Thousands of independent record labels are started each year, some more successful than others. Over the past decade, as major label profits have declined thanks to file sharing and even legal downloading, independent labels have been searching for a new, more effective method to turn a profit. The Valley’s Mike Zimmerlich…
The idea of Scottsdale resident Jerry Lawson, onetime leader of The Persuasions, one of the most prominent a cappella group of ’60s and ’70s, competing on NBC’s a cappella competition The Sing Off seems crazy. But that’s exactly what happened last season, when the popular Nick Lachey-hosted show featured Lawson…
Iron & Wine Crescent Ballroom 12/2/11 How much saxophone is too much saxophone? You might want to ask the young lady who passed out during the extended dub-into-free jazz-psychedelic blues skronk of “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog),” the fifth song played by Iron & Wine last night at Crescent…
Well, it’s December, which means you can’t avoid it any longer: it’s time to start Christmas shopping. That’s my plan at least, a desperate attempt to get it done sometime before, oh, December 23, as is my usual scramble. But there’s plenty of music going on, too. After you get…
Drip, drip, drop. There’s nothing quite as soothing as a nice little December shower to cool the senses. Unless of course if you throw in a nice hot cup of coffee and some acoustic musings by Tucson pop rockers, Steff Koeppen and the Articles. Koeppen along with a violinist from…
For the past year, Future Loves Past has been playing around town, rocking the Valley with their ’70s rock-meets-indie sound, but something was missing.They built up a solid fan base, but those fans couldn’t really hear the band outside of local shows. Now, with the release of their first EP,…
You know the drill. Halloween wraps up, holidays come around, you step into a store and KAPOW. Whapped in the face and knocked about the ears by a whole mess of lousy sounds. You’ve just been assaulted by “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” for what you hope is…
If you’ve never heard World Class Thugs’ heady mix of Americana, psychedelia, Kurt Weill and just plain ol’ weird, might I suggest imagining what it might sound like if Scout, Jem and Dill of To Kill a Mockingbird making up songs about the creepy adults of that hot summer, truthful…
Lisa Whealy Whealy is the CEO of Surface to Air Records and owner of Mountain Music Promotions. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Radio iPod. What’s the first album you bought? Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Works Volume 2. What’s the…
Ladies and gentlemen, The Blind Boys of Alabama have gone country. Well, kind of. The long running gospel group, which formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind way back in 1939, released Take the High Road in April of this year. Featuring Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, The…
The fans who run this Tumblr love the hell out of The Maine. How do I know? They’ve got nearly 950 pages worth of Maine-related material!Everyone seems to love The Maine, which is why we’re giving you more of them, courtesy of The Maine Daily.More on what’s awesome about this…
Do you ever feel like every band has a clothing line? Rock-beats-electro duo Analog Sweat and the Native American clothing company UN3EK SY5TEM are connected (but separate), and the ties connecting the two run deeper than the fact that Tyson “Illfranklyn” Powless is involved in both. The music and the…
Rachael Yamagata with Mike Viola Crescent Ballroom Wednesday, November 30 I first heard Rachael Yamagata two years ago when she opened for folk/rock duo Swell Season at the Mesa Arts Center. She played for only 45 minutes that night, but made a lasting impression with her witty banter and heartfelt…
What do Fugazi and The Grateful Dead have in common? The similarities go beyond diehard fans and a few experimental instrumental tracks. These Washington, D.C. post-hardcore juggernauts have joined the ranks of live-oriented acts like The Grateful Dead and Phish by sharing an archive of over 800 live recordings as…
The weather in Phoenix is finally starting to cool down. Lots of people have geared up by dusting off their jackets and/or uselessly wearing Ugg boots and scarves even though it’s really not cold enough for that crap. (Is it ever cold enough for Uggs?) ‘Tis the season to catch…
New York is a magical place for a lot of musicians. Frank Sinatra, Jay-Z, and U2 have all sung songs about The City That Never Sleeps, and joining the neverending roster is local folky pop band The Wiley One, with the band’s new track “Thank You New York.”The song was inspired…
We hate to generalize about festival attendance, but oh, well: Hipsters have Coachella, hippies have Bonnaroo, metal fans have the Big 4, and indie kids have South by Southwest. But what about pop music diehards? The kids? Well, cancel that road trip out to Jingle Ball or an iHeartRadio Music…
It must be frustrating, confining, and sad to be a teen star — rather, to have been a teen star. Your audience comes to adore you and fixes you in their minds just the way they love you, just the way you are. Or just the way you used to…
There’s mysterious, and then there’s mysterious as defined by Tom Waits, a songwriter who’s maintained an air of impenetrable mystique. In an interview with website Radical Wacko, Waits expressed a fondness for Tucson’s Bob Log III. “It’s just the loudest, strangest stuff you’ve ever heard,” Waits said of the motorcycle-and-jumpsuit…
People — maybe not the kind you want to associate with, but people nonetheless — will pay good money to be peed and shit upon, because, for them, it’s all about the way humiliation makes them feel, I dunno, giddy. On the other side of the uncomfortable spectrum, you have…
Phoenix songwriter Eddy Detroit walks slowly and talks fast. Both qualities are easy to account for. At 59, his body is worn from years of psychedelic experimentation, S&M sex, and a mix of what he describes as Karmic retribution and ailments passed down through his Lebanese heritage. But his mind…
There’s a rumor that East Coast electronica artist The Juan MacLean is reportedly more machine than man. Though it might just be shtick (or one of those kooky musician affectations), there is ample proof to support the idea that the 40-something is an automaton: album titles like Der Half-Machine and…
