The Slackers Crescent Ballroom 3/27/14 After two long years, The Slackers returned to Phoenix with a vengeance last night to a crowd of super-starved local fans at the Crescent Ballroom eager to hear their ska sounds. With an extensive catalog after more than 20 years of releasing records, the audience…
Tool US Airways Center 3/27/14 Initially, it seemed prog-metal legends Tool might be trying to pull off one of the biggest pranks in rock ‘n’ roll history or just going in for another cash grab when booking a just-completed short run of tour dates. After all, the band hasn’t put…
Curious about what’s going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions as to how to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don’t fret. We’ve got the hook up on what shows you might be interested in attending over the next couple nights and days. This…
Few bands remain as succinctly Californian and categorically challenging as San Diego’s Slightly Stoopid. Signed to the late Bradley Nowell’s Skunk Records in 1995, they’re an act that’s been a signed Golden State institution for almost 20 years, carving out their niche by pulling together a variety of genres into…
Jay Lujan is fast becoming a local DJ success story. He’s opened for countless big-name DJs and EDM superstars like Wolfgang Gartner and Fedde Le Grand, played last year’s Groove Cruise Los Angeles and recently toured the country in support of his annual compilation CD, This Is Lujanic. On top…
Pushing any kind of artistic endeavor through to the finish line is a process destined to involve evolution. Practically no book, drawing, film, album, Play-Doh sculpture, or whatever comes through looking exactly the way its creator originally envisioned it. If Scott Martin wasn’t already aware of this reality, he experienced…
Listen to “Wounded,” a new track by Buckeye country singer Katryna Eastwood, and it’s easy to think the singer is far older than her 16 years. The haunting acoustic melody is layered with poignant lyrics of a heartbreaking man, collecting loves without a care before throwing them to the wayside…
Even without an LP on which to hang their hat, Glendale-based reggae band Black Bottom Lighters have opened for Flogging Molly on St. Patrick’s Day, toured the West Coast, played the local stage at True Music Festival, and headlined a pre-Thanksgiving show at The Marquee. Suffice it to say few…
Pushing any kind of artistic endeavor through to the finish line is a process destined to involve evolution. Practically no book, drawing, film, album, Play-Doh sculpture, or whatever comes through looking exactly the way its creator originally envisioned it. If Scott Martin wasn’t already aware of this reality, he experienced…
Until I recently stopped, buying vinyl record albums was simply something I did, like sleeping or having a lot of opinions. Given a spare hour on a Tuesday, you might have turned on the TV or curled up for a nap; I went looking for records I didn’t yet know…
What is it with European DJ/producers and masks? Though the phenomenon of donning bizarre facial disguises while performing isn’t securely limited to beat-jugglers from said continent (Deadmau5 and Bl3nd being prime exceptions), there’s been an inordinate amount of masked mixmasters from across the pond over the past decade. Like the…
Thursday 27 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bobby Q’s: All Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, Top 40, reggae) Crescent Ballroom: DJ Beat Betty, & DJ Fullstop (ska) Dos Gringos (Scottsdale): DJ Switch (rock, Top 40, remixes)…
Charlie Musselwhite is no stranger to the blues. In fact, that’s where the harmonica master spent most of his career, from Mississippi to Memphis to Chicago to Northern California, where he makes his home — Musselwhite’s career in the blues has spanned 50 years. Along the way, however, he’s also…
††† (Crosses) Crescent Ballroom 3/25/14 It started with crosses. And a rosary. “O memories that bless and burn / O barren gain and bitter loss / I kiss each bead and strive at last to learn / To kiss the cross, sweetheart / To kiss the cross . . .”…
Even without an LP on which to hang their hat, Glendale-based reggae band Black Bottom Lighters have opened for Flogging Molly on St. Patrick’s Day, toured the West Coast, played the local stage at True Music Festival, and headlined a pre-Thanksgiving show at The Marquee. Suffice it to say few…
There are few acts like G. Love & Special Sauce, the genre-bridging Philadelphia alt-hip-hop trio that’s been at it for two decades now, and there are even fewer frontmen quite like Garrett Dutton. Best known for his rapping approach within G. Love & Special Sauce, Dutson isn’t afraid to display…
Judging by the amount of success that local performers at last year’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival have seen since their March 2013 engagement at Margaret T. Hance Park, I think it is safe to say that the festival’s organizers know how to pick ’em. Just about every local band that…
Maybe it’s just us, but does Robin Thicke have something against the Valley? The R&B/pop singer’s spokespeople announced this morning that his concert at the Phoenix Convention Center, which was originally scheduled to take place tomorrow night, has been canceled. So if you wanted to sing along with “Blurred Lines”…
Like many jam bands, Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) leave no sound unturned, no rhythm unexplored, and no genre unappreciated. Everything from jazz fusion to hip hop beats to funkadelic licks to psychedelic twists gets represented on the Atlanta-based group’s 11 album catalog (with another on the way) birthed from…
Without reinvention, there would be nothing new worth being inspired by. For Snake! Snake! Snakes!, an alteration came with the coming and going of band members and a new option to simplify the band’s entire approach. At its writing core is bassist Chris Sanchez, drummer David Cooper, and guitarist/vocalist Jon…
As a frontman and songwriter, Chino Moreno tends to go all out — be it physically, emotionally, and especially vocally, whether it’s his tempestuous banshee-like screams and wails or his sultrier crooning. Deftones, the alt-metal band he’s most famous for fronting, has successfully created a brand of smoldering sound that…
One of the hallmarks of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival over its decade or so of existence has been the utter diversity of sounds its offered. Such is the case with the 2014 edition, which runs Friday, March 28, until Sunday, March 30, and features a smorgasbord of sounds that…
