What is there not to like about Paul Wall? First of all, his name is an absolute blast to say — especially in his trademark Houston drawl. He always rocks his beloved grills, allowing the world to see that he has both fine taste in mouth jewelry and a big…
The Yucca Tap Room has long been a haven for local bands, but the venue rarely hosts national touring acts (we’re guessing that whole “never a cover” policy might have something to do with it). Thus, it will be a rarity when Los Angeles hardcore punk outfit The Bronx plays…
Local punks Johnny Volume and Tyler King are making like The Jeffersons. More specifically, they’re taking their long-running punk rock weekly, BANNED, and “movin’ on up” to Jugheads, 5110 East McDowell Road, starting on Thursday, March 19. The night debuted in late 2006 at Stray Cat Bar & Grill as…
We consider ourselves to be seasoned SMoCA Nights attendees and we must say, this time around, the organizers really kicked it up a notch (click here for the slideshow). The night started out with a lovely live performance by Phoenix cooly-cool band, Back Ted N-Ted. The fashion show felt super…
When I got The Pack A.D.’s new record, titled Funeral Mixtape, in the mail this week I wasa little interested, but not enough to actually pop the CD in. Well, after seeing this super cool flier for their Saturday show at The Ruby Room, I tossed in in the ol’…
“Punk rock, comedy, and politics” can be a great combination — look at NOFX. But when a local band declares in its self-penned biography that it’s playing with these elements, I get a little nervous. The new album by Tempe punk rockers VW Trainwreck, Dramaturgy, is exactly why. With a…
Though the term “guitar hero” means less in mainstream music than it did, say, 25 years ago, that doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have or need them anymore. Clapton and (Jeff) Beck are still active, but who’s going to carry on when they join Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher…
Valley indie rockers Emperors of Japan have already contributed two excellent albums to the local music canon in the form of 2006’s Your Freak Majesty and last year’s Activator. Based on the lineup for this weekend’s Shizzfest, you may as well add “ace concert promoters” to their list of accomplishments…
Trying to pull off a cello in today’s indie/alternative rock scene is tricky. On one hand, a cello can set a band apart from a mass of whiny, boring acts, and having an accomplished cellist adds a touch of class that bearded, flannel-loving four-piece bands from the Pacific Northwest will…
On St. Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish, and everyone’s liver gets a workout. Music is, of course, a big part of the fun. Who doesn’t love day drinking while listening to the likes of Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, bands whose style of music is the perfect complement to pitchers…
It seems as though the summer arrives earlier and earlier each year, as that unforgiving beeyotch Mother Nature delights at ratcheting up the Valley’s thermostat way before we’re ready to start enduring the sweltering, 100-degree-plus temperatures. So it’s good to know that Joel Davis (a.k.a. DJ Epidemic) is already preparing…
Conner CecilConner(Old Dominion Records)There was a time when hearing a boyish and manicured voice like Conner Cecil’s alongside a willowy pedal steel wasn’t uncommon in country music. That time is long gone, though, and hearing Conner — a Globe native whose voice matches his cherubic face — on his debut…
It’s been a few years since we snapped shots of the jolly drunkards at Casey Moore’s. We all know what Casey Moore’s is like on a Friday or Saturday. And, with our drinking habits, we happen to know what it’s like there every other day of the week. Sunday night…
We’ve certainly had plenty of posters with fancier design than this named Flier of the Week, but this week’s selection wins sheerly for readability and forthright presentation. Want to know when The Love Me Nots are gonna go on? It’s right there! Hell, there’s even a phone number! What better…
As much as I prefer music that bears the stamp of the town that birthed it, there’s something to be said for a band that becomes so obsessed with another region’s music that it transforms itself to the point that it plays the music perfectly. The Love Me Nots, regarded…
Superficially, Asylum Street Spankers appear to be two things they are not: neo-/retro- pre-rock ‘n’ roll pop/swing/whatever (remember that Lounge Nation rag from the ’90s?) and a zany band that does “jokey songs” (remember the Dead Milkmen and Weird Al Yankowhasis?). Wrong. While these Texans perform ancient tunes and originals…
In the past few decades, there’s been an overlap in Los Angeles between the somewhat more academic avant-garde scene and punk rock. The Minutemen wove minimalism, jazz, funk, and rebel politics into a punk aesthetic (or was it the other way around?), and in the ’70s, très avant collective Los…
When I listen to pop music, I like to have a good time enjoying its light, airy guitars and super-sweet vocals. I’d like to think that pop music and I came together on our own terms, happy to be in each other’s company. Those forces behind the International Pop Overthrow…
Why is it that we crave controversy from our pop singers? Might it be because we love to look at their lives through a microscope? Are our culture and our lives that dull and boring that we are forced to react to every little thing someone like Jessica Simpson does?…
When Slipknot chose the title All Hope Is Gone for their fourth studio album, they definitely weren’t referring to the expectations of their audience. If anything, when the album dropped last summer, the band’s legion of fans got everything it wished for in the form of a hard-rocking collection of…
If you’ve ever drowned your sorrows in suds on a Sunday night at the Yucca Tap Room, you know that DJ Dana gives you the perfect soundtrack for whatever heartbreak ails you, spinning classic country discs from her vast collection of wax as well as hosting a local country act…
Jen Deveroux knows how to put on one hell of a party. Just look at the 30-something scenester’s wildly successful “Adult Swim” shindigs she and indie promoter Psyko Steve presented this past summer at the Hotel San Carlos’ rooftop pool. (The events were so crowded that the Phoenix fire marshal…
