In the late ’90s, Lawrence, Kansas’ The Appleseed Cast played the kind of rock that would earn a band a spot on Emo Diaries compilations, the long-running and long-suffering series curated by Appleseed Cast’s label, Deep Elm Records. Yeah, emo, but not the tarted-up, eye-lined emo of today — the…
At the risk of offending CMT viewers or people who still watch the Grammys, I wasn’t all that familiar with the Zac Brown Band when I was assigned this piece. I had seen his album in record stores (he looks like he needs a shower), and I think I had…
Get to the Chopper…John’s that is. If our photographs are any evidence, that’s exactly what the beer-swilling Thursday night bar crowd in this week’s “Club Candids” had in mind. Check out the shots in our slide show and remember that the next time you go out for drinks, it could…
New Times singled Radio Phoenix out in our annual Best Of Phoenix issue as the “Best Online Music Station That Should Be a Radio Station.”Actually, in addition to being too-indie-for-the-airwaves the station spins a few things that aren’t even topping the charts at the Valley’s record stores. Check out their…
Is…Aggressive(Self-released)Grade: B+Well it took three weeks, of doing these You Asked For It reviews of local records, but I finally got an album for that I could actually enjoy. Truly, picturing the other bands I’ve reviewed for this project playing live makes me cringe, but not Joey Arroyo Band. Their…
Welcome back to our continuing series The Grand Tour, a 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 Seven Car Pileup’s rehearsal space. If you’d like your band featured, tweet @PHXmusicdotcom or leave…
It would probably be plenty of fun to sit down to a nice candlelit dinner with the boys of Austin, Texas-based band Harlem. The good-looking threesome plays poppy indie rock that makes it evident the group isn’t all about being fancy and dressing up in matador jackets–they seem like the…
The club gods haven’t been too kind to either DJ Joshie or Benni Beatnik over the past two years. A couple of summers ago, their popular weekly dance affair, Electrostatic, was 86’d at Glam after the club’s property owners decided to shut down the hipster bar. Then, the situation repeated…
It’s not uncommon for formerly wicked musicians to foreswear their evil ways and turn to the Heavenly Father for inspiration. Dylan did it, as did MC Hammer, former Korn member Brian “Head” Welch, and the late New York Dolls bassist Arthur Kane. So does the fact that the Asylum Street…
Beware the anthrax-laced bubblegum-pop of Cheese on Bread. Musically, the kooky New York fivesome is tangy, upbeat, and innocuous — sort of a more sugary version of The Cardigans, with singer-lyricists Sara FitzSimmons and Dan Fishback chirping happily over a sunny montage of zydeco, country, synth-pop, and Beach Boys-style compositions…
One must admit that Mariah Carey seems much cooler — much saner — after her gutsy, concealer-free turn in the Oscar-nominated abuse saga Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. You think it was easy for the image-oriented star of Glitter to go public with the same mottled bed-face…
Upon hearing Henry Rollins perform one of his profanity-laden, loudmouthed spoken-word tirades on cassette, my then-middle-aged father adroitly summed up the former Black Flag frontman’s blustering travelogues in one sentence: “He’s just like Charles Kuralt, only with a dirty mouth.” And that’s pretty much the case. (Well, aside from the…
Listening to the first track from Matt Hires’ debut full-length, Take Us to the Start, it’s impossible to deny that the Floridian singer-songwriter dabbles in the melodramatic, quavering vocal delivery Conor Oberst popularized. Hires is sorta like Oberst 2.0. He’s got the yearning, quasi-depressed lyrics. He’s got a face that…
The Oak Ridge Boys took their name from a Tennessee town best known for the Manhattan Project. What started as a gospel quartet evolved into a Grammy-winning sensation that rode the pop culture wave of southern accents that briefly dominated the terrestrial radio waves in the 1970s. Listen to “Bobbie…
Stinkweeds has always been a haven for indie rockers and hipsters. They specialize in independent music in a way that few others do. While it seems like most of the kids jonesing for their fix of the lastest indie release head to Tempe, they also travel a little further west…
No Longer Together(Self-released)Grade: DWell, it was a bumpy start to my first go around with You Asked For It. The transition into my second week was somewhat better, but not by much. Case in point: Scottsdale’s No Longer Together, a spunky little three-piece that won Alice Cooper’s “Proof is in…
Here’s our second installment of 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 Source Victoria’s rehearsal space & recording studio. If you’d like your band featured, tweet @PHXmusicdotcom. …
Sure, Valentine’s Day is a great holiday for some–looking at you, ooey-gooey couples who can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. But for others, Cupid is more of a devil than an angel, only shooting arrows at a select few who get to act all romantic this lovers’…
Dave Mason hasn’t had the illustrious solo career of former Traffic band-mate Steve Winwood. No platinum-selling albums, no Grammys, no sold-out shows with Clapton at the Garden. But as American-sounding, 60-something British blues-rockers go, he’s a distinctly cooler cat. After penning Traffic’s best-known song, “Feelin’ Alright,” in the late ’60s,…
Life’s been pretty sweet for DJ Tranzit lately, and here’s why: The 29-year-old’s collaborative EP with DJ Dooz (Nothing but a Dancer) recently dropped on German EDM label 12.inch.recordings, his release party at the Crown Room last week was attended by more than a hundred, and he’s been booked as…
It’s a trip how things come full circle. You see, on February 7, 1999, the modest red-brick building at Roosevelt and Fourth streets, formerly known as Metropophobobia, celebrated its grand opening as Modified Arts with a sold-out performance by the Chicago Underground Duo. Nearly 11 years to the day, the…
If the word “loser” actually means “killer Americana musician,” then “The Losers Ball” may actually have an accurate title. Probably, though, it’s supposed to be ironic. The lineup for the third-annual night will feature Exene Cervenka, frontwoman of legendary L.A. punk band X, who just last year released a solo…
