Cute Is What We Aim For is likely the perfect 21st-century pop band. Almost purpose-built for short-attention-span marketing campaigns, the four gents in CIWWAF focus so heavily on pop sheen, hooks, and scenester touchstones that it’s often difficult to figure out just what the sum of the parts is. Then…
Like his dad Larry, singer-songwriter James McMurtry knows characters. But unlike his novelist father — who penned The Last Picture Show and Lonesome Dove, and wrote Brokeback Mountain’s screenplay — the guys and gals who populate James’ work don’t even bother looking for a way out. They’re already down for…
Even with Ozzfest gearing up for another go, metalheads would be hard pressed to find a better festival bill this summer than the Rockstar Energy Mayhem tour. Slipknot — Iowa’s favorite (and probably only) Grammy-winning metal band — headlines the melee, with a barrage of badass metallers in tow, including…
Summertime ain’t a dead time as far as the local rave scene is concerned. The particular all-hours party that we’re going to be swooping into will definitely be The Dark Knight, being put on by Silent Unspoken Entertainment on Saturday, July 19, in honor of that certain comic book flick…
Here’s the top 10 best-selling albums for Zia Record Exchange, 1940 West Chandler Boulevard in Chandler, for the week of July 7 to 13. 1. Beck, Modern Guilt (Geffen) 2. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (Universal) 3. The Maine, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (Fearless) 4. Sigur Rós, Med Sud I…
By Lilia Menconi For more sweaty goodness, check the slideshow. Since Glam closed, we’ve been on a mission. We’ve got to find another place where people are sporting everything from jeans and Converse to designer dresses to wrestling masks. We dig dancing amid total chaos — it’s the only way…
Sigur Rós’ latest is positively festooned with danger signs: first album to be recorded mostly outside the band’s home base of Iceland, first to feature a track sung in English, and the first co-produced by a big-shot dial-twister (Flood, of Depeche Mode and PJ Harvey fame). Somehow, though, these seemingly…
With 10 like-minded bands on the same bill, it’ll be damn near impossible to avoid death metal overkill here. But if you can find a way to conserve your energy, the Summer Slaughter tour features two Montreal death metal bands that go together like, well, an ax and a freshly…
Not to be confused with the ultra-polished Indiana University a cappella group of the same name (though that would be funny as shit), this extreme metal outfit dares to go where most of its peers fear to tread. Which is to say: awkwardness. Yes, Straight, No Chaser will still melt…
A Todd Rundgren performance could include just about anything from the multi-instrumentalist’s 41-year career: the ’60s garage rock of his old band Nazz, his early ’70s power pop solo work, his mid-’70s Zappa-esque experimental stage, his ’80s New Wave dabbling, his ’90s phase of bossa nova, concept albums, and interpretive…
Chris Martin and company return to the road in support of their latest album, Viva La Vida, their follow-up to the number one, 10-times platinum album X&Y. Critics are already commenting on the album’s “harder edge,” and even Coldplay front man Chris Martin remarked to Entertainment Weekly that “We’re slightly…
Omaha’s Tilly and the Wall doesn’t have a drummer. But the band’s figured out a way to lay down the beat just the same: Member Jamie Pressnall provides percussive rhythms by tap-dancing. Yes, tap-dancing. Left to the wrong feet, it could all turn into a gimmicky, indie-pop version of Riverdance…
This Pittsburgh jam band has long been a shared favorite of Deadheads everywhere (the devout are known as “Rootheads”), as the band’s music incorporates world-music percussion and touches of bluegrass, but leaves room for improvisational jams. Some of the bands songs, like their biggest hit, 1995’s “Send Me on My…
We were surfing through DJ Tranzit’s impressive-looking MySpace page (www.myspace.com/tranzit) the other day, and besides being amused by the house music maestro’s catchphrases (“Some people call it a dance floor. I call it my office”), we peeped a pretty lengthy list of the clubs and gigs where he’s plied his…
What’s the most surprising characteristic about this DIY-sounding album? That it’s not just some dude holed up in his parents’ basement multi-tracking in the bathroom to achieve that just-so sound. Because it seriously sounds like that. However, The Black Jacket is a full band featuring a number of members from…
The only thing music correspondents are concerning themselves with right now is what’s the song of the summer gonna be — that special confection that encapsulates in 3 1/2 minutes something that’s going to make life on a planet that’s cooking itself with Jiffy-Pop finality worth sticking around for. Well,…
Perfect Timing Entertainment’s Grid City on Thursday, July 3rd. By Lilia Menconi It gets weirder. Check the slideshow for more. It’s really not that unusual for us to end up in some strange house downtown. Typically, we’re one of the stragglers at the alluring yet oft-disappointing after-party — scrounging for…
By Benjamin Leatherman Here’s a list of what’s been selling at Circles Records & Tapes (800 North Central Avenue in Phoenix) for the Week of June 30 to June 6: 1. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (Cash Money) 2. Plies, Definition of Real (Atlantic) 3. The-Dream, Love Hate (Def Jam)…
I know what you’re thinking: The Booze Pig has finally drunk himself stupid — is this guy really going to review a sports bar? Well, let me start by saying that the hole in question used to be called the Copper Coin and, back in its day, it was my…
Underwater Getdown’s not real big on linear arrangement, with its various instruments intruding on choruses and bridges and taking the songs for wild swings around the meter. There’s some good, moody songwriting here, and some nice melodies, but stylistically, UG is all over the place. Some songs, like “Monrovia,” have…
Over the years, reviewers aplenty have wished for Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo to grow up. But when he’s occasionally tried to do so, the results have served as an argument for endless adolescence — at least until now. The group’s latest self-titled release is practically a novelty disc, albeit a notably…
The Beautiful Bodies’ debut, Touch Me, is an awkward and only occasionally rewarding combination of pale Yeah Yeah Yeahs mimickry and roaring classic rock. It’s as if Karen O hijacked Rush before either party was fully formed. Bodies frontwoman Alicia Solo, for all her stage appeal and self-promotional charisma, has only…
