Shortly after last week’s Revolver column appeared (“Tom’s Tax,” January 13), detailing the hidden charges tacked on to the face value of tickets for events promoted by Lucky Man Productions, the Marquee Theatre, and its owner, Tom Lapenna, New Times’ sources contacted us to let us know that Lapenna had…
If you heard a quiet tear falling as December 31 ushered in yet another stupid year, it might have been gear heads sobbing over the end of an era. At that auspicious moment, Quantegy, the last analog tape manufacturer in the United States, decided to decorate its gates with chains…
Elvis Presley was the King, but there are others who claim that crown as well, including (with some legitimacy) Little Richard. But there is only one Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and her name is Wanda Jackson. So revered is Wanda, in fact, that she’s the subject of a tribute…
Well, the holidays are over; you’ve gotten all the gifts you’re going to get until your birthday, or, if you’re lucky, until you get your tax return back this spring. But if the feds do give you some scrilla back, and you’re the sort who buys concert tickets regularly, don’t…
The liner notes to Batter the Drag’s self-released debut EP, unfathomable depths, give an ominous first impression. There are no song lyrics, no names or faces of musicians — really, no real notes to speak of, aside from a list of people thanked by the band, a spare, black-and-white splatter…
Tempe’s “Burrito Brothers” (Chelsea Ide, December 16) in Bluewall Audience will soon be strutting across their high school campuses rocking Chipotle Mexican Grill backpacks. The five teenagers have been using the burrito joint as a spot to conduct official business with their record label, as long as Turnpike Records has…
I fucked up, and I’ll admit it. A few months back I reviewed a compilation called Crunk Classics, with songs by dirty south superstars like Lil Jon and Petey Pablo, and I tore it a new asshole. “TVT’s collection of Southern thug rappers is pretty much — to borrow a…
Eric Seven, the nucleus of electronic/industrial band Radio Free America, doesn’t strike you as the Trent Reznor type — not even the Dave Gahan/Depeche Mode type, or any other iconic related-genre artist. Sitting on the porch of his producer Daggrr’s small Tempe house, smoking cigarettes and drinking vodka with diet…
Sales-wise, at least, 2004 was the year Nashville got its groove back. Heavy hitters such as Tim McGraw, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban and Shania Twain all dropped platinum records, but what has the city more excited than it’s been in years is the fact that it finally managed…
Hey, kids, I’m back! You might not have noticed my absence, but I made a recent excursion that felt like it must have lasted a year. In a way, it did. Using the principles I gleaned from Roberta Sparrow’s book Philosophy of Time Travel, and an ungodly amount of re-watching…
Britney got married. Ashlee was caught lip-synching. ODB died. Congress continued to wring its hands about the legality of downloads, which flourished anyway. Conservative groups condemned sex in popular culture, while Usher’s sultry Confessions shot to No. 1. A major label signed a guy who can’t sing, can’t dance and…
For hipsters, the coolest things are to be found 20 years ago, the most dreadful things 10 years ago. So starting a few years back, we were deluged with ’80s electro and synth-pop, and we pretended to forget jungle ever existed. Electroclash, the first naive sortie by dance music into…
It’s difficult to survey the hip-hop of 2004, more bloated and self-referential than ever, and not imagine the mythical AOR wasteland of the mid-’70s. Like rock before it, hip-hop has easily won a cultural acceptance once unthinkable, and our reward is a parade of Jadakisses and G-Unit solo projects, preaching…
Ever find yourself missing the word “alternative” as a concept, a signifier, a lifestyle? Nowadays, any dudes-with-guitars collective either has to do the Creed butt-rock thing, the whine-incessantly-about-your-ex-girlfriends emo thing, or the get-beat-up-incessantly-by-your-ex-girlfriends indie-rock thing. It’s harder and harder to find the best aspects of each combined: the fist-pumping intensity…
The sight of six makeup-clad Norwegian Satanists on the Ozzfest main stage this summer was a great sign for metal, if not the makers of Max Factor. During recent outings, metal’s biggest event of the year has been plagued by rote rap-rockers like Crazy Town, Papa Roach, and Linkin Park,…
In 2004, the line between indie and mainstream rock disintegrated even faster than Britney Spears’ quickie Vegas marriage. Vinyl obsessives mingled with white-hat-wearing fratheads at Modest Mouse shows, Taking Back Sunday debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, and Death Cab for Cutie earned OC-sanctioned buzz and a major-label…
Everyone knows all of Usher’s Confessions by now; everyone went to see Prince play “1999” for the very last time. Everyone knows all about Lil Jon and his penchant for hollering “Yayy-uuhhh!” With everyone paying attention to these superstars, a lot of other talented folks got drowned out, and not…
Most of the time when a band breaks up, fans find out after it’s too late to wish their musical heroes goodbye. But in the case of the Haystacks, who serenaded Phoenix indie-rock lovers for more than two years, they gave us some advance warning. While the “Haystack Variety Hour”…
It wasn’t all that long ago that Torry Jasper, Jonathan Kelly, Johnny Abdullah and Adam Rodgers were ordinary high schoolers in Peoria. But now with graduation out of the way, they’ve moved on to some out-of-the-ordinary things with their polished melodic hardcore band A Change of Pace: getting signed to…
Recently, a few friends and I gathered for a Christmas celebration. With my girl on my arm, some nog in my hand, and a fire raging nearby, the night was a sublime salute to love, friendship, and general goodwill. Then someone had to go and fuck up a good thing…
I’m an unusual case study when it comes to Christmas, or most any holiday, for that matter. I was raised in an odd religion (the name of which I’ll omit, to save me and the religion the shame of the association) that doesn’t celebrate holidays, even birthdays. So my childhood…
Fivespeed almost fooled us. The local emo rock band seemed to drop off the radar after releasing Trade In Your Halo two years ago through Sunset Alliance (the independent record label belonging to Before Braille vocalist Dave Jensen) and signing to Virgin Records. But it turns out that the band…
