For the excitable Generation Y character in all of us 20-somethings: Fall Out Boy has returned. With their 2005 mega-album From Under the Cork Tree, the Chicago-based four-piece put a poetically self-aware spin on the theme of pop-punk. They laced the album with ironic and lengthy song titles, true pop…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
Besides being Black History Month, did you also know February as its much lesser known monthly monicker Heartworm Awareness Month? National Pet Dental Health Awareness Month? Termite Awareness Month? Sinus Pain Awareness Month? That last one was moved up from March, presumably because we needed those three less days to…
The Benefit Dinner Concert for Pueblo Band combines two goods — music and charity. Pueblo del Sol School will host performances by Field Tripp, Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Catfish Mustache, and A Life of Science so that the eighth-grade class can raise money to perform in a music showcase in Anaheim,…
Sami AnsariDave GrohlBy Whitney Friedlander The lobby of Dave Grohl’s Northridge-based 606 Studios has a Joan Jett book on the coffee table and a row of classic arcade games like Donkey Kong Jr. against one wall. On top of a photo booth sits an iconic “Moonman” MTV Video Music Award,…
Hey, Morrissey fans, you weren’t, like, really looking forward to the legendarily dour British indie icon performing on Sunday, February 10, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, were you? Because we’re bummed to report that Moz has rescheduled his date AGAIN, following a postponement in November 2012…
Daniel Johnston @ Crescent Ballroom | 2/3/13An enthusiastic young man in the crowd shouts: “We all love you, Daniel!” Daniel Johnston, the grizzled man onstage, backed by a selection of Phoenix all-star players from Jimmy Eat World, Reubens Accomplice, Dry River Yacht Club, Boxhead Ensemble, Limbeck, and Source Victoria, answers…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
I have always been one of those metal heads that claims to listen to all musical genres–except for country. But in the past year, I’ve realized that classic country songs, with their imagery and energy, are pretty hard to dislike. Take David Allan Coe’s “If That Ain’t Country” for example…
Despite cultivating an audience that includes both folk lovers and metalheads, the gorgeously downcast songwriting of Chelsea Wolfe has been mistakenly typecast: The stark cover of Wolfe’s feral, cacophonous 2011 album, Apokalypsis, showed a portrait of the California native with whited-out eyes, an image she has said was intended to…
It’s the Monday after the big game, which means you’re back at the office, standing around the water cooler listening to your most annoying co-worker recreate his favorite Super Bowl commercial in vivid, poorly-acted detail. Excruciating, right? No fear. 5 o’clock is on its way, and this week brings a…
Vagabond Gods @ Rogue Bar|2/2/13For a band like Vagabond Gods, Rogue Bar is the perfect place: rough around the edges, obscure, uh, rogue. As we’ve talked about before, lead singer/screamer and guitarist Bryant Vazquez also divides his time between three other projects. First, there’s Sedona’s decker., where Vazquez plays bass,…
Z-Trip @ Axis/Radius|2/2/13Whatchu know ’bout Z-Trip? In all seriousness, if you asked this question to any of your local peers, I’m willing to bet that nine out of ten will know the ubiquitous DJ name, eight out of ten will know him personally, or claim to know him personally, from…
Jimmy Webb @ Musical Instrument Museum|2/1/13It’s always interesting hearing an alternate version of a popular song. That’s one of the appeals of live music. But that version is especially worthwhile when it’s the original version by the original artist. Such is the case at a Jimmy Webb concert. A prolific…
Paul Oakenfold @Wild Knight|2/1/13Even before veterans like Benny Benassi stepped foot into the EDM worlds, UK DJ Paul Oakenfold was merging the worlds of pop and electronic music. He’s been at it for four decades. He might not be the first name EDM fans name-drop when discussing their favorite DJs,…
Pinback @ Crescent Ballroom|1/31/13After interviewing singer/guitarist Rob Crow and having an at-length discussion of Star Wars, my expectations for Pinback’s live show were set pretty high. He said somewhat vaguely, “Everybody agrees these are the best shows that we’ve ever played,” which made me feel a little skeptical, but the…
Tim Fogarty and Kristian Dunn are two musicians who hate constricting genre labels. These two California-based music makers are known collectively as El Ten Eleven and they make super-duper music that’s not quite math rock, not exactly experimental, and not 100 percent pop. Dunn is a wiz at playing his…
If you haven’t seen Ben Andersen out at any Valley clubs lately, it isn’t because the house and nu-disco DJ/producer known as Swookie Monster is hiding out at home or anything. In fact, he isn’t even in the Valley at all. Although his two-man collaborative project TABS with Tempe’s Eric…
Amber Harrold Harrold is the owner of CamelBackpackers: A Phoenix Hostel. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? NPR or 106.7 KWSS-FM. What’s the first album you bought? Salt-n-Pepa, Very Necessary. I remember…
If you don’t know Bryant Vazquez from his solo work, you might know him from his three other projects — as bassist in Sedona’s decker. or as guitarist in Murdoch with Flagstaff indie rockers Them Savages. But his work with his brother, Chris Vazquez, under the moniker Vagabond Gods is…
The weekend is finally here! You’re going to want to spend it checking out live music around Phoenix, right? Allow us to help with the top five must-see shows this weekend…
Local DJ and jack of all trades William Reed is a busy guy. When we spoke a couple months ago about the end of the weekly Sticky Fingers dance party, he revealed his plans to start Risky Business, a Thursday night dance party at Gypsy Bar, and his plans to…
