Chris Martin recently said that Scottish band Travis “invented” Coldplay, and repeat listens to Travis’ fifth album, The Boy with No Name, provide ample evidence of Travis’ influence on a whole slew of UK bands, from Coldplay to Keane to Snow Patrol. Perhaps if Travis frontman Fran Healy had married…
In the fast-and-loose world of alt-journalism, filled with clever quips and erudite observations, it’d be all too easy to make some sort of salacious wordplay out of that fact that harmonica-playing blues savant Jason Ricci is openly gay (and likely incorporating the phrase “mouth organ” in some fashion). Frankly, that…
Why is Disneyland in California? Call me an idiot (as some surely already do), but I’d venture to guess it’s because Disney studios were founded in Cali and the entire movie industry (Disney included) thrives in the Golden State. So it makes sense that a huge theme park based on Walt Disney’s cartoon characters would be planted in Anaheim.
Compared with other holidays, Thanksgiving hasn’t inspired bards overmuch. There are no traditional hymns, no instantly identifiable music associated with the day save possibly various football broadcast bumpers. Nevertheless, here and there we find certain songs that — in lyric or in spirit — fit the theme of the day…
Herbie Hancock brought the electronic funk and (surprise, surprise) lyrical jazz to Orpheum on Friday night with a lesser-known quartet lineup that wasn’t any less worthy of sharing the stage with the funk master.
This past Friday night, the streets and sidewalks of Old Town Scottsdale were absolutely overflowing (as they usually are on the weekends) with nightcrawlers in the midst of kicking off their weekly routine of drinking, debauchery, and debasement. But while the usual crowd of Fembots, douchebags, and $30k millionaires were bound for more ostentatious joints like Next and Dirty Pretty Rockbar, the cooler cats were chillaxing at the Venue of Scottsdale, where renowned Valley recording engineer and producer Larry Elyea was feting the 15th anniversary of his studio, Mind’s Eye Digital.
This past Monday, a pair of stone cold BFFs named King Khan and BBQ rolled through town on their way to god-knows-where, and man alive did the whole sordid affair ever stink of greatness. These two shifty characters are veterans of ’90s garage-rockers the Spaceshits, where they were known by various pseudonyms (Blacksnake, Needles, Creepy, etc.) that have given way to this, their latest incarnation, the King Khan and BBQ Show.
Vibe magazine recently named the “51 Best MySpace Rappers,” by state. I’m not sure how Vibe determined who made the list, but I beg to differ with their Arizona pick. The only artist from ‘Zona that passed muster with Vibe was a Phoenix rapper who goes by the handle MC Magic. Now, I’ll admit, I’d never heard of MC Magic until I saw this list. So I checked out the songs on his MySpace page, and they’re pretty solid — mostly a mix of reggaeton and other Latin flavors, R&B, and low-key, seduce-you type rhymes (think Pitbull-meets-D’Angelo). But while MC Magic’s tracks are slick, I feel that Vibe totally overlooked at least a dozen of our best local hip-hop acts. Believe it or not, P-city is a hip-hop haven, and we’ve got an amazingly diverse array of artists here, any one of which could (and should) have made the Vibe list.
We drink a lot. And in an attempt to keep from getting fat from all the extra calories, we’ve switched to the low-sugar, low-calorie (and low-tasty) citron and soda. It takes an effort to swallow that swill all night, so we decided to take an opportunity to sample some more…
I was 16 years old when my older cousin started dating the guy who would turn me on to punk rock. This was in a very backward Pennsylvania town during one of my transitional teenage years. By this time (1996-’97), most of the cool kids in my school were in…
Thursday 15 Axis/Radius: Ladies Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) Baja Tilly’s: DJ Adrian (old school, R&B, cumbia, reggaeton) Big Fish Pub: Chronik Frequency Thursdays with the Hazardous Crew feat. DJ Ladykilla, DJ Papi Cholo, DJ Spawn, Kyle Wise, AWOL, & Dmok (techno, breaks, electro, hip-hop, drum ‘n’ bass) Bikini Lounge: Sophisticated…
It’s been 22 years since Celine Dion turned the Colosseum at Caesars Palace into the place where female pop stars go to die as publicly as Roman gladiators once did, but, of course, for a hell of a lot more money. Last night, Kelly Clarkson joined the club that, since…
As an Australian and occasional resident of his mum’s homeland, this writer has a serious passion for Aussie rock. Unfortunately, it’s been a few years since he’s called Australia home and, because of that, he’s a little behind on what’s happening Down Under. For a little help, he turned to…
Has our ‘Shell gone all “born again” or something? Nope — eclectic folk-rocker Michelle Shocked has discovered the joys and power of the African-American gospel tradition. Although she’s being singing in an African-American church choir for a while, with the live recording To Heaven U Ride, Ms. Shocked has avidly…
On La Cucaracha, Ween continues its tradition of delivering polymorphous albums full of brilliant, warped pop songs graced with lyrics that range from the nonsensical to the silly to the outright offensive. Sliding effortlessly among styles, genres, and sounds, the album finds the Brothers Ween making odd juxtapositions and placing…
The first lyric on Jimmy Eat World’s new album, Chase This Light, is a self-assured (if not presumptuous) one-word imperative: “Stay.” But an enormous wall of distorted guitars then sucker-punches the listener, just before a raucous burst of power-drill-buzzing guitars bolts the listener to the chair. (In other words, vocalist/songwriter…
Sammy Wiley, a.k.a. The Wiley One, is the brother of Cristiana Cole and Marta Wiley (of local esoteric rock group W.O.M.B.), and judging by his new CD, there’s some serious talent in the genes. Wiley’s album opens with “Possibilities,” an upbeat acoustic song reminiscent of Jack Johnson’s work on Brushfire…
There’s so much about Coheed and Cambria’s work that cries out for ridicule, especially the ’70s-art-rock-derived instrumental wankery and the skyscraping, get-your-Geddy-on vocals. Somehow, though, the act’s latest release works in spite of itself. No World for Tomorrow represents the final chapter of “The Armory Wars,” the epic tale of…
It’s been a tumultuous year for Phonte and Big Pooh of Little Brother, the Durham, North Carolina, group that became one of underground hip-hop’s brightest stars at the beginning of the decade. This year saw them part ways with producer 9th Wonder, who seemed to have his hands full producing…
Despite an amazing five-decade career, Herbie Hancock remains an enigma to most. But only the great Miles Davis can lay claim to reinventing jazz with crossover pop appeal as many times over. From hard-bop wizardry with Davis’ second great quintet in the ’60s (some of the best music ever played)…
It’s been almost 20 years since Queen Latifah recorded her first song, “Princess of the Posse,” an assertive rap with Jamaican inflections. She was the definitive strong-minded female rapper of the ’90s, and at the time it seemed unlikely that she’d be anything other than the Afrocentric feminist construct that…
If one wanted to gauge the anticipation for Wonder 4, merely peeping one of the local EDM message boards would reveal the kind of fervor that’s building around the annual rave extravaganza, which takes place on Saturday, November 17, at the Icehouse, 429 West Jackson Street. “This fucker looks sick!”…
