West Coast electro-shoegaze outfit Languis took its already compelling sound to towering heights last year on the mysterious, electronically enhanced stoner pop of Other Desert Cities. For Split, their shared platform with Bay Area leftfield hip-hop duo Meanest Man Contest, Languis apparently developed the medicated-drone end of what comes out…
A recurring problem with many Americana/neo-roots-music performers can be summed up thusly: Terminal Earnestness, an affliction that compels a songster to prove how salt-of-the-earth “authentic” s/he is, no matter what graduate program they recently opted out of. Of course, some take the opposite (though equally tedious) tack of Excessive Irreverence,…
This band named its latest effort The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. And it sounds like the devil is getting all the better punches in as Jesse Lacey leads Brand New through moments as explosive as the chorus hook of “Sowing Season,” howling “Yeah” as though the word…
November 2000: With filming on the multimillion-dollar Lord of the Rings trilogy almost complete, New Line Cinema’s mercenary cavalry teams silently scour the moors and mountain peaks of New Zealand in a desperate search for the three experimental vat-grown hobbits who have escaped the top-secret holding pen. Raised on a…
Combining the dulcet tones of the Beach Boys with melodies so infectious the Beatles might turn green with envy, The Shins typify what’s right with early 21st-century pop music. This is not Clear Channel’s contrived cookie-cutter pop. This is indie pop, complete with ’80s nods, country flourishes, and truly clever…
They were able to sell more than five million copies of their bottom-shaking, New Wave-flavored debut, Hot Fuss. But the Killers clearly learned a thing or two about playing the long odds in their Vegas stomping grounds, returning last October with a second effort, Sam’s Town, that, surprisingly, owes less…
Although he’s already won a Grammy, remixed such folks as Madonna and the Rolling Stones, and sold out dance clubs around the world, superstar spinster Ali Shirazinia (a.k.a. Dubfire) ain’t about to rest on his laurels just yet. The Iranian-born turntablist, who serves as one half of DJ duo Deep…
Thursday 5 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) Blue Note: DJ Soloman, & Fredj (acid jazz, trip-hop, house) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Club Vibe: DJ D’Anthony (hip-hop) Coyote Hill: DJ G-zus (Top 40, hip-hop) Dos Gringos – Tempe: DJ Steel (rock, hip-hop) Hard Rock Cafe: Skandilis (hip-hop, R&B, Latin) Hollywood…
Fu Manchu’s King of the Road was a modern-day stoner-rock classic, kicking off the new millennium with a shit-eating grin that said “Maybe we’re joking and maybe we’re not, but either way you will be rocked beyond all recognition by the time we’re through.” And get this: Nearly every song…
Just got my hands on this new video from Back Ted N-Ted, it’s a collaboration by Coppé and Back Ted N-Ted, and it’s pretty awesome. It was done by Tokyo’s Ben Sheppee, who also directed the video I posted a while back here of Back Ted N-Ted with Chronic Future’s…
Last weekend’s Casket Life/Liar’s Handshake/The Revenge show at the Yucca was completely out of control, just like I expected. It was the first time I’d seen the Revenge before, and goddamn do they bring the punk rock. Homeboy was swinging from the PA’s mounted to the ceiling, the guitar player…
Yeah, the Ear Infection URL is switching to http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/infection/, so if you’re smart enough to have this bitch bookmarked, make a note of it. The old steez is still working for now, but I don’t know how long it’ll last…
If you’re the road-trippin’, hip-hop-lovin’, war-hatin’ type, you’ll want to mark your calendar to take a trip on April 9 down to the Tucson stop of the Make Hip-Hop Not War tour, where local rap-activist Grime will be representing onstage. It’s coming straight from Camp Crawford in Texas, where peace-mom…
Northside Danny’s Idea of a Good Time? It may come as a surprise to those who know Danny Marianino, singer for the North Side Kings, as simply the Danzig-pounding hardcore dude (check the video below if you haven’t seen it), that he’s actually something of a renaissance man. By renaissance,…
The Casket Life boys The weekend’s almost here, and this particular Friday and Saturday there are a buttload of dope shows happening that you ought to be at. First, you’re a damn fool if you miss the Casket Life, Liar’s Handshake, Mike Skullbuster, the Revenge, and some NOFX cover band…
I’ve had Insects on the mind the last few days, and not just because the goddamn wasps are back using my pool to build their nests. Naw, these Insects are MC Brad B and producer Foundation from Drunken Immortals, the latest spinoff project from the prolific collective to hit the…
I’ve finally found it — my get-rich-quick plan that’ll land me a job in Hollywood as a reality show executive producer. The idea goes like this: Take a band, book them four shows with completely disparate audiences in a 24-hour period, give them all the liquor they can drink, and…
It’s been 40 years since the Doors stood the Summer of Love on its head with a self-titled statement of purpose that sent the brooding fuck-me pop of “Light My Fire” all the way to No. 1 but also included the Oedipal midnight rambling of “The End,” a terrifying, album-closing…
As the singer for namesake L.A. fusion metal band Otep, as well as a self-published poet, Otep Shamaya views herself as a serious artist and Otep’s music as a serious art. Most of the band’s fervent fans, with whom Otep interacts extensively online, agree with that idea. And right now,…
Tucson native Roger Clyne had some amount of success in the mid-’90s with his rock band The Refreshments, whose sound fit well with the post-college rock explosion of the decade. But with the Peacemakers, Clyne’s songwriting is culled from three similar styles — Americana, Tejano, and the ol’ “white man…
Since turning irony-minded heads in 2002 with its debut single “Losing My Edge,” LCD Soundsystem has made a name for itself as the leading purveyor of winking dance tracks. With big dumb beats, lyrics skewering all that is hip, and plenty of a-go-go bells, the Soundsystem and its production alter…
Aside from his role as music educator, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra director, and “yes man” of Ken Burns’ criminally incomplete Jazz documentary, the apparent soothsayer of the genre’s modern movement — trumpeter/bandleader Wynton Marsalis — is also the master of wallpaper jazz — compositions with easygoing tempos, robotic time signatures,…
