There’s an easy way to distinguish between “alternative metal” and regular, old-timey heavy metal. Critics and rock anatomists will tell you about “time signatures” and “syncopation,” but the lyrics offer a more rewarding contrast. For example, instead of instructing the head-banging masses to “Pour some sugar on me,” an alternative-metal…
Remember those kooky Freedom Rock TV commercials (“Turn it up, man!”) from the ’80s? It was a great gimmick — and potentially adaptable to any music genre, be it gangsta rap or Christian pop or Celtic punk. Can’t you just envision it gone Irish? “Oi, Seamus, is that Sham-Rock?” says…
The DJ duo of Roya and Funkfinger are the best friends any culture vulture could ever want. Together, the pulchritudinous pair puts on the dynamite dance night Obscura every month at vintage dive bar Rips, 3045 North 16th Street, serenading local scenesters with hot spins of retro Europop hits, ’80s…
Let me start this post by doing the professional thing and making a big ol’ disclosure: I work in management at ASU’s student radio station, The Blaze.Whew. OK, now I’ll continue: Now, the Blaze was named the Best Radio Station for Local Music by the Phoenix New Times for the…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the industrial strength rehearsal space of The Whisperlights. If you would like your band featured, tweet @PHXmusicdotcom. Think…
Seriously, I’m about to e-mail Romenesko — the beloved chief of the journalism industry’s unofficial police department — about the Arizona Republic’s music section.When they’re not re-writing band biographies or naming DJs who haven’t lived in Arizona for eight years to their “Valley’s Most Intriguing People” list, they’re advancing their…
Title: A Cold Open, a 7-song EP.Basics: The debut EP from “epic indie rock” act The Other 49 has a sound akin to Explosions In The Sky and is one of the more professional sounding releases I’ve reviewed for You Asked For It. Its pretty standard fare, but at least the…
Yeah, those “free hugs” campaigns are getting a little annoying, but you can’t help but feel the love when looking at the flier for Tempe band Kirkwood Dellinger’s CD release party this Saturday, March 6 at Yucca Tap Room. The message is definitely a loving one.The three-and-a-half-year-old band translates the…
The Valley’s nattiest garage-revival foursome has a pimpin’ little spring lined up for theyselves. After a smattering of local shows this month, the Nots are off to Spain, where they will spend the better part of April assaulting the Iberian peninsula with their incendiary brand of lusty, keyboard-drenched go-go rock…
One of the saltiest, sliest, most macho hombres ever to slap a bass guitar, Mike Watt truly is a breed unto himself. Raised in the hardscrabble port town of San Pedro, California, Watt taught himself bass and practically rewrote the book on it. His “thudstick” would be the dominant expressive…
Born in Texas and raised in Seattle, where he still resides, 32-year-old singer-songwriter Rocky Votolato has traveled a compelling career path over the past 13 years. It started in earnest in the late ’90s when, along with brother Cody (who later played in Blood Brothers and, more recently, Jaguar Love),…
Long before the practice of combining hardcore punk and thrash metal became commonplace, there were The Cro-Mags. The New York hardcore band is often credited with giving birth to the musical genre of “crossover thrash” or “metalcore” (depending on whom you’re asking) with the 1986 release of their classic debut…
What’s the easiest way to get to Wonderland? Forget about slipping through the looking glass or diving down the rabbit hole, Alice, and instead get yourself to Acua, 7144 East Stetson Drive in Scottsdale, on Thursday, March 4. Inside, DJs Jared Alan and Brazilia will preside over the Lewis Carroll-inspired…
It’s not every weekend that we insist on hitting club events. Sure, this past weekend’s Club Candids still featured a night of booze, great music, and hot people but, this time, we classed it up at an art opening at the Ice House…
Though spring break may be fast approaching, college kids are still buying up the latest and greatest at Zia Records in Tempe. Though indie rock typically makes up most of the top ten album sales at this location, there are a few unexpected records that made the cut this week.While…
Title: Horae, a three-song EP.Basics: Billing themselves as an “electronic/rock” band, this Tucson foursome formed in 2008 and recently opened for Neon Indian. That got my attention since Psychic Chasms was one of my favorite albums of 2009 and Neon Indian’s November show in Phoenix was just as fantastic.Neon Indian these guys ain’t,…
Welcome to The Grand Tour, a regular feature where PHXmusic.com takes you inside practice spaces, tour vans and seedy apartments occupied by Phoenix-area bands. This week we give you a look inside the rehersal space occupied by Hashknife Outfit. If you’d like your band featured, tweet @PHXmusicdotcom. You can catch Hasknife live at…
Normally, when someone gets his or her throat slit open, you’d expect a ton of blood to come gushing out. But Phoenix hardcore band Royal Monsters are a little more optimistic, judging by their flier for a show at Mesa’s The Underground on Friday, February 26. According to this intricate…
Modesty is hardly one of DJ Emile’s strong suits. The 30-something mixmaster loves lengthy diatribes, and his favorite subject for discussion is Phoenix’s lackluster nightlife. It’s plagued with boring dance music and low turnouts, Emile proclaims, paling in comparison to when he performed for hundreds with the elite Bombshelter DJs…
You know what must really chap Nick Oliveri’s frequently bare hide? Seeing ex-Queens of the Stone Age bandmate Josh Homme with his new rock-legend friends and his new supergoup, just looking so fucking happy, while poor Oliveri is stuck hustling beard-wax money by playing a series of West Coast solo…
Nothing says “modern American blues” quite like . . . Mesa? It’s the dodgiest cultural pairing this side of “Utah” and “jazz,” but that hasn’t stopped the Phoenix Blues Society from establishing a fine live-music tradition in this city of menudo joints and Mormon churches. In this, the 19th year…
Embrace your inner middle-schooler for a moment and recall a time, long ago, when, in your young mind, the jam band genre represented something truly “alternative” and fascinatingly “indie.” Maybe it was the lengthy tracks that lured you in, much like the freaky Lindsey Weir first experiencing The Dead. Maybe…
