Hey, kids, I’m back! You might not have noticed my absence, but I made a recent excursion that felt like it must have lasted a year. In a way, it did. Using the principles I gleaned from Roberta Sparrow’s book Philosophy of Time Travel, and an ungodly amount of re-watching…
Britney got married. Ashlee was caught lip-synching. ODB died. Congress continued to wring its hands about the legality of downloads, which flourished anyway. Conservative groups condemned sex in popular culture, while Usher’s sultry Confessions shot to No. 1. A major label signed a guy who can’t sing, can’t dance and…
For hipsters, the coolest things are to be found 20 years ago, the most dreadful things 10 years ago. So starting a few years back, we were deluged with ’80s electro and synth-pop, and we pretended to forget jungle ever existed. Electroclash, the first naive sortie by dance music into…
It’s difficult to survey the hip-hop of 2004, more bloated and self-referential than ever, and not imagine the mythical AOR wasteland of the mid-’70s. Like rock before it, hip-hop has easily won a cultural acceptance once unthinkable, and our reward is a parade of Jadakisses and G-Unit solo projects, preaching…
Ever find yourself missing the word “alternative” as a concept, a signifier, a lifestyle? Nowadays, any dudes-with-guitars collective either has to do the Creed butt-rock thing, the whine-incessantly-about-your-ex-girlfriends emo thing, or the get-beat-up-incessantly-by-your-ex-girlfriends indie-rock thing. It’s harder and harder to find the best aspects of each combined: the fist-pumping intensity…
The sight of six makeup-clad Norwegian Satanists on the Ozzfest main stage this summer was a great sign for metal, if not the makers of Max Factor. During recent outings, metal’s biggest event of the year has been plagued by rote rap-rockers like Crazy Town, Papa Roach, and Linkin Park,…
In 2004, the line between indie and mainstream rock disintegrated even faster than Britney Spears’ quickie Vegas marriage. Vinyl obsessives mingled with white-hat-wearing fratheads at Modest Mouse shows, Taking Back Sunday debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, and Death Cab for Cutie earned OC-sanctioned buzz and a major-label…
Everyone knows all of Usher’s Confessions by now; everyone went to see Prince play “1999” for the very last time. Everyone knows all about Lil Jon and his penchant for hollering “Yayy-uuhhh!” With everyone paying attention to these superstars, a lot of other talented folks got drowned out, and not…
Most of the time when a band breaks up, fans find out after it’s too late to wish their musical heroes goodbye. But in the case of the Haystacks, who serenaded Phoenix indie-rock lovers for more than two years, they gave us some advance warning. While the “Haystack Variety Hour”…
It wasn’t all that long ago that Torry Jasper, Jonathan Kelly, Johnny Abdullah and Adam Rodgers were ordinary high schoolers in Peoria. But now with graduation out of the way, they’ve moved on to some out-of-the-ordinary things with their polished melodic hardcore band A Change of Pace: getting signed to…
Recently, a few friends and I gathered for a Christmas celebration. With my girl on my arm, some nog in my hand, and a fire raging nearby, the night was a sublime salute to love, friendship, and general goodwill. Then someone had to go and fuck up a good thing…
I’m an unusual case study when it comes to Christmas, or most any holiday, for that matter. I was raised in an odd religion (the name of which I’ll omit, to save me and the religion the shame of the association) that doesn’t celebrate holidays, even birthdays. So my childhood…
Fivespeed almost fooled us. The local emo rock band seemed to drop off the radar after releasing Trade In Your Halo two years ago through Sunset Alliance (the independent record label belonging to Before Braille vocalist Dave Jensen) and signing to Virgin Records. But it turns out that the band…
Sitting outside one of his favorite haunts, Tempe’s Stinkweeds Records, on a bright December afternoon, Eli Kuner is clearly on edge. He seems relaxed at first as he chats about mundane, getting-to-know-you things, like how he’s a history major at ASU, and how he’s lived in Mesa all his life…
Bluewall Audience has been so busy reviewing and signing contracts, conducting meetings, and approving shirt designs that at least every other week, its members have to convene at their unofficial headquarters: Chipotle at Chandler Fashion Center. Any time the band needs to conduct business — and someone else is willing…
My guts are churning with anticipation and trepidation as I step into the dimmed alcove that is Cheerleaders, the topless gentlemen’s club on University Drive in east Phoenix. As my eyes adjust to the dusky illumination, I can’t help but focus on the bikini- and g-string-clad beauties lounging about the…
Your buddy pops an unknown cassette into your car’s tape deck. Your latest crush burns you a mix CD. One of your co-workers e-mails you some MP3s. Your cool older brother hips you to his vinyl collection. Shootin’ the shit in the mall, the quad, the break room: That’s how…
Moog is not coming to the Valley. Even though it’s one of the hippest new documentaries out right now. Even though this is producer Ryan Page’s hometown, not to mention the country’s fifth largest metropolis. And even though Page says he could pack a theater with just his friends and…
Dear Marshall, It’s me, Brendan. I thought since Stan hasn’t been around for a few years now, you might appreciate hearing some feedback from a fan about your new album, Encore. Don’t worry, I’m not really pissed off that you haven’t answered any of my previous correspondence. I just figure…
Let it be known that I do not take the release of a new U2 album — or the public disparaging of same — lightly. Harsh personal experience taught this lesson. For after writing a few discouraging words about the band’s last record, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, for…
It feels like it was just weeks ago that I was touring the West Coast with DJ Z-Trip, the Phoenix native who became known as king of the mash-ups before turning his back on the subgenre he helped launch. But really, it was 2001, and I was helping lug Z-Trip’s…
When East Side Records owner Ryan Stamen dressed as comedian Neil Hamburger to emcee an October 30 Halloween party at The Rogue, he didn’t expect to get into a scuffle with a rock star. But that’s what Stamen says happened, after four guys dressed in black suits — allegedly members…
