Like many musicians, Charlie Brand was not a happy high-schooler. Discussing his days as an art school dropout — a troubled kid sent to a Scientology-run youth camp, where he lied to the E-Meter reader to escape, only to become a chronically depressed and morbidly obese pothead — the 24-year-old…
Young Jeezy rapped it best: “It’s the recession — everybody’s broke!” That being the case, South by Southwest, Austin, Texas’ annual orgy of music and networking, is beyond many of our means. While catching local SxSWers, Dear and the Headlights, Kinch, The Love Me Nots, The Maine, Miniature Tigers, and…
What Wavves’ Nathan Williams vividly renders on cassette and aluminum isn’t the Beach Boys’ carefree beachscape, with its bathing beauties, surfboard-wielding Adonises, and pinks-on-the-line drag races. Last year’s Wavves (Fuck It Tapes) and new disc, Wavvves (Fat Possum), paint a decidedly grimmer, less idyllic picture: goth zombies everywhere, early 20-something…
PHOENIX Kinch: The piano has gotten a bad rap lately, thanks mostly to schmaltzy lite-pop bands like Keane and those dueling piano bars that seem to be springing up everywhere. Fortunately, Kinch has come along to give the piano its balls back. The band’s debut, Advances, veered from rollicking, up-tempo…
We don’t typically write up concert announcement blogs for shows in tiny, all-ages venues but this one deserves it. Because, well, YOU HAVE TO SEE WILLIAM ELLIOT WHITMORE! The bluesman who lives on a horse farm in Lee County, Iowa mesmerized me at Virginia’s MACRoCk a few years back.Whitmore, who…
Now that Coachella, Sasquatch, and Bonnaroo have all confirmed their acts for their respective music festivals, we are left to ponder only about the lineup of August’s Lollapalooza Festival at Chicago’s Grant Park. The Chicago Tribune’s music blog recently leaked who is expected to headline this year’s 3-day affair. It…
-moody Trent Reznor. Nine Inch Nails will supposedly be making their final appearance in the Valley for the foreseeable future on Friday, May 15, at Cricket Wireless Pavillion. I say “supposedly” because of the following: A). The date hasn’t been confirmed by the venue or its management (but has been…
In news that should come as hardly shocking, Amy Winehouse has officially been dropped from her Saturday slot of this year’s Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival lineup. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when she ditches out on a concert is “what drug is it this…
The Format’s breakup left a huge hole in the local music scene last year. Just when the duo seemed poised to put Phoenix on the map when they split up, but hopefully Nate Ruess’s New York-based band Fun can alleviate some of that pain. They’ve booked a Valley show with…
“Clarity is an album that I have repeatedly gone back to over the years. It is still fresh and that shows as so many of today’s bands are heavily influenced and inspired by this album. Because of that, it’s finally getting it’s due credit! 16-year-old kids will continue to re-discover…
The Alternative Press magazine cover featuring Tempe pretty boy “indie” rockers The Maine is now on stands. Looking good, fellas. The story, by the way, is here. Our you can check out our feature from last month…
The indie blogs and main stream ones are loving the story today that Miley Cyrus told to morning zoo radio hosts Johnjay and Rich about her being insulted by Radiohead at the Grammys. The Teen Queen wanted to meet the band in private backstage. Turns out her manager was told…
“Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity holds a special place in my heart as I’m sure it does with the countless other kids who bought it in 1999 of which it became the soundtrack to all of their high school break-ups and inadequacies. It wasn’t just kid stuff though because I found…
So we know who from Arizona is officially showcasing, and we know who’s part of the Unofficial Official Arizona showcase, I Heart AZ, which New Times is co-sponsoring, but it seems like every day I’m hearing rumblings about other local bands headed to Austin in two weeks… like when I…
“The truth is, I probably don’t know Jimmy Eat World’s emerald lionized gem, Clarity like the rest of them out there. However, I must impart that the fact that it resonates with everyone from hard rock gurus to the disjunctive hipster DJ and Dance crowd is certainly characteristic of something…
Authority Zero lead singer Jason DeVore will celebrate the debut CD release of The Bollox, his Irish punk-rock side project, with two St. Patrick’s Day performances on Tuesday, March 17. The band will play two sets – at 2:30 p.m. and at 4 p.m. – at Mesa’s The Tilted Kilt…
It’s just barely March and I already have a solid pick for my favorite album of the year. Animal Collective gave us Merriweather Post Pavilion and I fawned over it. It’s a solid offering, scaling back the Baltimore act’s weirdness to produce some very catchy tunes. But I got a…
Considering the hyperbole that usually precedes any discussion regarding the merits of an album tagged as “emotional punk rock” (or “emo”), I should have an amazing anecdote about Jimmy Eat World’s 1999 magnum opus Clarity. Something about how the song “Ten” got me through my parents’ divorce, or how “For…
Everyone hates emo. Well, everyone who matters hates emo, at least. Ten years after Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity set the standard for the genre, it seems to be on its last legs, creatively and commercially, without any real fans among tastemakers. Since critics, not charts, tend to write music history,…
“Jimmy Eat World is one of those early on indie rock influences for me. Static Prevails and Clarity had a huge hand in shaping a lot of what I do musically today. Its funny because, when asked to write a short review on Clarity, my band KNESSET had just played…
It’s times like this I’m extra thankful for George Washington. It appears Amanda Palmer’s brilliant single “Oasis,” and the accompanying video have effectively banned in Britain for “making light of rape, religion and abortion.” You can read all about it on her blog, where the Dresden Doll gets right to…
“I remember being really young when the album Clarity by Jimmy Eat World came out. For me, it was the first realization that a band that lived in the same ZIP code as me could go out and make it. For my friends and me, it was an inspiring album, as I’m…
