Metal Health: A Second to Die

By Brendan Joel Kelley A Second to Die If you haven’t noticed, I’ve spent a lot of time discussing metal lately, both in its traditional and innovative forms. It’s earned me the ire of some and the praise of others, and apparently broken up at least one band (that’s unconfirmed,…

The Smob, As Promised…

By Brendan Joel Kelley My technical difficulties now resolved, here are the tracks I promised to give you from the Smob’s just-released-last-night album I Hate Your Face. Fresh off of a triumphant release party last night at the Sets with Zion I and Tajai sharing the bill, I’m about to…

Smobbed Up Hip-Hop

By Brendan Joel Kelley I was going to grace you with some fresh new music today, being released tomorrow, but after wrestling with the internet for a while I found out that my capacity to upload and share music with you is temporarily hindered. Nonetheless, if you dig local and…

Three-Chord Wonders

Having covered music in this town for more than a decade, I see and listen to a lot of bands encompassing all genres, styles, and persuasions, but what I rock and go see for my personal enjoyment is another, more specific matter. A few years ago and beyond, my steez…

The Back of Love

Lindsey Buckingham is an artist. He peppers his conversation with references to Picasso and Pollock. He speaks of sounds as “colors.” And like the stereotypical artiste, the Fleetwood Mac guitarist has been characterized as enigmatic, remote, even flaky. “I am the Terrence Malick of rock,” Buckingham says with a chuckle…

The Mane of Mayer’s Existence

Whatever your feelings about John Mayer, it’s difficult not to appreciate his hair, much in the same way it’s difficult not to appreciate Hugh Grant’s. Both share the same thick, wavy, dark brown locks that, let’s face it, make the lady-folk swoon. For example, British thesp Grant dated supermodel turned…

On Keeping Kidman

Actors and actresses have a long history of falling for musicians. But, generally, those musicians are rock stars, sexually ambiguous pop stars, and members (or former members) of boy bands. Country stars used to rank on the “cool list,” below white rappers but higher than reality show music competition winners…

Long Sonoita Nights with Andy Hersey

By Brendan Joel Kelley (Thanks to my friend Paula Harms for taking the lovely photos of Andy Hersey) Last weekend, as I mentioned in a previous post, I took off down south to see my cowboy buddy Andy Hersey throw down at a barn dance in Sonoita to celebrate the…

Our Neighbors to the South: Phoenix Vs. Tucson

By Brendan Joel Kelley Tucson This last weekend I took a road trip out of town to see some music (more on that later), visiting my favorite little town in southern Arizona, Sonoita, and cruising through Tucson on the way there and back. I don’t care much for Tucson, although…

The Heartless Give Punk a Heart Attack

By Brendan Joel Kelley The Heartless If you missed local pop/punk/rock outfit the Heartless at the band’s CD release party recently, you’ll want to check out the tracks below (if energetic pop/punk is your thing). When the band dropped its EP This Could Take Some Getting Used To last year…

Thugs Life

Judging by the malevolently eager look on his face, whatever Dale Fox of Phoenix band World Class Thugs has been keeping in his trunk for the past six months promises to be good. It is. It’s three oversized masks of World Class Thugs singer Jocelyn Ruiz-Fox, blown up from a…

Make Like Morrissey

Morrissey, England’s most dapper downer, isn’t quite as depressed as he used to be. In fact, he almost seems to be enjoying what he does these days. Nevertheless, the guy is still as press-shy as ever and just can’t be bothered to pick up a phone to chat with nosy…

The Men Behind the Man in Black

Why on Earth would anyone want to see Johnny Cash’s backing band without Johnny Cash? It’s a fair question, perhaps even necessary, given the Man in Black’s hallowed status. Cash’s music meant so much to so many that it would be easy for former bandmates to coast on the demand…

Mo’ Metal: John Wayne Jefferson

By Brendan Joel Kelley If you saw my column this week, you might wonder exactly what a guitar/drums/vocals metal three piece like John Wayne Jefferson sounds like. You can find the answer below, although you should be warned that the songs come off much better live and the production on…

Summer of Sound Part Deux: Americana

By Brendan Joel Kelley Just a reminder for you that tonight’s the second installment of the Summer of Sound series; tonight you can hear (and vote for) the bands in the Americana category. That’s Flathead, the Liar’s Handshake, Andrew Jackson Jihad, and Wormwood Brothers, with Deadbolt as the national headliner…

J.D. Stooks’ Latest Steez

By Brendan Joel Kelley Tempe singer/songwriter J.D. Stooks hit me off with one of his new tracks a couple days ago, “10 Lb Coat,” which you’ll find below. J.D.’s an incredibly talented kid, which you’ll hear below and you can hear more of on his Myspace. He’s actually out in…

Metal Health

In e-mails and comments on my blog, Ear Infection, I’ve gotten into it with the metal kids in town. They’ve criticized me for my opinions about metal or for my not paying attention to it. It’s generally people like Marshall Beck, a musician in several metal bands who got butt-hurt…

Mindcrime and Punishment

Even armed with an illustrated libretto, it’s hard to divine most rock opera story lines. Before Ken Russell’s film adaptation of Tommy revealed the importance of champagne, Marilyn Monroe, and baked beans to the plot, betcha just assumed it was about a deaf, dumb and blind kid pinball-messiah who gets…

Sending Out an S.O.S.

Jackson Ellis is freaking out. In late April, the 26-year-old publisher of the independent music and fiction magazine Verbicide got word that starting on July 15, his shipping rates would increase by somewhere between 30 and 40 percent. “It’s not going be the thing that kills me, but coupled with…