The power of a good party never ceases to amaze us. Not even triple-digit heat can stop the droves of drinkers from spending Friday night on the patio at Dos Gringos in Scottsdale. While it was tough to tell whether it was sweat or just an over-active misting system, but…
It’s true that the posters tabbed as a Flier of the Week often tend toward the gimmicky, trading on a cheap laugh or a little shock value. Sometimes, though, we like to pick a poster that’s a little more artsy. This one for What Laura Says, Yellow Minute, Chaska and…
Southern rock never dies; it just hangs on the sidelines until another of its native sons takes up the mantle. Maylene frontman Dallas Taylor is another artist picking up the greasy licks, hard-charging boogie, and country-fried rawk codified by acts like The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and .38 Special. Taylor’s…
The cover of Asher Roth’s latest album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, employs all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in its portrayal of the rapper passed out on a grocery store shelf surrounded by white bread. The cover is a presumably self-deprecating statement about Roth’s status as the latest suburban,”white-bread”…
The Motor City is the site of the three-day Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Meanwhile, Miami holds the ginormous Ultra Music Festival during the annual Winter Music Conference. And jolly old England hosts a half-dozen turntablist throwdowns, including the Global Gathering and Creamfields. Could The Big Event at Firebird Lake, 20000…
Castanets auteur Ray Raposa resides in a sparse, windblown expanse where his creeping country-folk echoes through the cavernous emptiness, shimmering for a moment like hot summer road haze. His songs creak under the weight of portentous pauses before pushing forward, his voice shuddering as if he might buckle at any…
A funny thing has happened in country music in the past decade or so. Acts such as Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, and Keith Urban and Sugarland (who share a bill this week) have risen to prominence playing music that is nothing like your father’s country music. In fact, it’s not…
Pals since elementary school, The Donnas marked their 16-year anniversary of friendship and slumber parties with a greatest-hits album, released earlier this month. The poppy, punk-rock ladies from California jokingly titled the disc Greatest Hits Vol. 16. It’s filled with B-sides, rarities, and live renditions of faves like “Take It…
Beyond The NowSubject to Change (Self-released) Grade: CIt’s hard to believe, but tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of Woodstock 1999. Though organizers have done everything they can to protect the Woodstock brand since, distancing themselves from the fiery debacle in Rome, New York, if you ask me the event was…
There are “bars in Scottsdale,” and then there’s Pranksters Too, the younger, yet significantly more sizable brother of Prankster’s in Tempe. With its spacious rooms (we counted four) plus a giant patio, Pranksters Too draws a crowd that includes everyone from middle-aged truck drivers to sorority girls to skateboarders. Of…
It’s true I’m a sucker for anything appearing to be in the aesthetic of Kill Bill, so it’s probably not surprising this flier from Phoenix punks Reason Unknown caught my eye. Nunzilla, who made the cover of New Times (Niki D’Andrea’s story that made it in to the the 2008…
Personal space is most definitely at a premium inside the recently remodeled CenPho gay bar Incognito, 2424 East Thomas Road. So much so that when the throngs show up for the biweekly dance night Social on Friday, July 17, for an evening of alcoholic escape with a chaser of house…
One day, perhaps, Oklahoma psych-pop ensemble Starlight Mints will finally escape the long shadow cast by fellow Okie weird-rockers The Flaming Lips. But that day isn’t coming anytime soon. The gratuitous use of the word “jelly” — echoing the Lips’ breakthrough “She Don’t Use Jelly” — in “Zoomba,” one of…
If this year’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival inspires a sense of déjà vu, it could be due to the fact that Slayer and Marilyn Manson already did the co-headlining summer tour thing just two years ago. It could also be because Rockstar seems to slap its corporate logo on so many…
It hasn’t been long since Jessica Lea Mayfield played the Rhythm Room. Only six months, actually. But things are a lot different for the singer-songwriter discovered by Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach. Since her gig opening for Annuals in Phoenix, she’s had a South by Southwest coming-out party, opened for…
Let’s hope Midwest metal warriors Skeletonwitch preview new material this week when they headline PHiX Gallery. Though no slouches so far, the band — which revolves around two brothers, lead singer Chance Garnette, known for his guttural shouts and high-pitched shrieks, and guitarist Nate Garnette — appears to have its…
It’s probably not a coincidence that there’s nothing new to say about Tool. After all, it’s been a while since the band had anything new to add to the world. (Well, presuming they ever had anything new to add to the world.) Whether it’s their cookie-cutter riffs, their interchangeable drum…
You know, we’ve been hearing some mumblings about Sunday nights at Sidebar so this past weekend, we decided to hold off our picture-snapping until then, hoping to catch the roll-off from Adult Swim.And indeed we did just that (take a look at our slideshow). It was a bit of a…
Brad Perry and the Acoustic FingerprintsBrad Perry and the Acoustic Fingerprints(Self-released)Grade: C-I’m sure our weekly locals-only music review column, You Asked For It, has unwittingly kicked people when they were down before but, honestly, that’s never the intent. That’s why it’s so hard to write about this week’s selection, offered…
OK, it’s not exactly easy to understand what’s going on with this poster from Chandler indie rockers Lisa Savidge (not actually a girl, as previously reported) but that’s kind of great. You have to look at this bad boy for a little while to figure everything out, during which time…
Numbers on NapkinsForget This, I’m Going To Tokyo(Bad Stain Music) Grade: C+As past installments of You Asked For It have demonstrated, I’ve rarely been impressed by Phoenix punk bands. Numbers on Napkins, this week’s pick, fall somewhere in the middle of the pack. They aren’t nearly as awful as, say,…
Jay Farrar’s Summerteeth sucked. When the Son Volt frontman — once a member of Uncle Tupelo with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy — tried to branch out from Americana with 2007’s The Search (which featured electric piano, backward loops, a horn section, and electric bouzouki) it didn’t go nearly as well as…
