Few bands have done more to embody the carefree goof-punk spirit of The Dickies than The Vandals, whether blazing their way through the holiday spirit with “Oi to the World!” or showing their sensitive side on the breakup song “My Girlfriend’s Dead.” These clowns were cranking out the mullet jokes…
By the time they emerged from the shadow of Disneyland and L.A. punk with a tough little self-titled record on Slash, The Blasters were the quintessential early ’80s roots-rock band. They looked the part, they played the part, they lived the part. That record was as good as roots-rock got,…
What’s that low, rumbling sound peppered with shouting and minor guitar chords? Is it The Jesus Lizard, crawling out from under a rock for a “reunion”? Is it Steve Albini reviving his post-punk band Shellac? Nope, it’s Seattle group Madraso, which has ripped several pages from the books of late…
There’s seemingly been a serious case of Retro Fever gripping the PHX as of late. In recent weeks, a throng of ’70s and ’80s superstars have announced upcoming local gigs, including The Who, The Moody Blues, Rod Stewart, and George Thorogood. One such throwback who’s also making a stop in…
1. Pepper, No Shame (Atlantic/Wea) 2. Eminem, Eminem Presents: The Re-Up (Shady Records) 3. Incubus, Light Grenades (Sony) 4. Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape (Interscope) 5. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come (Roc-a-Fella) 6. The Beatles, Love (Capitol) 7. Brand New, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (Interscope) 8. Tom Waits,…
Who goes clubbing on a Sunday, anyway? Leave it to the techno kids — they love to party so much, Saturday nights just aren’t enough. On Sunday, December 10, the Phase 54 regulars popped in to celebrate the club’s 2 Year Anniversary Party with “Aural Fixation Night!” Tucked away among…
1. Snoop Dogg, The Blue Carpet Treatment (Geffen) 2. Akon, Konvicted (Umvd) 3. Jay-Z, Kingdom Come (Roc-a-Fella) 4. Incubus, Light Grenades (Sony) 5. The Game, Doctor’s Advocate (Geffen) 6. John Legend, Once Again (Sony) 7. The Beatles, Love (Capitol) 8. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive) 9. Fergie, The Dutchess (Interscope) 10…
Sometimes a night out in Scottsdale with all things shiny and plastic is just what we need. The hordes of twentysomething bronzed babes and stylish studs remind us that the singles scene is alive, thriving and definitely doable. On Saturday, December 2, e4 Nightclub and Lounge hooked up with Energy…
The guys in White Demons may occasionally wear eyeliner and tight jeans, but there is not a single song about a chick on this CD and not one stinky whiff of shitty emo. What we’ve got here instead is explosive, trashy, borderline-glam punk ‘n’ roll with shouted choruses and crisp,…
There’s just something so awesomely asinine about a hicked-out country cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” which is the leadoff track on this EP of eclectic, acoustic remakes. Mourning Woody turns the dark techno-pop hit into a jangly, upbeat hoedown of a song, and in the process accomplishes something almost…
The Weary Boys and Rose’s Pawn Shop show is the best double bill in bluegrass for both purists and evolutionists. RPS has a malleable alt-country sound, wrapped up in skillfully crafted songs with vocal harmonies and elaborate instrumentation, like “Lone Rider,” which opens with what sounds like a banjo sounding…
In eyelinered Chicago goth-pop wanna-bes Kill Hannah’s sort-of hit “Kennedy,” singer Mat Devine brags that he wants to be a Kennedy and, after living fast and breaking hearts and kissing the girls of centerfolds on the tongue, die young. We don’t really believe Devine, because two songs later on that…
You don’t have to be a dork to like Primus, but these days it sure helps. Dismissed by critics and hipsters alike as “cartoonish weirdo wankery” and almost universally named as the scapegoat for the nü-metal holocaust of the late ’90s, Les Claypool and company may have a hard time…
Voted most likely to bring an accordion and dance-punk beats to the emo-kid table at lunch, the exquisitely dressed young men of Panic! At the Disco took their first step down the road to superstardom not by being from the same Las Vegas stomping grounds as Brandon Flowers or even…
When it made its first crude, unintelligible blast onto the metal landscape, no one could have foreseen that Napalm Death would do anything other than flare out into obscurity as a quickly worn novelty. But the band, now grinding away into its 25th year, would not only go on to…
Fuck amps that go to 11 — Tim Carroll lives life with the volume ratcheted up to 20. The 48-year-old gay vocalist for Minneapolis punk foursome Faggot is hardly shy about his sexual orientation, jamming it down the throats of anyone attending their riotous gigs, during which Carroll and his…
The SYR series of recordings were the right idea at the right time. Issued via Sonic Youth’s imprint — beginning in 1997 and continuing, albeit sporadically, to the present day — the releases allowed the group to shrug out of verse-chorus-verse strictures self-imposed as (relatively) new Geffen signees. Lyrics were…
The first-ever mix CD to come from Napoli’s Marco Carola shows no signs of amateurism. After all, Carola is quite familiar with techno, having been DJing at least since 1990, before rolling out his own productions, subsequently establishing a label called Design Music, and recording with Adam Beyer. His selections…
Downtown Phoenix seems to be a ginormous cluster-fuck of urban progress these days. Between the massive mess of light-rail construction and a few new skyscrapers going up, it’s quite the challenge getting to the handful of off-the-chain events going on downtown. However, you’ll wanna brave this urban death maze on…
There’s nothing like a good ol’ drag show to scum up a wholesome holiday with the family. That was the idea at Amsterdam’s 4th Annual Thanksgiving Night Show last Thursday, November 23, when everyone sucked in their turkey-filled guts and squeezed into their clubbing clothes. The fabulously flamboyant show starred…
Desiree and Mindy Duponte are teenaged sisters, attractive blond girls who each stand around five feet tall and have unusually tiny hands. When they tell people they’re musicians, they usually get a reaction along the lines of, “Oh, you guys play in a band? That’s so cute. ” When I…
They’ve always been known for the Southwestern flavor they bring to the indie-rock table — mariachi horns, spaghetti Western ambiance, the kind of sound that says “Why, yes, in fact, we are from Tucson.” By the time they got to Garden Ruin, though, the members of Calexico were in the…
