Synth Metal Band Element a440 Hoists Its Genre-Defying Freak Flag

It doesn’t matter who synth metal band Element a440 is playing with. It could be a punk band, a DJ, or death metal group. The outfit’s only concern? To put on a theatrically, entertaining show, visually and audibly. In this week’s issue, we profiled the band and delved into the…

Negative Approach @ 910 Live

I don’t think there’s anyone who disagrees that posers suck, but being a part of the landscape of contemporary underground music can make one feel as though he half-heartedly has to jump on trends to maintain relevance. It’s easy to be a poser. It happens every time someone says something…

Pinback @ Crescent Ballroom

After a five-year break, Pinback is back and better than ever. Not that this San Diego math-rock-meets-subdued-pop band really went anywhere — the group has been consistently touring since the release of 2007’s Autumn of the Seraphs. It’s just that duo Rob Crow and Zach Smith took a break from…

North Mississippi Allstars @ Rhythm Room

Listening to the North Mississippi Allstars’ debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty, in 2000 was like getting hit in the face with a giant blues paddle. I mean, where did that sound suddenly come from? The music was loud, aggressive, and up front, and the raw edge made it hard…

Stephen Steinbrink @ The Trunk Space

No offense to Andy Steinbrink, whose excellent paintings (bras, containers of mustard, broken glasses) adorn the cover of his brother Stephen’s latest record, I Drew a Picture, but it’s easy to imagine another record sleeve when listening to the carefully arranged pop and folk songs contained therein. Picture a muted…

Z-Trip @ Axis/Radius

Whenever hometown hero Zach Sciacca, known to the masses as Z-Trip, makes like the prodigal son and return to the place where he both cut his teeth and dropped his first killer cuts, it ain’t just an ordinary gig. It’s a major event that thousands attend and noteworthy cohorts support…

Club Candids: Saved by the Bell Party at The Turf

Enough time has finally passed for ’90s parties to be acceptable. It couldn’t have happened a few years ago — the decade was still a little too fresh. But like a nostalgia juggernaut, you can’t stop it: ’90s fashions are making a comeback (have you stepped into a Forever 21…

Top Metal Festivals of 2013

When the lineup for Rock on the Range was announced last week, a flurry of emails between myself and three other of my fellow chick metal journalists/enthusiasts ensued regarding flights, hotels, and tickets. We had all attended the weekend festival together in 2012, and relished the thought of a heavy…

The Father Figures Dish on Phoenix’s Punk Rock Glory Days

In this week’s issue, we chat with the members of Phoenix art-punk band The Father Figures, discussing the band’s phenomenal sophomore album, All About Everything. We ended up with quite a bit of information left over from our 90-minute interview, so in this installment of Outtakes, we’ll crack open the…

Toro Y Moi @ Crescent Ballroom

In person, Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick looks nothing like the mover and shaker of the moment. He wears Windsor eyeglasses and, from certain angles, looks like Harris Trinsky, the bookish petunia from cult TV hit Freaks and Geeks. Bundick, however, is no Dungeon Master. On record, he has the…

Geographer @ Rhythm Room

Almost every full-time musician can tell of a serendipitous series of events that led him or her down the path of becoming a professsional. Maybe Mom and Dad had some old records that sparked an interest, or tuba spots in the school band were all taken up, so they had…

Gay Kiss @ Yucca Tap Room

“This whole interview is just going to be us trying to figure out how an assembly line works.” I am at the house of Mark Glick, the founder of Anxiety Machine records, along with all the members of the hardcore band Gay Kiss. Together, we are packing copies of their…

DJ Juheun @ Bar Smith

Bleeding-edge MacBook Pro? Check. Professional-grade Beats by Dre cans? Yup. Pirate, er legally obtained version of Ableton and/or Serato Scratch Live? Downloaded and installed. Sounds like you’re well on your way to following the well-trodden path into the world of DJs and EDM. Hell, you’ve probably already worked a few…

Chino XL @ Stray Cat

A 38-year-old Jersey-born rap veteran who is a certified member of Mensa, Chino XL has called L.A. his home for a decade and a half. “I feel like there’s more space, metaphorically, because there’s space physically,” XL says. “Whenever Jesus was tempted or looking for clarity, he went to the…

Club Candids: Thriller Costume Ball at Monsterland

Fetish freaks, goth groupies, and costumed geeks…oh my. All of these types turned out by the hundreds for the Thriller Costume Party at Monsterland in Mesa this past Saturday for one last hurrah before the haunted house-themed nightspot headed for the gallows. They weren’t only party monsters packing into Monsterland…

10 Stories Behind Our Favorite Hard Rock Stage Names

Rebellious personas are to rock ‘n’ roll what cocaine was to the eighties: in high demand, deliciously indulgent, and a way to catch a buzz that makes it okay for men to rock garishly colored neon outfits. Stage names are a huge part of those heavy metal, punk, and rock…

Who Decides What Rock Is “Classic Rock?”

Not everyone has the luxury of having an auxiliary jack in their car stereo. With the amount of leaks, holes, and weird noises coming from my engine, I’m lucky my beat-up truck still runs period. I can’t be asking for a decent stereo. So my commuting music consists entirely of…

Avian Architecture @ The Rogue Bar

Psych fans and math-rock devotees both enjoy technical drum feats and guitar pyrotechnics, but each group has its preferred flavors of jam. Mathletes tend to like riffs that show the science at work, geometric patterns that confound in exciting ways. Psych rockers like their technical proficiency to offer an escape,…