Los Amigos Invisibles, Crescent Ballroom, 9/13/12

See also: Los Amigos Invisibles Tried to Make a Pop RecordLos Amigos Invisibles and B-Side Players @ Crescent Ballroom | Thursday, September 13, 2012 The bleachers that cradle Crescent’s backwall were uncharacteristically vacant last night when Venezuela’s feisty funk fellas, Los Amigos Invisibles, breezed through town. I was one of…

Jeffrey Wiles, What Are You Listening To?

See also: Douglas Proce, What Are You Listening To? See also: Ryan Gaumont, What Are You Listening To? Jeffrey WilesThe stand-up comedian performs at the Hidden House in Phoenix Wednesday, September 26 at 9 p.m. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station…

DJ Filthy Flip on Why He’s A One Man Wolfpack

See also: Collective Chaos on Misconceptions About Scottsdale DJs See also: Pilots on Their Airplane Shtick, Harry Potter Obsession, and Busting Into the Local DJ SceneBy his own admission, Filthy Flip still has plenty a lot to learn about the world of EDM. The fresh-faced local DJ is a relatively…

10 Favorite Concerts of the Summer

See also: Top Five Must-See Shows This Weekend See also: Five Albums Every Man Should Have In His Bachelor Pad See also: 10 Black Pop Stars Who Should Go Country See also: Maynard James Keenan: These Are the End of DaysWe don’t want to jinx it, but a string of…

Swans and Xiu Xiu, Crescent Ballroom, 9/13/12

See also: Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart: “Gnarly and Deep” See also: Swans’ Michael Gira Returns With The SeerSwans and Xiu Xiu @ Crescent Ballroom| Wednesday, September 12, 2012It was a night worth gutting one’s helpless past. Guys with goatees in the front row were pounding their fists on the stage;…

Blake Mills: Fiona Apple’s Guitarist Makes Killer Pop on His Own

Blake Mills isn’t a household name, but like classic sidemen of lore (David Lindley, Ry Cooder, Leon Russell), he’s makes an impact wherever he shows up. As a guitarist in Fiona Apple’s band (he’s performing with her on Tuesday, September 18, at Mesa Arts Center), Lucinda Williams, Cass McCombs, Billy…

Five Albums Every Man Should Have In His Bachelor Pad

For those who are really terrible in this life, I imagine a special hell: reality TV hell. This awful place will be populated by the combined casts of Jersey Shore and The Bachelor Pad, two of the most painful shows ever. Why would I want to watch a television show…

The Walkmen Can’t Be Beat on Heaven

See also: The Walkmen @ Clubhouse (2010)The Walkmen didn’t set out to write a “dad rock” album with their seventh album Heaven — though that’s exactly how the press received it. It doesn’t help that the record’s photos feature the band members surrounded by their kids and spouses, or that…

Little Feat @ Talking Stick Resort

In 1969, when Little Feat was formed by keyboardist Bill Payne and the just-fired Mothers of Invention guitarist Lowell George, 40-year-old bands didn’t exist. Yet 43 years later, Little Feat’s still cranking out their original brand of Southern boogie, which merges funk, jazz, blues, gospel, folk, soul, rock, and New…

Fiona Apple Knows the Secret’s in the (Obsessive) Details

Like any great artist, Fiona Apple is uncompromising in pursuit of her muse. Her vision is exceptionally personal and uniquely her own. Beyond intimate, it runs to the brink of claustrophobia. Most confessional songwriters wear their hearts on their sleeves; Apple pulls the still pumping mess out of her chest…

Pretty Lights Assemble an Intricate Puzzle

In the two years that Derek Vincent Smith, the man behind dance music juggernaut Pretty Lights, has been tirelessly working on his new record, yet untitled, his genre, EDM, has blown up into a international phenomenon. Two years — that’s equal to 14 in both EDM production and dog years,…

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

Thursday 13 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bobby Q’s: DJ Phlava, MC Focus, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, reggae, R&B) Cadillac Ranch: Thirsty Thursdays with DJ Dario, & DJ Kyko (various) Crescent Ballroom: Discothèque Thursdays with Sean Watson, Hoodwink, & more (disco) Dollhouse:…

Los Amigos Invisibles @ Crescent Ballroom

What happens when you cross acid jazz, disco, funk, and a performance-driven Latin dance troupe from New York by way of Venezuela? You get the sexy sounds of Latin Grammy winners Los Amigos Invisibles. The six-piece ensemble left its underground hometown scene 20 years ago to trot the globe and…

Otep @ Joe’s Grotto

Get ready for some unleashed feminine fury: One Eyed Doll, Butcher Babies, and Otep are coming to town. It’s a match made in the netherworld: One Eyed Doll mixes punk and metal with a unique Mad Hatter bent, that is if the Mad Hatter had decided to dismember all his…

The Walkmen @ Crescent Ballroom

The Walkmen didn’t set out to write a “dad rock” album with their seventh album, Heaven — though that’s exactly how the press perceived it. It doesn’t help that the record’s photos feature the band surrounded by their kids and spouses, or that songs like the high-and-lonesome “Southern Heart,” the…

Krewella @ Wild Knight

The mission of Chicago-based EDM trio Krewella is simple: They want you to lose your shit when listening to their shit. In order to do so, says vocalist/producer Yasmine Yousaf, they’ve injected their remixes of songs like Knife Party’s “Fire Hive” and original tracks like “Feel Me” and “Killin’ It”…