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…
You can kiss the usual questions goodbye when interviewing a band comprising a 17-year-old girl and her dad. Ask about the sex and the drugs and you’ll find yourself retreating to something wholesome like the rock ‘n’ roll to keep from blushing before they do. Luckily, the novelty of a…
Mike Watt: musician, diarist, raconteur, philosopher, punk rock’s favorite uncle, and San Pedro, California’s goodwill ambassador to the world. He built his reputation by helping to lay the foundations of West Coast punk rock (the music, not the fashion statement it has become) with the tensile manifestos of the Minutemen…
It’s back to the Dark Ages for me lately, having recently killed off both my cable TV and Internet access at home. I dropped them and went medieval for two reasons — to save some money, but also to keep my ass from watching CNN or Fox News eight hours…
The Polish American Club in Miami, Florida, seems an unlikely place for the Faint to do a concert. It’s basically a banquet hall, the kind of space you might expect to visit for a polka dance — if you’re into that kind of thing. But to see a band that…
Slouching back into a booth at Casey Moore’s, Billy Goodman passes up a cheeseburger to nurse a Corona instead, quietly joking that he could use about three. The lanky Necronauts front man, with his dark-framed glasses and head of thick spiral curls, talks about needing to relax, yet he’s so…
It’s 1:30 on a Sunday afternoon and I’m almost 200 miles from home, about 20 miles as the crow flies from the Mexican border in southern Arizona. I’m visiting my buddy Andy Hersey, a genuine Sonoran cowboy who gave up horseshoeing a few years back to pursue a career as…
The air is thick and weird as I follow conservative talk radio personality Bruce St. James down the hallway past KTAR-AM 620’s studio toward his office. When we reach the lair of the white worm, we settle in across his desk from one another, exchanging small talk until I ask…
Hip-hop producer extraordinaire RJD2’s slight frame is nearly encircled by a heavy weave of electronic wiring and a half-ton of clumpy amplifiers and miscellaneous sound equipment. It’s the sound check for RJD2’s San Francisco album release party, and although he’s politely fielding questions, he’s also obviously distracted with the task…
The joke’s on Peachcake. When Stefan Pruett and John O’Keefe started a band last summer, they weren’t serious. Then 18, the two college kids were used to being in punk and hardcore groups with actual guitars and drums, and O’Keefe was only just getting the hang of his new Roland…
The plastic action figure I’m staring at several hours before the show is about eight inches tall, with a weather-beaten wrinkled face, probably in his mid-40’s, a club in his left hand, right hand outstretched in a ‘hey now,’ sort of gesticulation. He’s a centaur, found at a local thrift…
Like most of my hedonistic ilk, I was giddy with anticipation six weeks ago as the new, later last call time of 2 a.m. approached at the end of August. Who’s going to complain about having an extra hour out at the bars, an extra hour to hit up the…
From the outside, Jimmy Eat World’s Tempe studio looks just like another sterile office space in a quiet, out-of-the-way business complex. But walk through the nondescript entrance and the place is a surprisingly cozy rock ‘n’ roll den. There’s enough cushy seating for a decent-sized party, and instruments are strewn…
Meet Chico Chism, and that “six degrees of separation” theory could connect you with every major blues or rock artist of the past 60 years. It might be simpler to ask Chism who he hasn’t played with. On a cool night at the Rhythm Room, he sits on a patio…
