I love NPR as much as the next fella (gotta get my Car Talk on), but every now and then their media coverage highlights something truly unique –case in point, last March, Sami Yenigun ran this story about moombahton, a DC-bred brand of dance-music that encompasses elements of electro, Dutch…
In this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, local electro pop band Peachcake catches the Valley up on what they’ve been up to the past year and how they’ve matured since they came together. Recently, the International Peace Bureau made the song “Were We Ever Really Right?”, off their upcoming sophomore…
Tell people you’re a music critic and they’re likely to get all sorts of ideas about you — some right, some wrong. More often than not, they seem to think you’re a failed musician who picked up a pen when his band’s demo failed to catch any important ears. I’ve…
Going to a Peachcake show was sort of like attending a child’s birthday party. You’d find grown men in animal costumes, stuffed animals, balloons, and even the occasional game of Duck, Duck, Goose. You never really knew who or what to expect to see on stage. Given the band’s rotating…
Kenny Chesney seems like a fun guy to hang with. You know, the dude who always has a fresh batch of margaritas chillin’ in the blender at his beach pad in the Virgin Islands, a bevy of bikini-clad babes at his beck and call, and enough money to keep the…
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros caught the eyes and ears of music audiences about two years ago with their debut album, Up From Below. A summery mix of pastoral psychedelia, the album was a Village Green Preservation Society for the desert-roaming West Coast hipster. Buoyed by the adorable, jangly…
Fresh off his awesome performance at The Big 4 Festival in Indio, Metallica frontman James Hetfield is scheduled to speak at Central Christian Church in Mesa on May 12.Hetfield will be part of a Q & A following a screening of Absent, a documentary directed by Gilbert filmmaker Justin Hunt,…
Lollapalooza has revealed an absolutely killer lineup for its 20th-anniversary show, according to Consequence of Sound.Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, and Muse are at the top of this summer’s impressive bill. Other big names scheduled to perform include My Morning Jacket, Deadmau5, A Perfect Circle, The Cars, Ween, Big Audio Dynamite,…
“The Morning Mayor” Dave Pratt has been claiming his return to the airwaves is imminent for, oh, about three months now.Now, Dave says, it’s really, really imminent. The announcement came from an e-mail dispatch last night and was followed up by a story in the Republic today. Pratt gave the…
Something “life changing” occurred yesterday for the Los Angeles-based rap collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. What? No one knows yet, but “some shit went down,” they “really won” and “dreams really come true,” according to various tweets from members of group.Update: Pitchfork now says they signed a…
McCombs has built a brilliant resume since he began recording in 2002, being labeled as “unobtrusively brilliant” by famed BBC disc jockey/journalist John Peel. Wit’s End has already been labeled as “miserable American folk” and “a downer” by some, yet there is an intangible beauty in what McCombs accomplishes over…
Maroon 5 is still participating in The Sound Strike and will not play Phoenix on September 17 as announced earlier today.”There is no date in AZ I was given the wrong info for our release and it was a mistake,” says the band’s publicist, Carleen Donovan of Press Here Publicity.Asked…
With the folks over at Cityslaang and YOBS closing doors, musician Stephen Steinbrink (French Quarter) and James Fella, of Gilgongo Records, have stepped up to the plate with Yellow Canary Dance Hall, scheduled to take over warehouse venue Sound Kontrol in South Phoenix, one of City Slaang’s prime spots. “We’re still…
After too many disagreements with his restaurant manager and some trouble with bouncing paychecks, Flavor Flav’s fried chicken restaurant in Clinton, Iowa has closed, according to Pollstar.First and foremost, Flav claims that restaurant manager Nick Cimino “isn’t running the business right,” which is why Flav scrapped one of the restaurant’s…
Well you guys, it’s official — Pitchfork thinks the new name for Phoenix’s premier outdoor music venue, Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion, is ridiculous. In a post about the upcoming tour of Kings of Leon (ugh) and Band of Horses, staff writer Tom Breihan had this to say about a select…
Maroon 5 has announced a concert at Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion on September 17.There was some concern the band would skip Arizona on their current tour as some sort of political statement, but Maroon 5, along with Train, is now scheduled to come through the city’s largest outdoor venue with…
JRC The co-owner/founder of The Trunk Space invites you to Dr. Zombie’s Movie Lab of Terror at the venue this Saturday, April 23. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? NPR. It’s the the most “reasonable volume” news in…
Bad news for fans of country legend Loretta Lynn. She’s canceled her upcoming tour, including a stop at May 1 stop at Celebrity Theater. “As y’all know I just went and got my knee done a few weeks back,” a statement reads Lynn’s website. “I am sad to cancel the…
Keith Richards is said to be recording new material at a studio in New York City, according to Spinner.There’s no word yet on whether he’s been working on material for the Rolling Stones, a solo project, or producer and drummer Steve Jordan’s side project band, the Verbs.Rumors have been floating…
Name: Chris Hernandez AKA: DJ Decipha Best Known For: DJing on 101.5 Jamz Current gigs: Right now I do Fridays at Airia and Saturdays at Lucky Strike. Genres spun: I like old school hip-hop and R&B. Lots of New Jack Swing too, like TLC, SWV, and Jodeci from that era…
Ever wonder what the hard partying DJs that put on the weekly dance-party Sticky Fingers have in common with classic rockers Moody Blues? DJ William “Fucking” Reed hasn’t been spinning some glitch-hop remix of “Nights in White Satin” (not that I’m aware of at least), but both the long running…
The music section in week’s print edition of Phoenix New Times is heavy on the metal.Why shouldn’t it be, what with The Big 4 festival featuring Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax going down just a short drive away in Indio, California this weekend. In honor the the occasion I penned…
