Besides being a little weirded out by the Grand Canyon State’s liberal gun laws — Aluna Francis, one-half of AlunaGeorge, is excited for her show in Phoenix at Crescent Ballroom tonight. That’s not to say she’s all that knowledgeable about the Copper State. “Well I know you can bring guns out in…
The Buffalo Chip Saloon in getting ready to rise from the ashes – and fans of the the landmark Cave Creek couldn’t be happier. The renowned country music joint and saloon, which was destroyed by a Thanksgiving Day fire last November, is set to be rebuilt over the next several…
It’s Memorial Day Weekend, but that doesn’t mean live music stops. Check out our picks for live music this weekend, and visit our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. DJ Mustard – Sunday, May 29 – Livewire DJ Mustard is just 25, but already he’s es-tablished himself as a top…
DRAWL! is a video series created by New Times and all-around renaissance man Robbie Pfeffer that focuses on the odd and exciting experiences that make life in a band interesting. By mixing first-person storytelling with animation, DRAWL! hopes to show that these artists’ lives can be just as engaging as their…
There were a whole lotta moves being shown off at this year’s Dirty Disco. Some got funky, others were funny, and a few were downright freaky at the annual outdoor dance party and rave, which took place within the rodeo arena at Rawhide Western Town in Chandler. There was a…
Rather than trying to forget about the dark clouds that fell on his life in the last year, Modern Baseball’s Brendan Lukens found solace in writing a new batch of songs that faced everything head on. Lukens — who formed the pop-punk quartet with co-songwriter/guitarist Jacob Ewald, bassist Ian Farmer,…
Hopefully, we are long past all of the silly chatter about vinyl being dead and no one caring about buying records anymore. At least around these parts, people can’t seem to get enough of the spinning platters. The massive crowds that flood local music stores on Record Store Day alone…
The image of the reluctant rock star is sometimes more alluring than some throbbing Gibson jockey who does it for the babes, booze, and banknotes. When asked in a television interview if he ever wanted to be a rock star, Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman Anton Newcombe, whose band is playing…
“When I have to go on stage and hold my own with Buddy Guy — it’s frightening,” Carlos Santana, a guitar legend in his own right, exclaimed during an October New Times interview. That says a lot about the kind of guitar player Guy is. Just a hair shy of…
It’s summer, which means a lot of bands are dropping new albums and with new albums come new music videos. Groups all over the scene are breaking out the video cameras to offer up the best multi media projects they can, and honestly a lot of them are quite good. …
In the world of heavy experimental music there’s nobody with as much clout as Aaron Turner. He founded the seminal record label HydraHead, fronted the post-metal goliath Isis for more than a decade, and has had his hand in so many groundbreaking side projects (Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer, Jodis, Split…
Looking for a memorable show to see over the next few nights? Consider any of the following seven options in our list of concert picks for this week. As always, if you’re looking for even more live music in and around the Valley, be sure to check out our comprehensive…
In a culture like hardcore metal and punk, where bootlegs and bands’ early cuts reign supreme, Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta admits that he harbors an unpopular opinion. “I say the best times are now. I’m not a nostalgic person, so when they all want the old stuff? I feel like…
It’s summertime in the Valley, so it’s about to get disrespectfully hot outside. It’s as if Mother Nature herself is telling you to move, so with triple digits on the horizon it seems like a great time to find some cool shows in the Arizona high country and beyond. There…
It’s a big weekend for landmark local shows in the Valley. At least three different music venues are celebrating birthdays — including The Rebel Lounge, Valley Bar, and Scottsdale’s Chop and Wok — as is indie band Japhy’s Descent. There are plenty of other notable shows also happening, of course…
Did y’all hear any rumors this week about a potential Rage Against the Machine reunion tour happening this summer? Probably so, considering it was a major topic of discussion after the mysterious-looking website ProphetsofRage.com was endorsed by a RATM-approved Twitter account on Tuesday, May 17. The relatively spartan-looking site, which…
Sometimes, it’s the simple ideas that work out the best. For their debut music video for “Speak Now,” pop punk trio Genre turned themselves into video game heroes who take on two of Arizona’s greatest villains — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Governor Doug Ducey. They also bring many…
Mitchell Hillman listens to more local music than just about anyone in the Valley. He presents his picks for best new music in his column, Right Hear, Right Now. Foresteater – “Very Friendly People” At the start of the year Foresteater dropped its debut single “High and Bright” with a…
Japhy’s Descent became a band in the summer of 2011, and that’s right around the same time I became a music writer, so in a sense we, or at least our careers in Phoenix, have grown up side by side. Since then, I’ve written about them. Booked them. Watched them…
I was running a little late, so when I walked into The Lost Leaf to meet up with the members of Goth Brooks, the band had already arrived before me. It didn’t take me very long to recognize them. Seated at a table in the back corner of the bar…
As its name portends, Dirty Disco is what you’d call a messy experience. It’s sort of expected, given that the annual electronic dance music event takes place in the middle of Rawhide’s outdoor rodeo arena and features thousands stomping and strutting around in the dirt while DJs drop high-energy and…
There have been moments when Frightened Rabbit drummer Grant Hutchinson was scared for his brother. The words that vocalist and guitarist Scott Hutchinson wrote for the band’s second album, The Midnight Organ Fight, shocked him. “It was terrifying to listen to some of those lyrics,” Grant Hutchinson recalls in his…
