With his dangling white tresses, wispy white beard, stiff-rimmed white Stetson, and tailored, double-breasted white suit, music legend Leon Russell cuts a distinctly angelic figure. One can almost imagine him cast in another Here Comes Mr. Jordan/Heaven Can Wait remake, playing a honky-tonk cherub who dispatches the mistakenly deceased Robert…
I recently dug up the old recordings of my college band, The Hobo Kin, and gave it a listen. The entire thing was fuzzy and sounded as though it had been recorded in a closet, because parts of it were. If you listen closely, you can still hear the band…
We have nothing against the Dodge Theatre. We love the Dodge Theatre. But when it comes to jam bands like Widespread Panic, we prefer wide-open, outdoors-y venues that help us cope with the peyote buttons we probably just ate. Because, face it: The only way to enjoy Widespread Panic —…
If you’ve never read VICE MAGAZINE, you get an “F” on your Hipster 101 exam (it’s gonna take a ton of coke and American Apparel merchandise if you want to pass now). Starting as a punk zine in 1994, the New York City based highly-offensive-to-the-general-public magazine now publishes its print…
Band: Broken Poets Record: Everything In Nature Basics: An indie duo that recently re-tooled their sound to emphasize Tom McDonald’s deep, brooding voice, the Poets have a the same vibe you’ll find in the slowest Death Cab for Cutie songs. Though they at times sound a lot like the standard…
The “ENTER FAMOUS MUSICIAN HERE” nights at Yucca Tap Room have apparently been a huge success, since we keep seeing more of them. This week’s Neil Young show doesn’t have the clever name of, say, a “Petty Thieves,”but has a similarly great lineup of local artists.Who’s got “Heart of Gold?”…
Old punks never die, they just reunite with their former bandmates and start touring again. Just like The Zeroes, the Subhumans, Agent Orange, and Flipper before them, Jello Biafra is back. And if you shut your eyes while listening to his new band, the Guantanamo School of Medicine, it sure…
Though his skin boasts less pigment than a peeled lychee nut, this Minneapolis-based Albino MC is not tight with white. Teased ruthlessly by fellow white classmates as a child, the albino artist formerly known as Jason Newman found comfort and outsider-kinship among black people. Subsequently, he became more of a…
It’s possible, even probable, that Philly lo-fi darling Kurt Vile was wearing nothing more than boxer shorts and a stained wife-beater when he recorded Constant Hitmaker, the 2007 mini-label LP that announced his unique sound to the greater indie-rock community. That’s one of the advantages of recording an album in…
Listening to Peaches is a lot like dating that girl who loves to flash her tits. When you’re too drunk to know better, she’s endlessly entertaining. But in the light of morning, you always find yourself feeling dirty. But what do you expect from a 40-year-old woman whose artistic output…
How’s this for a lazy Sunday-afternoon experience? Hang out with Power 98.3 personality Karlie Hustle and the hottie divas of the Fresh Fiends on the funky and laid-back patio of Padre’s Modern Mexican Cuisine, 1044 East Camelback Road, while resident DJs M2 and Tricky T spin downtempo, hip-hop, electro, and old…
There’s got to be something nice to say about Steely Dan. I just have no idea what it is. If you’re like me, you probably knew two songs by them — “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Do It Again” — until about a year ago, when Rock Band included “Bodhisattva”…
Band: The Green Lady Killers, an all-girl garage rock trio from Phoenix. Record: Just Fine LP. Basics: There are a bazillion garage rock grrl bands to compare these ladies to, any of which would undoubtedly raise hackles from someone citing some small difference between The GLKs and the other band…
We’ve got some fantastic slideshows up this week, we really do. So while our co-workers were watching the clock all weekend, making sure to show up on time for the big events, we decided to just take it easy and bar hop on our own schedule. Yes, we’re the lucky…
It’s been a long time since we checked in with our friends Nunzilla, the band that New Times staff writer (then music editor) Niki D’Andrea wrote about in a piece selected for DeCapo’s Best Music Writing guide last year. With Halloween coming up it’s a perfect time for even, say,…
Joel Davis has had one helluva packed schedule. Up until recently, the 21-year-old Phoenician was holding down two Joe jobs (slaving away behind the scenes at Stinkweeds Records and behind the front desk at the Clarendon Hotel) as well as working his regular gigs as the Thursday-night resident at Chronic…
Forget that Sean Kingston is about as reggae-sounding as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Forget that he uses Auto-Tune more than Kanye West singing the collected works of Freddie Mercury. The important thing to remember is that, well, he’s lovable. He’s a round mound of raw teenage heartbreak that brings out…
Oh, the ’80s, where have you gone? Back when Republicans meant well enough, U2 albums were badass, and every girl wore hoop earrings. Now it’s almost 2010, and all we’ve got is teabaggers, No Line on the Horizon, and hoopfetish.com, which makes me feel like a pervert — all without…
Boy, did we drop the ball on emo. For the longest time, we coolly dismissed it as drama-drenched poseur-rock; all histrionics, no substance. Then lawmakers in Russia went and introduced legislation to ban emo fashions and regulate emo Web sites throughout the mother country. Male eyeliner as the tip of…
Shane MacGowan once said The Pogues were his way of overcoming guilt for not laying down his life for Ireland with the IRA. He was probably shit-faced at the time. Despite their punk leanings, the sodden violence that often accompanies gigs, and MacGowan’s Brendan Behan-influenced — and sometimes radical —…
Amidst the mind-numbing barrage of identical-sounding modern rock and pop starlets, it’s nice to come across something different every now and then. Enter Gogol Bordello. As immigrant punk goes, they’re basically your only choice, so be thankful that they’re also badass. Imagine putting Spoon onstage with a polka band and…
It’s not often you get to see a rock n roll legend perform, period; so the fact that Wanda Jackson, the “Queen of Rockabilly” and 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, played an intimate venue like the Rhythm Room last night is nothing short of amazing (you can…
