There is no “I” in band, and there is no me either. No matter how stellar one member of a band may be, they still don’t get anywhere without surrounding themselves with equally talented players. That usually means having to mesh two or more big personalities into one cohesive unit…
Brothers Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin have made musical careers of taking what was once old and making it new again. In some cases, the two who were the creating force behind acclaimed roots rock ‘n’ roll band The Blasters, have also created new music that you could swear was…
As one of the original Gothenburg (Sweden) metal bands, Dark Tranquillity offers a style of music that’s few and far between. Formed in 1989 by guitarist Niklas Sundin and vocalist/guitarist Mikael Stanne, the five-piece melodic death metal act has released 10 studio albums over the years, each one substantially different…
It isn’t any great secret that cats like Pickster One, M2, Chris Villa, and Liquid Stranger are some of the biggest and best DJs in the Valley, especially among those in the know. After this week, however, they’re also considered to be among the top DJs in the country, at…
View image | gettyimages.com For many music fans, jazz can be a riddle wrapped in a mystery. While we may enjoy it, we would never attempt to explain it. In fact, jazz may be the most “alternative” music there is, because most of our brains just don’t work the way…
The Lonesome Wilderness-“Cigarettes” I’ve recently tuned into The Lonesome Wilderness, and I can’t get enough of this five-piece. Their debut EP, which will be released this spring, is one of my most highly anticipated releases of 2015. They have a great rock ‘n’ roll sound with a desert flair; the…
Michael Schwartz has boasted more than a few titles in his day. Over the last couple of decades, the venerated DJ has been referred to as a “serial wax killer,” a turntable guru, a three-time DMC world champ, and the (unofficial) fourth Beastie Boy. And if his legal name doesn’t…
Admit it, you’ve already started calling Wednesdays ” 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…
White Arrows frontman Mickey Church approached writing the band’s latest, In Bardo, as though it were the end of his musical world on Earth. The result: a playfully quirky, anything-goes-into-a-pop-song groove inhabiting the album from start to finish. “I didn’t really know or care what was going to happen after…
As 2015 unfolds, we’re thinking back on 2014 and lamenting the DJs and producers who didn’t think to grace the Valley of the Sun with their presence. We’re anxious to see which DJs will make an appearance in the Valley this year, and we’ve come up with 10 artists we…
Periphery is one of those bands that are difficult to forget. It’s not because they are constantly in the mainstream, shoved in your face by way of radio play, music videos or non-stop festival headlining. Although I’m sure they wouldn’t turn down any of that. No — you remember Periphery…
In case you haven’t been flooded with hundreds of cheering reposts on your social-media feeds, Scott Stapp is having a hard time. When bad things happen, people laugh. Whether it’s out of some sort of genuine happiness for the pain of someone that isn’t you or just as a way…
Don’t call Sunset Voodoo a reggae band. Not that its members have anything against rocksteady rhythms. It’s just that the Tempe trio, who identifies as straightforward rock mixed with psychedelia, just isn’t sure how it got the label in the first place. Lucas Roth (bass, backup vocals) says he can’t…
From now on, when someone asks you what the day in the middle of the week is, no longer need you say, “err, hump day.” Now you can say “It’s Heritage Hump Day!” That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big…
Hip-hop has been an integral part of Armon Collins’ life for a long time — nearly three decades now — but the music wasn’t quite what brought him to the music. Before Collins became better known as Scarub — a speed-rap-proficient MC who rose as part of the well-regarded Los…
Guitarists Julian Lage and Nels Cline lead wildly different musical lives. Lage operates primarily in a jazz realm, having collaborated with Jim Hall, Gary Burton, and Eric Harland. Yet, he’s also worked with mandolin master David Grisman and fiddle and bluegrass virtuoso Mark O’Conner, among others. Cline, when not fronting…
They say women love blues pianist Henry Gray, and Henry Gray loves women. He married a woman 30 years younger than himself. Rhythm Room owner Bob Corritore recalls him joking that you shouldn’t put two older people together. “You don’t get a spark with two dead batteries,” Gray told him…
The Phoenix Rock Lottery is happening on Saturday, January 17, which means we are only days away from draft day. On Saturday morning, 25 of Phoenix’s finest musicians will convene at Crescent Ballroom and be randomly placed into a five-piece band. Then they will spend the day writing three original…
Death metal bands that have been able to permeate the metal industry up from the core of the underground scene are few between. But a band that has been able to do that consistently for a quarter of a century, and still not view their artistry as a “job,” well…
The biggest impression a band leaves usually comes from the lead singer. After all, we all (well, most of us) speak English, but we don’t all play music. So understanding and connecting with lyrics and the expressive range of the human voice is usually the easiest thing for a musical…
The music world is abuzz with Wu-Tang Clan’s announcement yesterday that the single copy of the group’s double-album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, will be sold, like a Rembrandt or a Rothko, at auction sometime this year. It’s a lavish production. The album comes “presented in a hand carved…
The garage rock wave is definitely coming into Phoenix, as yet another local lo-fi act, Soft Deadlines, prepares to release its new album, Critic, on 56th Street Records. But Soft Deadlines isn’t making the same sound as the Rubber Brother crowd — it brings a more shoegaze feel to its…
