Mill Avenue saw its fair share of action over the weekend with the Tempe Arts Festival and the Tempe Music Festival at the lake. But we decided to see what kind of crew rolled in after all the main events were over. So we headed down to Mill Avenue Cue…
Local singer/guitarist Brian Chartrand has his fingers in lots of stuff — he plays in local jam band Ten Dollar Outfit, and he’s also a member of Phoenix group RGB. But more than anything, Chartrand has his fingers in heavy-handed acoustic guitar plucking, especially on his solo EP, Sleeping With…
On this Canada-based trio’s debut, the eclectic talents of Peru’s Silvana Kane and Canadian musicians Adam Popowitz and Toby Peter come together on a disc that goes in various musical directions, ranging from flamenco to electronica with a touch of Latin and indie pop in between. “Libertad” is a mellow…
Call ’em retro, sans cheesy affectation for 1960s pop/folk-rock classicists, but don’t call ’em late for dinner — Elf Power is back with another in a series of classy, winsomely tuneful albums wherein engaging melodies and sweet harmoniousness unquestionably rule. Elf Power is an offspring of pre-White Album Beatles, Searchers,…
Let’s get real here — lots of what makes the “country” charts (in case you haven’t noticed) sounds like watered-down power-pop with some vague twang added for “authenticity.” Most of these pretty boys/girls wouldn’t know Buck Owens from Buck Rogers — but this Justin Townes Earle knows, I’ll wager. If…
“The Jicks is funky music. They is a powerhouse.” So it says in the artwork that accompanies this third offering from Stephen Malkmus’ post-Pavement outfit. On first glance at said artwork, with its nonsensical collages — not to mention the beginning of opening number “Dragonfly Pie,” which drips with midtempo…
Rob Kwik has a whole lotta reasons to be celebrating on Friday, April 4. The ultra-ill turntablist is commemorating not only his 29th birthday but also the release of his latest remix CD, and the ninth anniversary of the Dirt Assasinz Crew — the eight-member DJ collective that’s been rocking…
Metal-core band Bullet for My Valentine takes the best of British heavy metal (tap-frenzy twin guitar harmonies, rapid-fire rhythms) and combines it with the worst of American emo (harmonic choruses that border on whininess). But we’ll forgive them because: 1) they’re British; 2) they don’t wear girls’ jeans; and 3)…
It has to be said: The AZ music scene suffers from a severe lack of spookiness. Perhaps it’s the overabundance of sunshine or scarcity of graveyards, but in the greater Phoenix metro area, it’s hard to get rocked in that “this music could very well be sucking the blood from…
Watching Hiroshima perform is akin to witnessing two cultures come together through music. Formed almost 30 years ago by saxophonist Dan Kuramoto and master koto player June Kuramoto, the six-piece band bridges the gap between traditional Japanese music and modern jazz by incorporating sounds from both cultures, resulting in a…
It’s fitting that Muppet Show creator Jim Henson based his Dr. Teeth character on pianist Dr. John, who has served as unofficial mascot-ambassador for the city of New Orleans and its indigenous musical forms for a good 50 years now, arguably filling the shoes of none other than Louis Armstrong…
It seemed every hipster-artist type with a little extra cash was heading to “SMoCA Nights: Drive” on Thursday, March 20. The car-inspired theme was arguably the best we’ve seen from the think tank responsible for these seasonal parties, and the accompanying lowrider car show was just the right touch to…
It’s Friday and it’s raining — as if we live in the grungy Emerald City of Seattle. Naturally, I throw on my flannel, itching for a drink when I receive a text from my buddy Guano (really, he goes by Guano). It reads, “I’m done with work pay day wanna…
Some people believe that chakra, a Sanskrit word meaning “circle,” refers to an energy center, a place where the physical body and the “mind” meet as one, where things like aural sensations become visceral stimulations in certain parts of our bodies. If that all sounds like a bunch of seduce-you-spiel,…
Long before hitmakers like Kelis sampled Mozart and Mike Skinner borrowed from Bartok, a ’60s girl group called The Toys layered exquisite teen harmonies over Bach finger exercises and launched a pop-music revolution. Led by Barbara Harris, The Toys brought sonatas to sock hops around the country when their million-selling…
On a Friday or Saturday night, sliding into a nightspot as hot as Taste Ultra Lounge, 6910 East Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale, ain’t too easy, playa. Usually, the super-swanky, Asian-style drinkery is so swarmed with top-shelf trim and bar stars during prime time that the doormen ain’t gonna let your $30K-millionaire…
Three-quarters of the way through a compilation that’s been billed as a locals-only/females-only album, a voice that’s clearly not a girl’s appears. That voice belongs to Chris Corwin (no, Chris is not short for Christina), who, last time we checked, is totally a guy. We didn’t investigate to see whether…
Dave King, frontman for L.A.’s Flogging Molly, writes the lyrics for his songs on a manual typewriter that was made in 1916, the year of The Easter Rising, the rebellion that kicked off modern Ireland’s struggle to free itself from British rule. That touchstone of rebellion is mirrored in the…
Anybody out there remember the ’80s U.K. combo Blue Aeroplanes? They’re the closest comparison this critic’s strained brain can make to the eclectic, happily hard-to-pigeonhole Oakland band Why? While in no way imitative of Blue Aeroplanes, Why? shares stylistic similarities with them — bright, buoyant, terse indie-rock melodies; distinctive, cozy…
The acclaim that so often rains down on (insert overrated dance act’s name here) may soon stumble its bandanna-clad way toward Toronto duo Crystal Castles. While their self-titled debut full-length on Last Gang packs a strain of considerably punky tension under its arcade bleeps and beat programming, the more subtle…
After spending the past seven years building their reputation as a no-frills bluesy grit-rock duo, Black Keys vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney felt they needed a fresh perspective. So they turned to Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse, half of Gnarls Barkley, and a recent go-to producer…
A mere 16 minutes of recorded music shot the Canadian kids in Tokyo Police Club into the indie-rock spotlight. Since the release of the seven-song EP A Lesson in Crime in 2006, Dave Monks (vocals, bass), Josh Hook (guitar), Graham Wright (keyboards), and Greg Alsop (drums) have amassed an impressive…
