“Free at Dawn,” the opening song of Small Black’s second full-length album, is the sound of a band reclaiming itself at the start of a new day. Gone is much of what characterized the band’s eponymous 2008 EP and 2010 debut album New Chain — the chill synths and preset…
Last night’s sold out Fall Out Boy show was full of girls singing their hearts out to the band’s hit songs. Some fans arrived early to get a coveted spot near the stage, extending the line to the Mill Avenue bridge. I overheard a guy say that Fall Out Boy…
After an unpleasantly long stretch on the rumor mill–even by Apple standards–complicated by a hard-bargaining Sony Music, iTunes Radio finally exists. For the most part, the rumor mill got it right: It’s a lot like Pandora, it has text and audio ads (which feel strange on an Apple product), and…
When rapper Rick Ross proudly proclaimed to having the detestable ability of slipping psychedelic stimulants into the drinks of unsuspecting ladies, he did more than upset a few women activists and anti-sexism organizations. Shoe giant Reebok dropped Ross as a spokesperson in April, and local grassroots movement Artistic Reason AZ…
Future Loves Past has been a local favorite since getting together in 2010, but 2013 could be their most important year yet: They’ve just announced a full-length album (already recorded at Flying Blanket Studios) due out this fall on Common Wall Media. In the meantime, we’ve got a song from…
MC Magic has been writing a column for us for a few months now, but anyone who follows Arizona’s reigning slow-jam king on Twitter or Facebook knows that he’s into keeping in touch with his fans. With that in mind–and because Ann Landers and Dear Abby just don’t know you…
We all have bands that defined our youth–that made us love music, that maybe even introduced us to a new feeling that we didn’t know existed. Whether it’s the psychedelic rock of the ’60s, punk of the ’70s, thrash of the ’80s, or grunge of the ’90s, every generation has…
Experimental indie rockers Animal Collective return to Marquee Theatre on Tuesday, October 22, and the whole thing has left us conflicted. If the band plays some old songs we’ll be happy. Heck, if the band plays anything we know we’ll be happy. My experience seeing the band at Coachella in…
The Refreshments are back. The fizzy, fuzzy, big, and buzzy ’90s band behind the hit “Banditos” is scheduled to reunite for one show only — but not in their home state or even their home country. The good news is that the gig is only as far away as Puerto…
Fall Out Boy is to blame for a lot of what was bad about the middle of the last decade: The broad acceptance of 19-word song titles; males wearing the jeans that inspired Kanye West to rap, “They just buy tight jeans ’til they nuts hang all out, boy”; even…
Mesa-based songwriter Jeff Gonzales knows how to write a love song. Midway through his debut solo EP, the six-song The Lights Just Went Out. . ., he drops an openhearted doozy, the lilting country shuffle “Midday Epilogue.” “Well, I gave up my family for you,” he croons, a light drawl…
Within 24 hours the new Miley Cyrus single, “We Can’t Stop,” hit over two million plays, and I predict 100 million within a week. At first listen it feels like the intro for a new song by 2 Chainz, especially considering the stamp producer Mike Will Made It leaves on…
[We’re not sure a seemingly uncontroversial band has ever generated as much controversy as Mumford and Sons have in their brief stint as folky chart-toppers. To celebrate their show tonight at Desert Sky Pavilion, I asked representatives from both sides of the (surprisingly heated) Mumford & Sons debate to argue…
Daft Punk has sorta been the focus of Jay Wiggins’ world lately. Random Access Memories — that 13-track gem from the electronica-dispensing, quasi-robotic Frenchmen that everyone’s going bonkers over the last couple weeks — has admittedly been on repeat, and the living room of the DJ’s Phoenix home is “full…
The atmospheric, bluesy local rockers in Mergence may already be known for keeping it weird with communes, nomads and robots with the release of their first album, Those Vibrant Young People Are Dead–but with their upcoming EP they are taking it to an entirely new level. It makes sense, since…
How much is music worth to people? This isn’t a new question for me. For the past 25 years I’ve fed my family by selling the stuff. And even though I haven’t operated a brick-and-mortar record store for almost a year now, I’m still as curious about it, and as…
Authority Zero just finished a lengthy European tour, but no amount of international success would make them leave the Valley behind. The boys from Mesa now find themselves back home preparing for the Summer Sickness Tour to promote their fifth album, The Tipping Point. Not that Europe wasn’t great. “We…
It’s a little too early to crown 2013 the “Year Of” anything in particular, but you might be able to make a strong case for 2013 as the “Year of the Musical Manifesto.” Observe Daft Punk’s calculated marketing buildup toward Random Access Memories, with tales of organic music-making on the…
If the food is bad backstage when Cheap Trick plays Wild Horse Pass on May 31, this reporter isn’t to blame. In any case, after criss-crossing the globe for 40 years and playing enough exotic locations that anything from sushi to fried cassava to bull testicles could appear on the…
This week I’d like to talk about one of the hardest working, up-and-coming hip hop squads from the streets of Arizona: MOB FAM. This three-member group is made up of real-life brothers Arturo, Javier, and Steve Campos, better know as TS, Young Javi, and SC! These boys have been pounding…
Eventually, Kanye West is going to run out of progressively larger things to project himself onto. But he hasn’t yet: According to an update to his website Friday, he’s planning to do the whole “New Slaves” video reveal in several Phoenix locations Saturday night. That is, he plans on trying…
Captain Squeegee sounds like a character at Phoenix Comicon, which is convenient but not quite accurate. It’s actually a band at Comicon, with a performance coming up Saturday night at Comikaze. We talked Friday afternoon with lead squeegee Danny Torgersen — just before his appearance on a panel at Comicon…
