In the beginning, Philadelphia native Garrett “G. Love” Dutton — hitting the national music scene like a fourth Beastie Boy crossed with splashes of Beck and Bob Dylan — created the song “Cold Beverage” with his two-man backing band, Special Sauce. The year was 1994, the shambling song came from…
He may be a star now, but back in the day, Andrew McMahon had to haul his piano into the basement of the former Nile Theater in Mesa just like the rest of them. “I’ve definitely got a lot of good memories from Phoenix,” McMahon says, remembering the Valley as…
Generally, the thought of a “night out” on Mill Avenue gives us a sickening feeling normally reserved for positive lab test results or finding half of a roach in our food, but after checking out Sucker Punch Sally’s bar/diner on Friday night, we’re thrilled to have found a new douche-free…
The last few weeks our “What’s Selling” column has focused on record stores in Tempe. But take just a few steps west and kids sure are buying different albums. Even though the ever-trendy Vampire Weekend makes the top 3, Lil Wayne comes out first, and indie rock and hip hop…
Borders, Battles & Beers(Self-released)GRADE: D+Note: Michael Lopez is taking over our long-running You Asked For It review column.Music is a medium that comes to a particular person through inspiration. It is also a medium that inspires others to be creative and to perhaps make their own music. Sometimes a historical…
Okay, this flier for Andrew Jackson Jihad at the Rogue Bar is a little disturbing (aren’t black birds supposed to be bad luck?), but it’s still fun since THERE’S A BIRD WEARING A CORSET! Seriously, how often do you see birds wearing corsets?! Not that often, my friend, and what better…
Few of us get creamed by a speeding 18-wheeler and live to tell about it. Even fewer of us take that near-death experience and use it to fuel our signature brand of devilish lo-fi blues-punk. But, hey, that’s Scott H. Biram for you — a down ‘n’ dirty East Texan…
Denver-based synth-buddies David Schmitt and Kyle Even are very young, very tattooed, and very loud. Their brand of buzzing, densely layered electronica is sometimes classified as screamo — which in this case means it sounds like someone took a death-metal band, replaced their guitars with Korg X50 synthesizers, and let…
While it’s practically impossible for a white dude with an acoustic guitar and harmonica to achieve anything genuinely surprising, it’s nearly as difficult for such an artist to achieve anything approaching genuine. Joe Pug’s “I Do My Father’s Drugs,” from his excellent 2008 Nation of Heat EP, is one of…
The best cover songs are born when an artist takes a song written by someone else and not only performs it, but fundamentally changes it, imbues it with something new, and alters the song’s DNA in a way that claims the song and makes it their own. Think of Cat…
Tom Reardon is been a guitar-beating, band-organizing, lyric-spitting juggernaut who’s been a major figure in Phoenix’s rock scene for more than 15 years. In addition to his lengthy involvement with on-again/off-again noise-rock act Hillbilly Devilspeak and the defunct joke-punk band Pinky Tuscadero’s White Knuckle AssFuck, the bespectacled 40-year-old has also…
Is electro waning in popularity in the Valley? One might think so, given the fact that some of the more popular electro nights, such as Gosh Damn and Party Foul, have blinked out of existence over the past six months. But that hasn’t stopped the promoters of this weekend’s ElectroSelf…
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 glamorous rehearsal space of Gospel Claws.Smells Like: Cigar smoke. The boys were puffing away the whole time…
Martin Cizmar’s review of the sold-out Phoenix show Monday night has raised some eyebrows, making a few good points about the current state of the French band. A lot of Martin’s opinions come from someone who isn’t the biggest fan of the band, and that is perfectly fine. I, on…
It sure has been a while since we’ve walked into a club and felt totally inspired. Yes, inspired. Not, “I just saw the Mona Lisa” inspired, but definitely, “let’s get our party on” inspired.The five year anniversary of the hip hop night, The Shop, took place at the Hidden House…
Eastside Records is one of the last vestiges of the traditional American record store you’ll find in the Valley of the Sun. It has a loyal clientèle and remains one of the best spots to find obscure used vinyl. Even those hard to obtain, single-issue punk albums. Even though it’s…
Nope, it’s not promoting the classic 1987 Nintendo game Metroid–this flier of the week comes courtesy of Phoenix indie band Source Victoria, who is playing Yucca Tap Room this weekend. The group, who’s shared the stage with local favorites Jimmy Eat World and The Format, is gearing up to work…
It’s not only a new year, but a new decade to boot, so the hip-hop heroes running the Blunt Club decided it was high time for a new start. After spending the past couple of years rocking both microphones and turntables at the Red Owl, they’re re-launching the venerable weekly…
The other day, I was listening to Mississippi five-piece band Come On Go With Us, doing some research on the members of the group when it hit me. “Yup,” I thought to myself, “that makes sense.” Why? Well, Come On Go With us sound exactly like what you’d expect them…
Dear PopPunK: Let’s cut the shit. The previous decade was yours for the taking. And, for fuck’s sake, you took it. Hell, you had your cake and sang it in a song about a lame breakup, too. PopPunK, you started as a group of rambunctious bros who met in high…
Let’s face it, we’re in a new decade, and while some of the previous decade’s fads and styles will continue to trickle into 2010 and beyond, some of them need to respectfully wither away. There’s nothing wrong with that because it is simply the cutthroat nature of our culture’s sensibilities…
The first things you notice about the Japanese new wave band Polysics are their glaring similarities to Devo — the most obvious of which are the band’s orange jumpsuits and their straight-bar sunglasses. Of course, the similarities aren’t completely unintentional. In 1997, when the founder of Polysics, Hiroyuki Hayashi, was…
