Dumperfoo’s 40th Birthday feat. Drunken Immortals @ Club Red | 1/18/13Once upon a time, catching a wild gig by the Drunken Immortals was an easy thang to do. A decade ago, the local hip-hop ensemble of phenomenal talent and great renown was throwing weekly joints at Tempe bars like the…
The news waits for no one — at least that’s what we read somewhere — so it’s perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of…
Orange County punk legends Social Distortion have always been generous about performing in Arizona. The band usually plays a double-header at Marquee Theatre early in the year, and once again, Social D will return to the Marquee on January 22 and 23. The Tempe dates are part of a string…
It isn’t hard to miss Alex King when he’s out and about at industrial or fetish events, probably because he rocks a foot-high multicolored Mohawk and a pair of goggles strapped to his melon. According to the 35-year-old musician and DJ, both help provide him with awesome powers when he’s…
We had to begin our first 2013 conversation with comic singer/songwriter Scott Gesser by following up on his New Year’s resolution for 2012. So did he, as he vowed from Soul Invictus’ stage in November 2011, get more pussy in the new year? “Probably about the same amount,” Gesser tells…
If you happen to attend Adam Dumper’s big 40th birthday bash tonight at Club Red in Tempe, don’t be afraid to call him Uncle Dumps. Yes, we’re well aware that the renowned Blunt Club promoter and urban art impresario usually goes by his famous nom de guerre, Dumperfoo, but referring…
Jennifer Pilates Pilates has been an advanced pilates instructor and celebrity trainer for more than 13 years. For more information, go here. What’s the first album you bought? You have stumped me. It’s a tie between Madonna and Michael Jackson. What’s the first concert you saw? Bon Jovi. I’m always…
Curious about what’s going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions where to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don’t fret: These are our Five Shows to See This Weekend…
Oh you don’t own a TV? How brave. Seriously — people love bragging about not watching TV, but they’re missing out. Whether watching live, on Netflix, or on DVD, there’s almost nothing as fun as zoning out in front of the TV. We’re partial to music too (you might have…
In early 2012, Jackalope Ranch began inviting creative types around town to write a manifesto — a personal list of 10 hard-and-fast rules of life or pieces of advice. Each manifesto was paired with a local designer who illustrated one lesson/rule in poster form. We loved the Manifesto series so…
I think everyone has a “forbidden song.” What’s that? It’s like, whenever I hear the tune “Freebird,” whether in the car or at some party or whatever, I have to turn it off. It’s like an obsessive-compulsive decision and I will be forever agitated until that song is no longer…
Not everyone has the luxury of having an auxiliary jack in their car stereo. With the amount of leaks, holes, and weird noises coming from my engine, I’m lucky my beat-up truck still runs period. I can’t be asking for a decent stereo. So my commuting music consists entirely of…
Psych fans and math-rock devotees both enjoy technical drum feats and guitar pyrotechnics, but each group has its preferred flavors of jam. Mathletes tend to like riffs that show the science at work, geometric patterns that confound in exciting ways. Psych rockers like their technical proficiency to offer an escape,…
There is a Nashville-style knock-knock joke going around that lets you make any what-the-hell-ever-happened-to country singer of the past the punchline. Because Clint Black is hitting town, we’ll use him. It goes like this: “Knock knock. Who’s there? Clint Black. Clint Black who? Hmmmph, tough town.” Nashville radio is known…
In our cyclical pop culture, fads give way to other fads — which often recycle looks and vibes of the past — every couple of years. Rockabilly has bubbled up to the pop culture mainstream over and over again since the 1950s, but for Phoenix-based rockabilly aces Voodoo Swing, the…
Aging well is remarkably difficult in the world of punk rock. Can you imagine Sid Vicious in his 50s? But Mike Ness of Social Distortion still has it going on. Ness continues to win the hearts of pompadour-sporting gals because he is a textbook example of the sensitive bad boy…
It’s less than an hour before last call at a recent session of The Blunt Club in Tempe, and resident DJ Pickster One is cuing up the Beastie Boys’ “Get It Together.” Girls in booty shorts shake it on the checkered tiled floor and PBR-toting patrons bellow to be heard…
Be forewarned: The grim reaper shall cometh to the East Valley forthwith, and when thine angel of death heaves the mighty blade of the scythe, it shall collect the life of Monsterland. The hybrid haunted house, eatery, and nightclub at 18 West Main Street in Mesa will head for the…
Brilliant counterculture magazine Arthur roared back to life this month, dedicating glorious inky newsprint to the psychedelic pop art of Rick Veitch, record reviews by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, a fevered mediation on Waylon Jennings’ Dreaming My Dreams, and much more magical esoterica. The cornerstone of the rebirth issue…
Punk rockers don’t die, they just go acoustic. While that’s not exactly a great T-shirt slogan (and certainly would elicit some scowls from old-school punkers still plying their trade), it is something of a recent trend within the bluegrass realm, with bands like Split Lip Rayfield, Yonder Mountain String Band,…
On Tuesday we announced the details of New Times’ Carnaval Eléctrico at Crescent Ballroom, the festival which unites garage rocker Hanni El Khatib, psychedelic indie band Mergence, In the Valley Below, and headliners Cold War Kids on Friday, March 8, at Crescent Ballroom. We promised there’d be more — and…
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s child is bound to be the most narcisstic tot to walk the face of the earth. Let’s just hope that Baby Kimye ends up innocent and adorable and doesn’t go the way of his or her sex tape-making parents. The media is already critical of…
