Remembering Marco Holt of the Loud Americans

This piece was originally intended to be part of our Heritage Hump Day Series. Here it is, the Throwback Thursday edition of Heritage Hump Day. This week as we celebrate the 75th birthday of a legendary musician who was taken from us too soon, let’s turn our gaze to a…

10 Best Death Metal Bands

In the early to mid 1980s, heavy metal music began to broaden beyond the first era of bands like Maiden, Priest, and Dio. It evolved into darker, faster territories with thrash metal like Slayer, Exodus, Kreator and many others. A somewhat new phenomena began to root itself in an even…

Strange Wilds Is Not Nirvana but Doesn’t Mind the Comparison

Strange Wilds are coming through town on October 3 to support their new record, Subjective Concepts, and if their familiar, yet totally rockin’, sound is any indication, the show is going to be pretty special. We caught up with one member of the Olympia, Washington-based three-piece, lead singer and guitar…

Colombian Band Aterciopelados Bucks the Term “World Music”

For years, I volunteered at a radio station, where my job was sorting the massive pile of albums mailed to us every week. We’d pick songs we liked, making sure they were scrubbed of non-FCC-approved words like “goddamn motherfucker,” then lump them under labels such as “rock” or “jazz” for…

13 Best October Heavy Metal Concerts in Phoenix

October has to be one of the greatest months of the year in Arizona. Not only is the weather finally, finally cooling down—but metalheads get to embrace the influx of heavy metal concerts that come to town, right in time for Halloween. With so much going on, it can be…

Heritage Hump Day: Cousins of the Wize – “Feel Good Vibe”

Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…

Matt Hollywood Doesn’t Know Why He Was Fired From Brian Jonestown Massacre

One of the original members of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Matt Hollywood was an influential element of the San Francisco neo-psychedelic rock band from 1990 to 1998, responsible for favorites like “Oh Lord,” “Maybe Tomorrow,” and “Got My Eye on You,” among others. Prolific, psyched-out, practically unknown — to say…

5 New Music Videos by Phoenix Artists

Summer is finally ending, and the local music scene is ready for the temperature change with some cool new music video releases. Phoenix favorites like decker., MysticBlu, Red Tank!, No Volcano, and Pro Teens are bursting into fall with new multimedia material. Each of the videos by these five different…

Right Hear, Right Now: 5 Great New Songs From Phoenix Artists

Scattered Melodies – “Trying To Find Me” It’s been over a year in the waiting since their successful crowd sourced fundraiser fuelled Scattered Melodies with enough money to record and release their second full length album, Modern Repair. At long last the wait is over and you won’t believe the…

An Open Letter to Heavy Metal from Scottsdale

Hey heavy metal, we need to chat… As a musical entity that is no stranger to bad press and debauchery — but rocks its true colors loud and proud — I, the city of Scottsdale, would like to propose a partnership. Look, I know that the words “Scottsdale” and “heavy…

Heritage Hump Day: Fatigo – “One Block Away”

Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…

Seeing Double: Titus Andronicus Explores Not-So-Evil Doppelgängers

The roots of Titus Andronicus’ new magnum opus, the 29-track, 93-minute, five-act punk rock opera The Most Lamentable Tragedy, came quietly and quickly. In two evenings, a week apart from one another, when the band was on the road in early summer of 2013, frontman Patrick Stickles wrote what would…

Jazz Singer Lizz Wright Expands Her Musical Boundaries

In the five years since Lizz Wright’s last album, the gospel-themed Fellowship, the jazz vocalist’s life veered in unexpected directions. Wright went through a divorce and a near-fatal car accident. She even started to question her chosen career. “I thought for a while that I really didn’t want to record…

Legendary Shack Shakers Have Impressed a Lot of Famous Musicians

It’s surprising how much attention a band can get for playing the music they love. Nashville’s Legendary Shack Shakers are no strangers to this. The southern gothic rockabilly act goes above and beyond much of those genres to throw down their captivating version of hillbilly blues-rock. Over the years, the…