The debut album from Seattle’s Pickwick is a shot of gritty, soulful rock ‘n’ roll, with sharp guitar stabs, light organ fills and a groovin’ rhythm section, all hung out on the line of Galen Disston’s passionate vocals. But it wasn’t always so for the band. Pickwick’s first incarnation was…
First, a “dumb drummer” joke: How do you get a drummer off of your porch? Pay him 10 bucks for the pizza. Now, our Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix This Week…
Brujeria @ 910 Live|3/1/13In 2010, Jan Brewer asserted that “our law enforcement agencies” had found decapitated bodies in the desert along the Arizona-Mexican border. Although undocumented immigration from Mexico does lead to deaths in that region, it turned out that the stories about mutilated bodies were unsubstantiated, another one of…
decker. @ Sail Inn|3/1/13Sedona-based songwriter Brandon Decker bounced around the Sail Inn like a pinball, shaking hands, raising drinks, and grooving intently to the lineup of bands dueling between two stages. Decker’s a humble enough guy, but it was impossible to deny: Last night was his night. The broad smile…
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Of course, it was too good to be true. The ’90s radio rock wet dream of the Mark McGrath and Friends Cruise (haha, water, get it?) will not set sail. The three-day seaward journey back in time that promised strains of inoffensive alt-rock between rounds of pool deck limbo was…
It’s no coincidence local rockers Mergence have been likened to California’s Cold War Kids. Not only is the Phoenix band a quartet, but it also has a knack for crafting bluesy, soul-inspired opuses — kinda like those other guys. So it seems only natural that they would get the nod…
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Sadie Such Such is the owner/photographer/producer at Sadie Such Photography and Films. Learn more here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? I think I may have left it on the country station last time I was in…
When people ask what kind of music I like, I’m tempted to say, “Good music.” I understand the need for musical terminology, but there’s really too much good stuff to limit what you listen to. It’s a lesson Zero Zero teaches well. Nicole Laurenne and Michael Johnny Walker have the…
It’s not uncommon for fans to have a soft spot for the first album they hear from a beloved artist. It might not be the band’s defining work, but it was your entry point, your gateway. I’ll always carry a torch for Alkaline Trio’s fourth album, Good Mourning, and in…
There comes a time in every music snob’s life when they realize pre-judging a band based on the city where it resides and what musical genre it fits into is just as stupid as it sounds. In the case of L.A.-based duo In the Valley Below, a new musical project…
There’s been a growing cacophony coming from inside Last Exit Live in recent weeks, including plenty of banging, thumping, and grinding. Such clamor isn’t from any ear-crunching local hard rock acts testing out the soon-to-open downtown Phoenix bar and music joint, however, but rather from a flurry of renovations that…
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a myth originally told by the ancient Greeks but best-preserved in Western culture through the Roman poet Ovid, generally is interpreted as a cautionary tale about the perils of living in the past. Orpheus, a famous Greek bard, loses his wife to a snake…
The love affair began over a fuzzy guitar lick topped with a greasy organ swirl. Keyboardist Nicole Laurenne and guitarist Michael Johnny Walker were in a band rehearsal when the other musicians stepped out for a smoke. Walker noticed a fuzz pedal that hadn’t been used during the session. So,…
We don’t necessarily want what’s good for us — from chili cheese fries to that one last Jäger shot to a late-night booty call. And sometimes we must give thanks for the circumstances that thwarted us and led to a later sense of relief. So it is with dramatic indie…
“We’re changed people,” Brandon Decker says firmly, describing the aftermath of the nearly fatal rollover car accident that forever altered the lives of the members of Sedona-based indie-folk band decker. It’s a story that’s been told many times, but it bears repeating: Last August, en route to Santa Cruz, California,…
Don’t mean to sound like an etymology spazz, but there’s a huge difference between dorks, dweebs, and doofuses. God help you if you’re a doofus: hapless, ham-fisted, hopeless. Calling someone a dweeb at least connotes a smidge of intelligence, albeit a kind that is nerdily articulated or used pathetically for…
How do you figure a song called “I Am the Antichrist to You” should turn out? Awfully metal, right? Well, in the hands of Kaoru Ishibashi (who records and tours as Kishi Bashi), the track materializes as a fleet-footed, cloud-soft slice of folky chamber-pop — practically the mathematical opposite of…
It’s not often one hears a musician proclaim he wants to start a “vocal-driven pop band,” but such was the case with Mother Mother guitarist/frontman Ryan Guldemond. But why aim for such commonplace pop fare? Because this is the kind of music the generally unaware music populace loves — it…
For all the snarky comments Vampire Weekend gets about biting Paul Simon’s style, maybe it’d be worth looking back even further? Sure, Simon was the one who released the landmark Graceland in 1986, incorporating African polyrhythmic sounds and vocals. But, uh, pre-existing actual African musicians who already made those kinds…
If you’ve never witnessed the turntable swagger of DJ Logan “Element” Howard at any point during his 16-year career, you’ve missed out on something special, fool. The YouTube videos of the local legend scratching away on hip-hop vinyl like a rabid cat don’t do it justice as seeing him in…
