By Benjamin Leatherman We used to have a feature in the print version of the Phoenix New Times where we pimped the top 10 best-selling CDs at various local record stores. Now the feature is back, albeit in online form. Here’s a list of what’s been selling at Circles Records…
On the one hand, you can look at the nagging tendency of veteran Canadian acts to hover at cult-level popularity in the U.S. as a bad thing. On the other hand, a group like Cowboy Junkies has arguably benefitted from not getting huge. Certainly, the band’s audience has. Household names…
The beatmeisters of United Groove might be dusting off plenty of ’70s kitsch for their retro dance party Discotropolis, but chances are, you won’t hear any KC and the Sunshine Band or Bee Gees hits pumping out of the multi-megawatt sound system of AREA Phoenix, 2102 North 23rd Avenue, during…
By Lilia Menconi We remember skipping into The Lost Leaf on a First Friday in spring 2007, only to stumble out a few hours later, pick up our friend off their front lawn, and weave our way home. Can’t say it was the last time that happened, and it’s hard…
Never in my life have I wanted to throw Gene Simmons over my shoulder so badly. Or change his nappy wig. It’s not the real Gene Simmons in question here — this is actually “mini Gene” from MiniKiss, a group of KISS-lovin’ Lilliputians who’re paying tribute to the primordial gods…
It’s a Tuesday, and I’m on my way home. “Frustrated” is an understatement. Sometimes you leave work happy and content, and other times you want to set the world on fire. The sky is raining fire today, so I decide to meet my friend D up at the Swizzle Inn…
Not to get all “purist,” but it’s no secret that blues — along with its bastard child, rock ‘n’ roll — has been “gentrified” to within an inch of its life. (Cripes, songs by the Who and the Clash are being used to sell cars.) There are hundreds of modern…
The sun-bleached cover photo for Saturdays = Youth shows how much this band is consumed by nostalgia. M83’s Anthony Gonzalez combines synths, treated guitar washes, and ’80s drum sounds (“We Own the Sky” and “Graveyard Girl”) on M83’s fifth album, as he and contributor Morgan Kibby long for their teen…
With the possible exception of the three people who look back fondly on Bruce Willis’ recording career, we’re well acquainted with the eardrum damage that can occur when actors live out their rock-star fantasies. But don’t shy away from She & Him’s debut just because the female half of the…
The jaunty, strummed rhythm of “Squirrels” counters the sentiment at its center; frontman Jake Bellows notices a squirrel doing “backflips for change, for a lady who vacuums her heartache away,” before the brokenhearted singer confesses, “I just keep writing the same song.” It’s a boon if true, because Neva Dinova…
From the music to their name, there’s an unmistakable precociousness at play with Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s — perhaps not surprising given the moniker was inspired by The Royal Tenenbaums. Certainly don’t hold it against singer/guitarist Richard Edwards and his seven compatriots, who manage to thread the…
To hear them tell it, photogenic Kills principals Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince were lost before they found each other — ambitious outsiders trapped in standard-issue punk bands. Drawn together like bullied drama-club kids, Mosshart (a Floridian femme fatale) and Hince (a British Lou Reed) met in 2000 and have…
For many, punk rock was/is an end in itself, an opportunity to rock fast ‘n’ loud and/or dress up funny. For others, punk was a door to limitless cultural possibilities, a way of denying obstacles to artistic expression. The UK’s Pop Group and the Raincoats embraced, to varying degrees, the…
For most P-Town peeps, the Memorial Day weekend means maxing and relaxing, with absolutely no thought of working until they clock in on Tuesday morning. But DJ Pete “Supermix” Salaz don’t roll like that, yo, because he and his turntablist friends will be busy slinging beats on Sunday, May 25, during…
Right around the time Kim Fowley was assembling The Runaways, Lita Ford and Joan Jett’s pre-solo-success girl group, he was also co-writing songs for this album (“King of the Night Time World,” “Do You Love Me”). But it’s the tracks that producer Bob Ezrin co-wrote with KISS — “Detroit Rock…
1700 Curry on Saturday, May 17th By Lilia Menconi Yep, there was some hot tail. For more, check the slide show We love music. We love art. And, by God, we love booze. So when we heard about Convergent at 1700 Curry, we felt it was our duty to head…
It’s a tad disconcerting to hear Mariah Carey’s once-unrestrained voice squeezed through producer T-Pain’s trademark auto-tune warble machine. “Migrate” kicks off E=MC², Carey’s 11th album, and you could call it a symbolic moment: the final taming of Carey’s vocal excesses in service to a song. Carey’s triumphant comeback has been…
Best known as the frontman for the Decemberists, Colin Meloy has occasionally gone the solo acoustic route. Sings Live!, compiled from assorted performances across the USA in 2006, is a generous (74 minutes) document of Meloy au naturel, so to speak. For Decemberists fans, this is the chance to hear…
Unlike corn or that long-overdue Scott Baio retrospective on The Biography Channel, the world is not running low on Metallica cover bands. After performing a quick Internet search, we found some with predictable names (Holland-based The Unforgiven, the online-only Sad But True), other generic outfits (The Greedy Bastards are German,…
To play math rock, especially the heavy, spazz-out variety, pretty much means to beat a dead horse. Audiences have become so accustomed to bands trying to freak them out that they don’t get freaked out anymore. Like so many others, Tera Melos’ stock in trade is the freak-out that requires…
Dios Malos gets points right off the bat for arousing the ire of none other than Ronnie James Dio, who, in a particularly befuddled show of hubris, ordered the band to change its original name, Dios (which, for those of you who don’t know, means “god” in Spanish). Another obvious…
Your sixth birthday fiesta might have been the shiznit way back in the day — especially with pony rides, clowns, and a moon jump — but we guaran-damn-tee it absolutely pales in comparison to the fly festivities being planned for the Blunt Club’s Six-Year Anniversary Party on Thursday, May 15…
