Top Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Weekend

Multiple big EDM shows and a gig at the Mason Jar(!) await you in today’s Must-See Phoenix Shows This Weekend. That seems like enough for us, but if you’re looking for even more options, check out our complete, sortable concert calendar. We won’t be offended…

Help Kids at Scattered Melodies’ Back-to-School Book Drive

Local bass-and-drums duo Scattered Melodies loves helping locals so much the project wrote a song called “Community Service” with collaborator Ruca. Appropriately they’ll be playing it with Ruca frontwoman Haley Griagaitis during their Back-to-School Book Drive this Saturday, September 21 at Gilbert’s Bergies Coffee Roast House. “The song was inspired…

Franco Gagliano Talks Legends of The Mason Jar, Past and Present

On his Facebook “About” page his education reads Università DI Napoli “Federico II.” Under work it reads “Music Production” and that he is the President at “Salf Enploy,” which is how it would sound phonetically when Franco Gagliano says it. When the “Legends of the Mason Jar” show which reunites…

10 Things I Learned at Riot Fest Chicago

My flight landed in Phoenix late Monday night, and I’m still adjusting. It hasn’t fully sunk in yet that I just saw The Replacements and The Pixies back to back. The Broadways reunion really happened. Debbie Harry is super adorable in person. My feet are still throbbing, and I’m pretty…

The Zombies – Crescent Ballroom – September 16, 2013

OK, so I don’t know much about The Zombies. Like, at all. For years, I thought their number one sizzling summer hit “Time of the Season” was actually Marvin Gaye. Give me a pass on that one, the English rock band were clearly trying to crimp his style far more…

Chicago Riot Fest Day 3: Replacements, Pixies, Brand New

Chicago Riot Fest, Day Three Humboldt Park Sunday, September 15, 2013 (View the full slideshow.) The third and final day of Riot Fest was all about The Replacements, rain, and reunions. The ‘Mats performed their second show after a 22-year break up Sunday, and it was everything a fan could…

Top Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Week

My version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a lot different from the final cut. It’s not that I have anything against Jane Austen or George Romero; I just prefer the British invasion to the actual, brain-eating invasion. (View our complete concert calendar here.)…

Riot Fest Chicago Day 2: Blink-182, Public Enemy, Violent Femmes

Riot Fest Day Two Humboldt Park, Chicago Saturday, September 14 The Fall Out Boy craziness of the festival’s first day carried over to Blink-182’s set on Day 2. For about 15 minutes before the band took the stage, fans chanted the lyrics to songs like “What’s My Age Again,” “All…

Iration’s Micah Pueschel Talks Roots, Fusion Reggae, and Their Writing Process

Hawaii-bred reggae rock group Iration take change in stride. Each of their albums explores a different side of their musical influences–ranging from drummer Joseph Pickens’ love for Lamb of God to lead vocalist/guitarist Micah Pueschel’s penchant for the Beatles–while keeping their roots in traditional reggae. Earlier this year in April,…

Neko Case – Orpheum Theater – 9/12/2013

Neko CaseOrpheum TheaterSeptember 12, 2013 Had she not mentioned it, you probably never would have known that Neko Case was suffering from an annoying head cold at her nearly sold-out show last night at Phoenix’s lovely Orpheum Theater. Her sickness showed no intentions of betrayal to her glorious voice as…

Future Loves Past Celebrates Debut Album with Lushfest

Future Loves Past’s debut album, All The Luscious Plants gives “polish” a good name. That’s not the only musical jargon the Tempe natives rehabilitate on All The Luscious Plants, but it’s the first bit of it you’ll have to confront when you listen to it; this is an album that…

Top Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Weekend

Two very different festivals this weekend: One, Desert Uprising, will fill Ak-Chin Pavilion with metalheads and hard rock fans for acts like Alice in Chians, Jane’s Addiction, and Avenged Sevenfold. Lushfest, the other, will fill The Sail Inn with local music fans ready to see Future Loves Past perform its…

Titus Andronicus Melds Despair and Sing-Alongs Live

A band that repeats “you will always be a loser” toward the end of a five minute song may be a little discouraging, but the put downs are worth it. Titus Andronicus finishes its magnum opus “No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future” by singing “you will always be…

Mickey Avalon: I Don’t Just Do What I Think People Might Want

Mickey Avalon is constantly loaded. He’s loaded with clever rhymes and catchy hooks, played by DJs to writhing Hollywood club kids who don’t understand that half of the dark memories Mickey shares are actual experiences. When he started out around 2004, he was loaded with the burden of family members…

fun. – Comerica Theatre – 9/10/2013

fun. Comerica Theatre September 10, 2013 (Complete slideshow here) “We Are Young” may not have even been the second-unlikeliest No. 1 hit of 2012–here in 2013, though, at a safe remove from PSY and Gotye, it’s a little easier to appreciate just how weird it was. With rock in a…

The Features: “This Is The First Record Where Everything Lined Up”

Everything about The Features seems perfectly calibrated to sneak up on you. Their new album–self-titled–is packed with different ideas and sounds, but it’s not a debut; it’s their fourth full-length. They’re still building a national audience, but they’re not new to touring; they were attracting local buzz in their native…

ZZ Ward: Having Fans Was an Amazing New Experience for Me

ZZ Ward has been turning heads nonstop with her soulful performances for the last year and a half. After crisscrossing North America on multiple tours and playing at SXSW the past two years, the buzz has been building for this singer-songwriter whose sound is a potent mash-up of rock, soul,…

A Brief Guide to The Format for Confirmed fun. Fans

Statistically speaking, you or some iTunes user you know has, ton-i-i-i-i-ight, confirmed that he and someone else are both young and then set the world on fire at least once in the last year. Last year fun., America’s least search-engine-optimizable band, had the biggest rock hit in three or four…