decker. Has Bonnie Kill Clyde in the Band’s New Video

Sedona-based decker. has been playing atmospheric desert-folk jams across Arizona and beyond for years, making multiple nationwide tours and earning a place on the main stage at last year’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival. The group’s music possesses a certain quality that fills in the empty space at all its live…

Top 5 Must-See Phoenix Shows This Week

It’s nearly the end of 2013 and you still have to pay attention to Justin Timberlake. I don’t think most people are so bothered by that, but just enough people are that I’d like to apologize to them personally. Don’t worry: I know that when you were a 12- to…

Seven Things for Which I’m Musically Thankful

I haven’t had to work on Thanksgiving for a long time. But I had a column to write, with a Friday deadline, so work I must. I know it seems obvious (because it is obvious), but if I was going to be writing on Thanksgiving, I truly thought it would…

Country Thunder Announces 2014 Lineup at Launch Event in Tempe

Country Thunder fans from across the Valley were out in droves Saturday night to attend the Country Thunder Launch Fest, located in a grass field adjacent to the Tempe Center for the Arts. The first annual Launch Fest was established to announce the lineup for next spring’s Country Thunder, provide…

Why X Is Still Relevant and Touring in 2013

Of all the stars of the ’80s punk scene, only one band is still having impact some 35 years after forming: X. Mixing driving punk energy with rockabilly riffs, staccato rhythms, unexpected dual vocal drive, and socially conscious lyrics, X was a defining voice in the punk movement. Their uncompromising…

Top 5 Must-See Phoenix Shows This Weekend

The streets will be a graveyard during normal working and drinking hours this weekend. If you didn’t stand in front of Best Buy at two in the morning to get an admittedly pretty good deal on plasma TVs — better black levels, is the thing — you can take advantage…

Feast For The Famished – The Sail Inn – 11/27/13

TMI on KWSS brought out just about every big local act they could for their Feast For The Famished concert at Tempe’s Sail Inn on the day before Thanksgiving. More than 300 people piled into the beloved local dive to hear great tunes ping-ponging back and forth from their outdoor…

Skate Rockers The Shrine Wait for No One

Josh Landau can’t stop moving — mostly because he doesn’t allow himself to. For starters, he’s the vocalist for Venice Beach-based The Shrine. Then there’s Eliminator, the skateboarding and clothing company he manages with bandmates Court Murphy and Jeff Murray. Finally, his band’s about to embark on a series of…

X Is Back to Play the Songs That Built Its Legacy

Of all the stars of the ’80s punk scene, only one band is still having impact some 35 years after forming: X. Mixing driving punk energy with rockabilly riffs, staccato rhythms, unexpected dual vocal drive, and socially conscious lyrics, X was a defining voice in the punk movement. The band’s…

Red Monkey: Work That Turkey @ Monarch Theatre

Pete “SuperMix” Salaz is planning to lay out an impressive spread for his nearest and dearest on Thanksgiving, although its gonna be a feast that’s more audio than edible. The godfather of local house music has been rocking record decks for more than two decades, and he and a slew…

Seven Nights of EDM, DJs, and Dancing

Thursday 28 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bar Smith: Thursday Ladies Night with DJ AL3, & DJ NERD (hip-hop, Latin, EDM) Bobby Q’s: All Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, Top 40, reggae) C.A.S.A. Sunba: House Party…

Bob Corritore and Dave Riley Want You To Hush Your Fuss

Imagine everybody in a blues bar laughing so hard they can hardly contain themselves. That’s the case with Bob Corritore and Dave Riley’s new CD, Hush Your Fuss. Internationally acclaimed blues musicians Corritore and Riley held CD release parties for Fuss, their third album, this past weekend at Monterey Court…

The Shrine: “No One Is Really Running Our Shit for Us”

Josh Landau can’t stop moving — mostly because he doesn’t allow himself to. He’s the vocalist for Venice Beach-based The Shrine, along with band members Court Murphy and Jeff Murray, he manages Eliminator, his own skateboarding and clothing company, and the band’s about to embark on a series of continent-crossing…

Red Fang: “There’s Definitely Going to Be Beer and Lots of Zombies”

A new source of intensity adds to the fiery, riff-heavy attack on Red Fang’s third album. With a relentless touring schedule leaving little time for songwriting or recording, the band felt the deadline pressure seeping into their music. Sandwiched between the Australian Soundwave Festival in February and a European festival…

How to Accidentally Become a Drug Dealer

Courtesy of UniversalSheaface [Editor’s Note: In his column Serrano Time, award-winning scribe and goofball Shea Serrano writes about his life and times.] The biggest concern in my life recently is that every show on my DVR is the regular definition version, rather than the high definition version. As you can…

One Direction Is Coming to Phoenix in 2014

One Direction is probably coming to Phoenix at some point in 2014. I’ve been following an account called @1DNeedstheheat for the better part of the year, which is how I know, but Live Nation has officially begun teasing the boy band event of 2014, and pretty soon you’re going to…