Tegan Quin is happy to set the record straight about some things that have been written about her and her sister Sara. Their band, Tegan and Sara, is really a five-piece, not just a duo. Being identical twins does not make them one entity. Their sexuality is a non-issue because…
With its previous albums, Thievery Corporation’s adoration for the cocktail lounge could wear thin. But The Cosmic Game embraces a broader song-based collection, buoyed by outside vocalists both familiar and exotic. And Rob Garza and Eric Hilton make the most of their A-list guests. “Marching the Hate Machines (Into the…
Back with thicker bounce and deeper funk than 2003’s brittle Bazooka Tooth, NYC MC Aesop Rock takes a step toward his musical origins while backpacking ever closer to the perfect flow. Rock’s loopy, wide-mouth baritone is easily one of the most recognizable voices in hip-hop, and its near-manic intensity is…
By calling itself Robbers on High Street, this Brooklyn band dares you to guess its influences, and many of them are fairly obvious. There’s snarling guitar reminiscent of the Kinks, vocal harmonies inspired by the Beatles, and a lead singer who could double for the Zombies’ crooner Colin Blunstone. What’s…
On its third studio album, Daft Punk lays on the irony as thickly as the distortion. Ditching the glittery nouveau-disco textures of 2001’s Discovery, the French duo renovates the gnarly crusts of tweaked noise that animated the best cuts on its debut disc, Homework. They loop absurdly rudimentary synth riffs…
As befits a band that’s a teen-culture purist’s dream, Ash spent part of the four years since its last album producing its own horror movie. Innocent of all things emo or artsy on its new album Meltdown, Tim Wheeler’s Belfast quartet rips through glam-casual anthems about clones, vampires and breath-stealing…
The Rogue, south Scottsdale’s infamous punk rock bar, isn’t normally the sort of place you’re likely to see people bustin’ out dance moves. But lately it’s been known to happen, according to DJ William, host of the almost-two-months-old Shake! night on Saturdays. “It’s not really a dance night, but people…
Shooter is the son of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and knows expectations can scuttle a career before it starts. Sound too much like dad and you’re a sellout; sound too different and you’re being ornery. Shooter left Nashville for Los Angeles, hoping to avoid the inevitable comparisons, and put…
Kasabian is scheduled to perform with The Music, and Morningwood, on Tuesday, March 15, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe.
Ben Nichols was a child of punk, inducted as a youth into the underground world of VFW halls, basement shows and illegal public park performances rife with underage drinking. When he started Lucero after moving to Memphis, it was something of a lark to cheese off his old punk cronies…
This Northwestern quintet plays jagged post-punk with a dash of goth verve (thanks to keyboards and singer Andrea Zollo), sounding like Siouxsie Sue fronting Fugazi. Formed with ex-Murder City Devils bassist Derek Fudesco shortly after that act’s demise in 2001, Pretty Girls has put out two full-lengths, progressing from West…
Awrite, Alex Kapranos frae Franz Ferdinand here. Since ye can’t gie pest one article abit our friends an’ occasional toormates frae th’ U.K., The Futureheads, withit some loon “joornalist” comparin’ or relatin’ them tae mah bain, Franz Ferdinand, ah thoot I’d jist sae ‘a fook th’ trooble an’ shaw up…
Imagining next year’s alt-rock “Class of ’96” reunion . . . “Look over there,” says Duncan Sheik to Tracy Bonham. “It’s the singer from Dishwalla!” “Wow,” Bonham replies. “Instead of ‘Counting Blue Cars,’ I hear he’s washing blue cars these days.” “Oh, you are so terrible,” Sheik says, laughing. “Hey,…
If Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me didn’t steer you (no pun intended) away from the McDonald’s drive-through, listening to vegetarian grindcore warriors Cattle Decapitation’s “Lips & Assholes” as you’re about to pull up to order that Big Mac just might: “The juice off the floor becomes an additive/A…
This Michigan quintet sounds like the orphaned children of several genres, mixing supple post-punk, a distortion-drenched wall of guitar riffing, and indie rock melodicism in a gumbo of dynamics and aggression. There are echoes of emo in the band’s ’90s alt-rock influences; some tracks stumble forward, limping with obvious pain…
If you wonder why former Clive Davis wonderchild Whitney Houston is such a mess these days, look no further than current Clive Davis wonderchild Alicia Keys, who has not only excellent pipes but jaw-dropping songwriting skills that she’s been showcasing since age 14. Without the vocal conceit a diva like…
1. 50 Cent, The Massacre (Aftermath) 2. Mars Volta, Frances the Mute (Universal) 3. Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams (Universal) 4. Judas Priest, Angel of Retribution (Sony) 5. Green Day, American Idiot (Warner Bros.) 6. Norma Jean, O God the Aftermath (Tooth & Nail) 7. The Game, The Documentary (Aftermath)…
Al Singer, one of the Valley’s most prominent jazz promoters, died on March 3. He was 77 years old. Singer’s passion for jazz started in the 1930s, when movie Westerns exposed him to the sounds of swing. For Singer, it was an early stimulus for jazz, and by the 1940s,…
Thursday 10 Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with AKA (gothic, industrial) Axis/Radius: DJ MCB (hip-hop, dance) Big Fish Pub: Reggae Thursdays with Selector J-Cut & DJ Blackstar (reggae, dance hall) Bobby McGee’s: DJs Mark & Mikyl (Top 40, dance) Dos Gringos — Scottsdale: Block Party with Translator (all genres) Elixir:…
Ben Harris used to stare out the window of his Indiana high school, watching cattle graze outside and daydreaming about performing music onstage. When he moved to Phoenix at age 16, he started rapping after school with friends who would bust out the karaoke machine and rhyme for hours. His…
When the local bedroom producer who calls himself the Angel of Death dropped me off his demo, he made sure to point out the birth-control instructions he’d festooned the homemade CD with, which made me laugh, but not as much as the songs: choppy beats with sampled music and vocal…
Since there’s only room for one indie rock savior at a time, Okkervil River leader Will Sheff currently gets to play Mark Lanegan to Conor Oberst’s Kurt Cobain. Sheff’s an equally gifted songwriter with moderately similar stylistic sensibilities, but sans Oberst’s magazine covers and prominent positioning on Wal-Mart CD racks…
