Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the cavernous Fransisco Studios, where Phoenix hard rockers Smokus Pocus . If you would like your band featured,…
Title: The EdgeBasics: The eight-song cowboyfied debut from metal man Prophet celebrates all things Arizona while also featuring songs written with some substance — a rarity in this YAFI game. Prophet (who leads a band called St. Madness that was ripped by Martin Cizmar in YAFI nearly a year ago,…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the vintage movie-poster adorned practice space of Tempe/Yuma post-punk band Earthmen & Strangers. If you would like your…
You can’t help but feel a little dirty when looking at this flier for Honey Pistol’s show at Long Wong’s this Saturday, April 10.Ladybugs are supposed to be pretty and sweet–not insects you’d expect to see banging each other. But hey, at least they’re doing it on a flower, and…
Darkness Dear Boy play Bro Rock. What’s Bro Rock? To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart’s words about hardcore pornography, “bro rock is hard to define, but I know it when I hear it.” What exactly constitutes Bro Rock is, indeed, tough to pin down, because Bro Rock encompasses many genres, spanning…
Only a few days before British prog-rockers Muse are scheduled to headline the second night of Coachella, they’ll make a stop in Phoenix to play the US Airways Center. The band is on tour in support of its 2009 album, Resistance, their most ambitious record to date. The fifth album…
The musical merit of Owl City is a hot topic of debate among fans and critics. Most critics would say that the music of Owl City, the solo project of Adam Young, is pretty much a clone of the electro-pop by The Postal Service. It’s impossible not to hear the…
If they gave awards for living, Vince Neil would have to get a (somewhat-redundant) lifetime achievement award. He’s the singer of one of the hardest-living bands of all time, has been married four times, made sex tapes with both a porn star and a model, released three solo albums, did…
Yeasayer frontman Chris Keating’s tongue-in-cheek claim that the band’s sophomore release, Odd Blood, was designed to “sonically challenge Rihanna in the clubs” might be overly ambitious, but it’s a good description of the band’s departure from its earlier work. The Brooklyn-based trio’s critically acclaimed 2008 debut, All Hour Cymbals, melded…
Under normal circumstances, a birthday party involves friends and family heaping plenty of gifts and good tidings upon the guest of honor. Not so with Joel Davis. The P-town selecta (better known as DJ Epidemic) is turning 22 this week, but he’s the one who’s been providing the presents to…
With each passing spring, the four-day music fest in Florence known as Country Thunder gets a little less country and packs a little less thunder. For example, two years ago, John Fogerty headlined one night in the converted alfalfa field and fired up some old chooglin’ Credence Clearwater Revival hits…
I really should stop beating on the Arizona Republic’s “Reader’s Choice” poll — poorly conceived and executed though it may be. However, a reader just pointed out two other real gems in the “best annual music festival or event” category.Go down this list and pick out which two festivals didn’t…
Longtime PHXmusic.com readers may remember the scandal surrounding the “Best Local Band” category in last year’s Arizona Republic readers’ choice poll. First, the paper put together a terrible list (Asses of Evil?), then it allowed Isle of Essence to dominate the competition, so much so that the band declared themselves…
We didn’t know that a Saturday night at Bikini had to be designated as “super sensational” but it seems to have worked out for the folks behind the event who just celebrated their 2nd anniversary on Saturday, April 3.There were so many people crammed in the little dive along Grand…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look up on the stage at Naked Dave’s Music’s Tempe location, where hair-metal cover band Hollywood Saints practice. If you…
Band: Mike LennonTitle: Save The EarthBasics: A tame record from self-proclaimed rockabilly fanatic Mike Lennon, Save The Earth shows that absolutely anyone and everyone can get out there and record an album if they have the time and money to do it. Though that’s no guarantee they have the talent…
It’s not everyday you see fliers for shows with over a dozen bands on them. And when you do, the 8 1/2 by 11-inch piece of paper is more likely to list the headliners and add “And others” instead of naming every single band.So, you’ve got to hand it to…
When you think of this Texas-bred activist songwriter, you can’t help flashing back to the cover of her 1988 album Short Sharp Shocked. It was a black-and-white photograph of the musician taken during a protest of the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, and it shows her getting absolutely…
Pigeon John is one interesting bird. Born into a bi-racial household, the future underground rapper (born John Kenneth Duncan) spent parts of his childhood in both the whitest (Omaha, Nebraska) and blackest (Inglewood, California) cities in America. As a Southern California teen skate-rat, he teethed musically on a balanced diet…
It’s been quite a few years since St. Louis band Story of the Year’s mid-decade heyday, when they caught national attention with “Until the Day I Die” and “Anthem of Our Dying Day,” captivating the Hot Topic set and unofficially cornering the market on songs about both death and days…
When he emerged in 2002 with his debut LP Deadringer, Philadelphia-based RJD2 (born Ramble John Krohn) was pegged as the next DJ Shadow for his beat-making and crate-digging prowess; his love of classic soul, funk, and hip-hop; and his forward-thinking reliance on atmospheric, cinematic textures. As his career progressed, however,…
On the band’s MySpace page, The Hypo Twins eloquently describe their particular brand of rock as “disco party scum rock.” If that gem of information doesn’t inspire you to give their music a listen, I’m not sure what will. Not to mention that the band’s description is not too far…
