Today Dan Gibson, a Phoenix-based contributor to Idolator, e-mailed me about two shows we haven’t mentioned here yet, but which are definitely worth telling you about.Leonard Cohen is coming to Dodge Theatre on April 5 (presale tickets Tuesday) and Depeche Mode is coming. We didn’t get the Depeche Mode press…
Rarely will you find me at a Scottsdale dance club on a Saturday night — if you’re looking for an Up on the Sun contributor, keep your eyes peeled for Kelly Wilson — but, if you do, there’s a very high probability it will be at The Rogue for “Sir”…
It’s one thing to have a musical career that’s lasted more than a quarter-century. Impressive? Sure. Noteworthy? Not really — plenty of popular artists have pulled it off by this point. It’s quite another thing to have a musical career of comparative anonymity that lasts more than a quarter-century. When,…
Well, that was fast! The day after Mike Meyer’s feature on them ran in our print edition, local death metal band Landmine Marathon have announced they’ve signed with Prosthetic Records, home to critically lauded (by death-metal standards) acts such as Lamb of God, Gojira, and All That Remains. They’re also…
So if you’ve been reading our news blog, Valley Fever, you probably came across a link to a story about a Tuscon punk band called The Awful Truth who’s pissed off the entire town by using a photo of a slain city policeman on the cover of their record, Kill…
Old-timey prog-rockers Yes have canceled the rest of their “In The Present Tour,” including the show scheduled for Wednesday at Dodge Theatre. Bassist Chris Squire, the only member of the band to appear on every album, underwent surgery on his leg on February 11, and says his doctor told him…
It was announced this week that SXSW will be getting yet another addition to its already fruitful lineup: Tinted Windows. The band consists of Taylor Hanson (Hanson, duh), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) and Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne). It’s an eclectic group, that’s for sure,…
So after sitting through two hours of complete pap Tuesday night as American Idol’s first group of 12 attempted to stay on key long enough to get halfway-decent remarks from the judges, you’d think we’d deserve a break, right? In the Land of the Sea-douche, however, there is no rest…
The Edge 103.9 appears to have finally gotten a clue. For the past two months I’ve berated the local alt-rock station for its habit of booking aging ’90s throwbacks like Marcy Playground and Sponge to headline the Third Thursday concert series in Scottsdale (sample my vitriol here and here) instead…
Now that the chill of winter is starting to subside (temps are supposed to get into the high 70s) you’ve got little excuse to stay cooped up inside your domicile this weekend. Why not book it to the ongoing Renaissance Festival, or perhaps take a splendid moonlight hike? Better yet,…
The Game’s reckless, bizarre, whiny tendencies make him a wholly unique hip-hop character. Though the Compton native is among the handful of rap stars who still have platinum potential, he’s no gangsta superhero like collaborator-turned-foe 50 Cent, and he’s no drug-addled weirdo savant like Lil Wayne. His flow is much…
There are few rap songs as important to modern culture as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” a rallying cry against African-American communities for their political indifference. Well, it’s been 20 years since frontman Chuck D helped scare the hell out of white America, and a black man now sits in…
THURSDAY 19 Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: Scandalous Thursday with DJ Juan Rocha (house, electronica) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Pickster Uno, DJ Element, & more (hip-hop) Copper State Tavern: Thursday Night Artist Spotlight (hip-hop) Rogue West: Vinyl Invasion with Maniac Moss (rock, garage, New Wave) FRIDAY 20…
Even witnessing it up-close and in person, the transformation is hard to believe. Grace Perry, a naturally pretty, soft-spoken 23-year-old college student and librarian, is about to turn into a monster. On a Thursday night in late January, the five members of Landmine Marathon are rehearsing at their small, unadorned…
Like it or not, DJ William Fucking Reed’s debaucherous weekly dancefest Shake! has been a Saturday-night institution for booty-shaking hepcats around P-town since launching in 2005. And after four years of rocking the Rogue Bar in Scottsdale, it’s still managing to survive and thrive amidst an ever-turbulent nightlife scene. One…
It’s said that “a Sunday well spent brings a week of content,” which is why for the past few years we’ve been spending the last night of our weekends tuned into local NPR station KJZZ (91.5 FM on your radio dial) for Bob Corritore’s program Those Lowdown Blues. Every week…
Perhaps you’ve heard of a band called Modest Mouse. They had a 2004 song, “Float On,” that quite possibly everyone in America and at least three other continents knew the lyrics to. Perhaps you’re also a fan of Morrissey and his band, The Smiths, which featured Johnny Marr on lead…
Lisa Hannigan has quickly become a hot commodity since breaking off from her collaboration with Damien Rice, especially in her native Ireland. The singer’s solo debut, Sea Sew, was recently released in the States and has been nominated for a Choice Music Prize, an award given to the best Irish…
Hellraisin’ runs in alt-country badass Hank Williams III’s family. His granddad, the patron saint of country music, was a serious drinker and drugger who checked out in the backseat of a Caddy on the way to a gig on New Year’s Eve 1953, and his daddy, who in his prime…
It’s apparently gonna be a big weekend for drum ‘n’ bass fans. In addition to the launch of the new Influx Friday monthly dance party over at Draw 10, a slew of local turntablists will be bringing the boom to Cajun restaurant Chez Monieux, 5004 South Price Road in Tempe,…
In this line of work, feeling a little old on the job is an occupational hazard. Still, few times have I felt more disconnected from the concertgoers around me than I did walking in during the last two songs by critically despised teeny-bopping post-hardcore act I Set My Friends on…
After a mass backlash from its users, Facebook is trying to make nice after the Consumerist posted an item stating that the social networking Web site owns everything its users upload, even after deleting their profiles. The site will revert back to its old terms of use, according to a…
