A few months ago, when rumors were floating around that Toolies Country might be on the verge of closing after 17 years, owner Bill Bachand offered an unusually intriguing denial. Toolies wasn’t going to close, Bachand said, but if any change did happen, it would be in the form of…
Fear of Pop Fear of Pop (550 Music) In the middle of a recent interview with Spin magazine, Korn’s voluble front man Jonathan Davis blurted out a kind of off-the-cuff mission statement for his band. Davis said he wants to “bring heavy back into rock ‘n’ roll. Because goddamned Ben…
Four years ago, I briefly met Peter Guralnick at a book signing in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time, Guralnick–one of the few great chroniclers of American music–was basking in considerable acclaim for Last Train to Memphis, the first volume of his Elvis Presley biography. The book, arguably the first legit…
If you’ve caught a recent show featuring the “Maximum Pop” sound of the Zen Lunatics or their alter ego and frequent opening band the Cartwheels, you may have noticed a big similarity. It’s not the fact that both groups wear sharp ’60s-style matching suits, or even that three-fourths of the…
At the record company meeting On their hands–at last–a dead star! Best of! Most of! Satiate the need Slip them into different sleeves Buy both, and be deceived. So sang Morrissey on The Smiths’ final album, which was immediately followed by the obligatory live album and then The Smiths’ Volumes…
Koko Taylor has a touch of the flu. She assures me she’s feeling fine, but earlier in the day she was concerned enough about the possibility of pneumonia that she postponed our interview to go see a doctor. Sure enough, Taylor’s voice is a little softer than you’d expect from…
Checking the vital signs for guitar-based rock has long been an ongoing preoccupation for critics. Still, you knew something was a bit different this year when new releases by Hole, Marilyn Manson and even the sample-heavy Garbage were judged not merely for their musical merits but for their potential to…
1. Tricky at the Cajun House: A mesmerizing performer and innovator who kicked butt in front of a few hundred people. By contract, only had to play for 45 minutes. Played hard for two hours. 2. Mose Allison at Timothy’s: Mose Allison at age 70. Great pianist. Great vocals. Great…
December at night around here, where the houses have wheels and the cars do not, the magical sparkle of Christmas lights blends with the beer. Tin sides of trailers reflect cheerful glimpses of green and red and a boozy jangle of sleigh bells promises childhood dreams like hope and Santa…
It’s hardly a news flash that all-ages shows are a hassle for clubs in this state. Recent history suggests that local bars strongly associated with all-ages events, from The Heat to Electric Ballroom, are all the more likely to wind up on the wrong side of state authorities, particularly if…
Jewel Spirit (Atlantic Records) Jewel Kilcher may have made a mint by marketing guilelessness, but she’s a bit savvier than she lets on. Consider that her latest single, the characteristically preachy “Hands,” instructs listeners that “only kindness matters.” Of course, a pesky music fan wouldn’t be out of line to…
Elvis Costello once sang about a fictional couple who had “songs for every occasion.” You could make the case that Jamal Ruhe has bands for every occasion, or at the very least, bands for every type of song he wants to play. Ruhe, guitarist for the late, lamented Tempe band…
As the film world’s foremost peddler of nostalgia-driven baby-boomer romanticism, Nora Ephron is acutely aware of the crucial role that music plays in selling her three-hanky tales. The soundtrack to her 1993 megahit Sleepless in Seattle not only enhanced that film’s sentimental mood, it sold more than two million copies…
“Dude, it was like Animal House fucked Satan and had a baby,” says the heavily tattooed and pierced Nikki Sixx over the phone from a tour stop in Arkansas explaining the genealogy behind Motley Crue, his voice youthful-sounding but hoarse with a Spicoli-like cadence. “You know, Satan with a sense…
In the event of a nuclear holocaust, one that would leave nothing standing save for a few insects, some grass and a few varieties of moss and algae, there in the smoldering ruins in downtown Phoenix would stand the Madison Bar. Of course, it would remain. And it would still…
Beck Mutations (DGC Records) When did the release of a new record start to be treated like an election campaign? Consider that the press dubbed November 17 Super Tuesday simply because Garth, Mariah and Whitney were all moving product that day. Even more surreal, a few days later, Garth Brooks…
She walked west on Polk over 13th Street, a block north of Van Buren. White tennis shoes, tight jeans, a man’s button-down work shirt gathered and tied in a knot at her navel. She had a slim build with long kinky dark hair running down past her shoulders. Her lips…
When John Dixon was a 15-year-old student at Tempe High School in the early ’60s, he made pocket money on the weekends by working dances as a DJ. Dixon and two friends had formed a company called Have Records Will Spin, and true to their word, they spun 45s at…
When Miles Davis put out Bitches Brew in 1970, he brewed controversy. This album marked the great divide of his career. He had boasted that he could put together a rock band to rival Jimi Hendrix, and Bitches Brew was the result. Many critics denounced it as a sellout. Nonsense…
Four months ago, Nita Craddock was fed up. After 23 years as the owner of Nita’s Hideaway, she was only too glad to sell off the popular Tempe bar and wash her hands of the whole business. When a Nita’s farewell show on July 12 resulted in patrons running off…
Okay, so here’s a scenario for you: You’re minding your own business, gamely trying to do your job, when two hostile skate punks come up and stick their stiff willies in your face. What do you do? Well, if you’re Jim Louvau, gamely trying to do your job entails working…
Not long after the death of former Gin Blossoms founder Doug Hopkins five years ago, his family began the task of assembling his musical legacy. With the help of one of Hopkins’ closest friends, Robert Shipp, the process of tracking down and cataloguing more than a decade’s worth of material…
