When you are a certified music junkie like I am, you tend to weave music in and out of life. It influences every area of your existence. Does that mean music is part of my parental philosophy? Of course. It’s one of my greatest tools. In fact, I find that…
Perhaps you’ve read the weirdly fawning praise of Bob Dylan’s tenth installment in his famed Bootleg Series, Another Self Portrait 1969-1971. (“One of the most important, coherent and fulfilling Bob Dylan albums ever released,” some buffoon for Rolling Stone just claimed!) Perhaps, while in your collecting-every-Dylan-record phase, you presumed that…
When I first heard “Blurred Lines,” I was driving in my car. I knew I’d heard it before, but I couldn’t place the song. So I Shazamed it. Still nothing. I didn’t recognize the title. About a half-an-hour later . . . Abracadabra! I remembered Marvin Gaye’s extended groove, “Got…
After a lengthy absence–33 years–Black Sabbath have returned with 13. And unbelievably, this is your grandmother’s Black Sabbath. Eschewing a turbulent history that left the band frequently in musical flux and misdirection –particularly those middle years–today’s Sabbath, complete again with the exception of drummer Bill Ward, comes to us straight…
“With low expectations it’s very easy to surprise people.” You’ll never guess who said that. No, not Norman Vincent Peale — Pamela Anderson said that! See how this low expectations thing works? On a night when loathing everything came easy and liking anything new seemed doubtful, I caught The Prowling…
Thursday 29 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Barney’s Boathouse: Thirsty Thursdays with DJ Pulse (Top 40, rock) Bar Smith: Dulce Thursdays with DJ Deuce, & DJ JayOne (hip-hop) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (juke joint, R&B, French pop) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker,…
Sam Groove isn’t much of a gambler. However, the local DJ and nightlife promoter knows a thing to two about playing the odds, raising the stakes, and cleaning up big. For proof, just look at the success that Groove and the other EDM aficionados behind Hades Entertainment have had with…
Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein is most often identified as a celebrated member of horror punk act the Misfits, brought into the band at the tender age of 16 in 1980. Originally a roadie for the band, he was taught how to play guitar by his brother, Misfits bassist Jerry Only,…
Rock ‘n’ roll, to paraphrase punk icon Poison Ivy, is for misfits. A refuge for outsiders, oddballs, or anyone else even a little bit strange. The description is apt for the recently closed Hollywood Alley and much of its patronage. Over its 25-year lifespan, the Mesa rock joint and restaurant,…
If you picked up decker.’s Slider when the album came out in March, you might’ve been surprised by the band’s choice of “Shadow Days” — a long, eerie track built around a determined bassline and a guitar that wavers like a far-off police siren — for its new video, directed…
For the true Black Sabbath devotee, there is only one place to be on Friday night. No, not US Airways Center. Sure, a true devotee would probably pay some shekels to see three quarters of the band that created Paranoid, Masters of Reality, and Volume IV in the flesh, sagging…
It’s been a quiet year for the Liquid Sol music festival, a “Coachella-like” event announced with some fanfare back in February. At the time, it was scheduled for September 19-21 at Canyon Moon Ranch in Florence, the site of the annual Country Thunder festival. Since then: Nothing. Until Tuesday. The…
Roosevelt and Churchill. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Marvel and Capcom. Ghostbusters and Hi-C. Throughout history, there have been some truly incredible collaborations that have forever altered the course of humanity. But what about the memorable music combos when two brilliant music artists collide, shooting through the galaxies of both…
The True Music Festival, scheduled for Saturday, December 14, at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, announced its first five performers on Tuesday, and it’s a solid slate: In addition to noted festival heroes the Flaming Lips, the festival is bringing in Wiz Khalifa, Bassnectar, Capital Cities, and Lord Huron. What…
In December 2012, Dagwood Reed was singing, playing keyboards, and writing songs for his sci-fi-inspired local band, Se7en of Nin9. His romantic partner of nearly 20 years had passed away a year earlier from Addison’s disease, but the self-proclaimed most positive person he knows stayed in high spirits. He loved…
When Black Sabbath broke onto the music scene in 1969, no one was playing music with such heavy intent and darkness. Prior to figuring out their sound, the band was your average jazzy-blues-rock outfit. It was a popular musical form at the time in England, yet, there was just too…
*NSYNC’s comeback was even more ephemeral than any of us predicted: Not even a full song, just enough of “Bye Bye Bye” to get J.C. Chasez in front of the Popping and Locking Triangle for a few bars. As it turns out, it was enough–people got their chance to gawk…
FYF Fest, Day Two Sunday, August 25, 2013 Los Angeles State Historic Park The 10th annual FYF Fest ended with My Bloody Valentine blowing out a monitor. While it was disappointing to hear the seminal shoegaze band’s wall of sound come and go, it seemed like an appropriate ending to…
When I was a small boy, I was relatively certain “The Safety Dance” was about a dance, possibly the one they were doing in the video. When I was a slightly larger boy, someone said, “No, it’s about nuclear war, possibly the one at the end of the video,” which…
Heavy metal and contact sports always seem to go hand-in-hand. Both share the same kind of aggression and unpredictability. Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards has a “most metal athlete” category. And in football, one of America’s favorite sports to get all amped up about, teams trot out onto the field to…
Wildly psychedelic, stylishly dressed, always uplifting in spirit (so much that some considered them just another wayward Texas cult), The Polyphonic Spree has kept a relatively low profile lately. The band has been holed up in leader Tim DeLaughter’s home studio jamming the night away — but the pop-psych veterans…
If you’ve never watched a pro wrestling match before–which is to say, if you’ve never been an 11-year-old boy–it might be hard to understand why people are still watching it now. It’s been almost 20 years since the WWE (then the WWF) began calling itself “sports entertainment,” and winking at…
