It’s that time of year again, and with the holidays comes the annual Almost Acoustic Christmas concert at Comerica Theatre on December 5. A staple in the Christmas season, and one of the more buzzed about events among Valley country fans, Almost Acoustic Christmas plans on beefing up the artists…
The Black Bottom Lighters are the biggest thing on the Valley reggae scene since white guys learned how to dreadlock their hair. The six-piece Glendale-based desert reggae crew has been jamming together for more than two years in their current form, and that’s all it’s taken to grab the ear…
Justin Timberlake US Airways Center Monday, December 2, 2013 (View the full slideshow.) Pop megastar Justin Timberlake made his eagerly awaited return to Phoenix Monday night and quickly proved why the media has paid obsessive attention to him since his Mickey Mouse Club Days. Over the course of his three-hour…
What follows is nothing but an unabashed love note to Jonathan Richman. He first captured my heart when I saw the movie Repo Man — Jonathan wasn’t in Repo Man, but there is a cover of his song “Pablo Picasso” on the soundtrack. The lyrics of this particular track, like…
It’s nearly the end of 2013 and you still have to pay attention to Justin Timberlake. I don’t think most people are so bothered by that, but just enough people are that I’d like to apologize to them personally. Don’t worry: I know that when you were a 12- to…
Country Thunder fans from across the Valley were out in droves Saturday night to attend the Country Thunder Launch Fest, located in a grass field adjacent to the Tempe Center for the Arts. The first annual Launch Fest was established to announce the lineup for next spring’s Country Thunder, provide…
When was the last time a rap record made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? When was the last time you bought a rap cassette? If the answer to these queries is “never” and also “never,'” you owe it to yourself to represent at Parliament in Tempe this Saturday…
Of all the stars of the ’80s punk scene, only one band is still having impact some 35 years after forming: X. Mixing driving punk energy with rockabilly riffs, staccato rhythms, unexpected dual vocal drive, and socially conscious lyrics, X was a defining voice in the punk movement. Their uncompromising…
The streets will be a graveyard during normal working and drinking hours this weekend. If you didn’t stand in front of Best Buy at two in the morning to get an admittedly pretty good deal on plasma TVs — better black levels, is the thing — you can take advantage…
TMI on KWSS brought out just about every big local act they could for their Feast For The Famished concert at Tempe’s Sail Inn on the day before Thanksgiving. More than 300 people piled into the beloved local dive to hear great tunes ping-ponging back and forth from their outdoor…
A new source of intensity adds to the fiery, riff-heavy attack on Red Fang’s third album. With a relentless touring schedule leaving little time for songwriting or recording, the band felt the deadline pressure seeping into their music. Sandwiched between the Australian Soundwave Festival in February and a European festival…
Place a finger on the 1980s punk scene and one band is still having impact some 35 years after forming: X. Mixing driving punk energy with rockabilly riffs, staccato rhythms, unexpected dual vocal drive, and socially conscious lyrics, X was a defining voice in the punk movement. Their uncompromising ability…
Shining Soul has been relentlessly promoting their newest release Sonic Smash in both the hip hop and activist community over the past few weeks, including interviews, radio appearances, and their Sonic Smash Tour (we talked to them back in September.) The entire endeavor culminated with their welcome home CD release…
This is officially the last week where of the year where you’re allowed to believe you have authority over the Christmas-music-listening habits of others, and I hope to god you don’t waste it. When you’re done yelling at the guy in the gift department at Macy’s for playing Wonderful Christmastime…
By Mitchell L. Hillman Sometimes you go to a show and there simply is a vibe, a certain ephemeral quality, a momentary zeitgeist that can be described in no way other than “perfection.” It could be any number of things, but usually it comes down to first, a carefully casted…
The weekend before Thanksgiving can’t help but disappoint you. It’s trying as hard as it can, and it’s perfectly happy to remind you that you’ve got a short week coming up, but really the only positive you can take from it is that you won’t get trampled chasing down a…
Pearl Jam concerts are different. It’s not just a bunch of guys on stage cranking out rock songs; even in Jobing.com Arena, it’s an intimate, more personal affair. Artists talk about the energy that flows between audience and stage, and that’s what’s so obvious here. The bands cares; the fans…
Drake’s songs can sometimes make him sound like someone who spends a lot of time sitting in front of a window, watching rain and dialing up exes. That vulnerable side of the performer, if it exists, stayed in the recording studio when he played US Airways Center Saturday night. Drake…
Dry River Yacht Club released its newest album, El Tigre, on November 16 and threw a party at Crescent Ballroom to celebrate it. At the height of the party, the Yacht Club had more than 400 people packed into the Crescent, losing their minds to some of the best performers…
The city of Tempe opened the grassy area beneath the Hayden Flour Mill for a concert Friday night by two of the Valley’s biggest acts, Black Carl and Mergence. Up-and-comers The Prowling Kind and Bears of Manitou opened. With the old mill right beside the stage, the string lights overhead,…
Every Pearl Jam joke has been made. Every Eddie Vedder impression has been performed, and some of them were very funny, although others were just enormous successes on the Modern Rock chart. All that’s left is to just see Pearl Jam, and listen to Eddie Vedder say “Ah’m still alive”…
I was introduced to guitar virtuoso Grant Ferguson’s music a couple of years ago and have been a fan of his instrumental work ever since. His shows seem to work best in small, intimate venues, as he brings up guest vocalists and interacts with the crowd quite often. So his…
