Jerry Riopelle is an old-school cat, which means that the singer/songwriter’s been making records longer than almost anybody else in the Valley. As a staff writer and producer for Phil Spector’s Philles Records in Los Angeles, Riopelle wrote his first top 20 hit (“Home of the Brave,” recorded by Bonnie…
It’s not uncommon for a rock group to feature guest spots, rotating personnel, or additional instruments. Add a guitarist here, substitute a vocalist there, mic that kit a bit differently, and the textures change. Usually, the band retains their foundational elements. Not so when the Andrew Jackson Jihad includes a…
This East Valley quartet labels its music as “rock/funk/jazz,” but it’s easy enough to file their self-titled debut under just good ol’ “rock.” Many of the songs feature piano alongside precise rock guitar hooks and funky bass lines, along with memorable lyrics like “Revolving doors of whores and deadbeat guys”…
It’s a bloody shame that many folks outside of Chicago have never heard of Down Beat Magazine award-winning flautist Nicole Mitchell. Black Unstoppable, the first Delmark record by a woman in the label’s 54-year history, should help her achieve some much-deserved mainstream cred. Much like Bobbi Humphrey, who, in the…
The ’70s fell to Pink Floyd — and so the Zeroes have fallen to Daft Punk. The French duo started churning out techno/house/electronica music in the ’90s. Now, they’re globally dilated and definers of that diffuse genre. Alive 2007, their new album, is a live recording from a June concert…
If sleaze rock is the tongue-kissing cousin of heavy metal, then Nashville Pussy is Gene Simmons’ hillbilly stunt double. Led by the twin-guitar attack of husband and wife duo Blaine Cartwright and Ruyter Suys, the Atlanta-based act got its start glorifying Southern rock’s excesses in the late ’90s with songs…
There was a time when blues and R&B/black popular music were not so very far apart. Performers such as Etta James, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Little Johnny Taylor merged the gritty, down-home aspects of the former with the polished, up-market style of the latter for a combination that could wow…
“There’s plenty of races on God’s green planet, that doesn’t mean you have to breed with them, goddammit,” rap unrepentant wiseacres Grand Buffet on “Americus (Religious Right Rock),” whose chorus mockingly lauds the child labor that produced its T-shirts. Mounted on cheesy, rudimentary, ’80s-style synth samples and sputtering drum beats,…
Though she gained plenty of attention for participating in Kyle MacDonald’s One Red Paper Clip trade project and her 24-hour lifestreams on the Internet, the music remains the best thing about this Phoenix-based indie musician. Her soulful mezzo-soprano voice fits the bluesy, funk-inflected material she writes. Her influences seem to…
The turntablists are definitely gonna be out in force on Monday, December 31 (a.k.a. New Year’s Eve), as nearly every DJ worth his or her weight in used vinyl has some sort of wax-working session planned for Auld Lang Syne. But if you can’t get into any of the bigger…
Normally, I’m not a big fan of Christmas albums. I get stacks of them every year, and less than half of them actually make it into my CD player (really, I don’t need to hear Josh Groban’s take on “Little Drummer Boy” or James Taylor doing the umpteenth-thousandth cover of “Jingle Bells”).
But this year, I received A Taste of Christmas Pudding, an annual holiday compilation that features Phoenix artists doing their renditions of Christmas classics. There are two things that make this album stand apart from the seasonal stacks of wax for me. One is the sheer diversity of musical styles on the compilation. We open with a heavy metal cover of the creepiest Christmas song ever, “Carol of the Bells” by Karnage, before gliding into the soulful acoustic sounds of Haven James doing “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Ultimately, the 12-track CD wraps up with a raucous rendition of “Feliz Navida” by Kraised, with some garage-country (“Blue Christmas” by Juicy Newt), some funk (“Funky Desert Land” by Isle of Essence), and some frat boy rap-rock (“The Night Before Christmas” by Zoom & the Sporty Forties) in-between.
THURSDAY 20 27th Avenue Bar & Grill: DJ Turtlewaxxx (hip-hop, old school, Latin groove) Axis/Radius: Crystal Thursdays Ladies Night (Top 40, rock, dance) Big Fish Pub: DJ Kocky (club music, underground hip-hop) Bikini Lounge: Sophisticated Boom Boom with DJ HFE (rockabilly, surf, jazz, classic country, indie, obscuro, R&B) The Blooze…
The Arcadia neighborhood is known for stellar real estate and early mornings at La Grande Orange. So the nightlife is most likely to take place safely at home with a nice bottle of wine in a setting fit for a Pottery Barn catalog. But we had our suspicion that there…
How does music engage and touch us so deeply? Why is its presence so intrinsic to what we do? It’s everywhere, from stereos and headphones to movie soundtracks and commercials. Even our voices possess a unique musicality. It’s hardly essential to life, yet music’s been a part of every human…
Every year around the office, it’s the same old pickle: What do you buy for the Secret Santa gift exchange? You don’t want to go super-cheap, because somehow everyone always figures out you were the jackass who bought the stupid Bush-isms desk calendar, but you also don’t want to spend…
How is it that two of 2007’s top sellers — Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears — sold more than a million records in the U.S. without touring the U.S. this year? It’s because pity has become the new indispensable promotional tool. See how your faves have already maxed out the…
Music DVDs are typically used as stopgaps between CD releases or to drum up support for some other project an artist is promoting. Most amount to little more than music-video compilations, hastily shot concert films, or the latest chapters in continuing sagas about horny midgets and one very crowded closet…
Imagine a coffee shop gig. There’s dude or dudette strumming away on stage, pouring his or her heart into the mic in between sips of complimentary joe (the musician’s payment for performing). It’s a nice change from the sounds of grinding beans and your mate’s babble about post-apocalyptic literature. But,…
Many have defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” which explains why Ben Franklin flew his kite in lightning only once. In pop music, you want that kind of insanity — plus repetition and reiteration on a theme, which, if done properly, can…
Though some believe Lupe Fiasco is too smart for mainstream rap, that’s not exactly true. Most of the lyrics on his sophomore release, Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool, are pretty basic, clichéd stuff, right down to the CD’s opening monologue, “They thought it was cool to tear down the projects and…
It’s difficult enough to master the pop music idiom, let alone to do so in a second language. Frenchman Xavier Boyer has managed the impressive feat, singing in English through three strong albums with Parisian indie popsters Tahiti 80, and he continues apace with Tutu to Tango. As Axe Riverboy…
Y’know, it’s pretty remarkable how many ancient hardcore bands — ones most of us thought were long gone — are still crisscrossing this great land of ours with Econoline vans and U-Haul trailers, playing shows for the faithful: Agent Orange, Agnostic Front, Sick of It All, Suicidal Tendencies, and Circle…
