There are always some old-school characters at local hardcore punk shows (think Northside Kings) telling the youngsters how it was back in the day, how much better the pits were in the prime years of Agnostic Front and Sick of It All. However, this is one show where those types…
The lineup for Phoenix Fest is damn good, but there is something you must know. This is not the show to kick back at the bar with a beer. You will be lonely in the 21-and-over section. Tough hardcore band Embrace Today is leading new legions of straight-edge kids with…
At the risk of oversimplifying his appeal, or understating his accomplishments, when it comes to ’50s surf/instrumental guitar, Link Wray is the Stones to Duane Eddy’s Beatles. While Eddy’s movie matinee looks, and sweet, bubbling twang of tracks such as “Rebel Rouser” (amplified by the low whinny of Eddy’s whammy…
So who, exactly, is Mike Jones? That’s a great question. Here’s what we’ve learned so far: The nearly ubiquitous Houston-based rapper apparently lives in a world of Escalades with wood-grain interiors and diamond grilles. He has a strained, nasal drawl, which he throws against both the glitzy synth lines of…
Smart-asses in more ways than one, Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian may not be the first to have read media critic Danny Schechter while pumping S layer and actually absorbed both. But on Mezmerize, System of a Down’s third and most consistent album, the front men, now equally billed, revive…
Stereolab singer/multi-instrumentalist Laetitia Sadier confers with her recording engineer on the first day of sessions for A Few Steps More, the second album from her side quartet, Monade. “It’s so nice to get a break from Stereolab and work on another project for a while.” “Yeah, I like Stereolab a…
Death By Stereo is the punk rock band that metalheads dig, because it has an edge — aggressive guitar riffs, and hard and fast drumming that’s typical for hardcore punk bands such as A.F.I., and Shai Hulud. But while Death By Stereo sounds chaotic, its lyrics are generally serious and…
There won’t be a better show in Phoenix this summer than this one. That’s because these three bands realize a concert is meant to be something more than vomiting up tracks from their latest slab. All three are driven by an appreciation of rock’s theatrical qualities. This goes double for…
This fourth collaboration between Rupert Huber and Richard Dorfmeister is a family affair — the letters J.A.C. represent newborn sons (Joseph, Arthur, Conrad; Huber’s wife had twins). This could clue us in to the lullaby-sounding quality of “Heidi Brühl,” with slightly polished guitars creating an airy soundscape behind Samiah Farah’s…
Most people agree that the former Common Sense has few peers on the mic. But his last album, 2002’s Electric Circus, was an intermittently exciting exploration of acid rock that enraged hip-hop purists, and today’s cutthroat industry doesn’t extend many mulligans for experimentation. Like any boho artist, though, Common wants…
You’d think having the biggest-selling local CD in 2003, The King of AZ, would have this MC resting on his braggadocio. But it’s 2005, and Atllas is champing at the mic — literally. As the title song screams out, “Hunger and Starvation” is not some Neverland faux ballad about feeding…
Trance-music don Christopher Lawrence is perhaps the best-known name in dance music to come from the United States, a country with no shortage of topnotch DJ talent. Consistently ranked alongside the U.K.’s hottest jocks in DJ Magazine’s annual poll, in 2004 Lawrence checked in at number seven, placing higher than…
Have you ever dreamed of being on stage singing with your favorite band? Sure you have. Pretty much everybody dances in their underwear, crooning into a hairbrush/spatula/spoon — whether they’d admit it or not. Some of the punk-rock elite decided it’d be hella fun to let fans live out their…
What to make of the Dead Kennedys’ “Too Drunk to Fuck” done bossa-nova style with vocals by Camille, a uni-monikered songbird who twitters like a tipsy socialite? Is this concept, stretched to album length by the production team of Marc Collins and Oliver Libaus, a silly gimmick? A wry bit…
The last time Dan Snaith came through town, he was operating under a different moniker: Manitoba. But thanks to the threat of a lawsuit by grumpy ol’ Handsome Dick Manitoba (of the NYC punk band The Dictators), the Canadian-born tunesmith has changed the name of his outfit to Caribou. It’s…
A dozen years ago, preparing to make his solo break from N.W.A, Dr. Dre recruited a 20-year-old onetime drug dealer to rap aside him on The Chronic. That was the cauldron that forged rap’s most colorful character this side of Flava Flav, Snoop Dogg. Perennially enveloped in a milky haze…
One of the most innovative electronic music acts to emerge from the ’90s, Autechre was one of the leaders of the IDM and glitch movements, styles that employ waves of static, mechanical bleeps and stuttering clicks to fashion cold, spooky soundscapes leavened by snatches of melody. The British duo’s chaotic…
On its seventh record, the Portland trio Sleater-Kinney finds itself in the same predicament as its heroes Sonic Youth and tour mates Pearl Jam: It’s honed its sound so precisely that it has to decide where to go next. With The Woods, the answers are jumping to indie-label heavyweight Sub…
While band-of-the-moment Franz Ferdinand and the opportunists in its wake are hyped as “dance rock,” Gang of Four, the cool-influence-of-the-moment, barely played rock at all, much less dance music. 1979’s Entertainment!, the debut of the now-reunited British quartet, is a trove of beguilingly tilted political songs, more alien to hoary…
Though they’re known for their laptop beat acrobatics, Canadian duo Junior Boys will actually be putting the needle on the records after their show with fellow Canuck Caribou on the evening of Saturday, May 21. The show with Caribou (recently known as Manitoba) is at Modified Arts, but the DJ…
It’s safe to call Ferret Music a metal and hardcore label. After all, the owner is the lead singer of NORA; the big band on the label is Every Time I Die; and Killswitch Engage got its start with Ferret. But somehow, Boys Night Out was scooped up by the…
All our favorite local bands play weekend shows. Unfortunately, the shows aren’t often at the same place. Traipsing from Tempe to Phoenix and back again in an attempt to catch more than one killer live set on a Friday night isn’t fun — at least not every weekend. But luckily,…
