All hail Chuck D! Oh, how the uptight and old white pundits parsed his every word. From the days of “jungle rhythms” to the French riots today, the frightened, white and withered have shat themselves over black music. But some musicians deserve protection from the beshitted more than others do…
On the most recent First Friday, at midnight, I’m in a former Mormon church with immense ceilings. Psychedelic colors are dancing on the walls courtesy of some old-school overhead projectors while old-school funk is jumping out of speakers. Even more incongruous is that I’m at a party in the Great…
It’s not easy fronting a band that’s the darling of the rock press. Just ask Spoon front man Britt Daniel, who’s busy collecting five-star accolades for his group’s latest effort, Gimme Fiction. The love that critics heaped upon Spoon in the wake of 2002’s Kill the Moonlight helped make Fiction,…
Battle Acts for week of November 17 through November 23 Battle Act Simple Plan Where & When Friday, November 18, Marquee Theatre, free Strongest Selling Point Time is money, so in order to get TWO FREE TICKETS, you must demo the new Samsung n330 phone and endure a long, hard…
Tim McTague, guitarist for UnderOath, place your right hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . . . New Times: How do you feel about being labeled a Christian metalcore band? Tim McTague: I think that’s exactly what we’re…
“The blues is dying out here,” my friend Dale Baich told me recently when we were bullshitting about music. I was taken aback by his statement, but when I thought about it, I hadn’t hit up a blues show in quite some time — like many people of my generation…
Sometimes it takes a jarring catastrophe to make things right. When you’re My Morning Jacket, catastrophe takes the form of a breakup. It comes after three achingly beautiful albums and close to a decade of paying your dues, touring at increasingly large venues for growing crowds. It comes while critics…
Finding Americana music on Internet radio is like looking for a bucket of nails at Restoration Hardware: There’s just something that ain’t right about searching for stuff that basic and impervious to innovation in a place so slick, contemporary and self-consciously cool. Unless, that is, you stumble upon the stream…
The Greencards are probably one of the best examples of American bluegrass out there right now, which is why it’s so gosh-darned peculiar that the trio consists of two Australians (Kym Warner, Carol Young) and an Irishman (Eamon McLoughlin) who’ve only lived in this country for eight years. Onstage, they…
We are arbiters of music, not ideals. So all hail Crass, who made great music in spite of their goofball politics. From the silly socialism of Rage Against the Machine to the street capitalism of 50 Cent, the music is the message. So we do not deliver a fatwa against…
I have a theory that excessive sobriety and serious relationships can easily hamper an artist’s potential. I know it’s true with me; the focus I’ll put into a relationship with a girl doesn’t often leave me with as much creative inspiration. My favorite records and books are inspired by loneliness,…
“I’ve got to tell you something. I’ve always said I would give my left nut for heavy metal, and now I really am.” Patrick Flannery says this barely above a whisper, but follows the statement with a hearty laugh. Today, the 43-year-old singer, who’s been a veteran of the Valley’s…
In a second coming that rivals only Christ himself, the cantankerous punk band Dead Kennedys have rereleased Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables — Special 25th Anniversary Edition (Manifesto Records), and are touring, albeit minus former mouthpiece Jello Biafra. But are the resurrected Kennedys just a bunch of anachronistic sellouts, or…
You know the feeling in the air when the barometer and temperature drop as a big storm blows in? It’s like that around Jean Grae these days. Not that she’s suddenly materialized like a cold front. Grae got her start in 1997 with Natural Resource, when she was 16. She…
Some grand faiths have their own Adversaries (like, say, Pharaohs and Pharisees) to scourge the faithful. But for those of us who hold music on high, there is but one many-faced demon — named not Legion, but Record Company. As digital music leads us to the promised land, we must…
In late spring of this year, I was kicking myself for having missed the 10-year anniversary show for local label Truxton Records. A few weeks later, the label’s proprietor, Dave Ramsey, described the event to me while we stood on the patio of Casey Moore’s in Tempe. It sounded like…
The increasingly combative File-Sharing Wars have come to this: Record companies now assume you may have criminal intent whether you buy CDs honestly or not. Recent releases from the Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket, Velvet Revolver, and the Backstreet Boys have placed new, unexpected limitations on your ability to rip,…
How do you like to apply your makeup? • Eyeliner, eyeliner, eyeliner! (2 points) • I’m a dude, dude. Makeup’s for queers. (0 points) • White foundation with black eyeliner and/or red/black lipstick. (3 points) When you open your closet, what do you see? • Khakis and Ralph Lauren polo…
When somebody tells you that his new album is divided into four musical acts with Roman numerals and movements, well, you run, quite frankly. But when it’s Eddie Kelly of Blessedbethyname, you sit and listen. Because when it comes to manufacturing personal drama and overcoming it, Kelly’s already on his…
While the record industry keeps wailing the lost-revenue blues, Tracks in Wax, Central Avenue’s used and collectible records mainstay since 1982, which mostly moves vinyl, has just spawned another store. TRX2 Multi-Media Exchange, which opened in the northwest Valley on October 22, also carries vinyl and CDs, but also specializes…
John Rich of Big & Rich — the funniest and funkiest new rebels in country music — likes to tell a story about his preacher dad and Mötley Crüe, a group that embodies rebellious fun (if not exactly funk) for a whole generation of heartland Americans. About four years ago,…
Last Chrismukkah, an entire generation did a double take when The O.C. ‘s resident indie geek, Seth Cohen, uttered the words “Death Cab for Cutie” on network television during prime time. A year later, it’s clear a new era has arrived when the biggest name on the soundtrack to TV’s…
