In Celebration of the Best Metal Documentaries

See also: Metallica at Outside Lands: The Five Best Parts of the Band’s Fiery San Francisco Show See also: The 10 Most Ridiculous Claims Made By Dave Mustaine of Megadeth See also: Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Set Free; Five Finger Death Punch Weighs InHeavy metal fans are a tenacious…

Diners @ Trunk Space

Social media may have gifted us LOLcats and the like, but it’s also partly to blame for the crushing 24-hour news cycle and a growing collective paranoia about the intentions of our neighbors. The yearning for “simpler times” is understandable, but it’s no coincidence that those simpler times always line…

Futurebirds @ Sail Inn

The future is now, but what do you know? It sounds an awful lot like the past. This could serve as a mantra for Athens, Georgia’s Futurebirds, though it’s rare to find a band so expertly mixing together so many disparate styles. A heady dose of alt-country, replete with pedal…

Rational Animals @ Yucca Tap Room

René Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” But he was afraid to classify himself a “rational animal” because “then I should have to inquire what an animal is, what rationality is, and in this one question would lead me down the slope to other harder ones.” Heady queries…

King Tuff @ Meat Market Garment Factory

It’s a very good time to be a hapless fuzz-rock magnate: Youthful disaffection is at an all-time high as unemployment and student-loan debt reach peak levels. Groovy rippers like Hunx and Mark Sultan dot the landscape with throwback rock maneuvers, while punk burnouts like Wavves’ Nathan Williams pack the bowl…

Dip Thursdays @ Spanish Fly

It may not feel like it right now, what with all the brain-bending and skin-scalding heat, but we’re actually more than halfway through with summer. It means that not only is there only a certain number of weeks left until temperatures start to chillax (we’re guessing around early October), but…

Club Candids: Chandler Sandbar

“Chandler nightlife” sounds like an oxymoron. Sure, the city is home to a skatepark and a big mall, but unless you’re a teenager borrowing your parents’ car, the town isn’t exactly a nightlife hot spot. Because of this, Chandler benefits from businesses that stay open past 10 p.m. There are…

Kanye West Brags About (and Hangs Out With) Kim Kardashian In New Video

See also: Kanye West’s “Mercy” Explained By Phoenix Producer Lifted If you’ve had “Mercy” on repeat for the past couple of months, you’ll be pleased to know that Kanye West and Rick Ross appear in the double-video/double-single, “I Wish You Would”/”Cold.” Hype Williams combined both of these songs in a…

What’s Nirvana’s Best Album? Hint: It’s Not Nevermind

See also: The Nectronauts Cover Nirvana See also: Led Zeppelin 2’s Bruce Lamont on Playing Robert Plant, Groupies, and Nirvana’s Nevermind See also: It Came From YouTube: Nirvana at the Old Mason Jar BY KC LIBMAN If you aren’t familiar with Nirvana’s sophomore release, 1991’s Nevermind, you were probably born…

Club Candids at The Firehouse

On any given Sunday in Scottsdale, Old Town becomes something of a ghost town. Although many gin joints and posh watering holes are open and offering libations, the majority of the party crowd generally is at home nursing their hangovers from the night before or resting up for another work…

Aesop Rock @ Marquee Theatre

Aesop Rock is the most prominent of mega-verbose thesaurus MCs, but the veteran rapper has something the others don’t. Busdriver’s pranks are more smugly satisfying, and the proggy kinetics of Themselves more technically impressive, but Aesop creates entire realms with his cascading rhyme schemes. His new album, Skelethon, brought to…

South Mountain Witness/North Brother Island @ Jobot

Few things are as American as old-timey string bands. Maybe Huckleberry Finn and baseball, but it’s a difficult task to pick one. Two local string bands, South Mountain Witness and North Brother Island, will pick and bow at Jobot this weekend. The cafe’s wood floors and weathered charm should create…

Man Hands @ Trunk Space

There’s no shortage of female musicians strutting their stuff on YouTube. Notable Phoenix contributions include Michelle Blades and her ukulele and The Teeets, with their goofy PSAs, but stumbling across songwriter Jackie Cruz’s “Not Me” feels different. Before launching into a grungy guitar riff, she warns she may have ripped…

UK Thursdays/Pheosia Films Bash @ School of Rock

Like many denizens of Tempe, the folks behind popular UK Thursdays decided to take the summer off for rest, relaxation, and recreation. Now that classes are set to resume at Arizona State University later this month and the college crowd has begun making its return to town, the dubstep weekly…

Sharon Van Etten @ Crescent Ballroom

Brooklyn songwriter Sharon Van Etten has made a brave record in Tramp. And brave records come with brave album covers, and Tramp possesses a great one: a stark, black-and-white portrait of Van Etten’s stoic face. “The artwork is just me trying to be simple and make eye contact,” Van Etten…

What Phoenix Restaurants Have the Best Playlists?

See also: Ten Favorite Playlists at Metro Phoenix Restaurants We like to think we’ve got similar attitudes about music and food: There’s a time for the out-there stuff, there’s a time for the cheap and greasy, and there’s a time for everything in between. Whether you’re into dining on bone…