March 5 will find most of the world gearing up for the 78th Academy Awards, but here in Phoenix, everyone with more than one use for a safety pin will still be coming down from the AZ Ska Punk festivities the night before. These two gala events would appear to…
As you might glean from the title of the second collaboration between Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche, and composer/engineer/all-around post-rock icon Jim O’Rourke, religion figures heavily in Loose Fur’s (or is that Lucifer’s?) curious, frequently skewed, mostly engaging songwriting this outing; while Pat Robertson likely will disagree, the trio’s…
Thursday 2 Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) Axis/Radius: Scooter & Lavelle (house, hip-hop) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) The Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Camus: Sparkle with DJ Pablo Gomez (deep house, electro, rock) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) Cypress Lounge:…
When Kurt Cobain growled “Here we are now” in the early ’90s, he unwittingly sounded the death knell for the classic speed-metal thrash scene. Fifteen years later, most thrash acts have hemorrhaged crucial members and credibility, and either thrown in the towel or converted. Look no further than any barf-worthy…
Tired of all the ho-hum musicians our local scene has to offer? You know, boring bands who’d rather blast their tracks while standing on stage? Then peep the perversely non-plastic performing plaything known as Treasure Mammal. This one-man musical dynamo is gung ho like G.I. Joe, giving new meaning to…
This melodic indie rock quartet sounds a bit like another local band, radio rulers Jimmy Eat World, whom SLP once joined on a Midwest tour that included a gig in a barn. The A-side, “Hold Your Flashlight,” is a chugging, hard-edged pop number full of images of summer camp, canary…
One of the things that’s great about local hip-hop artist Jawa is that he doesn’t give a crap about mainstream success. He could have had it — Priority Records had him working with artists like Brian McKnight and Method Man in the mid-’90s — but he didn’t like being told…
Here’s a band that could easily contribute to the soundtrack that G.G. Allin, Stiv Bators, and Johnny Thunders are probably making in Punk Rock Hell. Big Vinny & the Cattle Thieves sound like old-school gutterpunks, spewing about anal rape and violence from a graffiti-covered garage. “I Was a Teenage Premature…
There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever. — David St. Hubbins, This Is Spinal Tap Metal has never been a genre of music generally associated with rocket scientists, but perhaps no band in the past quarter-century better illustrates the central truth of the above quote than the meatheaded,…
Rock ‘n’ roll flicks that aspire to quality are usually a waste of time. The ones sincerely committed to being dumb, however, can be treasure troves of useful bad taste. I Was a Teenage Mummy (released in ’92, but stuck in ’65), for example, is brimming with quotably stupid soliloquies…
Compared to his pioneering work as a producer, drummer and bandleader, ?uestlove’s DJ career seems modest and unassuming. Live, he usually plays to the people in the crowd (whether they’re VIP glitterati at a posh nightclub or hundreds of enthusiasts at a hole-in-the-wall rock bar), mostly avoids too-rare grooves and…
If the theme of 2006’s party is art damage, then Test Icicles — originally called Balls, in case you’ve missed the sketchy word play — provide the soundtrack. But party rock was once about partying, while this might not be about anything. To wit, the Icicles’ declaration “Yeah yeah, bitches…
Seattle sextet The Lashes is the latest contender in a bewildering blitz of earnest-sounding, stylishly dressed haircut bands. Its debut album, Get It, is expert corporate power-pop, hitting all the notes The Killers, My Chemical Romance, and others have already struck. On “New Best Friend,” lead vocalist Ben Clark sings,…
In 1991, Chico Science began mixing the local percussive styles of Pernambuco, Brazil, with searing electronic rhythms. Until his early death in ’97, he led Nação Zumbi and heralded the Mangue Beat movement. The band has since pushed on, still considered the unquestionable champion of North Brazil rock/electronica, and Futura…
This Is an Exercise provides more evidence that one’s playmates don’t necessarily determine one’s own character. Anna “Oxygen” Huff’s many guest spots on twee efforts from the likes of The Blow, The Microphones, and Mirah don’t prepare you for the dancey This Is an Exercise, which is more bionic I…
There’s something to be said for scarcity, the way something becomes more special as it becomes more unattainable. That’s how it is with elusive Valley duo Reubens Accomplice, who manage to play out about as often as it rains here — if even. Last time the band graced a local…
Known primarily for his role as bassist in Bla Fleck’s Grammy-winning New Grass Revival band the Flecktones, Victor Wooten is a phenomenal composer and bandleader in his own right. Widely respected by fellow musicians and acclaimed by the bass cognoscenti (he’s the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine’s Bass…
Buddy Guy got his start in Baton Rouge during the ’50s before heading to Chicago, where he recorded with heavyweights such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Willie Dixon. Despite his fiery onstage guitar pyrotechnics, distinctive vocals, and the unparalleled respect of guitar gods such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and…
Although British DJ extraordinaire Paul Newman (a.k.a. Tall Paul) shares the same name with the famous film actor, the world-renowned turntablist won’t be starring in any Oscar-winning films about pool hustlers or creating his own brand of gourmet salad dressings any time soon. Instead, the six-foot-seven DJ is more likely…
Anar Badalov, one-half of the lo-fi duo Metal Hearts, could really benefit from some self-esteem seminars. Granted, Metal Hearts’ musical style (quiet guitars and haunting harmonies layered over subtle, programmed drum beats, à la Mazzy Star on a booze bender) begs for melancholy musings, but Badalov takes a lyrical turn…
Vinyl records may seem as ancient as the Pyramids in the evolutionary chain of audio technology — the phonograph record, the eight-track tape, the cassette tape, the CD, the MP3 — but yet they’ve somehow survived even while cassettes and eight-tracks went tits up. Before shareware programs like Napster and…
Before 2005, the only memorable thing Las Vegas had to offer rock ‘n’ roll was a kick-ass Elvis movie with Ann-Margret in it. Then along came The Killers with their painted peepers and Duran Duran pinches, and now following close behind in public consciousness is Panic! at the Disco (these…
