Alternative Press included Moneen’s latest effort, The Red Tree, on its “10 Essential Albums of 2006” list, and went on to say that if you’d give your favorite record of the year five stars, The Red Tree would get six. Now, chances are, you’re thinking, “That’s just crazy talk.” And…
Few hard-edged punk bands were as blatantly pissed off about politics in the ’90s than Naked Aggression. Formed in 1990 by singer Kirsten Patches and guitarist Phil Suchomel among the breweries and cheese factories of Madison, Wisconsin, Naked Aggression’s original purpose was to protest the first Gulf War. The band’s…
After scoring two platinum albums and one massive hair-metal anthem (that ode to statutory rape titled “Seventeen”), Winger officially crashed and burned with the commercial failure of 1993’s Pull. And while most rock fans had written off the band, which actually rocked harder than most of its peers, guitarist Reb…
See ya never, Blonde Redhead! The top spot for bands made up of one sprightly Asian singer plus two experimentally oriented white guys has been usurped by Northern California spazzers Deerhoof. Last year was Deerhoof’s year. Finally, plenty of show-going indie fans caught on to what a few have known…
MSTRKRFT’s “Easy Love” video will get you fired if you watch it online while you’re at work. Nobody in the video has sex, and, unfortunately, there’s no nudity, but the vowel-shunning Canadian production duo churns out a heavily disco-influenced, grimy electro sound while squirming women in examination chairs are doused with strawberry milkshakes. “Easy Love” […]
There’s tons of stuff going down this weekend in connection with the annual Art Detour in downtown Phoenix (just check out our special insert in this issue). With three big days of artistic shenanigans, by the time Sunday, March 4, rolls around, you’re gonna want some place to cool your…
Petterson was born in New York City but lives in Nashville. He’s not a punk, nor is his music bluesy, so the title of the CD is puzzling. Maybe he’s just venting some leftover NYC attitude. Petterson’s music is folky, funky and country, with a skewed vision and gruff vocal…
Thursday 1 Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) Bikini Lounge: Scratchy Rekkid Night with DJ Shane Kennedy (various) Blue Note: DJ Soloman, & Fredj (acid jazz, trip-hop, house) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Chilly Bombers: DJ Statik (rock, hip-hop, dance) The Door: Pink Thursdays with DJ Astonish (hip-hop, Top 40) Dos…
1. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Don’t You Fake It (Virgin Records U.S.) 2. Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (Temporary Residence) 3. Jesu, Conqueror (Hydrahead Records) 4. Comeback Kid, Broadcasting . . . (Victory Records) 5. Authority Zero, 12:34 (Big Panda Records) 6. Alkaline Trio, Remains…
Skerlak Dead’s tunes from the vault Sometimes some really weird shit comes across my desk, like this album, Remnants Resolved, by Skerlak Dead with four songs this Phoenix-based guy M. Skerlak recorded back in 1984, and two that he recorded in 1961. According to his myspace page, dude is 61…
don’t buy this I happily admitted in a previous column that I was a fan of Authority Zero frontman Jason Devore’s solo album, Conviction. But I also made it clear that I don’t appreciate or understand AZ’s music; I find it generic, formulaic, and oftentimes a bad blend of genres…
trippin’ out with the Squid A few weeks back I wrote here in my column Revolver about the instrumental sensation that is Attack of the Giant Squid, and in the blog I’ve mentioned Squid homeboys An Aesthetic as well. Both are fucking great bands, and I just received word from…
these guys scare me I’m not sure what it is about me that attracts the dregs of humanity; there are numerous examples I can site — I spent a year dating a stripper, then my friends try to hook me up with a (half-assed) recovering heroin addict as a girlfriend…
Okay, so that comeback album never quite came back, stalling out on the quality trail somewhere between It’s Hard and Roger Daltrey’s latest solo album. And the band’s down to two crucial members from the glory days of “Substitute” and “I Can See for Miles.” But if The Who can…
Upstairs at the recent One Stop Shop hip-hop producers’ conference (sponsored by G-Unit), I’m at the booth of Money Management, the company that manages 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Tony Yayo, and more, talking to a cat named Kasper about the state of music in Phoenix. I tell him…
In the theoretical “school of rock,” Isis front man Aaron Turner would be the kid at the head of the class who has an eloquent answer for every question and writes the essays that the teacher always reads aloud to the rest of the class. Or maybe he’d be the…
The pioneering British gore-metal band Carcass may’ve disbanded in 1995, but its legacy has never been stronger. In fact, not content merely to borrow from the masters, an entire new subgenre of unashamed copycat bands has arisen in Carcass’ wake, each one an attempt to cut closer to the heart…
“I think we all strive for some sort of identity or knowing of self,” says 30 Seconds to Mars drummer Shannon Leto from his car in Los Angeles. “The way to go about it can be a little rough around the edges, but I don’t think there’s an arrival date…
Born in 1936 in Jamaica, raised in Texas, and based in Phoenix, Big Pete Pearson is proof that the blues (as a flourishing, vibrant form) is not dying of old age and House of Blues-bred respectability. Likely among the last of the breed of Chicago-style bluesmen, Pearson has a burly,…
Brothers Peter and David Brewis may have an unerring knack for melodic hooks, but full songs prove a trickier proposition for them. Two-thirds of Field Music, the Brewises deliver their second album of frequently shimmering ditties on Tones of Town, stitching together Beach Boys harmonies, string sections, and XTC-style pop…
Keller Williams, the one-man jam band, is known for his ability to get the sound of a full orchestra out of his acoustic guitar using a variety of pedals and loops. On Dream, he invites 20 friends along for 16 unpredictable performances as a trio, quartet, full band, and duo…
Seattle singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes has long been uncomfortable with critical responses to her music as dark, lonely, and deeply depressed; instead (as she’s taken to saying), she plays “spooky American music.” This may seem like a minor semantic quibble, but it’s crucial to getting your head around Sykes’ second full-length…
