Dear Santa, Thank you for giving us copies of Diana Krall’s Christmas Songs (Verve) and The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s Dig That Crazy Christmas (Surfdog) albums last year. We enjoyed Krall’s jazzy jams and Setzer’s superb swing while getting tipsy on whiskey-laden cider and Christmas greens. This year, we’ve found a…
The year is drawing to a close, and once again critics are at loggerheads wondering what the album of the year will be. In a year where no one release unzips its fly and pisses all over the competition from a lofty height, everyone is in complete agreement over which…
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to see The Cure live, The Cure — Festival 2005 (Geffen) live performance DVD is a reminder of that unique send-ya-to-the-moon experience that all Cure heads have come to know and love. After all, those of us here in the U.S. of A. need…
Cory Spotts Local knob twiddler Cory Spotts has made quite a name for himself at a young age by producing some of the best edgy acts in town at his Blue Light Audio Media studio. Barely into his mid-20’s now, Spotts (who I profiled last year in my column) has…
Since this Pandemic Poll thing is meant to be democratic, we even let your ordinary average music fan throw in their two cents about what transpired in 2006. This submission is from a guy named Joe Soares, and I have to say, he’s pretty goddamn correct about what’s overrated in…
Bob and Alan Clark are Eye Talk… disgusting In case you can’t tell by their glowing, serene faces, local brothers Bob and Alan Clark make some absolutely repulsive light pop/adult contemporary songs that ought to be used to torture Gitmo detainees. Consider this post a warning – once their group,…
Rob Locker of local skateboard/record label/promotion company AZPX does what many folks only wish they could do – release records by great local artists past and present like Junior Achievement and the Smoky Mountain Skullbusters and throw shows by skate rock greats like JFA. Here’s what Locker has to say…
I’ve never been the litigating type. Every time I’ve needed to hire an attorney, it’s been of the criminal defense sort. I’m not in a band, though, and it’s not uncommon for bands and musicians to have to deal with cease-and-desist demands, copyright and trademark issues, and other legal bullshit…
Alice Cooper was looking to shake things up a bit at this year’s Christmas Pudding concert. So he put in a call to the three surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band, the guys who backed him on such classics as “I’m Eighteen,” “Be My Lover,” “School’s Out,” and…
On a chilly Friday night at the band’s rehearsal space on the northeast side of Phoenix, the members of local five-piece band e(v)olocity are looking at the photo on the back of their self-titled CD. The shot depicts the guys standing in a line, wearing eyeliner and adorned in red…
The Waylon Jennings Nashville Rebel DVD (RCA) should have been included in the Nashville Rebel boxed set, where it would have added to the value of the box while benefiting from the context. As it stands, it’s every bit as entertaining as the box itself. It begins on the set…
Today’s edition of the 2006 invite-only Pandemic Poll of local artists and music scene players features the inimitable William Fucking Reed, who carries with him a list of impressive credits: DJ/promoter for both Shake! at the Rogue and Pretty Vacant at Anderson’s Fifth Estate, radio DJ for the Last Broadcast…
Tyler King’s been an institution in the hardcore scene for years, with a background (as you’ll read later in his Pandemic Poll results) booking matinee acts at CBGB’s. Lately you can catch him behind the bar at the Stray Cat in Tempe when he’s not booking acts like Witchcraft around…
That’s what I’m talkin’ about Just received word yesterday afternoon that the Brickhouse in Phoenix on Jackson Street won its battle to regain a liquor license. Here’s the missive that went out: Apperently the (real) City of Phoenix spoke a little louder than the City council. PEOPLE>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Brickhouse is…
Local manager and impresario Psyko Steve has spent much of the last year touring and managing DeSole, and is currently managing the Stilletto Formal. He got creative with his Top 5 list for the Pandemic Poll (it’s open for interpretation like that) and sent over his list of the top…
So Much Silence is an awesome little music/mp3 blog run by a guy named Kevin Murphy, who seems to have pretty goddamn good taste in music. He also does some pretty nifty shit, like putting together a mix of the “Essential Q-Tip Mix,” side A of which he posted today…
I’m fighting bouts of nausea (some sort of stomach bug I caught from my nephews Caden and Torin, I’m assuming) and trying to get my ass well enough to hit up the rock shows this weekend. Tomorrow evening, if all goes well, I’ll be off to Angelo’s Lounge at 16th…
Brodie’s a fave of singer/songwriter fans from around the ‘Nix, and many of us are sad to hear he’s leaving town, headed back to Cali. He’s leaving in style though, with a “celebrity” roast next Saturday, the 16th, at Trunk Space appropriately entitled Fuck You, Brodie Hubbard. Here’s his submission…
In this week’s installment of my column Revolver, I take up with Zack Vinyard, guitarist for Glendale band Rizir, who’s been arrested twice for disorderly conduct because his band was practicing at his house (at perfectly sane hours). The complainants, his neighbors to the rear, have called the Glendale P.D…
“Just standing in front of an amp as though you’re being bathed in fuzzy volume is quite a nice feeling,” says bassist/organist Chris Ross of Australia’s latest gift to heaviosity, a stoner-rock trio from Sydney called Wolfmother. It makes him laugh to hear such seeming nonsense leave his mouth, but…
In Backbeat Books’ newly published Skydog: The Duane Allman Story, author Randy Poe gives a thorough account of Duane’s recorded legacy up through his output with the Allman Brothers Band, which amounts to two studio albums and a legendary Fillmore live set. These remain the benchmark by which every subsequent…
Wendy O. Williams always said she liked to make “aggressive art,” and that’s what she did as the front woman for ’80s punk-metal band The Plasmatics — sporting a Mohawk on TV, wearing nothing but electrical tape over her nipples, blowing up luxury cars and school buses, cutting guitars in…
