We love Art Detour weekend. Not only does it bring out the best of downtown, but it’s also one event we can cover that doesn’t result in a hangover the next morning. On Friday, March 7, the weekend kicked off with an evening tour of the galleries. And while there…
“We can talk about anything you want, long as you’re naked.” — Congressman David Dilbeck (Burt Reynolds) in the 1996 movie Striptease Striptease is a terrible movie. And there are, without a doubt, a lot of terrible strip clubs. But why is it that we feel we can say anything…
In a world, as Elvis Costello recently described it, full of noisy things, it takes a lot of perseverance and guts to be quiet. If Ceilings, the Equal Vision debut album from local four-piece Alive In Wild Paint is any indication, the band is on a mission to spread tranquility…
Despite An Abstract Love Story’s playfully ribald themes, orgasmic vocal snippets, and big-person talk of wine and toking cabbage, one just can’t shake a rather juvenile image: that indecisive protagonist from childhood cartoons, the voices of heavenly reason and deviltry whispering in each of his ears. On one shoulder there’s…
It goes without saying that Sepultura’s indelible impact on metal hinged on the chemistry between the band’s sibling co-founders, Max and Igor Cavalera. But despite the buzz surrounding their reunion, Inflikted (the pair’s first collaboration in more than 10 years) sounds more like the product of a weekend spent jamming…
Sheryl Crow is back to her old self after the fiasco that was 2005’s Wildflower. By renewing her partnership with Bill Bottrell (who produced her first CD in 1993), she comes up with a selection of infectious pop tunes reminiscent of her earliest efforts. “Gasoline” and “Love Is Free?” have…
In the beginning (i.e., 1978), the music gods created The Beat. And verily, the firmament known as Birmingham, England, brought forth a mighty 2-tone ska revivalist group, infused with sped-up reggae beats and poppy dancehall sounds and fronted by co-vocalists Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger. And it was good. Their…
Everybody together now: Anoint my phallus with the blood of the FALLEN!! With that quaint little sing-along, South Carolina death metal institution Nile takes cock rock to an all new level. Potential latent menstruation envy aside, you gotta give Nile leader Karl Sanders credit for sticking to his, uh …
Last time we checked, the Scandinavian cognoscenti don’t dole out Nobel Prizes for genius DJs. But if they did (and Lord knows they should), we’re sure DJ Nos would get such an honor. Why, pray tell? Simply because the cat brained up the brilliant idea of pairing bangin’ beats with…
By: Jonathan McNamara Green food coloring and clover do not a happy St. Patty’s Day make. It takes proper Irish food, proper Irish brew and of course proper Irish music. Enter our friends Flogging Molly who will be paying Phoenix a visit this March 16-17 at Tempe Town Lake. Haven’t…
THURSDAY 6 Axis/Radius: Ladies Night (Top 40, rock, dance) Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bobby C’s: Willy B. (old-school R&B) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Casey Jones: Da Gutter Thursdays with DJ Soulman (hip-hop, Top 40) Cherry Lounge: DJ M2 (rock, ’80s, old school, hip-hop) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Pickster Uno, DJ Element, Emerg McVay,…
Los Angeles is, at best, a transient city filled with transitory dreamers. They come in all varieties these days: actors from Sioux Falls, rockers from Detroit, photographers from Reno, and immigrants from places most of us will never bother to find on a map. Consequently, the people in the City…
I’ve just arrived at the Nello’s pizza joint in Old Town Scottsdale, where I’m meeting friends to check out the Rachel Eckroth Trio. I’m cold, wet, and freaking late, because people in this town turn into their Buick Century-driving grandma whenever it rains. I spot my pals at a table,…
Pepsi fires, plastic surgery disasters, and child molestation accusations aside, Michael Jackson is a genius. Some people may laugh at that statement, but those folks probably aren’t included among the more than 104 million people who bought copies of Jacko’s 1983 record, Thriller, which remains the best-selling album of all…
Operatic crossover Sarah Brightman, speaking on The Early Show about her new album, Symphony, said: “It’s got a little bit of dark and light in it. It’s quite gothy and rocky. On the other hand, it’s quite operatic as well.” The soprano left out the album’s most important detail: It’s…
The East Valley beckoned once again for a Saturday-night gallivant. This time, we poked around in Old Town and slid into Pattie’s 1st Avenue Lounge to drink a few rounds with the locals.(Click here for more photos.) Things started to fire up around 10, evidence that the place is a…
In the past five or 10 years, indie rock’s subgenres have been multiplying like bacteria. Dream pop, shoegaze, sadcore, slowcore . . . one has to be a scholar to keep them straight. Ida deserves a tag all its own — “minimalist folk” or “quietcore folk-rock.” We can’t comment on…
Lenny Kravitz hates it when critics call him retro, contending that love, revolution, and smooching should belong to every generation. But the problem with Kravitz’s new album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, is not just its bland message; it’s that it rips off artists like David Bowie, Led…
Talented songwriter k.d. lang clearly has learned a few things from spending so much time around Tony Bennett. The two have been recording together since they released 2002’s A Wonderful World, and on her latest disc, you can hear the influence of Bennett in her approach to singing. Throughout Watershed,…
The Mars Volta switches gears on its fourth album, giving beat-propelled dance pop a spin. We kid! The Bedlam in Goliath is stuffed with nine-minute alt-prog epics — the type the band has refined to blood-drawing sharpness over the past seven years. We’re not quite sure what singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala…
When political times get tough, artists get dreamy. Stuck in the Vietnam War and immersed in the civil rights movement, musicians in the ’60s engaged in psychedelic escapism. Fumbling through the Iraq War and trapped in the murky quicksand of the economy, the current political tenor resembles the chaotic ’60s…
Old Time Relijun subscribes to three basic tenets of life: Eat, drink, fuck. Bred in Olympia, Washington, the band’s sound is primal and urgent — as if barnyard animals were rioting through an uppity art college. The three-piece, fronted by enigmatic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Arrington de Dionyso, makes music like…
