Don’t get us wrong: We’re definitely down with all the old-school jams getting dropped during the off-the-chain hip-hop history lesson known as Take Me Back Tuesdays at Stray Cat Bar & Grill, 2433 East University Drive in Tempe. But let’s face it — the weekly DJ night is something of…
Do you enjoy getting down to brass tacks? Or are you more of a steel fan? Tacks not big enough for you? Then how about a massive, industrial-strength, steel-bore drill manned by a terse, aggravated drill sergeant? Then you’re in luck, because Helmet is coming to town. Way back yonder,…
1. The Shins, Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop) 2. Authority Zero, 12:34 (Big Panda Records) 3. Nelly Furtado, Loose (Geffen Records) 4. Tech N9ne, Everready (Strange Music) 5. Alkaline Trio, Remains (Vagrant Records) 6. Primus, They Can’t All Be Zingers (Interscope Records) 7. Akon, Konvicted (Umvd Labels) 8. Skinny…
In simple terms, Terminal 11 is known as a laptop DJ. However, placing such a generic label on a driving creative force in experimental electronic music implies that he uses computer equipment as a crutch. That’s definitely not the case, because what the local musician transfers from his madman-scientist brain…
Club Candids has been showing a lot of love to the straight folks lately, so we decided to hit up Burn Nightclub to get a good dose of gay on Saturday, February 3. The light-rail construction didn’t stop the beautiful boys who gladly pranced through dirt piles to get their…
If you’ve ever found yourself up in the clouds (for whatever reason), you’d probably run into Portland psychedelic-rock trio Menomena while surfing the heavens. The music marvels have transcended the mere experimental rockers of the band’s first album, I Am the Fun Blame Monster (2003), and climbed to the next…
Universal revived the Republic logo — last seen in the ’30s and ’40s for a series of B-movie Westerns — for Mellencamp’s new album, and it ain’t a bad match. Like the cowboy heroes of yesteryear, Mellencamp still believes that hardworking, honest people can eventually triumph over the forces of…
Melechesh’s geography — which involves being a thrash/black-metal band from Israel comprising Armenian, Assyrian, Dutch, and Ukrainian musicians who’ve relocated to Europe — makes for an interesting story, but it becomes doubly curious when you consider that the band’s material fixates on ancient Mesopotamia. These are no Sumerian dilettantes, either:…
The opening track wastes no time living up to everything this latest reinvention from the desk of Damon Albarn promised — Danger Mouse pushing the post-Lee Perry echo like The Clash in Sandinista! mode, with pulsing reggae bass from The Clash’s own Paul Simonon and Albarn at his soulful best…
While your iTunes playlist is doubtless clogged with songs by bands well-suited to their noms de plume, Philly/NYC quartet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is that rare act whose name describes the desired effect its music will have on listeners. Frontman Alec Ounsworth’s uneven squawk recalls Talking Heads’ David Byrne…
Well, oy vey!, opa!, and oh my gosh!, here’s a world-music collective that plays an enchanting blend of Gypsy music (two of the five members of Fishtank Ensemble actually traveled across Europe in a caravan as Croque Mule) and other exotic styles, including klezmer, polka, punk, flamenco, classical, and rock…
Watching Young Love mastermind Dan Keyes wriggle his hips behind the microphone as he yelps, “If you get the chance/You must dance dance dance” on the R&B-tinged “Find a New Way,” one would never know that he used to be a member of an emo band. Keyes, formerly the moping…
“I write my life as it progresses, as it gets worse — whatever,” says Aaron Yates, who headlines Friday at the Marquee Theatre under his nom de plume, Tech N9ne (Blaze Ya Dead Homie opens the show). “I’m like a fan inside this cat called Tech N9ne who writes this…
The jokes about tentacles and ink could write themselves, so we won’t bother. What we will do, however, is note how gleefully the members of Austin’s Octopus Project plow through their glitched-out, post-rock instrumentals. Armed with an arsenal of toys, keyboards, drum machines, and samplers, spouses Josh and Yvonne Lambert,…
Good evening, ladies and gents; this is your captain, DJ M2, speaking from the record deck. I’d like to welcome you aboard Club Vibe, 3031 East Indian School Road, for Sound Trip, where tonight (and every Friday at 9 p.m.), I’ll be piloting y’all on a fantastic voyage through the…
The ’80s are back, and Tricky Bizzniss is surfing the new New Wave thing with a sound that’s a bit electro, but more self-consciously retro. Singer Trixie Reiss was the voice of The Crystal Method’s smash debut, Vegas, while producer Ernie Lake was one half of Soul Solution (the duo…
We liked the Scottsdale club life so much last week that we thought we might hit up a new hot spot, the Cherry Lounge & Pit in Tempe, on Friday, January 26. Mill Avenue was lively and teeming with drunkards when we trekked our way to the popular drinking destination…
It’s a chilly Saturday night downtown, and I’ve just met up with my friend Toxic JuJu to take in “The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra Performs the Music of Led Zeppelin” concert at Dodge Theatre. I didn’t know what to wear for this — do I throw on some jeans and a…
In an interview with Celebritycafe.com, John Paul Jones said that someone asked him if he didn’t think The Sporting Life had a Led Zeppelin influence. He replied, “Don’t you think Led Zeppelin has a John Paul Jones influence? I was a quarter of that band.” Indeed, Jones never seems to…
G. Love and his Philly compadres Special Sauce may be one of the most unique musical acts to come to the fore of the indie scene in the last two decades. Marrying Beastie Boys-inspired funk and hip-hop with swampwater blues, some traditional lo-fi indie-rock riffs, and laid-back surf pop à…
Though no one’s sure of the exact date, sometime in 1974, in the cold, cold town of Buffalo, New York, a young jazz combo by the name of Spyro Gyra hit the stage. Since then, the group has performed all over the world (seriously — places like Andorra and Jakarta)…
While promoters may have dubbed the tour featuring Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, and John Hiatt “The Four Horsemen Tour,” a better name might have been “Three Texans and a Midwesterner.” Or perhaps “The Founding Fathers Tour,” as these four singer-songwriters should be considered among the founding fathersof the…
