Music of Lord of the Rings in Concert @ Jobing.com Arena

We’re sure that somewhere, there’s a Lord of the Rings fan — they like to be referred to as “Ringers,” mind you — who is totally comfortable with the opposite sex, doesn’t live in his mom’s basement, and doesn’t spend his days dreaming of Mordor and reciting poems about Tom…

Lindsey Buckingham @ Celebrity Theatre

Lindsey Buckingham was always the most punk of the soft-rockers. Never mind his following up Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours with the weird-as-hell Tusk, recording vocals in the bathroom and trying to get Talking Heads with a marching band on the title track; even his Fleetwood hits are models of stripped-down intensity…

New Found Glory @ Marquee Theatre

Mainstream pop punk fizzled out as a commercial prospect when the Hot Topic demographic traded in their Hurley T-shirts and baggy shorts for guyliner and skinny jeans. But no one passed the memo on to New Found Glory, who have stayed true to the brash, poppy force that defined the…

Red Light Disco @ Club Red

Sam Groove is one technologically inclined cat. The 25-year-old DJ wields a laptop, iMac, Pioneer DJM-400 mixer, and various MIDI controllers, amps, and more than 10,000 MP3s at his disposal. When he steps up to the stage at Club Red, 2155 East University Drive in Tempe, during Red Light Disco…

Club Candids at Martini Ranch

There were plenty of shenanigans at Martini Ranch on Sunday, October 2. Fans of hair metal rocked out to Metalhead while others danced in the packed Shaker Room to the sounds of DJ Dave “Wave.” We captured the fun in this week’s Club Candids slideshow…

Flier of the Week: Dearspeak

Be sure to join Dearspeak this Saturday at New City in Phoenix for a very special occasion.They’re playing a show in honor of the release of their new EP, Oh For Freedom. Plus, Dearspeak will be performing with additional members for this show!The event will be an enjoyable evening of biographical music…

What’s Selling: Hoodlums Top 10 Selling Albums of the Week

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. After taking most of 2010 off, Chicago indie-pop rockers Wilco are back strong with last week’s The Whole Love release taking top…

Win a Pair of Passes to See Star Slinger at Rhythm Room

There’s no getting around it. No matter how awesome DJ Star Slinger may have been before getting shouted out by Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, AKA Troy on one of TV’s best shows, Community, he was immeasurably cooler afterward. The cred boost wasn’t entirely necessary. Slinger, known as Darren Williams…

Flier of the Week: Quick Henry

Pale Face Sailor, Another Tomorrow, Woodworks, and Every Letter will all be sharing the stage with Quick Henry to bring you a great start to your weekend.If you want to witness the action, check out the scene at the Rogue Bar on Friday night. It all starts at 9 p.m…

ZZ Top @ Comerica Theatre

If you have trace memories of immortal Houston blues-rock combo ZZ Top, it’s probably of two bears with long beards spinning guitars, a drummer without a beard (named Beard), and legs (“she’s got . . . ’em”). A few years before that, though, just before punk broke, Circus Magazine described…

Incubus @ Comerica Theatre

Depending on your perspective, Incubus was either the last big alternative band of the ’90s or the first big post-alternative act of the 2000s. Make Yourself, the band’s 1999 release, launched them into radio-dominating superstardom, featuring enough concessions to the burgeoning nu-metal scene to fit in with System of a…

Viva Voce @ The Rhythm Room

Love connections turned musical duos, like The White Stripes and Matt & Kim, often attract attention, but the unique chemistry sometimes steals the spotlight from the music itself. And, yeah, that often happens with Viva Voce, too. Everyone loves a love story, even if the band doesn’t particularly like to…

The Zombies @ Celebrity Theatre

Breathe In, Breathe Out is the new record from The Zombies. Yeah, those Zombies, the band that recorded “She’s Not There,” “Time of the Season,” and “Care of Cell 44.” The band that recorded Odyssey and Oracle, which created the framework for most modern psychedelic pop. The new record finds…

Blondie @ Foundry on First

Growing old in rock ‘n’ roll is one tricky beast, especially when you are Blondie, a band with a catalog defined by youth culture: sleek, sexy, funky, and ever stylish. Panic of Girls, the new record from Blondie, struggles with the contradiction. At 66, it’s hard to think of singer…

Sophia Gunn @ Crescent Ballroom

Sophia Gunn has been spinning in the Valley for years, which is exactly how she learned to blend old and new elements. She brings her “younger” humble beginnings to some of the Valley’s hottest nights and mashes them with new technology to give her turntabling skills a fresh edge. She…

Club Candids: Fedde le Grand at Smashboxx

Sunday nights are usually pretty uneventful, but Dutch DJ Fedde le Grand drew a huge crowd of Scottsdale’s finest to Smashboxx on September 25. The turnout was as good as the crowd was attractive. Check out lots gorgeous tans and beautiful teeth in this week’s Club Candids slideshow…

What’s Selling: Stinkweeds Top 10 Selling Albums of the Week

​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. After thoroughly enjoying Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and it’s 1980’s-inspired synth-pop soundtrack, we’re super stoked to see Neon Indian’s Era Extrana holding…

Flier of the Week: Future Loves Past

Future Loves Past are attention grabbers too, which is why you should check out their upcoming show.Joining Future Loves Past on stage will be The Insects and TKLB. This will be The Insects’ first-ever gig they will have played at Long Wong’s Firehouse, mind you!It’s all going down Saturday night at 9…

The Stone Foxes @ Talking Stick Resort

Remember that glorious scene in Ghost World where Steve Buscemi’s date takes him to an awful sports bar and declares “If you like authentic blues, you really gotta check out Blues Hammer?” immediately before some angry-looking white dudes start shredding and spitting out lyrics about how they been behind the…

H20 @ Nile Theater

Hardcore isn’t just about dudes in camo shorts with X’s on their hands. Take H20, for example, a band that typifies the “positive mental attitude” movement but never gets preachy about it. “Any kind of preaching we’d do would be pretty hypocritical,” bassist Adam Blake says. “We have vegans in…

Quarter Inch Crown @ Rips Ales and Cocktails

Are we allowed to be nostalgic about the ’90s yet? Every 20 years, it seems we’re allowed to look back and reminisce about the good ol’ days — back when times were simpler and graduates got jobs straight out of college. And, hey, do you remember the whole unbuckling-one-side-of-your-overalls thing?…