By Steve Jansen A few weeks ago in a recent Noise Boy column, I wrote about Eric Graf and the fellows who front Carillons. Well, before they formed this epic electro-indie outfit, they had another just-as-epic group called Ecclesia. Here’s a song called “Screenery” from Ecclesia’s 2006 debut Birdsong Over…
I know what you’re thinking: The Booze Pig has finally drunk himself stupid — is this guy really going to review a sports bar? Well, let me start by saying that the hole in question used to be called the Copper Coin and, back in its day, it was my…
Rock ‘n’ roll has had a hefty impact on American pop culture and identity for the past 50 years or so, more often than not intersecting with our politics and whatever social unrest afflicts us at the time. With Independence Day right around the corner, we’re celebrating some of the…
Two-time Grammy winner Common, 36, is best known for his socially conscious rhymes on albums like Be and, more recently, Finding Forever, but that probably won’t be the case for long. Like so many rappers, he’s been bitten by the acting bug. Last year, he appeared in shoot-’em-up Smokin’ Aces…
THURSDAY 3 Axis/Radius: Divine Ladies Night with MCB & DJ Devine (various) Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: Greed Thursdays (hip-hop, electro) Club Forbidden: Lips Thursdays with DJs Domenica, Hill, & MJ (various) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Chip Fu, Bukue One, Pickster One, DJ Element,…
Underwater Getdown’s not real big on linear arrangement, with its various instruments intruding on choruses and bridges and taking the songs for wild swings around the meter. There’s some good, moody songwriting here, and some nice melodies, but stylistically, UG is all over the place. Some songs, like “Monrovia,” have…
Over the years, reviewers aplenty have wished for Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo to grow up. But when he’s occasionally tried to do so, the results have served as an argument for endless adolescence — at least until now. The group’s latest self-titled release is practically a novelty disc, albeit a notably…
The Beautiful Bodies’ debut, Touch Me, is an awkward and only occasionally rewarding combination of pale Yeah Yeah Yeahs mimickry and roaring classic rock. It’s as if Karen O hijacked Rush before either party was fully formed. Bodies frontwoman Alicia Solo, for all her stage appeal and self-promotional charisma, has only…
This politically and socially conscious hip-hop collective from Denver hit big in April with its song “Handlebars,” off its second album, Fight with Tools. The tune tackles topics like gas-guzzling SUVs, corporate greed, and nuclear holocausts within the framework of a melody that could’ve been cribbed from playground sing-alongs. The…
In 1991, 16volt founder Eric Powell had a vision: He wanted to merge the gritty, primal guitars of garage rock and punk with the relentless machinistic throttle and hum of industrial beats. The result was a barrage of “coldwave” songs brimming with blips and glitches on 16volt’s 1993 debut album,…
There’s an infamous video on YouTube of iconic Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook “DJing” at Serbia’s EXIT festival in 2006. And by “DJing” we mean twisting knobs on an equalizer like a coked-up hamster while the Tom Neville track “Just Fuck” plays. This revealing vid (and similar…
By Jonathan McNamara I was running late. I grabbed my camera gear and sped off toward Yucca Tap Room to cover the Kirkwood Dellinger CD release party. By the time I walked in tiny venue was already packed to capacity and I had to fight my way through PBR-guzzling crowd…
By Benjamin Leatherman I really wanted to go see Tom Waits a couple weeks ago. Sorta badly actually. So much so that I had the following debate with myself over whether or not to attack Ticketmaster’s Web site and drop a c-note to get my hands on some ducats for…
Glam on Friday, June 27th and Saturday, June 28th. By Lilia Menconi We may not have Glam anymore but we’ve got a butt-load of photos in the slideshow. Oh, God, it can’t be true. Glam closing? Really? Nnnnnooooo!!!!! It’s no secret that Glam has been our hands-down favorite club for…
This week’s flier is for a show featuring Phoenix avant indie rockers Emperors of Japan and loony local rockers The Necronauts. We’re not quite sure what it means — maybe that’s Satan or Ming the Merciless in the middle, and the signs along the bottom are letters from the American Sign Language alphabet. I think they spell “SAWA.” Not quite sure what that means, either.
Almost any band can sound decent on a studio record. Enough overdubs, multi-tracking, knob twisting, and processing can make even the crappiest of garage bands sound like disciplined, precise musicians. The true test of a band’s talent is the live show – not just the sound and cohesiveness, but the energy and the connection between band and audience.
By Joseph Golfen Jerryd Bayless was in a tough spot. Two towering players blocked his path, but the Phoenix native was determined to take it to the hoop. He swerved between the two giants, jumped and seemingly flew toward the backboard. Gracefully juggling the ball from hand to hand to…
By Benjamin Leatherman Rockzone Records, 1721 East Warner Road in Tempe, isn’t your typical music store. It’s more of a haven for vinyl junkies like our music columnist Steve Jansen, who prefer their sounds to flow from an old-school needle and groove instead of some new-fangled iPod or CD player…
For the past six weeks, I’ve been asking local bands to send their CDs to me for review in this weekly “You Asked for It” blog. The original idea was that bands who complained about not getting coverage from us while we covered “inferior” local bands could finally get what they wanted – and the original premise was that a lot of these local CDs would suck (some of the complainers had actually sent me their CDs, and I didn’t like the music, so I declined to write a negative review, which meant no review at all). I vowed to review every single local CD sent my way (in the order they were received), and write my honest opinions, for good OR bad.
By Jonathan McNamara Experimental epic or Halloween soundtrack? This is the question you must answer by listening to RPM Orchestra. Today’s track “Fields of Gavotte” will be appearing on the orchestra’s album which will be released “later this summer,” so sayeth the orchestra. For more information, check out RPM Orchestra…
Normally, my Monday blog is devoted to “Niki’s Weekend Word,” but this past weekend was a bust for me – not because there was nothing going on, but because 1) I felt ill, and 2) It takes $65 to fill my gas tank and less than three days for me to go through it when I’m driving to clubs all over the Valley.
The latter challenge has led me to become one of those “hypermilers,” people who try to save on gas by doing simple things like not accelerating like a drag racer when red lights turn green (like those idiots who put spoilers on their 80s-model Hondas and suddenly think they’re Tony Stewart) and not doing 75 mph in a 55 mph zone on the freeway.
Here are a handful of shows that were just announced this week.
