Well, Elliott Smith’s not with us in the physical world any longer, but, especially for those of us who got to know him at least briefly, he’s still living in his beautiful songs, a double-CD of which is being released in a few weeks on May 8 (which I dig,…
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got absolutely no use for the mall-punk-distillery that is Hot Topic. It might be alright for the high school kids who need a leather-studded punk rock belt or a t-shirt of the The Used (eccchh!), but Hot Topic is really just a symbol of…
Do you want what’s in the box or what’s behind door No. 3? The latest episode in the radio payola version of Let’s Make a Deal is looking like a zonk. Then again, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s heroic crusade against payola — netting more than $35 million in…
Directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez know a thing or two about music and the movies. Tarantino’s soundtracks have become pop-culture staples, while Rodriguez scores his own movies. We sat down with them recently to discuss their new double feature, Grindhouse, and how music affects their creative process. New Times:…
Dear Gods of Rock: It’s me, The Mullet. Please kill me. My time on this Earth — hanging off Richard Marx’s head as it sang “Don’t Mean Nothin’,” going to Indigo Girls shows, and bathing in NASCAR exhaust fumes — has been fun, but I just can’t take being the…
If national elections are the government’s way of dicking you over every four years, Tax Day is its way of making sure you don’t forget who has the biggest dick every year. Of course, if you’re a musician — especially if you’re a rock star and, therefore, predisposed to civil…
I wasn’t a fan of the band The Fray previously; definitely not enough to attend the has-been-celebration that was called the Tempe Music Festival a couple weekends back. I don’t remember all of the acts that were playing, but I know that The Fray was amongst few contemporary artists. The…
Although we have a pretty vibrant, poppin’ music scene here in the ‘Nix these days, not that many folks outside of our desert metropolis seem to recognize that. So I was stoked when I found out that Truxton Records rockabilly/psychometal act Grave Danger has a song featured in the new…
Wednesday for happy hour I spent a couple of hours watching Chip Hanna play acoustic at Last Exit. If you’re not familiar with Chip, he’s the former drummer for punk stalwarts U.S. Bombs and One Man Army, but currently he’s honing his chops as a country singer/songwriter. That might seem…
Back in the late ’90s, I was getting pretty tired of Drunken Immortals — the group was playing a weekly hip-hop night at the now-shuttered Arizona Roadhouse Brewery and, after that, weekly at a place called Donny Brasco’s. I’ve always believed in the laws of supply and demand as far…
Dark Star Orchestra is as close to the Grateful Dead as you’ll get these days, but don’t think of them as a tribute band. No member tries to look like any of the Dead. There’s no effort to talk like them, either. Instead, the DSO picks a different Dead show…
Few artists have spoken more eloquently — or more passionately — about the high cost of life during wartime since Bush took the wheel as commander in chief than indie-punk hero Ted Leo. On his latest effort, Living With the Living, Leo sizes up the prospects of a soldier’s life…
She’s been part of The Spirit Squad, Runaway Diamonds’ life-affirming wall of vocals, for nearly a year now. But when people ask Rhianna Riggs what the Phoenix band sounds like, she has no idea what to tell them. “You’re just like ‘Well, Gabriel plays the beat machine and piano and…
Just got my hands on this new video from Back Ted N-Ted, it’s a collaboration by Coppé and Back Ted N-Ted, and it’s pretty awesome. It was done by Tokyo’s Ben Sheppee, who also directed the video I posted a while back here of Back Ted N-Ted with Chronic Future’s…
Last weekend’s Casket Life/Liar’s Handshake/The Revenge show at the Yucca was completely out of control, just like I expected. It was the first time I’d seen the Revenge before, and goddamn do they bring the punk rock. Homeboy was swinging from the PA’s mounted to the ceiling, the guitar player…
Yeah, the Ear Infection URL is switching to http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/infection/, so if you’re smart enough to have this bitch bookmarked, make a note of it. The old steez is still working for now, but I don’t know how long it’ll last…
If you’re the road-trippin’, hip-hop-lovin’, war-hatin’ type, you’ll want to mark your calendar to take a trip on April 9 down to the Tucson stop of the Make Hip-Hop Not War tour, where local rap-activist Grime will be representing onstage. It’s coming straight from Camp Crawford in Texas, where peace-mom…
Northside Danny’s Idea of a Good Time? It may come as a surprise to those who know Danny Marianino, singer for the North Side Kings, as simply the Danzig-pounding hardcore dude (check the video below if you haven’t seen it), that he’s actually something of a renaissance man. By renaissance,…
The Casket Life boys The weekend’s almost here, and this particular Friday and Saturday there are a buttload of dope shows happening that you ought to be at. First, you’re a damn fool if you miss the Casket Life, Liar’s Handshake, Mike Skullbuster, the Revenge, and some NOFX cover band…
I’ve had Insects on the mind the last few days, and not just because the goddamn wasps are back using my pool to build their nests. Naw, these Insects are MC Brad B and producer Foundation from Drunken Immortals, the latest spinoff project from the prolific collective to hit the…
I’ve finally found it — my get-rich-quick plan that’ll land me a job in Hollywood as a reality show executive producer. The idea goes like this: Take a band, book them four shows with completely disparate audiences in a 24-hour period, give them all the liquor they can drink, and…
It’s been 40 years since the Doors stood the Summer of Love on its head with a self-titled statement of purpose that sent the brooding fuck-me pop of “Light My Fire” all the way to No. 1 but also included the Oedipal midnight rambling of “The End,” a terrifying, album-closing…
