The first things you notice about the Japanese new wave band Polysics are their glaring similarities to Devo — the most obvious of which are the band’s orange jumpsuits and their straight-bar sunglasses. Of course, the similarities aren’t completely unintentional. In 1997, when the founder of Polysics, Hiroyuki Hayashi, was…
AFI (a.k.a. A Fire Inside, Asking for It, or Anthems for Insubordinates) is definitely not the same band it was when it began in 1991. Then, AFI was known for having an unpolished hardcore-punk sound: raw, emotional yelling over dirty power chords and blast beats. A few years later, AFI’s…
Rainy weekends often leave Phoenix lookin’ like a ghost town, but fortunately the flurry of droplets didn’t rain on the Sheraton’s Skyline Friday night. Special guest DJ Goldsmith joined residents Senbad and Deon for their weekly installment of fancy drink sippin’ and dancin’ at the swanky hotel in downtown Phoenix…
Vampire Weekend tops out the list of best selling records at Zia in Tempe this weekend. While Phoenix sold out their upcoming show at Marquee, they’re not doing too bad in album sales either. Here are the trendy records bought trendy college kids are buying at Zia. 1. Vampire Weekend…
June Friday Beauty of the Birdsong (self-released) GRADE: D+ June Friday’s Beauty of the Birdsong is a strange melding of many things ’80s, wearing a disguise as a poor attempt to make it seem contemporary. The combination of synthesizers, drum machines, long guitar solos, and quasi-futuristic lyrics are in many…
God bless the United Kingdom and all the influential DJs, turntablists, beatmakers, and other EDM artists it’s produced over the decades (Paul Oakenfold, Goldie, Photek, et al.). Our current faves are West London duo DRT and Kidnappa (a.k.a. 16bit), who’ve been spread their frenetically infectious dubstep mixes all over the…
It’s been going on five years since Flagstaff musician Phil Buckman subjected Valley audiences to his outlandish alter ego I Hate You When You’re Pregnant, and, boy, have a handful of local fans been jonesing for another fix. It’s with good reason, as their minds are likely etched with colorful…
Around this time last year, perhaps you were thinking to yourself, “Wow, now that Barack Obama’s the president, I guess all those über-political bands that have been raging against George W. Bush and his policies for the past eight years are totally screwed. Now what are they gonna complain about?”…
I’d wager Wayne “The Train” Hancock drools when he looks at the calendar and discovers it’s a leap year, meaning he can tour 366 days instead of the usual 365. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but really not much of one, as the 44-year-old Austin singer-songwriter and guitarist has made the…
Is there anything more punk than being able to play anywhere, at anytime? Chances are, if you asked the crusties who make up the folk-punk collective Blackbird Raum, the answer would be a strident “fuck no!” The group channels the anarcho ethos of gutter-punks like Crass, but don’t bother with…
Despite the fact that heavy music is experiencing a renaissance, with diverse bands like Converge, Baroness, Torche, and Mastodon raising the bar artistically while nipping at the heels of the mainstream, it’s bands like Five Finger Death Punch that still have a stranglehold on modern-rock and heavy metal radio stations…
Revolver Records does a phenomenal job of keeping us connected. Not just with good music, not just with new albums, or with incredibly cool, undiscovered artists; they give us everything. Even vinyl. For those of us who prefer the old fashioned turntable, we can get both the new and the…
We’re not going to make any bones about it: we effing love The Smiths. And we effing love Morrissey.So when we heard that this cover band from Calexico, California, called Los Esmiths was playing at Club Red, we made it priority number one for our weekend’s schedule.With tremendous showmanship and…
Dry River Yacht Club The Ugliest Princess (self-released) GRADE: A- Dry River Yacht Club has made a name for themselves as a bold, unconventional band. Their instrumentation, which includes French horn, bassoon, and accordion would seem to make them an unlikely choice to play at places like the Yucca Tap…
Here’s a potentially fun idea: Find yourself a soccer mom or Dockers dad — maybe your own, or your neighbors down the street — and say to them, “I bet you’d like Between the Buried and Me, because they’re named after that Counting Crows song ‘Ghost Train.’ You should check…
Time hasn’t been kind to 1997’s parade of one-hit wonder artists. European imports like The Prodigy (“Firestarter”), Chumbawamba (“I Get Knocked Down”), or The Cardigans (“Lovefool”) haven’t released a hit album on these shores since their glory years. The Raybon Brothers (“Butterfly Kisses”) and She Moves (“Breaking All the Rules”)…
Death metal is the most divisive force in the world today. Yes, even more divisive than Palestine, or Europe’s proton-dividing Large Hadron Collider. To fans, death metal’s blast beats and growling vocals are awesomeness incarnate. To others, it sounds like a long, amplified belch. We suggest the latter group steer…
Country-noir singer Jesse Sykes looks like Lara Flynn Boyle and sounds like a cross between Marianne Faithful and Adam Sandler’s Operaman. Her smoky, strained, eerily spectral voice is seemingly poised between genders — like a dude doing a falsetto. Not that we’re complaining. Paired with guitarist Phil Wandscher (formerly of…
Blunt Club beat-juggler Pickster One is keeping things simple for his newest nightlife endeavor, Dirty Funk. “We’re just gonna be drinking beer and listening to some cool music,” he says of the event, which happens on Tuesday, January 19, at the Yucca Tap Room, 29 West Southern Avenue in Tempe…
School is almost back in session, but Hoodlums has kept busy even while the students are out of town. Tom Waits is at the top of their sales, local acoustic sereneders Dry River Yacht Club came in second, and Bobby Dylan’s Christmas album is still going strong even though Christmas…
Thee Jaguar Sharks Thee Jaguar Sharks (Wahalla Music) GRADE: B+ Surf rock can’t help but be a bit ironic out of the context of the time and space that it was created. That is to say, in the 2000s and in the middle of the desert, the meaning just doesn’t…
Everyone loves a birthdays party, especially when the guest of honor it is part of a kickass crew with tons of friends and fans. Thursday night’s Bombshelter DJ birthday bash (for DJ Emile) blew up Tempe’s Cherry Lounge & Pit, a venue that has recently gained some street cred thanks…
