There’s not much to say about another stupefyingly hot Phoenix summer that hasn’t already been fired in all caps directly onto your Facebook news feed. It’s another year when Circle K Polar Pop cups might fuse with the blacktop if the mercury rises any further. But it hasn’t scorched the…
Located just an hour and a half north of the Valley and home to more retirees than the average small town, Prescott is better known as a premier Christmas getaway than as an arts community. But it’s a town with strong local values and arms open to touring acts and…
Lost in love? Your relationship too weird for Ann Landers to understand? Trying to discover what comes next in your life or your music? Bring your problems to Ask Magic, your chance to ask Arizona’s reigning slow-jam king for advice on whatever life throws at you. (Click here to ask…
Ahhh, the ceremonial first pitch of a baseball game. When it’s done right, nobody in the stands pays you any attention. When you screw it up, you’re on YouTube forever. Often celebrities are chosen to uphold this grand tradition, and often — most recently Carly Rae Jepsen — they fail…
American Idol Live!, coming to Comerica Theatre next week, is a testament to how much smaller American Idol gets every year as a cultural institution. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still big. Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips’ debut single is still impossible to avoid if you are or have…
So this one time, my brother left a large tube of salami under our bunk bed — because he likes to hoard food — and totally forgot about it for three weeks, until it started to smell so bad that we almost called the paramedics. We looked down there and…
One of the most important parts of being a baseball fan is the crushing certainty that you are The Underdogs and your rivals are getting special treatment from ESPN or Bud Selig or New York-biased media outlets. (If you’re a Mets or Yankees fan, your rivals are getting special treatment…
When people hear I’m new to Phoenix, they immediately want to tell me a few things. The first thing is that it may seem hot at that exact moment, but it will in fact get much hotter, so hot that I will surely die. The second thing — well, something-something…
I’ll bet when you read that headline you thought, “Here we go again . . . Some old dude is going to bash on today’s music.” Wrong, Spanky. In my 48 years, I’ve never said “There’s no good new music these days.” In fact, after 26 years in the music…
If David Lowery were allowed only one word to describe his punk, Middle Eastern, folk, ska, Slavic, Indian, Spanish, psychedelic, country, rock band Camper Van Beethoven, it would be “weird.” Weird that a band with a catalog of entirely dissimilar albums has survived 30 years. Weird that influences include hippies,…
So this one time, my brother left a large tube of salami under our bunk bed — because he likes to hoard food — and totally forgot about it for three weeks, until it started to smell so bad that we almost called the paramedics. We looked down there and…
A few years ago, Kid Rock was at a concert, watching T-shirts sell for $40. He had more reason than most stars to wonder why they were charging so much. He has a T-shirt company of his own, Made in Detroit, and he knows exactly how much it costs to…
You heard about all that #FreeJahar stuff after the Boston Marathon bombings, right? Basically, surviving bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — thanks to some combination of his floppy boy-band hair and whatever it is that causes women to propose to Scott Peterson in jail — has become a bit of a sex-symbol-slash-online-community,…
There’s no shortage of ways to contribute to efforts benefiting the families of the firefighters killed in Yarnell late last month, but if you were hoping to see Dierks Bentley as part of the arrangement, you’re too late: July 22’s Dierks Bentley Country Cares concert is sold out. The hastily…
Located just an hour and a half north of the valley, Prescott is better known being a premier Christmas getaway than for its artistic community. With a population composed of more retirees than the average small town, it’s safe to assume that its music scene is also a little dated. The introduction of Prescott’s first DIY, nonprofit festival, Whisperfest, is looking to change that for good.
GOOD, BETTER, BEST … Want to know where to go and what to do in Phoenix? Your essential mobile guide–also known as our Best Of app–just got better…
Thanks to its close proximity to Arizona State University’s main campus, wild times are often afoot on Mill Avenue. And most nights, you can find Damion Hernandez helping stoke things up at some of the rowdier bars along the Downtown Tempe thoroughfare. The 33-year-old, known to the scene as DJ…
High in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Widespread Panic takes the stage at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, as its done many times before. But the day is June 30, 2013, and this isn’t just another performance. With this show, Widespread Panic will leave holding another impressive attendance record: 42 sellouts,…
The Baptist Generals are coming, but we’re not talking Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee. Rather, July marks the return of a psychedelic folk band from Denton, Texas, last heard from circa 2003. Back then they were touring behind their debut release, No Silver/No Gold, a crash-bang-boom rush of…
Spend some time with the guys in Slightly Stoopid, and you’re bound to walk away with a fascination for the band’s business model and a new cologne — of the skunk variety. For almost 15 years, the members of Slightly Stoopid have made music together, and somehow they’ve perfected one…
Lost in love? Your relationship too weird for Ann Landers to understand? Trying to discover what comes next in your life or your music? Bring your problems to Ask Magic, your chance to ask Arizona’s reigning slow-jam king for advice on whatever life throws at you. (Click here to ask…
Baseball and music have a storied history together, from the ballpark organs and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” sing-alongs of yesteryear to today’s increasing reliance on various components of the Cha Cha Slide. Not all music is for the fans, though: The Arizona Diamondbacks’ walk-up music is for and…
