Speaking with comedian Gregg Turkington about Phoenix’s storied 80’s punk scene, yielded plenty of yarns about seeing legendary bands in their prime. However, he also painted a vividly grotesque portrait of Arizona during the Reagan ’80s and his own teenage experience in trying to navigate reactionary politics, fried food, and…
When Garland Jeffreys broke onto the New York music scene in the early 1970s — the same scene that spawned Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and (via New Jersey) Bruce Springsteen — his songs were a little too close to the reality of the times. Music was supposed to be an…
There are at least three sets of noted Diaz brothers: Nick and Nathan of mixed martial arts fame; Lu and Hugo, known for producing hip-hop and Miami bass records in the 1980s and ’90s; and the unseen siblings in Brian De Palma’s brutal 1983 classic Scarface (“Fuck the fuckin’ Diaz…
Johnny Depp is a talented actor, ladykiller, and all-around badass. I don’t need to state the obvious, but the guy has played Captain Jack Sparrow, Edward Scissorhands, and Raoul Duke, all characters possessing the rock star mystique. But when he’s not gracing the silver screen, the guy likes to act…
How’s this as a recipe for unmitigated disaster? Three exceedingly old white dudes head into the studio with the guy who produced the last Linkin Park album to record a blues version of a Southern rap classic by DJ DMD, Lil Keke, and Fat Pat called (seriously) “I Gotsta Get…
In case you hadn’t heard, the bass-heavy hip-hop hybrid of trap music is becoming the flavor of the nanosecond in the EDM world, as big-name producers like Flosstradamus and Baauer (as well as locals like Trapzillas) are pumping its bombastic gravitas through sound systems around the globe. For Vancouver-born bass…
In this week’s issue, we chat with with former Grateful Dead and current Furthur guitarist Bob Weir. We ended up with more material than we could fit, so please enjoy another installment of Outtakes, where we sweep up all sorts of good stuff that ended up on the cutting room…
Anything with “ladies night” in the title is generally bound to be a good time. Us gals appreciate being able to get in for free (or at least for cheap), and most guys are stoked that a club is full with more ladies than usual, so it’s a win-win situation…
What’s the most metal gift you’ve ever received? I can think of several that stick out: Led Zeppelin vinyl, a miniature model of Dimebag Darrell’s Razorback lightning bolt guitar, spike-bedecked high heels that would make a dominatrix envious, a stripper pole paired with a handle of whiskey. But I’ll admit:…
If Robert Fripp had discovered mandolin and bluegrass instead of guitar and classical symphonies, he might have formed a band like The Punch Brothers instead of King Crimson. The honor of actually founding the Punch Brothers goes to former Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile. The MacArthur Fellow kick-started the…
Minneapolis breeds a certain kind of musician, one that’s tough and able to thrive through biting, bitter winters. Fiery five-piece Off with Their Heads hails from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but don’t expect them to recall the band’s alt-punk heritage like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. “I never really…
Karl Wallinger has been conspicuously absent from the music scene the over the past decade — but with good reason. The former Waterboy and World Party founder suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2001 that left him unable to walk and talk, let alone sing or play any of the…
Call it an occupational hazard: Almost every DJ or producer in the world has a tendency toward swagger and bragging. In fact, self-aggrandizement is as much a part of the job as remixing and learning how use Ableton Live or ProTools. So we didn’t bat an eyelash when Jakarta-born beatsmith…
It’s a good time to be a member of Beat Circuit. After all, the local EDM duo, which consists of siblings Miles and Demian Porter, produced a hot dance song (“Bring the Night”) that’s charted fairly well on the popular site Digital DJ Pool in recent weeks, they’ve finished their…
Getting drunk with Santa Claus would be pretty awesome when you think about it. St. Nick is already pretty generous with gifts if you’ve been nice, but just imagine what he would get you when you’ve been nice and kept the IPAs flowing? We can’t guarantee you that World of…
Phoenix-by-way-of-Tucson rapper Jaron Ikner is really over the whole, “me first mentality” in hip-hop culture. Long gone are the days of quality congregations of rappers like that of 90’s supercrew Wu-Tang Clan, but it’s something the Black One wants to change. Starting first with his latest record, The Rise, which…
The holiday season always calls for some self-reflection, no matter if you’re a Nordic Satanic metaller keeping track of virgin sacrifices, or Taylor Swift rolling in gold coins Duck Tales-style from sales of her new CD — oh yeah, did you know if you call Papa John’s to order pizza,…
Look, you can keep the emotive rants and daddy-issue screeds, because at its best, metal’s always about doomsday. This is the year the Mayan calendar ends, making the title of Massachusetts metal band Shadows Fall’s seventh record, Fire from the Sky, seem not so coincidental. “These days, the world seems…
When The Faint’s seminal album, Danse Macabre, was released 11 years ago, its combination of pulsing synths and heavy guitars made the band stand out. Sure, bits and pieces sounded like New Order or Depeche Mode, but there was a modern urgency that still rings loud and clear over a…
It’s one thing to make a cartoon that affectionately sends up the theatrics of death metal. It’s another thing entirely for Brendon Small, co-producer and co-creator of the animated Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, to make three albums of astute extreme metal under the guise of his imaginary creation. Metalocalypse is…
Rock bands like Korn and Muse may be all about dubstep now, but even before emo rocker-gone-EDM-DJ Skrillex arena-rockified the genre, John Dadzie, better known as 12th Planet, was spreading the bass-heavy word. Let down by the drum ‘n’ bass genre’s refusal to change, the DJ started exploring the emerging…
Thanksgiving is a time for traditions both good and bad, whether it involves gathering at Grandmama’s house for the annual government-sanctioned gorge on mashed potatoes and stuffing or tolerating your creepy uncle’s yearly onslaught of awful jokes. Meanwhile, local house music godfather Pete “SuperMix” Salaz will once again be staging…
