Micah Bentley

Breaking into your 20s can be harder than breaking into the music industry, but the acoustic-driven alterna-rockers in the band Micah Bentley have done both with a guileless acquiescence. Between 18 and 23 years old, these strapping young lads — including Micah Bentley himself — dish out lovingly listenable tunes…

Kaskade

Growing up in Chicago, Kaskade was initially into British New Wave acts such as The Cure and The Smiths before discovering clubs, Frankie Knuckles and house music. You can hear it in the melancholy groove of his deep house tracks, echoing the Brits’ love of Northern Soul. Kaskade began spinning…

Propagandhi

Steadfastly political and occasionally amusing (as on “Homophobes Are Just Mad They Can’t Get Laid” and “Degrassi Junior High Drop Outs”), these Canadian anarchists were one of Fat Wreck Chords’ first bands, and have been plotting their musical coup for more than a decade. After two albums, the 1997 departure…

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

Thursday 8Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with DJ Jeremy (goth, industrial) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Fire…

Molten Rock

Brooding hardcore fans with blue bandannas in their back pockets rub shoulders with longhaired death-metal men and skinny, fashionable high-schoolers in white belts when Job for a Cowboy is about to go on at the PHiX. Typically, the hardcore crowd hates the self-indulgent nature of heavy metal, the metal kids…

Tween Scene

Recently, my nephew Torin celebrated his fourth birthday. My brother, a sound engineer, recruited a local band, New York Homecoming, to learn a couple of children’s songs and play in his yard at the Saturday afternoon party. Shortly after the band’s 3 p.m. sound check, a Tempe cop showed up…

Turning Japanese

Right at that loud, sweaty moment when the crowd’s ready to crawl on the stage from too much anxious waiting and too much beer, the lights go dark and the house music switches over to some blaring, swaggering tune fit for a movie about 1950s delinquents. Everyone cheers and hoists…

Loud Mouths

On a recent evening in a quiet Tempe neighborhood, the guys in Smoky Mountain Skullbusters are in a small padded room at guitarist Dylan Underkofler’s house, practicing for the upcoming release party for the punk outfit’s sophomore record, Yin Through the Yang Door. As drummer/vocalist Rob Davis, bassist/vocalist Mike Roberts,…

Carl Craig

Carl Craig’s approach has, from the outset, been far-reaching. Holding it down in techno’s very birthplace, Detroit, the DJ/producer segues from house and hip-hop to techno and drum ‘n bass in Ecstasy-size furies (his label name isn’t Planet-E for nothing). His latest mixdown, Fabric 25, has him front and center,…

Jazzanova

Jazzanova has made its mark for long remixes — at times, exceedingly long — for nearly a decade. The six-member German-based collective (or, as the group’s label name suggests, Kollektiv) is more geared toward interpretation than creation, and this compilation gathers four years of their favorite works, each one an…

New York Dolls

While you’re tackling Martin Scorsese’s Dylan dissertation, take a break for a humbler rockumentary that’s no less fascinating and a lot more fun. All Dolled Up, the distillation of 40 lost hours of primitive video that photographer Bob Gruen originally shot between ’72 and ’74, is a rare window into…

Calvin Johnson

Seattle, Washington, 1992: The city becomes the music capital of the country with the explosion of grunge, as bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots saturate the airwaves. If that story was on cassette tape, Calvin Johnson would hit “rewind” so everybody could get the full scoop…

(International) Noise Conspiracy

If Kurt Cobain can get a hit musing about disposable teenage culture, why can’t a bunch of Swedish Marxists? If, as Marx suggests, communism is a post-capitalistic construct, then perhaps (I)NC is the tipping point. Formed around Dennis Lyxzn, leader of popular punk anarchists The Refused in the ’90s, the…

Desole

Most up-and-coming bands lack the range to outlive the shelf life of a time-bomb single or a bad hair fad, but infectious rock locals Desole sound equally taut blaring in a bar or wistfully crooning in a black-lighted bedroom. The boys from Desole (pronounced day-so-lay) are set to bring their…

Furious Styles Crew anniversary

For hip-hop heads, it just doesn’t get any better than the annual Furious Styles Crew anniversary celebrations around these parts. The b-boy collective, which also has chapters in San Diego and Los Angeles, is turning 12 this weekend, and it’ll commemorate the occasion with a three-day smorgasbord of b-boy and…

Battle Acts

Battle Acts for the week of December 1 through 7 Battle Act Dokken Where & When Saturday, December 3, Marquee Theatre, $17 Strongest Selling Point The latest George Lynch replacement? The band’s lawyer for the past 10 years. Okay, everybody all at once: “OBJECTION!” Disclaimer Just because they’re a former…

PCMM Festival

Can’t you hear this beer-drowned bar conversation among audiophiles? “We should call all the experimental musician cats around town and form a music collective. Yeah, avant-garde aficionados would really dig it.” Then reality strikes. “Organizing musicians to do something? Shitballs! Want another round?” A similar experience occurred for Jennifer Rogers…

Saves the Day

Arriving on the heels of the Get Up Kids’ success, Saves the Day burst out of the box with 1999’s Through Being Cool, a terrific punk-pop album keyed to singer Chris Conley’s lovelorn croon. STD’s follow-up, 2001’s Stay What You Are, vindicated the buzz and set the stage for a…

Bob Schneider

Because press materials still refer to this Austin singer-songwriter’s last release, I’m Good Now, as his third solo album, it might be a good time to refresh ourselves on the bands whence Bob Schneider came before his career momentum obscures them completely. Fans of H.O.R.D.E. culture might remember his three-record…

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

Thursday 1 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Axis/Radius: School’s Out with DJ Roonie G (hip-hop, R&B) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Club Dwntwn: DJs Kirby and Chris Shannon (dance) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Fire…

Good As Gold

Ali Jackson, big-shot jazz drummer extraordinaire, won’t claim encyclopedic knowledge of indie rock, but like all sensible Americans, he enjoys Pavement a great deal. “I like that hit that they had on MTV, that ‘Cut Your Hair,'” he enthuses. “It’s real catchy and real earthy, just playin’ around, like you…

Cayenne Shame

To celebrate 10 years in the concert promotion biz, Charlie Levy tried to give Phoenix a really cool present: a big indie rock festival, the city’s first. But without even saying thanks, Phoenix blew Charlie off. There’s got to be a reason the Grand Cayenne Music Festival — scheduled for…