Outside the Box

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…

’06 Pandemic Poll – William Fucking Reed installment

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…

’06 Pandemic Poll – Tyler King installment

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…

Booze News

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…

’06 Pandemic Poll – Psyko Steve’s edition

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…

’06 Pandemic Poll; the So Much Silence edition

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…

Weekend Excitement

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…

’06 Pandemic Poll, the Brodie Fucking Hubbard edition

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…

Rizir’s Edge

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…

That ’70s Sound

“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…

Friends in a Jam

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…

O. Williams, Where Art Thou?

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…

Back and Black

With 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Chuck D and Public Enemy positioned hip-hop as “the CNN of black culture,” raging against the machine while bringing a noise as revolutionary as it was intense. The first true hip-hop masterpiece, it placed second, behind The Ramones’…

Noise in the ‘Hood

My neighborhood in Tempe is a pretty noisy place. The guys next door have a band practicing inside their house with the windows open every few days, and my neighbors across the back alley apparently have a band that practices there as well (I can hear them now as I’m…

Punk Rock?

If the answer is yes, then you have a fruitful few days ahead of you. Tonight, at the Stray Cat in Tempe you’ve got none other than the Danzig-killer Danny Marianino of North Side Kings DJing (yeah, this is almost as weird as Vince Ramirez from Flathead learning to scratch)…

And It Begins…

Hella props to Lawrence for fashioning the Pandemic logo, which is making its debut in this post. If you didn’t hear already, I’ve asked a plethora of local artists, promoters, and playaz to submit their various Top 5 lists. This is the debut of the returns. If you think you…

When Worlds Collide

Vince Ramirez, center, is playing for both teams Hang out with too many musicians too much of the time, and you’re bound to get some surreal-life moments where you threaten the space-time continuum by placing opposing elements in too close a proximity. Last night I had such an experience, and…

2006 Ear Infection Pandemic Poll

Throwdown on the Interweb; Ear Infection’s in Your Corner Seems a little pissing match has erupted on the interweb in the masturbatory little world of music criticism, between my own company and sister paper Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop Critics’ Poll and Gawker media’s too-cool-for-school Idolator music blog. The…

Dazzler

Despite authoring this blog, I’m not much of a software geek; I’ve got to rely on some smarter heads at HQ to fix little interweb/html quandaries for me, and I don’t install new programs often. Nonetheless, I got sucked in when I read a press release this morning about Dizzler,…

Fresh Emo Rap

Ernie, flashin’ the bling Well, I guess “emo rap” is a bit insulting, but my friends in Who Cares (who are Sacto-based but spend a lot of time in the ‘Nix) pretty much wear their hearts on their sleeves, especially Ernie, the group’s MC. I hadn’t heard from them since…

Dance Dance Revolution

Not sure if it’s the holidaze or or just the cooler weather that’s causing so much dope action on the music tip lately, but I really don’t care. Fact is, practically every night of the week there’s some bomb shit going on. Tonight’s no exception. If you’re not hitting up…

The Steez

Today’s Thursday, aka Baby Friday, and Thursday nights there’s really only one gig in town worth spending your evening at: the infamous Blunt Club. Whether you’re a hip-hopper, backpacker, punk rocker, indie hipster, what-the-fuck-ever, the Blunt Club’s the bangin’est club night to hit up, five years strong now. This installation…