Since the Fiesta Bowl Block Party began taking over downtown Tempe on New Year’s Eve, it’s either become the absolute best place to be or the one place you want to avoid — depending on the crowd you run with. Either way, music fans are curious to know who will…
Objectively speaking, is this eight-years-running New Year’s Eve party in Collagen City really the “ultimate”? Well, if your vision of “ultimate” has room for Rx Bandits and two skilled tribute bands, then, yes, it totally is. Born from the same SoCal ska-punk primordial ooze that yielded Sublime and Reel Big…
The classic blues pattern is not technically complicated. The devil is in the details, the nuance. Beginning guitar players often start out with a blues scale, a watered-down version of the American Songbook, and a play-along CD in the background. There’s nothing wrong with that — everyone’s gotta start somewhere…
The Valley’s nightlife landscape was as tumultuous and volatile as ever in 2010, as more than a dozen bars and clubs came and went over the past 12 months. But while heavy hitters such as Club Rain or Forbidden blinked out of existence, downtown Phoenix’s Bar Smith, 130 East Washington…
Sticky Fingers was fun as a “Motherf***ing Rock N Roll Dance Party” Friday nights at Rips Ales & Cocktails, but it’s become nothing short of pandemonius (for lack of an appropriate “real word”) since moving to Bar Smith and incorporating hip hop as well as various genres of electronic dance…
2010 sure was a fickle beast at times. A Kanye West album was top dog, a Canadian teenager ruled the world and a bunch of bands decided to boycott Arizona. But enough looking into the past, it’s time to look towards a fresh, new 2011. What better way to get…
As I was compiling my soon-to-be-revealed list of the Top 25 Albums of 2010, the toughest decision I faced was where, if anywhere, to place Girl Talk’s All Day on said list. It was certainly one of the most talked about releases of the year, what with Girl Talk creator…
Title: Hope In a State of DecayBasics: Chandler-based Tractor Pull Divas play — wait for it — country-tinged rock. Bet you didn’t see that coming! Nonetheless, theirs is a rock lighter on the country aspects and they have a lead singer who can hold his own. Also, whoever plays the…
What’s a nice way to give a show a classic holiday touch? Peep this flier.Anamieke Quinn, a folksy singer with a strong, spunky voice, designed the flier with a little inspiration from artist Gil Elvgren. “His girls tend to have a wholesome and pure yet sultry and playful allure, which…
Steve Aoki’s biggest accomplishment isn’t starting his own record label, Dim Mak, in his early 20s or working with artists like Drake, Bloc Party, Snoop Dogg, and Peaches. Nope, all that is simply an everyday existence for Aoki. It’s Aoki’s 2008 album, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, that really helped…
If the New Year’s Eve block parties in Tempe and Scottsdale strike you as — waaaaait for it — “lamestream” alternatives to true ring-out-the-old revelry, why not try a little punk? The pride of Mesa’s Westwood High will headline a five-band show on the year’s biggest party day, presumably executing…
Christmas Eve happens to fall on a Friday this year, which can be a blessing and a curse if you’re a club promoter. It’s the start of the weekend, which means most everyone’s in the mood to party; but it’s also Christmas-frickin’-Eve, which means most cats are gonna be with…
The 20-year history of metal mainstay Fear Factory features more bickering, backstabbing, and fickle side-switching than an entire season of Flavor of Love. Following the band’s poorly received Digimortal disc in 2001, founding guitarist Dino Cazares jumped ship — ostensibly because the album’s more radio-friendly sound offended his hardcoredness. No…
Something the owners of the soon-to-be-defunct Eastside Records in Tempe said in this week’s feature story has been bothering me all week:”And it got to the point in Tempe… that, yeah, we could stay open, but we would have to sell a bunch of shit we don’t like. None were…
Title: The Rapper’s RapperBasics: You Asked For It gets hip hop this time around, compliments of champion of all things Arizona, Noxious of AZ. I will admit that this album — Noxious’ first of two albums released in 2010 — was pretty damn difficult to listen to. The asinine, 8-second…
Dang, it’s sad when a song climbing up the Billboard Hot 100 charts refers to women as hos and bitches. Such is the case with Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow,” which had to be cleaned up extensively for radio play. The original “dirty” version is riddled with n-bombs, as well,…
Is there seriously anything cuter than kittens these days? The Rogue Bar co-owner and talent buyer Lindsay Tripodis went for the jugular with this flier for local rock band Sun Ghost at the Scottsdale venue this Friday, December 17. Not surprisingly, she says her inspiration came from cats, the sun…
“Big in Japan” is a punch line to a joke about how bands actually kind of suck, but if you say that sort of thing around Night Ranger, Jack Blades should turn to you and say, “Thank you. We are far more popular in Japan than in the United States,…
You may not be familiar with the name, but chances are you’re more familiar with the band Trapt than you realize, especially if you’ve been to the movies in the past seven years. The band’s 2003 single “Headstrong” has been featured on the soundtrack to such cinema classics as Never…
Imagine for a moment that you are the more talented half of one of the most successful vocal duos in country music history, scoring a multitude of number one singles and winning a shitload of Grammys and CMAs all by the time you are 25. Now imagine that the other…
Infected Mushroom, an Israeli-based psy-trance group fronted by Amit Duvdevani and Erez Eisen, are nothing if not prolific. Since forming in 1996, they’ve dropped seven albums, appeared on more than three-dozen compilations, and rocked clubs from Moscow to Milan. Their heady mix of trance and phat beats has produced darkly…
Things are going to get heavy when hardcore band Ruckus comes to town. The group cites “the pain and sufferings of everyday life” as influences, and they’re bringing their baggage with them from California, with sullenly titled tracks such as “Apocalypse Never,” “Gallows,” and “Fools Die.” Yup, that’s just what…
