I digress. Michaels re-upped his image in 2007 with his VH1 reality dating show Rock of Love, availing himself to a new, younger generation of fans — myself included. The show was beyond a guilty pleasure for myself — it was something I truly enjoyed watching, as “trashy” and whatever…
Genre revivals are interesting phenomena that don’t always occur in chronological order. For example, the current thrash metal revival has been going strong since the early 2000s, but the New Wave of British Heavy Metal sound that served as a precursor to the original thrash uprising in the 1980s is…
Jared Alan used to be the hipster king of Saturday nights. Back during the heyday of the weekly Cheap Thrills wingdings (which have since become a monthly), Mr. FauxShow himself packed ’em by the hundreds for a night of dancing and debauchery. Alan’s flipped the script and switched over to…
It’s fitting that the first song on The Black Angels’ recently released album, Phosphene Dreams, is titled “Bad Vibrations.” The album is chock-full of them. That isn’t to say that the latest record from the Austin psych-rock band is bad, just probably not the type of thing you want to…
In the nearly five decades The Moody Blues have been around, they’ve sold almost 70 million records worldwide, a pretty staggering number that seems almost incomprehensible by today’s standards. But one of the nice things about being a musician before the Internet existed was that people actually bought your music…
For me, Brian McKnight will forever live in a clip from the original 90210, performing for ill-fated couple Donna and Noah in a restaurant somewhere in Los Angeles. Even though I may not need to hear anything from McKnight ever again, after his early 2000s urban adult contemporary heyday slowed…
Michelle Shocked’s sophomore album, Short Sharp Shocked (1988), was a best-selling rebuke of the walkin’-on-sunshine Valium binge that ruled pop music in the late 1980s. Filled with pissed-off-sounding folk-rock paeans to the American condition, the album also sported a magnificently jarring cover image: A black-and-white photo of Shocked (born Michelle…
On the last Friday in April, New Times met local DJs Melo and Pickster at Bar Smith to talk about a new sound they’re helping pioneer in the Valley. It was loud in the downtown Phoenix club, which was gearing up for Sticky Fingers’ first anniversary party, so we found…
Following a decade of relative obscurity operating in the poppier corner of the indiesphere, of Montreal enjoyed a mid-Aughts breakout with the albums Satanic Panic in the Attic and The Sunlandic Twins, as bandleader Kevin Barnes developed a more idiosyncratic stage presence and songwriting and recording processes. Concurrently, of Montreal’s…
THURSDAY 12 27th Avenue Bar: DJ Manage, & DJ Android (Top 40, dance) Afterlife: Thumpin Thurzdays (various) AZ/88: Josh One (rare groove, urban funk) Bar Smith: Splash Thursday (reggae, dancehall, Top 40, house) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (jazz, blues, country, R&B, rarities, vintage) Blue Martini: Rewind Thursday with DJ…
, according to Rolling Stone.Fox News has labeled Common as a “vile rapper” without any support. The claim came suddenly when Michelle Obama invited him to a poetry event at the White House. However, a Fox News interview with Common from 2009 states that the rapper is anything but vile…
Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, has been rocking beats hard since the late ’70s, when he played in bands like Disque Attack and the Housemartins. He achieved mainstream popularity in the ’90s, when “Praise You” blew up as a radio staple. In recent years, Cook has focused on production, stepping…
It’s hard enough holding down regular gigs at country bars, blues clubs, and rock joints around Phoenix, as acoustic troubadour Joe Bethancourt has done since the ’60s. But it’s beyond tough when your house burns down and you lose everything, as Bethancourt’s did on April 30. That’s why several local musicians…
Apparently, any corner of the Internet is free game for music promotion these days. Facebook users accustomed to hearing drizzling midi banjo when they log into Zynga’s Farmville game will be in for a surprise this month — Lady Gaga will be debuting new tracks from her record Born This…
With a name like Dirty Pretty, you’d expect lots of gorgeous gals, and if you’re lucky, ladies that want to get down and dirty. I’m not sure about the dirty half of the equation, but the pretty were out in full force. Check out this week’s Club Candids to see…
What do you call a night of absolutely FUBAR noise, improv musical comedy, a cult recruitment/job seminar, the death of the dunkwave genre, and an experimental Pentecostal church service complete with demented exorcism and cross-dressing?A normal Tuesday night at Trunk Space, of course. …
Bob Marley was such an integral part of bringing reggae to the U.S. that when he died in 1981, the commercial life of reggae almost died with him. But the genre has lived on through reggae acts like Burning Spear, Sly and Robbie, and Steel Pulse. The latter is scheduled…
Halt your plans to visit Chandler tonight to catch Diddy Dirty Money at Ovations Live! Showroom, the new project hip-hop mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs is touring with. According to a Tweet from the man himself (and confirmed by his publicist), Diddy won’t be able to make the show tonight:A…
If you still can’t get enough of that drug called Charlie Sheen, here’s a new fix: a musical collaboration between Sheen and Snoop Dogg called “Winning.” Sheen debuted the video for the song in Detroit on his “Violent Torpedo of Truth” tour last month. Much of Sheen’s audience walked out…
Such is the case for today. Pala — the sophomore album from British dance rockers Friendly Fires — is now streaming in full thanks to the fine folks at the Hype Machine. Details about the album — plus the stream itself — are after the jump…
That claim may not be that far fetched. Gang Gang Dance established a pretty bold sound with 2008’s Saint Dymphna, although that album often fluttered away at times with its hyphy/grime/dubstep aspirations. Eye Contact, however, is chock full of good ol’ electronic/dance goodness. It’s as bizarre as it charming, with…
Back in March, we blogged about the imminent arrival of Tempe Tavern on Apache and McClintock, the new bar set to take up residence in the historic White Dairy Barn building, built in 1918.The bar opened up last weekend, with plenty of nods to classic Phoenix/Tempe bars housed within its…
