Tinariwen is the plural of ténéré, which simply means “desert” in the African language Tamashek. The name is fitting for these Sahara Desert musicians, and their music captures the beauty, hardships, longing, and isolation of their nomadic lifestyle. Tinariwen began in Libyan resistance camps in the 1980s when most members…
If you know someone who gets so excited about jewelry and new shoes that they write songs about them, is your acquaintance A) a Scottsdale princess with too much money and a digital recorder or B) a modern hip-hop star? Trick question! Either way, it’s a prima donna with daddy…
Nathan Williams always had a good thing going with Wavves, whose string of buzzy, snotty pop-punk records has thrilled certain members of the blogosphere since 2009. The formula is clear: scuzzy guitars, crunchy drums, and an abundance of California slacker cool. But there’s always been a nagging question lingering about…
Excuse our local beat-juggler boosterism for a moment, but there are some turntablists in town whose skills are so unearthly we reckon they might just have brokered their everlastings soul to Lucifer in trade for prodigious abilities. And if they haven’t, they might want to consider the deal. Every extra…
The weekend drinking and dancing action at EPIQ Nightclub in Scottsdale gets so fierce that it appears as though people are climbing the walls while frenetically partying their brains out. Okay, that ain’t literally the case, mind you, but damned if don’t look that way, thanks to all the smoke…
It looks like all these Record Store Days are paying off. In 2012, global sales for vinyl records hit $171 million, their highest point since 1997 — the same year that Hanson’s “MMMBop” topped the charts. This Saturday, April 20, marks the sixth annual Record Store Day, when artists and…
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Justin Vernon, the reclusive mind behind Bon Iver, said Poliça is the best band he’s ever heard. If that doesn’t get your indie sensibilities all hot and bothered, nothing will. (We’re assuming that Vernon, crowned King of Indie by the Grammy committee in 2012, has heard…
Minimalist R&B-inspired music is riding a wave of popularity right now, but not all makers of breathy, sexytime music are created equal. The sensuality in the music of The xx — comprising Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, and Jamie Smith — is one that The Weeknd and James Blake can’t…
In an recent interview with New Times’ music blog, Up on the Sun, eccentric bassist Les Claypool confessed: “Primus was never supposed to be on the radio, never supposed to be on MTV, never supposed to sell platinum records.” One imagines that Isaac Brock, the singer/songwriter behind Modest Mouse, must…
There’s no getting around it: Icelandic band Sigur Rós is utterly ridiculous. First, there’s the language singer Jonsi often sings in: Vonlenska, or Hopelandic, a gibberish dialect consisting of mewls and coos. And then there’s the blasted pretentiousness: The band named an album ( ), for Pete’s sake. Looking like…
The DJ/producer duo of Adolfo “Dolphz” Salazar and Logic Ali, better known as TrapZillas, has an absolute monster of a weekend planned. The pimped-out trap specialists — who hail from Phoenix and L.A., respectively — will spend the night of Friday, April 12, pulling off back-to-back gigs at two EDM…
Although we’re loath to admit it, the full force of summertime’s fury is a few weeks hence, if not (gulp) sooner. And thanks to that whole climate-change nightmare that the right-wing nutters seem to be in unapologetic denial over, it’s gonna be more uncomfortable than ever ’round these parts. Some…
Mike MezeulLil Wayne has just released his 10th studio album, I Am Not a Human Being II. It’s been 18 years since his first album, True Story, as one half of The B.G.’z. In that time, he’s been a lesser-known member of an embattled Southern hip-hop group, a scrawny kid,…
Black SabbathBy Nicholas Prell Okay, we get it. You like Sabbath. Everyone does. But out there is a whole big world of ’70s metal bands beyond Sabbath — even beyond Sir Lord Baltimore, if you can believe that. The ’70s offered so much in the way of doom-and-gloom heaviness that…
Some of you may remember last March when a little column called Metal Mondays debuted via Up on the Sun, and immediately dove into the subjects matters of Pantera, strippers, Jack Daniel’s, and YouTube…
It’s hard to imagine that once upon a time, Kurt Cobain wasn’t the voice of a generation, or grunge’s foremost martyr. A long time ago, he was simply the guy who fronted a great band called Nirvana, and brought thick, fuzzy metal/punk distortion to great pop songs. He had already…
With Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix’s breakthrough into the public eye (don’t you dare say mainstream, hipster), Paris’ favorite quartet lampooned lady-swooning Liszt and classical rock star Mozart. The synth pop heroes are set to return with Bankrupt!, an album that promises to be more experimental. It helps that Phoenix has been working with creative hurricanes, including director…
Who’s Aaron Carter, you ask? What — you have more important things to do than check what’s trending on Twitter? It’s been a very long time since this little blond boner of a Backstreet brother (his big bro is Nick Carter of BSB) burst on the scene with bubbly pop…
Adam Dumper admits he’d “do practically anything and everything” to help a friend in need. This ain’t no empty boast, as the artist known as Dumperfoo has been busy moving Heaven and Earth to gear up for a special edition of The Blunt Club that aims to raise money for…
Ryan Leslie is a smooth operator. The rap/hip-hop artist’s rhymes melt like butter on toast — actually, given Leslie’s penchant for upscale video shoots in Paris and other exotic locales (“People ask me my address and I say global,” he raps on “Swiss Francs”), make that butter on a baguette…
Heavy, aggressive, and sludgy, local boulder-crushing band Destruction Unit tears through some steady-rocking Germanic grooves. Ryan Rousseau (guitar, vocals, synths) heads up the gang; his bassist brother Rusty, guitarists J.S. Aurelius and Nick Nappa, and drummer Justin Keefer round out the five-piece. Freshly back from SXSW, including a well-received set…
There’s nothing stately about Mariah DeRaet. She’s an unassuming character offstage, a 25-year-old barista with a warm demeanor that could belong to any college-aged girl next door. Yet when she straps on a parlor-sized Martin acoustic as the vocalist of Tempe’s Avery, she and her band (drummer Eric Estrada, guitarist…
