Ottmar Liebert makes smooth music, the kind of airy fare you might hear in a dentist’s office. But though his tunes border on new age, his work ethic is resolutely hardcore: The German-born guitarist has been issuing “nouveau flamenco” guitar records since 1989, cranking out 25 albums’ worth of live…
The late godfather of punk, Joey Ramone, once said that one of the cool things about the Ramones’ first album was its brevity — at just 30 minutes long, you could blast the entire record at a party before the cops showed up. Joe Queer, frontman of pop-punk band The…
“I’m stymied to come up with anything funnier than people who think animals have rights. Just stick an arrow through their lungs”; “Obama’s a piece of shit, and I told him to suck on my machine gun”; “Our failure has been not to Nagasaki [Iraq].” To read some of the…
A band that makes “avant-garde” music is often better off without lyrics. The instrumental dynamics of bands like Mars Volta and King Crimson are jaw-dropping, but their lyrics can be head-scratchers. When Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta sings, “I am a deaf con of angora goats” and King Crimson…
Joel Davis, better known by his professional name, DJ Epidemic, is moving to New York. There’s just one problem. “New York DJs are terrible,” Davis says. “They don’t mix, and they all get drunk and are on drugs. It’s a very terrible scene for DJs.” Yet Davis is bound for…
It’s almost hard to characterize The Whisperlights as a local band, with members of the eight-piece group living in Phoenix and on both coasts. The band makes it work, utilizing a smaller lineup for Valley gigs while touring with the full band. A true product of the digital age, The…
Massachusetts metalcore band Unearth’s upcoming album, Darkness In The Light, is probably the quartet’s most progressive record to date. It’s chock full of the brutally heavy guitar chords and pummeling drums of the band’s previous works, but incorporates more guitar melodies and vocal harmonies than ever before. Recorded by producer…
Washington and Central may be the heart of downtown Phoenix nightlife, but there’s plenty of action further north on Central. Amsterdam is always busy on Friday nights, as gay, lesbian, and straight patrons can let their hair down and enjoy brightly colored cocktails and bumpin’ top 40 jams. Check out…
The Water Fox is reuniting for the summer. The group is a hardcore band that formed during their high school days at Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix.Also sharing the stage for this gig will be Owl & Penny, Living in Black & White, Something Went Awry, and Daniel &…
You know indie rock has reached full maturity when longtime genre protagonists are forming “supergroups.” Well, that and Arcade Fire winning a Grammy, Pitchfork holding its own music festival, Pavement reuniting, Pomplamoose performing in car commercials, etc. Guess what comes after maturity, kids? The inevitable decline… so best to enjoy…
Nothing puts people in a good mood quite like reggae music does, particularly in the summertime. There’s just something about those bass lines and those steel drums that can instantly turn any ordinary day into a really great one. From Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff to the Wailers and Peter…
Forget whatever your ’80s metalhead friends say about the merits of Poison and Mötley Crüe — New York Dolls are the most important and influential band on this triple-header summer tour. The band, formed in 1971, pre-dates the formation of Poison by 12 years, and the Crüe by 10 years…
Taj Weekes doesn’t possess a typical “reggae” voice, but that’s okay, because he doesn’t make “typical” reggae. Weekes’ voice is reedy, almost androgynous, and on A Waterlogged Soul Kitchen, his latest release, he puts his unique timbre on display over classic reggae sounds augmented by nods to calypso, folk, blues,…
She can’t sing, her dancing is questionable, her hooks are purchased, and she has a documented crazy streak — yet Britney Spears has still managed to make the comeback of the decade. She’s currently on her Femme Fatale arena tour, where the visual spectacle trumps the sound quality, and fans…
The Black Lips are at a crossroads. After 2009’s 200 Million Thousand, the murky, messy bummer of a record that stalled their career, the longtime Atlanta psych-garage band suddenly appeared at risk of becoming a novelty act known more for their chemically fueled R-rated on- and offstage antics (which included,…
Hate, sex, and drugs. Those are the qualities that unite the musical selections of DJ Squalor, with tunes coming from a wide spectrum of misanthropic genres industrial, EBM, electro, dance, experimental, and noise. “If it’s dirty, wrong, fast, and has the right pulse, I drop that shit.” Squalor provides the…
Soulwax’s Steve Slingeneyer, better known for his One Man Party moniker, headlined an evening full of electronica during Faux Show’s Summer Pre Party at Brick. Steve wasn’t the only one partying, the bar and patio were full of patrons dancing and socializing all night. Check out this weeks Club Candids…
I came across the band’s debut album, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, this past Friday, entering into it with mixed emotions, fueled by not knowing what the hell was about to come over the speakers. After all, WU LYF stands for “World United/Lucifer Youth Foundation” and the band often…
If Matt and Kim had never made it as a musical duo, they probably could’ve found success as therapists. The indie-punk band is sickeningly sweet and happy, putting just as much emphasis on their perma-smiles and interaction with fans as on the music they play. Matt and Kim dance on…
It might be easy for some people to dismiss “Weird Al” Yankovic as an ’80s relic/Dr. Demento rip-off — if it weren’t for the fact that since he started his comedic music career in 1976, he’s sold more than 12 million albums and performed more than a thousand live shows…
You know how powerful Cake is? When you Google the word “cake,” the band’s website is the first search result. That’s serious stuff, a band being able to muscle its way to the top, beating out all the love actual cake earns on the Internet. What’s even more impressive is…
The Meat Puppets are rightly considered legends by just about everyone in Arizona. The band’s records for SST are generally regarded as classics, unique keepsakes from a time when the band’s blend of psychedelic rock, dusty country, and punk rock was inspiring guys like Kurt Cobain, who famously covered a…
