Bill Callahan picks his words carefully. If one thing defines his recent work — pastoral, grooving, and far removed from his noisier days recording under the name Smog — it’s the way he selects his words. “The only words I’ve said today are beer and thank you,” he croons on…
How Emby Alexander learned to love the cassette tapes trend and how they may have captured the Phoenix Lights in their latest video.
For Jon Foreman and the rest of Switchfoot, there is no point in doing things the easy way. Easy would be trying to carve out a rock ‘n’ roll career for themselves in either the mainstream or Christian scenes, rather than both. Easy would be taking their lifelong love of…
“For a long time, you’re chasing being thought of as this terminally unique snowflake,” says Brooklyn singer/songwriter Kevin Devine. “And then you kind of realize you’re a worker among workers — and you put your boots on.” The 33-year-old musician is reflecting on the reverse metamorphosis that changed him from…
“Esoteric” is the first word that comes to mind when describing Josh Tillman, the mystic muse behind Father John Misty. Inspiration for the band’s 2012 album, Fear Fun, struck via psychedelic lightning bolt, giving Tillman the courage to be (as clichéd as it sounds) himself. That meant embracing both the…
Your friends hate your Halloween costume idea. I’m not a mindreader or anything, but I’m just pretty sure that’s the case if you’re going in any pop cultural direction for this year’s festivities, particularly pop music. It isn’t that this year’s music memes are especially egregious, although one rises above…
A few months ago, I took 80’s music to task in a little ditty called High School Music: A Reunion from Hell. Of course, I took some shit from some of my friends and classmates, so I promised them I’d try to look at the positive side to the eighties…
It took moving to Seattle and getting his heart stomped on for Harper Lines to get a record full of breakup hits. After the Harper and the Moths (whom we profiled in this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times here) frontman said goodbye to the Valley for what he thought…
For a band that celebrates the subtlety of the classic influences within its music — rhythm and blues, folk rock, alt-country — Harper and the Moths is raw and bold when it comes to their subject matter. They relish the concept of channeling romance, heartbreak, and desire straight into their…
In today’s age of omnipresent coverage and instant information, it’s pretty difficult for bands to maintain any sort of anonymity. The art-rock collective The Residents has stayed unknown for more than 40 years, and Slipknot pulled it off for a while. But one eccentric Swedish act has kept their names…
As usual, local filmmaker Nico Holthaus has set up an unenviable task for himself. On the party weekend before Halloween, he’s scheduled a premiere of the final cut of Art Edward’s fictionalized love letter to the Tempe music scene of the early ’90s, Stuck Outside of Phoenix, at the Pollack…
I think people have finally gotten used to the yearly back-to-school lamentations about just how old or nonexistent college freshmen were when Kurt Cobain died, so here’s a new one: The Format’s Interventions + Lullabies, the erstwhile Great Arizonan Hopes’ infamously under-supported major-label album, turned 10 years old Monday. Surprise:…
Kanye West’s Yeezus tour is coming to Phoenix in December, which means you have less than two months to think about how “I Am a God” is going to sound at US Airways Center. The Phoenix date is set for Tuesday, December 10 — just after the first wave of…
Last week, I riled up the Mumfords with Five Reasons CDs are Better Than Vinyl. This week, I’ll try to get back in their good graces and give vinyl its due. I know what you’re saying. “Pick a side, Geek” It might seem a little wishy-washy on the surface, but…
First, you have to know that Spike TV still exists. Then you’ll have to take my word that one of its reality shows is a Kitchen Nightmares clone called Bar Rescue. Then you’ll have to know that Tempe’s Rocky Point Cantina (subsequently briefly known as Havana Cabana) is the bar…
It could be the relatively short notice or the confusing name — I would not have pegged him as a jazz artist, personally — but it’s happening, universe: The Robin Thicke Controversy Machine is coming to Ahwatukee, as one of the headlining acts of the Arizona Jazz Festival. It may…
Some of the circumstances behind the recent death of local singer-songwriter Andrew Duncan Brown were revealed to Up on the Sun within the last hour via his label Smoking Pirate Records. According to an e-mail from the Mesa-based label, the 27-year-old musician was found dead on Sunday floating in the…
If you watched the Rocky Point Cantina episode of Bar Rescue you may have noticed a lot of weird things about the episode–like how the bar they rescued is now boarded up and closed. Here’s one you might not have caught: Local metal band Killing Spree playing to someone else’s…
I’m feeling a little spunky this morning, so I figured I’d rile up some Mumfords. Mumfords? That’s my latest name for hipsters. Outspoken, cooler-than-thou cats who are all over the latest music craze, regardless of whether it’s truly in their heart or not. Most writers don’t harass Mumfords, in fact,…
Lots of music fans have a cult-favorite band, and lots of those cult members certainly believe they’d spend 30 years of their life, on and off, trying to get them back together. E Street Band guitarist and Rascals fan Steven Van Zandt was part of an even smaller subset —…
There are very few legitimate extreme metal festivals in the United States. Typically, fans have to head overseas to events like England’s Damnation Festival, Netherland’s Eindhoven Metal Meeting, or France’s Hellfest to get their fix. However, in the past couple of years, American metal promoters are catching on. Maryland’s Death…
I’m going to be totally honest with you here: I love state fairs, but I’m mostly in it for the lemon shake-ups. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the concerts — it’s just that I enjoy them only after I’ve eaten a lot of unconventionally fried food and then…
