The Emerald Lounge: open since 1949, an ironworkers bar turned black pool hall turned premier local music venue turned . . . another lovely parking lot? Another corporate retail space? File this under “I can’t believe it’s happening again,” but come September 15, the Emerald Lounge on Seventh Avenue and…
The Thrifty Ear wants to thank all you Little Stevie Hawkings out there who dutifully reminded him he hasn’t been deducting sales tax on all of the items he purchased last month, leaving him with a deficit this week of about, oh, 10 dollars. Bah! After serving you with a…
Riviera Broadcast Group, the new owner of The Edge (KEDJ-FM 103.9), did a curious thing on August 18, when it fired Marc Young, the program director who’d boosted the alternative station’s share of the Phoenix radio market by more than 60 percent since last fall. It was Young, after all,…
All hail that doe-eyed siren known as Fiona Apple. Though she can be pretentious and sometimes seem unstable, these are faults we can forgive. No, we do not fatwa Apple, even though her last album title had twice as many words in it than a standard Ramones song. We like…
The Thrifty Ear shamelessly confesses he waited until every Who and Kinks B-side was exhausted before inspecting the impeccable Hollies’ album discography. Since he’s never met anyone with Hollies albums to borrow, he’s had to dig into his pockets on many occasions to pick up the slack for the rest…
I know a thing or two about riding mechanical bulls. Exactly two, in fact: the brutal dual blasts of pain in my testicles after I rode one a few years back at the state fair. I was instantly convinced that cowboys must wear protective cups to pull off this feat…
If you’ve ever wondered why there are so many cryptic jabs at Arizona on The Simpsons — from Homer’s nixing of a Grand Canyon State vacation (“Arizona smells funny!”) to Ned Flanders’ unforgettable decree, “Looks like Heaven’s easier to get into than Arizona State” — a proclamation from Governor Janet…
Here’s a cultural riddle: Take an icon of a major pop movement and pretend the movement never happened: Ice Cube without gangsta rap, Ken Kesey without LSD, John Lydon without punk. What’s left? Would we ever even have heard of these guys? Like Lydon, Joe Strummer rose with punk and…
Bands: Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire Date: Saturday, August 27 Venue: Cricket Pavilion Ticket Price: $20-$65 Selling Point: These horn toads are survivors. Chicago survived the exodus of Peter Cetera, the fall of jazz rock and many insipid David Foster ballads. EW&F survived guest appearances on Phil Collins albums and that…
Musically, the ’90s boil down to this: In January 1992, Nirvana knocked Michael Jackson out of the No. 1 position on Billboard’s album chart. And for the next eight years, alternative was the word, and the airwaves were unusually diverse. Taken one tune at a time, the just-released Whatever: The…
It took Dave Insley only about four decades to realize his real life story would make a great country album. “You know, it’s the craziest thing,” Insley says, taking a cigarette break outside Tempe’s Yucca Tap Room after wrapping up the last set of the night with his topnotch honky-tonk…
This week The Thrifty Ear celebrates the individual, probably because he can’t find a comrade who’ll sit and listen to this music without killing him. Kylie Minogue Ultimate Kylie Source: eBay Price: $4.99 + $3.50 S&H Ultimate Guilty Pleasure is more like it, purchased in its Japanese digipack form to…
Here in the ‘Nix, we’re not known as a hotbed for mainstream hip-hop — we’re an indie hip-hop town, with a packed schedule of weekly club events and frequent visits from crews like the Shapeshifters. That’s going to change in the near future, thanks to the imminent migration of Proof,…
In 2002, while holding court in his office overlooking NYC’s Madison Square Park, David Barker — a friendly young Englishman editing a series of chapbooks on contemporary American fiction — decided it might be nice to produce a set of books fixated not on individual novels, but on individual albums…
Oasis Don’t Believe the Truth Source: eBay Price: $3.75 + $1.50 S&H Thriftin’ ain’t just about sticking it to the man; it’s about giving second chances to artists you’d given up on because there’s a considerable discount involved. Most Yanks wrote these unibrows off after the overstuffed Be Here Now…
All hail the mighty compact disc! That piece of technology that let you listen to OK Computer without having to sit through “Fitter Happier.” While we know that no audio format lives forever — someday the CD will ascend to take its place next to hallowed eight-track cassettes — that…
Want to get more out of Ozzfest than watching Ozzy stumble around on stage? If so, the place to be is the second stage, where you’ll find the bands that still play small clubs and sleep in their vans. Most of these bands have the dedication to become huge, but…
In the seminal 1997 film The Apostle, Robert Duvall plays E.F., a charismatic Pentecostal preacher who travels across the South, hitting the radio waves and filling tents with his fiery brand of syncopated hallelujah preaching and stomping, wild-eyed histrionics, inspiring hand-clapping, ass-shaking and great wailing incantations. Pocketbooks open and the…
The two girls are all over each other on the big purple couch, writhing, eyes locked in a passionate lip-synch to No Doubt’s “Underneath It All.” A crowd’s in the doorway, giggling as the girls lose their shirts and bottoms, and end up rolling around together in nothing but their…
These days, anyone with a Live365 account and a stack of CDs can run his own radio station on the Internet. The hard part is getting people to know about your quirky little station. That’s where we come in. Every few weeks, Streaming Consciousness will search what’s being streamed, uploaded…
Music is subjective. Well, sort of. While the way a song or an artist affects you is deeply personal, it’s pretty likely that most of your choices fit a prearranged pattern. Learn the patterns of others, the way a politician studies demographics, and you can learn a lot about people…
Most people collect music like they plaster walls — always looking to fill gaping holes. This week, I’ve decided to limit my $10 purchase to artists whose contributions to pop have yet to disturb The Thrifty Ear record collection. Britney Spears Greatest Hits: My Prerogative Source: Zia Record Exchange Price:…
