The crowd outside Holgas gallery in downtown Phoenix has swelled to nearly 100. From the apartments above the gallery, cigarette smoke rises in the November chill, drifting into a mass as two girls and a guy fiddle with amps and speakers on a makeshift stage. The crowd grows as passersby…
Over the past year or so — since just before last December’s release of 8 Diagrams — legendary hip-hop crew the Wu-Tang Clan has become its own reality show, what with all the infighting over creative direction (RZA versus Ghostface and Raekwon) and the bona fide superstars (Method Man, Ghostface)…
Reviewing Black Ice, AC/DC’s latest album, one critic summed up its strengths thusly: “Sounds exactly like every other AC/DC release.” And its weaknesses? “Sounds exactly like every other AC/DC release.” That pithy assessment gets to the heart of this band’s remarkably durable 35-year career: Are they geniuses for being so…
THURSDAY 4 Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: DJ M2 (hip-hop, Top 40) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Pickster Uno, DJ Element, Emerg McVay, & more (hip-hop) Crabby Don’s: DJ Johnny Knuckles (mash-ups, Top 40, ’80s) J-Heads: Southwest Rapstock with DJ Kavi, &…
The central appeal of the Isobel Campbell-Mark Lanegan pairing is simple. Their contrasting singing styles — hers is soft and sweet; his is gruff and gravelly — mesh with surprisingly effective results, like olive oil and vinegar or MSNBC pundits Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan. What Sunday at Devil Dirt…
Back in 2000, Scotland’s Travis had a hit stateside with “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?” It was a pretty, catchy song clearly influenced by The Bends-era Radiohead. Also in 2000, fellow latter-day Brit-poppers Coldplay had a big American hit, “Yellow,” a pretty, catchy song clearly . . …
When a rapper like David Banner decides to name an album The Greatest Story Ever Told, you’re not gonna split hairs with the dude — at least not to his face. Like the mortal whose fury turned him into The Hulk, this bulky Banner also uses his temper to fuel…
On Dressy Bessy’s new album Holler and Stomp, the group finally has its sound to where the band always claimed it was. While they’ve been marketing themselves since they formed almost 10 years ago as punk with an edge of adorable, or adorable with an edge of punk (depending on…
The Partridge Family notwithstanding, sometimes music is a “Family Affair” as shown by Sly & the Family Stone, the brothers Avett, Allman, and Everly, and Chapin Sisters. It hasn’t been scientifically proven that genetics can help a band’s sound (the Everlys, for example, have a fractious relationship), but, hey, it…
Motor City-born Texas maverick J.D. Souther is the sort of fabled musician and artist who rarely exists anymore. I’m a lifelong country-rock idolator, and Souther emerged from my sonic foraging early in my musical journey, soon after my beloved Gene Clark and Gram Parsons, an L.A. titan iconic for his…
The holiday season is all about getting together with your friends and family. So it’s kinda groovy that local EDM fanatics are gonna get the chance to reunite with Joe DiPadova this weekend. The 29-year-old mixmaster, who rocked the house at many a PHX nightspot for years before relocating to…
It may just be the concert that originated the phrase “Big in Japan,” and it’s coming to Surprise (as in: “Surprise! People live this far west!”) Thursday. Cheap Trick at Budokan, the movie, is showing at Ultrastar Surprise Pointe Cinema (as in: Surprise! We have movie theaters this far west!)…
To renew your soul, check the slideshow.It’s pretty obvious that New Times was super excited about the five year anniversary of Treasure Mammal. Truly, there are no amount of blogs or Night & Day pieces that can properly explain the experience that is this one man band. So, naturally, Club…
We honestly can’t imagine too many people care at this point, but we’ve been wrong before, so, in case you do, that chick who had Kevin Federline’s children is coming to Jobing.com Arena on April 24. Britney Spears is back with her “The Circus Starring Britney Spears 2009 Tour” -…
Where: The Roc Bar located at 1400 S. McClintock and just a ten minute walk South from the station. Mind the cars. Drink: “Give us your worst,” we told the two inviting tenders of Roc Bar’s…bar. What we got was a double shot of alcoholic bliss. First up: 100 Cracked Fists…
So, a few weeks back I discussed a band called Evan Brightly that’s got a person’s name, but is actually five people. This week, meet Lisa Savidge, an act that sounds like it’s a woman, but is actually four dudes. And what else is Lisa Savidge? According to their MySpace,…
“The British Rock band The Pretenders with original founder Chrissie Hynde will make a stop in Phoenix to perform at Dodge Theatre on Wednesday, March 4. The tour is the band’s first extensive headlining tour since 2003. The show will begin at 7:30pm. Tickets will go on-sale Monday, December 8…
So we Phoenix media types have been summoned to the U.S. Airways Center Thursday for “a major 2009 concert announcement” at 11:30 a.m. And oh what a press conference it will be, with free lunch and entertainment by The Big Bang as well as the Phoenix Suns dance team and…
Where: El Pueblo Meat Market at 2085 E. Apache in Tempe. You’re going to have to make about a five-minute walk from the stop, which, after only two stops and two drinks, should be doable. Drink: When you find yourself peering into a meat market looking for a drink, you…
We know we’re pimping The Knux a lot lately, but it’s hard to resist. The LA-based hip-hop duo (who recorded the rap album of the year, Remind Me In 3 days…) is coming back town town next weekYes, that’s right next week, a mere three weeks after they were here…
Adult Swim fans — and we know there are a lot of you out there — are about to freak out. Tim and Eric of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fame are coming to Tempe next month as part of a national tour. It’s a follow-up to this…
Whoa! A little turkey and merriment and next thing you know it feels like months since we were hitting the blogosphere full force with all the music, arts and culture it can handle. We’ve got a lot to catch up on: Night Train Up on the Sun is counting down…
