In the video for Yellow Ostrich’s “Mary,” a young girl dashes through woods, then trips and falls in slow motion. The cover for Ostrich’s fifth album, Cosmos, features a still from videographer Bas Jan Ader tilting sideways, ready to fall. Likewise, the album features a track called “Things Are Fallin’.”…
It’s been slightly more than eight years since Body Count’s last speed/thrash metal assault on the world’s eardrums. The lengthy delay doesn’t come from a lack of desire, but rather the day job that keeps founder and frontman Ice-T out of the recording studio and on the production set. “I’ve…
Sean Carey’s Range of Light begins like the still quiet of a forest morning. “Glass/Film,” the opening song of Carey’s second full-length album, comes with the distinct sense of an awakening, starting with a heart-beat drum and slowly building, a soft guitar, a flash of horn. Carey says the album…
Bob Corritore’s new CD Taboo, which was released earlier this year, is unique. Why? The master harp-player’s album is all-harmonica. Not a single voice appears anywhere on the album. In place of vocals are the sounds of Corritore’s harmonicas…
A few weeks back we brought you a list of our favorite heavy metal charities. Here’s one that we saved for this week, since Phoenix metal lovers can interact with this one as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival this Friday, July 11, at Ak-Chin Pavilion. That’s because…
What’s a kid to do when caught between the world’s of psychedelic rock, surf music, bebop, rhythm and blues, and Cha Cha? If you’re Poncho Sanchez, you combine them in giant soul stew on the way to becoming the leading purveyor of funky, grooving music with a deeply soulful edge…
The United States can’t tell Cannibal Corpse what to do. (I mean, if you ever came across anything with that name, would you want to mess with it anyways?). Other countries can – in fact, Germany has tried to regulate the hell out of them over the years, and an…
Skalloween, Ska Prom, Ska-turday, Skanksgiving. For at least the duration of its third wave, the upbeat-heavy, horn-driven sound of ska has enjoyed giving its own spin to holidays and special occasions. This Sunday, after a three-year hiatus, Ska Prom returns to Pub Rock Live in Scottsdale. Headlined by rising Las…
As the temperatures rise in the Valley, the turnout at local bars and clubs tends to drop, for the most part. Some nightlife spots still attract a crowd despite the killer heat, like the place that Club Candids visited in June. Whether it was costumed partiers at Apollo’s Lounge, college…
Todd OwyoungBruce!Bruce Dickinson rules. He’s the greatest singer for one of the greatest bands of all time, Iron Maiden. But recently, he unleashed some pretty charged words in an interview with the Guardian. In addition to dropping one of the most incredible quotations ever, “fame is the excrement of creativity,”…
Earlier today, metal band Upon A Burning Body posted that their singer, Danny Leal, is missing and was last seen June 30. According to the band’s label, Sumerian Records, it was a hoax…
Look no further for proof of Bob Marley’s legacy than the vast number of bands influenced by his work and the multitude of Marley posters that adorn dorm-room walls. More than 30 years after his death in 1981, Bob Marley and the Wailers touch people of all ages. Mostly because…
See also: How Bob Marley Was Sold to the Suburbs At the time of his death, in May 1981, Bob Marley was 36 years old, reggae’s biggest star, and the father of at least 11 children. He was not, however, a big seller. For Dave Robinson, this presented an opportunity…
“Runnin,” Scattered Melodies Scattered Melodies is a unique Valley band in that the drum/bass duo uses a variety of singers on their albums and at their live shows. The duo is aiming to finish their second album by early next year to take it to South By Southwest in Austin,…
It’s 111 degrees outside, and the Valley of the Sun is deserted. Summer is upon us — which also means that the music industry-touring slowdown is, as well. While the rest of the country delights in sunny breezy festival days, our prime time for outdoor shows is during winter. But…
The heinous death rattle of the June sunset had arrested the city as I descended into Mitchell Park in downtown Tempe with vocalist Alec LoCruzio and guitarist Alex Rempel of the nascent hardcore quartet Humiliation. We are not-so-comfortably seated at a still sun-warmed picnic table that’s partially pocked with pigeon…
When The Sail Inn closes on Sunday evening after the final night of its three-day Farewell Festival, it will mark the end of an era — not just for the bar itself, but also for the Tempe music scene. A big chapter in the city’s lore will draw to a…
When you learn that Youceff Yunque Kabal, better known as YUS, is studying accounting and economics, it makes sense how precise and organized his chillwave tunes are. Now he’s released Talisman, his second full-length, not counting three remix albums. It’s the kind of conscientious craftsmanship found in Daphni or Burial…
Someone who compiles these things (Metacritic, apparently) averaged all the reviews for all the records released last year, and Deafheaven’s Sunbather came in at number one. In fact, the album with the starkly pink cover is the seventh-highest-scoring record in Metacritic’s entire database, dating back to 1999. That means it…
Things are going well for Phoenix rapper Futuristic. The video for the unsigned rapper’s single, “I Guess I’ll Smoke,” from his released released album Traveling Local, has now surpassed one million views on YouTube. If you listen to him, it’s clear he’s bound for great things. And he’s not the…
Phoenix band Destruction Unit’s 2013 album Deep Trip was among the finest of the year, a scary mess of nightmarish psych-punk that played out as body music, because each of the band’s members share two roles: making noise and conjuring rhythms. The band was formed 14 years ago by Ryan…
By Dennis Romero What’s it like partying with 134,000 of your closest friends? After a fourth year covering Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, the size and scope of America’s largest electronic dance music festival (and, really, one of the country’s largest music events, period) still just leaves us breathless…
