The self-styled “most hated band in the world” has a true friend in us. No, not “us” literally — we’d sooner listen to Feist — but “us” as in, the Valley of the Sun. The horror-core rap pioneers always draw well here, whether touring in league (their Dark Lotus supergroup…
If you’re the ex of someone in Tempe pop-rock band This Century, you won’t want to listen to their latest EP, ‘To Love and Back.’
You may think of this whole Club Candids thing as a cheap excuse to run around town and get loaded but you’re quite mistaken, my friend. When we need to class it up a bit, we know how. And we felt like the Night of Fashion at Rowdy Boutique last…
Yucca Tap Room’s quickly-becoming-legendary Sunday Valley Fever shows have had some great posters (review some past ones here) but this week’s has to be my absolute favorite. Kudos to DJ Dana or whoever planned this piece. I honestly can’t figure out how it looks so perfectly vintage and I have…
Indie darlings The Most Serene Republic are touring in support of their latest full-length, . . . And the Ever Expanding Universe, which dropped in July. Like most bands, TMSR found themselves struggling with a release date while working on the disc. Pianist Ryan Lenssen recently told Agoravox.com that the album was in…
Oscar Mastrantuono’s wine bar Bomberos, 8801 North Central Avenue, is arguably the dopest place to tie one on in the Sunnyslope neighborhood, as the drinking den offers any number of South American wines by the glass and bottle. The swanky joint gets even more cool every Thursday evening as deep…
In addition to releasing a new disc, New Junk Aesthetic, this month, Every Time I Die recently hired a new drummer. Ryan Leger, formerly of Dead and Divine, has taken over for Mike “Ratboy” Novak. And, according to a recent Twitter post from the Epitaph-signed hardcore band, the new drummer…
The old book on Pink: Debbie Gibson with tattoos. The new book on Pink: Surprisingly durable pop madam. Granted, the two-time Grammy winner will never be revered like her idol, Janis Joplin, but she’s certainly made some solid, career-prolonging adjustments since her early days as an R&B puppet-rebel. In eight…
There’s a release party, and there’s a release party. If all goes according to plan, these Cleveland-based ’90s hip-hop harmonizers will have enjoyed both by year’s end. Yes, they will have celebrated the release of their long-awaited reunion album, The World’s Enemy, due in stores this November. And, yes, they…
Call the music what you will — alt-country, roots music, Americana — but the Valley is home to a vibrant and diverse array of artists specializing in old-school cowboy music. Unfortunately, though the Valley is great at producing such acts, we’re not so great at supporting them, hence the exodus…
Yes, The Surfside IV has already been named Flier of the Week twice before. In a way, I feel bad about that. But, to be honest, they’ve definitely had the best flier in this town at least three times. Actually, if other bands don’t step it up we might just…
The swanky and sinful Pussycat Lounge, 4426 North Saddlebag Trail in Scottsdale, underwent a big-time renovation in August, hitting the F5 button on its décor and design scheme while all the college kids were away for the long, hot summer. There’s a new DJ booth, dance floor, and video screens…
It’s an event that happens once a generation. If you’d had a child in 1987, the last time the Beatles catalog was re-mastered for release (on CD, for the first time), the kid wouldn’t be a kid anymore. Voting rights? Check. Able to purchase alcohol without a fake ID? Check…
Valley bluesman Bob Corritore is a self-contained synergistic event. He performs. He produces. He owns the live-music venue where he and his recording partner will hold their latest CD release party. He hosts the local blues radio show that will promote said CD. Short of taking over as managing editor…
So maybe this is the year of the celebrity death, but 2007 had its share. That year, all sorts of heavy-hitting jazz musicians crossed to the other side, including Alice Coltrane, Max Roach, Michael Brecker, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Zawinul. The past two years haven’t been immune either (Freddie Hubbard,…
Somewhere along the line, Apple Computer Inc. started hiring staffers with a knack for searching out perfect pop songs. These employees have an acute sense for picking catchy, pop-driven songs to pimp their lines of iPods. More often than not, Apple catches lightning in a bottle with the songs and…
If you’re a rock band that hails from pretty much anywhere in New Jersey, perhaps the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon you — more than a Grammy or induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — is for Bruce Springsteen to play with you onstage. It…
They were among the first punks to go Americana. Like The Blasters dipped in acid and sun-baked by the Arizona heat, The Meat Puppets play cosmic country and blues, ranging from ambling, psych-singed instrumentals to effervescing folk jangle, led by Curt Kirkwood’s warbling baritone. While their first album primarily favored…
When Bill Murray made glorious lounge-mockery of the Star Wars theme on Saturday Night Live all those years ago, little did he know that the bit would inspire, if not one of the great all-time music acts, then one of the great all-time music shticks. Led by Sinatra-soundalike Richard Cheese…
If yesterday’s blog comments about the mayhem on Roosevelt Row are any indication, folks are looking for a quieter place to view art on First Friday.Of course, there’s always Grand Avenue. But this past Friday, we checked out a brand spankin’ new art walk at Heritage Square Park. We rolled…
OK, we’re going to admit right off this week’s best poster was not determined by art alone. Truth be told, for a show by our good friend Psyko Steve, who usually does some great stuff, this Kinch flier is a little disappointing.Fact is, we know the flier isn’t super fancy…
Not to get all up in your grill, William Safire-style, but there’s a real etymological crisis going with the word “keening.” It’s a noun that means “a wailing lament,” or the act of creating same, but many journalists — especially arts critics and the like — choose to brandish it…
