I wasn’t being hyperbolic when I called St Ranger the most promising young band in Phoenix in my list of personal favorite records from last year. The indie pop band’s newest five-track LP, Life Coach, proves my point, brimming with harmonious group vocals, jangly guitar interplay, and chill atmospherics. The…
Editor’s Note: A version of this article appears in this week’s issue, featuring 100 Songs that Defined Arizona. In celebration of Arizona’s centennial, we spoke with Kimber Lanning, whose got musician (Half-String, Letdownright), record store owner (Stinkweeds), and retail activist (Local First Arizona) on her resume. She discussed Sleepwalker’s 1998…
The Sun Club in Tempe. Mad Gardens on Van Buren. The Stumble Inn down in Tucson. In another lifetime (read: more than 25 years ago) these and a dozen other scuzzy dives around Arizona were all ground zero for punk rock.Flash forward to present day and many of the aforementioned spots…
See also: Keep These Tunes Away from Your Valentine’s Playlist You know, it’s not just Valentine’s Day and Arizona’s Centennial Birthday: It’s also New Release Day, a special day that happens once every week when the record labels sound out shiny discs to stores and let you start listening to…
An unusually interesting vehicle recently caught my eye while I was walking around Tempe. It was Matthew Mosher’s musical meditative space rover, Tranquility. Needless to say, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.Tranquility is all about transporting a sound experience wherever its operator goes. Tranquility, a solar-powered contraption which is…
He stomps. He hollers. He yodels and howls. Scott H. Biram also plays guitar, shakes tambourines and basically, utilizing various effects, makes more of a racket on stage then one man should be allowed the pleasure. But it is a pleasure for Biram, whose music has been featured on FX’s…
Admit it, you don’t know much about The Jesus and Mary Chain beyond puzzling over what Bill Murray whispered to Scarlett Johansson at the end of Lost in Translation. It’s okay, you’re not alone. Jedidiah Foster, the singer and guitarist of The Bittersweet Way introduced his bandmates to The Jesus…
Editor’s Note: An abridged version of this article appears in this week’s issue, featuring 100 Songs that Defined Arizona. In celebration of Arizona’s centennial, we’ve rounded up sound clips for (almost) everyone featured in our list, and will be rolling them out over the course of the week. “Not alone…
Editor’s Note: A version of this article appears in this week’s issue, featuring 100 Songs that Defined Arizona. In celebration of Arizona’s centennial, we spoke songwriter Howe Gelb, who has led the constantly mutating Giant Sand in Tucson and all around the world since 1985. Gelb is known for his…
Want to know what new release discs and platters are moving across the Valley at local record stores? We’ve got you covered with another installment of What’s Selling. Adele came up big at the Grammy’s Sunday, but she’s nowhere to be seen on Hoodlums list of weekly top-sellers. It’s quite…
Doesn’t matter if you’re like me and have been mostly indifferent to fun. in the past, the band’s new single, “We are Young (featuring Janelle Monáe)” has been inescapable over the past few weeks. The song’s huge, and sounds like it was custom built for a car commercial (and yeah…
New Times Soundcheck 2012 Night 1 New Times Soundcheck kicked off with 14 diverse and talented bands. Regardless of personal tastes, every performer was entertaining to watch. Like most music festivals, the artists played at overlapping times and made for some difficult decisions. Fortunately, the festival is arranged so that…
Editor’s Note: An abridged version of this article appears in this week’s issue, featuring 100 Songs that Defined Arizona. In celebration of Arizona’s centennial, we spoke with Eric Swedlund, a writer, photographer, editor, and all-around-good-dude in Tucson, Arizona, about “We Got Cactus,” sort of an unofficial Tucson anthem, which coincidentally…
Lenny Kravitz Comerica Theatre Sunday, February 12, 2012 Lenni and Lenny, together at last. Until last night, I had been waiting years to say that. The baby-making music was full-speed ahead at Lenny Kravitz’s show Sunday night. Clearly, the crowd was disgustingly excited, everyone on their feet before Kravitz even…
Fresh off his stint in the hospital, things are starting to normalize for Brad Dwyer. We were happy to have Jeff Owens, musician and mini-comic artist extraordinaire, fill in last week, but it’s nice to have Dwyer back. This week, Dwyer creates a whole new punk rock subset, adding “home-core,”…
If Adele could rap, she probably would have won that Grammy as well. Sunday night’s Grammy Awards made for interesting viewing, with Adele’s sweep, some amazing tributes, performances, and a downright weird and horrible showing from Nicki Minaj. Host LL Cool J opened up with a prayer for Whitney Houston,…
Last night’s Grammy Awards was a mixed bag, but it was hard not to well up a bit hearing Paul McCartney sing “Golden Slumbers.” It wasn’t his first performance of the night — he started off with a performance of “My Valentine,” from his strangely titled new record, Kisses on…
A week ago, the Superbowl inspired Volkswagen to fork up millions to rework its Darth Vader commercial of Superbowls past. The New York Football Giants’ victory over Sith Lord Bill Belichick and his Patriots moved Giants fans to celebrate. Most fans were moved to the kitchen to grab a final celebratory Bud Light before calling it a night. One particularly famous fan and host of yesterday’s 54th Grammy Awards Ceremony, LL Cool J, was moved to write the song “Super Baller,” a Giant’s victory anthem that samples the NFL horns you hear at the beginning of every NFL broadcast.
New Times Soundcheck Saturday, February 11, 2012 Club Red Two stages: check. Fourteen bands: check. Sound: check. The New Times Soundcheck Festival concluded last night at Club Red with 14 kickass local acts. Day two emulated Friday’s kickoff with a varied musical palate that included an injection of Valley hip-hop…
Casey Donahew Band Denim & Diamonds Friday, February 10, 2012 “Up all night sippin’ on whiskey n’ drinkin’ beer.” Well that definitively described the concert by the Casey Donahew Band last night. The energy level was so high, you almost didn’t notice that drummer TAZ was missing. He was in…
New Times Soundcheck Friday, February 10, 2012 Club Red It’s been a great week for local music fans. The much-anticipated 100 Years of Music That Defined Arizona article came out a couple days ago, and we’re halfway through a pretty big music festival. Check out the full Phoenix New Times…
This weekend is going to be busy in the Valley of the Sun. Not only is New Times invading Club Red/Red Owl for Soundcheck Festival 2012, featuring Glass Heroes, Sugar Thieves, The Love Me Nots, Father Figures, Jason Devore, Crusher Sound System, The Insects, and many many more, but there…
