Like a lot of bands looking to scrounge up some funds, Los Angeles guitar-pop combo The World Record turned to Kickstarter. The campaign was a success (with funds going to help their label, Squid vs. Whale, issue their double LP Freeway Special), but now requires the band to drive to…
Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys @ Rhythm Room| 8/29/12Sometimes, different is good. After a long, steady musical diet of mostly rock, jazz, blues and Cuban music, I let my country side out for an evening with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Though, in all honesty, it was pretty…
There are many distinct “walls of sound,” though it might be easy to generalize their impactful effect on ones cranium and aural canal. There’s the Phil Spector recording technique which huddled a number of musicians across an equally scattered array of microphones, resulting in a panoramic, ensconced dynamic warmth. There’s…
See also: Chasers Sold to New Owners and Becomes Pub Rock, A Music Venue With an In-House Radio Broadcasting StudioIf you don’t have any plans for Labor Day Weekend, then you obviously live under a rock…or are one of those agoraphobics or shut-ins. There’s no shortage of concerts and club…
See also: Don Bolles Keeps His Nose Clean See also: Arizona Republic Reporter Don Bolles Was Blown to Pieces 33 Years Ago Today See also: Rebel Yell @ Rouge Bar (Slideshow)Punk rocker Don Bolles shares a name with a particularly legendary AZ Republic reporter in Arizona lore (the dude got…
Mystery is a hard thing to come by in the Internet age, when musicians’ Twitter updates are examined by blogs the way TMZ keeps its lenses pointed at Lohan (just a matter of time). So, electronic indie act Purity Ring’s emergence in 2011 was refreshingly sneaky: Other than buzzing tracks…
Dillon Francis gets down. Earlier this month, he “leaked” a fake tour rider, featuring the kind of items necessary for his kind of party: a blow-up doll, a stuffed piñata, a framed photo of any action star from 1985 to 2005. That’s some goofy shit, but par for the course…
After meeting at hoity-toity Providence art school RISD in 1994, Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson wasted no time paving the way for future noise bands to follow in their scrambled footsteps. The bass-and-drum duo has become known for their unconventional live sets almost as much as for their…
Former Phoenicians Christopher Rutledge and William Fees may have left for Seattle in 2010, but they’ve hardly been laying low in the ancestral homeland of grunge. Instead of wrapping up in flannels and mainlining coffee, the stoner metal duo (guitar and drums, natch) has been on the road. A lot…
One doesn’t simply listen to Angerfist. In fact, hearing the filthy hardcore house produced by the hockey mask-clad Dutchman is more akin to a gory auditory assault on your ears, where relentless waves of murky distortion and high-pitched sirens and atonal sounds pound the cochlea in excess of 300 BPM…
There are two sides to electronic composer Scott Hansen. First, there’s his vintage-inspired, sun-bleached graphic design work as ISO50. Then, there’s his ambient chillwave project Tycho, named after the 16th-century Danish alchemist famed for his accurate work in astronomy. Like Tycho Brahe, Hansen is incredibly precise in his otherworldly and…
Slash is back. That’s not to say the renowned guitarist just got out of rehab or jail or, well, actually went anywhere physically. But after a lengthy career that has found him dabbling in blues, hard melodic rock, and various shades of metal, as well as working with artists as…
Sci-fi thrash-metal band Vektor has seen the future, and it’s a cold, dark place: “A bleak, barren wasteland that has been destroyed by greed, power, corruption, hate, violence, ignorance, and control.” It’s the present, too, Vektor insists, with lyrical themes mirroring their home state of Arizona’s political system. But it…
Thursday 30 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bobby Q’s: Labor Day Weekend Jumpoff with DJ Phlava, MC Focus, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, reggae, R&B) Cadillac Ranch: Thirsty Thursdays with DJ Dario, & DJ Kyko (hip-hop, Top 40) Crescent Ballroom: Discothèque Thursdays with…
See also: Metal Band Vektor Goes Back to the Future In this week’s issue, we speak with Frank Chin, bassist for former Tempe-based sci-fi metal thrash band Vektor, about the band’s recent move to Philadelphia. The quartet may still be settling into their new surroundings, but that doesn’t mean they’ve…
See also: Club Candids: Lingerieve 2012 See also: Club Candids: Doom Disco at Sanctum See also: Club Candids: Chandler SandbarLingerieve 6, the lingerie-themed rave, went on without a hitch, unless you include the issues with the ever-changing venue: It started at Madison Events Center, then moved to Stratus, and finally…
Both Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks had solid, long-running solo careers when they decided to form a band together. That they’d been married almost 10 years made the decision somewhat easier, but in a fickle world of music consumerism, it’s never really easy to start over. Beginning with a blues…
Someone has taken concert creativity to a whole new level. I can’t decide if they’re an idiot or a genius, but their idea is definitely ridiculous; so much so that I’m set on believing it’s just not cool. An announcement was made yesterday that the first in-flight music festival will take…
See also: Two Gallants: Bring out Your DeadFive years is almost an eternity in indie rock circles. You can’t go too long with out releasing a record for fear of losing hard-earned fans to fickle blog followers and whatever new micro-subgenre that pops up. But for Two Gallants, San Franciscans…
See also: Cut Throat Logic Spit Live (Video) See also: Lifted Aims for Timeless Pop, Like His Boss Kanye WestRapper Kendrick Lamar had some choice words about voting earlier this week. Namely, that it’s pointless. “My vote counts? I’m not voting, I don’t do no voting. I will keep it…
As August winds down, it’s time to start thinking about your upcoming Halloween weekend. Believe it or not, there’s better options than sitting at home ripping through your siblings’ candy for all the Reese’s. I would suggest heading over to Axis/Radius for the 12th annual Ghostball, which features two-time Grammy…
See also: NASA’s Curiosity Rover: Here’s the Hi-Res, 360 Degree View of Mars See also: Our 10 Favorite Martian Songs in Honor of Curiosity My faith in humanity reached a new high when headlines concerning the Curiosity Rover flooded Facebook and Twitter. Were people really interested in science again, the…
