Three-chord alternative isn’t new, especially in Tempe. In the ’90s, bands like The Refreshments and Gin Blossoms rode the style all the way to the major-label bank. Unfortunately for Darkness Dear Boy, they seem to be running a couple of decades behind. But the Tempe-based band, which just celebrated its…
Can’t an emotionally complex, religiously ambiguous metal band get a break? Even though the members of introspective prog-metal titans Shai Hulud are neither uniformly spiritual nor sober, the band has been combating both the “straight edge” and “Christian” tags almost since its inception in 1995. Genre is apparently a point…
Neither Ryan Fontana nor Aaron Cool are illegal in nine countries. Nor do they reek of pure gasoline or Bigfoot’s wang. Truth be told, there are scant similarities between Sex Panther the Orange County-based DJ twosome and Sex Panther the fictional musk of Anchorman fame. Fontana and Cool don’t settle…
As enchanting and entertaining as Grimes’ performance was at the Rhythm Room on Monday night, the real action was taking place outside of the CenPho music venue. While the Canadian indie artist charmed the crowd with her captivating voice inside, a chaotic scene unfolded in the Rhythm Room’s parking lot…
Welcome to the latest installment of our recurring feature, Sound Off, in which Jason P. Woodbury is joined by a different guest to listen to and discuss three tracks from local Phoenix artists. If you would like your songs to be considered for future Sound Off columns, please email music@newtimes.com…
Over the last 30 years, The Fabulous Thunderbirds have been a blues rock institution, at various times featuring folks like Jimmy Vaughan, Duke Robillard, Kid Bangham, Marc Ford (of The Black Crowes) and ultimate bassist and badass Keith Ferguson. These days, founding member and vocalist Kim Wilson leads the group…
Want to know what new release discs and platters are moving across the Valley at local record stores? We’ve got you covered with another installment of What’s Selling. It isn’t hard to find an excuse to drive up to the city of Flagstaff. The charming community, green trees and patches…
We love us a good ol’ western music roundup! Those faded, sandy western colors on this flier make us long for hours of country music performances. Conveniently, Valley Fever Quarantine 3 will be providing that this week. Grab your cowboy hats and get ready for an entire day of boot-kickin’,…
In these cash-strapped days, music listeners can always do with a good free download. Since March 2010 local rapper Span Phly has been churning out a series of collaborative free-to-youn EPs. Spy vs. Spy Vol. 1 dropped first two years ago and featured LOST of The Council Productions, and Random…
They don’t come much more genteel than modern-day Nick Lowe, and they don’t come more with a more hell-raising reputation than Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead. Yet on a recent episode of Marc Maron’s podcast, WTF with Marc Maron (consistently one of the best interview programs out there), Lowe discussed his…
Few bands can retain a dedicated following after throwing fans for stylistic loops the way Cursive has. Yet the long running Omaha-via-Los Angeles quartet pulls it off. The genre-defying group first turned heads with its post-hardcore-meets-cello masterpiece, The Ugly Organ, before jettisoning said stringed instrument for a horn section on…
What’s in a name, anyway? Well, when you go by “Joe Grind,” plenty. Since 2003, Grind has released records under the name Toxic Holocaust, taking cues from the most disparate recesses of heavy metal, influenced by thrash, black metal, and d-beat punk. His latest, Conjure and Command, finds Grind and…
It never fails: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks release a new album (like they did last spring, issuing Mirror Traffic) and just about everyone says “It’s the most like Pavement he’s sounded since . . . well, Pavement.” As you might imagine, it’s a common statement, and only sort of…
If ever there was a time to jump on the electronic dance music bandwagon, it’s right now. Skrillex just took home an armful of Grammys (while Deadmau5 and David Guetta put on showstopping performances during the awards ceremony itself), the epic electronica documentary Re:Generation is screening in theaters nationwide, and…
It seems like Old Town Scottsdale would be pretty busy on a holiday weekend, but against all odds, it wasn’t. For once parking was easy to find and Shoeman was eerily quiet, but once you turned the corner to Saddlebag Trail, it was the same ol’ loud and crowded Old…
To honor one of the most mainstream bands in indie rock, The Rogue Bar is hosting Radiohead Tribute Night.Prague, The Low Men, Some Magical Animal, Goetta, The Woodworks, and Manny vs. Chris will be performing Radiohead covers till you drop. That’s more Thom Yorke than you can probably handle, but…
Want to know what new release discs and platters are moving across the Valley at local record stores? We’ve got you covered with another installment of What’s Selling. You can always count on Phoenix music shoppers to pick up the latest in metal and rock releases. Top movers at Zia…
The awesome cartoon element of this flier caught our eye right away. We can’t imagine that anyone will be sitting in a corner with a martini by themselves though, like the chick on the flier is doing. Everyone better be on their feet!Adam 12 of She Wants Revenge will be…
You guys sure like those Young the Giant guys: Their gig tonight at Crescent Ballroom sold out so quickly they added a second date tomorrow. And it’s sold out, too. But we’ve got a pair of tickets to giveaway courtesy of Cincinnati popsters Walk the Moon. The quartet (name nicked…
If David Bowie and Ian Curtis were to have an illegitimate love-child, he might sound a little like Shawn Foree, the Yuma native better known as Digital Leather. He earned a degree in 19th-century American literature, but the lure of synthesizers, four-track home tape recorders, and tripping balls led him…
Austin’s location means there’s considerable twang in its rock, and it’s close enough to the Mississippi Delta that there’s plenty of blues in its roll. And like most things Texan, fiery one-man band Scott H. Biram engages in good-natured self-aggrandizement and self-mythologizing — he’s maybe joking around a bit, but…
Despite the genre’s radical roots, there’s something about modern reggae that makes it difficult for fans of classic reggae to fully embrace. Perhaps because it’s so easy to denigrate modern reggae as passionless music for stoners — smoke weed, tinker with a guitar, and become a rock star. Mix the…
