Amp Fiddler disagrees with the name of the genre he’s been squeezed into, which in his case is neo-soul. His point is that after two decades of session work as a keyboardist with George Clinton, the Brand New Heavies, Lucy Pearl, and others, what he’s doing now as a solo…
While the Valley’s music scene is still adrift, the punk rock community here in the ‘Nix is congealing — not just onstage, but online, at AZPunk.com. Consider the Dames, a local all-female punk trio that sounds like the demon spawn of the Donnas and Black Flag. After guitarist Heather Shope…
THE NIGHT: Fridays at E-Lounge THE DJ: Domenica THE SCENE: A diverse coterie of same-sex couples (male and female, and the occasional straight couple) busts shameless moves on the dance floor. Narcissists watch themselves in the giant mirror that covers one wall, while exhibitionists gyrate on the platform. By midnight,…
The Bled is the best goddamn rock band in Arizona. On the band’s 2001 EP His First Crush, the album cover bears the line, “Can you still feel the butcher knives?” It’s a clever play on Jimmy Eat World’s chorus to “For Me This Is Heaven,” off the Clarity LP…
Mike Castaneda is mesmerized. An eerie, bluish glow lights up his face as he kneels onstage in front of a computer screen, clicking the mouse and bobbing his head to a frantic barrage of digital beats that blast like machine-gun fire from the amps at Modified Arts in downtown Phoenix…
Tragedy is an unpredictable catalyst, as Mike “Sir Pie” Gomez knows all too well. On May 10, 2003, Chris “CPT” Pangrazi, Pie’s rhyming partner and fellow MC in long-running hip-hop/rock collective Cousins of the Wize, was killed by a drunken driver. Pie and CPT were the backbones of Cousins, the…
Like a trip to the dentist, most bands put off making an album for as long as they can. It’s a put-up or shut-up moment that forces a band to stare at its prospects for success in the cold, harsh light of day — and few are ready for the…
THE NIGHT:Flux at Sky Lounge THE DJ:Rod Carrillo THE SCENE: A diverse crowd ranging in age from 21 to 51 gathers around the bar, scooping up 1 cent well drinks. Yellow and green spotlights, strobe lights and smoke machines cloud the dance floor, but there’s plenty of fresh air –…
THE SCENE: Girls in tight jeans or miniskirts and low-cut tank tops grind on the laps of preppy, spiky-haired college guys in button-down dress shirts, who outnumber the girls (as usual). THE VIBE:Old-school L.A. chic meets modern hipster as a fashionable blend of twentysomethings sips Long Island iced teas, bumpin’…
It would be an answered prayer for most up-and-coming ambient artists: a personal invitation from the members of Sigur Ròs to join them on tour. But when that fantasy scenario actually happened for San Diego musician Jimmy LaValle, his response was unexpected. You see, he really wasn’t that familiar with…
Hours before he takes the stage as the headliner of the Plea for Peace tour, Cursive front man Tim Kasher is looking shaggy. His hair’s grown out considerably, and he’s sporting a ruffian’s beard. “I’ve just pledged that I’m gonna keep growing my hair out until I fix my life,”…
Sometimes, breaking the law pays off. Last year, two young women from Tempe started sneaking into every stop of the Vans Warped Tour to illegally sell a compilation CD that they went into debt to produce. Going a little hungry didn’t stop them, and scrounging for gas money didn’t discourage…
The three guys performing at the Mason Jar on a spring Friday night have a crowd bunched close to the stage, including a clique of teenage girls who occasionally yell “I love you” and “You’re sexy” at the band of siblings — yet another boy brother band, in the tradition…
Good Charlotte is one of the biggest bands in the U.S. right now, a pop-punk quintet that’s played the MTV Video Music Awards, graced the cover of Rolling Stone, and sold more than three million copies of its last disc, The Young and the Hopeless. To Good Charlotte vocalist Joel…
Dear Ms. Cooper, Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to your still-young syndicated radio show, Nights With Alice Cooper, weeknights on KDKB-FM 93.3, broadcast from deep in your underground bunker in this “toxic wonderland” I like to call the ‘Nix. First, let me say that…
The last year has been a good one for the mash-up, that DIY form of culture-mulching in which anyone with an Internet connection can download two songs plus the software to splat them together and come up with a trendy dance-floor hit in a matter of minutes. In addition to…
Blink while you’re walking down Mill Avenue and you’ll probably miss the new Swell Records. Just doors down from Fatburger, with only printed paper to mark its place, the latest incarnation of Swell sits a block north from Swell Clothing. Enter and you’ll see a post-industrial space with a few…
For a long time, I didn’t patronize the Marquee Theatre in Tempe. Hadn’t been there until I was preparing to write this column, and then it was at the insistence of my editor. At first it was simply coincidence that I didn’t visit the former Red River Opry, renamed and…
From a pop-culture standpoint, it’s always an interesting sign when quality reissues trump current releases. Thing is, that’s pretty much all the time. Marvin Gaye deluxe editions soar miles above 99.9 percent of contemporary R&B material. Roots-reggae reissue specialists like Blood + Fire and Moll-Selekta have consistently outgunned any label…
Two days of wandering in the searing desert sun can give you wild visions. But even though it was hot enough to warp time itself at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on May 1 and 2, sets by legendary indie pioneers The Pixies, Kraftwerk and The Cure…
Joel Morales is beginning to piss people off. Actually, person. One guy. Morales, the shaggy, pear-shaped, 28-year-old singer/guitarist of the lo-fi beauty pop quintet dios, is onstage at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California. It’s early March, and the sun’s light is only just now fading from the…
D.R. Wilke, with gray hair, wire-rimmed glasses and an ASU alumni tee shirt, and Paul Taylor, with short curly locks and a white Izod polo, grab a balcony table at the Gordon Biersch brewery nestled atop the Mill Avenue Starbucks and are quickly greeted by a young waiter clutching four…
