Brian Chartrand’s Musical Identity Crisis

Looking at local musician Brian Chartrand’s musical biography, you might say he has an identity crisis. There are his solo acoustic releases, which include his unique arrangements of well-known songs from contemporary artists as well as strong guitar work on his original numbers. There’s his work with the critically-acclaimed local…

13 Hottest Guys in Metal

When it comes to list compilations of the “hottest” musicians in rock, there’s no shortage by any means. In the heavy metal genre alone, you can Google endless lists detailing the sexiest guitarists, frontmen, drummers, bassists, keyboardists — you name it. But the majority of these lists are based completely…

Dax Riggs Brings His Demons to Scottsdale

Demon tied to a chair in my brain/ black bird a-tapping on the window pane/ sittin’ and smilin’ at a stray dog in the rain/ demon tied to a chair in my brain. With these haunting, bluesy lyrics, Dax Riggs opens with on the first track of his 2007 album…

Blunt Club Celebrates 12 Years of Hip-Hop Community

In the 12 years the Blunt Club has been around it has built a reputation as the Valley’s premier weekly hip-hop show. Its founders, Dumper Foo, Aran “Catalyst” Kelly Emerge McVay, and Keith Nickels (among others) are local legends in their own right. And some of the acts they’ve managed…

Bacchus and the Demonsluts Bring the Funky Pirate Party

What better way to label yourself Phoenix’s ultimate party band than naming your group after the Roman god of merry-making, theater, getting wasted, and feeling “ecstasy”? Bacchus and the Demonsluts did just that, but its roiling river of funk, jazz freakouts, and frenetic, instrumental jamborees is just the tip of…

Floor @ Yucca Tap Room

For Floor, Florida’s coolest export since medium-pulp orange juice, the opportunity to be both influential and derivative is a badge of honor the band should wear with pride. The sludgy stoner rock trio has existed for the better part of 22 years now, even though it took years-long hiatuses and…

Maceo Parker @ Musical Instrument Museum

Saxophonist Maceo Parker calls his band “the tightest little funk orchestra on Earth.” It should be. Parker was schooled in tightness as the bandleader for James Brown in the 1960s. Brown was notorious for his demanding ways, but Parker, despite not being a hard-ass, still knows exactly how to keep…

Matt Pond PA @ Crescent Ballroom

It was 10 years ago when indie rock started to seep into pop culture. The Internet had emerged as a way to distribute music (legally and illegally) and became a barometer for 20-somethings who wanted to discover something new and obscure. The popular television show The O.C. was actually shining…

Eagulls @ Crescent Ballroom

Not the first post-punk band to emerge from Leeds, England, and most assuredly not the last, Eagulls made its U.S. television debut in January on the Late Show with David Letterman. Not a surprising coup for a band with such a big buzz, but one made more exciting for the…

Memorial Day Weekend @ Various Locations

If ever there were a soundtrack to Memorial Day Weekend, it’d be electronic dance music. That’s because EDM will be in abundance during MDW, whether it’s in the clubs, around the pool, or at your local bar. And some of the Valley’s more prominent dance music promoters and venues are…

Ryan Adams’ Love Is Hell Turned 10 and No One Noticed

With hardly a whisper from the collective music community in the past two weeks, the 10th anniversary of a defining record for one of this generation’s most prolific musicians came and went. Ryan Adams’ Love Is Hell, his fifth solo record and what may be his darkest offering to date,…

Meet The Black Family, Trap House’s New Hip-Hop Collective

With eight critically acclaimed projects under his belt, Phoenix-based hip-hop artist Trap House has become one of the most prolific and influential hip-hop artists to come out of Arizona. Some of his accolades include being chosen by Vitamin Water to give a personalized tour of the city and being chosen…

James Cotton to Bring Decades of Blues Experience to Phoenix

On James Cotton’s new CD, Cotton Mouth Man, there’s a song, “He was There,” that makes the point that the blues harmonica icon has performed just about everywhere. Well, on May 17 the Cotton Mouth Man will perform somewhere he hasn’t performed before: The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Cotton,…

Against Me! and Laura Jane Grace’s Latest Album Is Brave, Vital

Against Me!’s latest album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, may be one of the most important records of the decade. We’re deep in a cultural war for gay and women’s rights, but we’ve barely scratched the surface regarding transgender issues. The coming out of someone in the public eye still qualifies as…

Sister Lip @ The Sail Inn

Sister Lip is one of those bands on the Phoenix scene that can play just about any show. Since its inception in September 2012, the all-female act has found itself at touring authors’ book-signings, variety shows, the state fair, and just about anywhere that will give the band a stage…

Holly Golightly @ Rips

If there is any such thing as garage rock royalty, Holly Golightly certainly must be a member. Lo-fi before there was such a thing, and cool from the get-go, Ms. Golightly visits Phoenix for the very first time with her backing band, The Brokeoffs (which is really just one guy,…