need. This ain’t no empty boast, as the artist known as Dumperfoo has been busy moving Heaven and Earth to gear up for a special edition of The Blunt Club that aims to raise money for…
Thursday 4 Afterlife: Touch Thursdays with DJ Tsunami, DJ Michael Ryan, & DJ Matt Fox (Top 40, EDM) AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (juke joint, R&B, French pop) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays with DJ Klassics, DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ…
Ryan Leslie is a smooth operator. The rap/hip-hop artist’s rhymes melt like butter on toast — actually, given Leslie’s penchant for upscale video shoots in Paris and other exotic locales (“People ask me my address and I say global,” he raps on “Swiss Francs”), make that butter on a baguette…
Heavy, aggressive, and sludgy, local boulder-crushing band Destruction Unit tears through some steady-rocking Germanic grooves. Ryan Rousseau (guitar, vocals, synths) heads up the gang; his bassist brother Rusty, guitarists J.S. Aurelius and Nick Nappa, and drummer Justin Keefer round out the five-piece. Freshly back from SXSW, including a well-received set…
John Smith is the secret love child of Elvis Presley. And he has, he swears, the DNA evidence to prove it. No, really. Smith, a sometime country singer and songwriter who lives in Scottsdale, says he’s coming clean this month in a new book detailing his hush-hush life as the…
Local urban artist Jules Demetrius has never seemed to want when it comes to the friend department. Amongst his multitude of acquaintances and comrades, the 43-year-old painter and graphic designer are a horde of local creative types from both the music and art world, as well as some famous names…
Lindsey BestAndrew Youssef [Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Heard Mentality, the music blog of our sister paper OC Weekly. Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music…
Well, give Fall Out Boy the award for most appropriately titled new single, “The Phoenix.” Four years after they broke hearts around the world by announcing an indefinite hiatus, the pop-rock group is back with a new album, Save Rock and Roll, due for release April 16. This isn’t the…
Singer/songwriter Angel Olsen skipped out on SXSW 2013. Though she’s hardly indignant about it, the industry showcase just doesn’t speak to the sensibilities displayed on Olsen’s gorgeous noir-folk Half Way Home, released by Bathetic Records in 2012. Those songs, like the wounded but sensual “Lonely Universe” and the earthy “Tiniest…
There’s nothing stately about Mariah DeRaet. She’s an unassuming character offstage, a 25-year-old barista with a warm demeanor that could belong to any college-aged girl next door. Yet when she straps on a parlor-sized Martin acoustic as the vocalist of Tempe’s Avery, she and her band (drummer Eric Estrada, guitarist…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See New Times’ print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
Gangbangin’ doesn’t excite Brotha Lynch Hung anymore, nor does the topic of his cult following, one that’s grown exponentially throughout his 27-year career. At 42, the seminal Californian rapper lights up when talking about his upcoming barbecue cookbook or the screenplays he’s working on. But make no mistake — Lynch,…
By Reyan Ali Realistically, a young Thao Nguyen was going to play guitar wherever she could, so why not do it at a laundromat? Growing up in “deathly suburban” northern Virginia, Nguyen was about 12 when she started learning pop covers (“Everybody Hurts” and Brown Eyed Girl” were her first),…
After beefing it up last summer, Tempe meme rap ace Glass Popcorn (a.k.a. 16-year-old Will Neibergall) goes hard for Google+ in his new video for the slow-mo syrup haze of “My Circle.” But don’t hold your breath for the “My Top 8” MySpace remix: The track may well be Glass’…
