There is little Zia Records hasn’t done to support the music scene in the Valley of the Sun. From consistently releasing music compilations, as well as providing an outlet for local musicians to sell their records, tapes, and cds, to offering the latest music on multiple formats for appreciative fans…
View image | gettyimages.com On Wednesday, one of the most successful Arizona hip-hop artists, Random (a.k.a. Mega Ran), spent the better half of the day fielding phone calls in regard to the “diss track” he released as an April Fools’ Day joke. The track consisted of a menacing beat that…
Mitchell Hillman listens to more local music than just about anyone in the Valley. He presents his picks for best new music in his column, Right Hear, Right Now. Harper and the Moths – “What Are We Giving Up” It was only three weeks ago that Harper and The Moths…
Given the nature of “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” Arlo Guthrie’s signature song, clocking in at 18:37 and containing 2,833 words, one might think Guthrie would be the talkative sort. Maybe other renderings of that epic song, some stretching 30, even 45 minutes, have Guthrie being more economical with his words. In…
All-around bad-boy rapper Mega Ran has had enough of rappers in his hometown talking smack behind his back, so today, he released one diss track to rule them all, complete with art depicting a pen all but bleeding red ink…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
Ultra Music Festival is 36 solid hours of EDM-themed overstimulation. Superfamous DJs! Pop-star cameos! Half-naked ladies! Oiled-up beefcakes! Dancing robots! Human tacos! Toothpaste Man! Pyrotechnics! Cryo cannons! Fireworks! Everything at Ultra deserves an exclamation point. Or maybe ten. And there’s never fewer than 120 decibels rumbling through your already stimuli-flooded…
Though Leftover Salmon has been making music for the better part of 25 years, it took a six-pack of beer to inspire the band’s latest album. However, not in the typical sense of drinking one in the search for ideas. Instead, Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery tapped the band for a quartet…
Any veteran of Ultra Music Festival who attended this year’s three-day event was pleasantly surprised by the increased organization and overall maturity of the audience. Certain seemingly simple measures, like an 18-and-over age policy and significantly improved perimeter security, taken following 2014’s trampling of security guard Erica Mack and the…
There have been a lot of changes at Ultra Music Festival. The audience is over 18 now. And many of rave culture’s familiar accoutrements — finger gloves, glow sticks, rage totems, etc. — have been banned under the fest’s new Prohibited Items policy. There are those of adult age who…
April showers? Not so much in the Valley of the Sun. While the rest of the country experiences the fresh air of spring, we are hit with our first wave of hundred-degree temperatures. But that’s okay, because the season also kicks off with a bounty of band tours, particularly those…
Maarten Hoogstraten has been through tumultuous times the last couple of years. In late 2013, Paul Bäumer, his fellow member of electro-house duo Bingo Players, passed away after a short battle with cancer, which was a devastating experience to say the least. Hoogstraten carried on, however, at the behest of…
For Eazy-E, the concept of gangsta rap was fully formed in his mind. By 1986, the genre, which nobody then called “gangsta rap” (“reality rap,” please) had begun to sprout in L.A. by way of Ice-T’s “6 ‘n the Mornin’,” which was patterned after Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D’s “P.S.K. What…
Mitchell Hillman listens to more local music than just about anyone in the Valley. He presents his picks for best new music in his column, Right Hear, Right Now. The Senators – “Hummingbird” “Hummingbird” is the first new song since last year’s deluxe release of Harsher Than Whiskey / Sweeter…
Though it’s premature to call Gus Campbell a guitar god, he is a true talent. One could use adjectives like “wunderkind” or clichés like “He’s an old soul,” but the truth of the matter is the kid can flat-out shred for any age. At 16, Campbell has a maturity and…
Before the Riot Grrrl movement of the early ’90s or before the advent of social media, there wasn’t a network of like-minded all-female bands across the country working together. All you had was the notion of DIY bands, pockets of groups in far-flung areas of the country maybe mining similar…
Twentieth-century writer Charles Colton coined the saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” For veteran club DJs Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, their modern interpretation of the phrase was to take the essence of their favorite ’60s records, mesh it with their favorite electronica club sounds, and create a…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
Watching Ultra Music Festival’s idyllic official after-movies, you might get the impression that UMF is some kind of utopian music-based society where the young and beautiful run only in slow motion, where everyone is welcome and everything is pleasant. In some ways, this is true. You’re more likely to have…
In the song “California (Hustle & Flow)” from Social Distortion’s Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, singer Mike Ness professes, “Life gets hard and then it gets good / like I always knew it would.” Ness, the one-time Fullerton, California, street punk and lone surviving member of the legendary So Cal…
There’s no doubt that THC is all about making you feel good. It causes you to laugh, feel nostalgic, forget all your worries. Plus, it makes barbecue taste 10 times better. And by THC, I’m talking about Texas Hippie Coalition…
Phoenix Lights is giving Sunday Funday a whole new meaning this weekend when Hardwell, Zeds Dead, Robin Schulz and more DJs drop in to Civic Space Park in downtown Phoenix for day raving antics. A little background for the youngins or those not on-point when it comes to “alien” sightings…
