It’s tough to wake up at 10:45 on a Sunday morning after only five hours of sleep. It’s particularly tough to get up and make it to a noon wedding. In fact, I’m hoping I can just get there without vomiting or shitting my pants (time will tell). Thank God…
After spending this week’s annual food fest (a.k.a. Thanksgiving) figuring out how many yams you can jam down your craw, you’ll probably wanna veg out on the couch watching the Jets and Cowboys pound on each other for football supremacy. But try to shake off the food coma after overdosing…
For simplicity’s sake, there are two cornerstones to Yourchestra’s sound: old-timey, ’20s-era jug band sounds and psychedelic freakout. Now, attempt to sonically bridge the gap between these two ridiculously disparate elements, and you’re close to imagining what their debut effort, Sparkel, Sammy, sounds like. “Water in His Heart” kicks off…
If you’re as sick as we are of hearing trite, toe-the-line renditions of holiday classics on throwaway compilations put out solely to feed the commercialization of Christmas, then Psychostick’s Flesh Eating Rollerskate Holiday Joyride may be just the coal you need in your stocking. The comical metal band throws “tidings…
It’s lucky for Kid Rock that he’s an egomaniacal dipshit, because otherwise, his music would be about as memorable as a Molly Hatchet eight-track sans “Flirting With Disaster.” Still, the former Mr. Pamela Anderson’s good-humored salutes to his own cocksmanship — not to mention his skill at Xeroxing classic boogie…
Recorded with pedal steel/dobro player Ben Keith, bassist Rick Rosas, and drummer Ralph Molina, Chrome Dreams II is the sequel to a shelved 1976 project. It gathers new renditions of previously unrecorded songs spanning the years. With the search for inner peace being the single unifying theme, II holds together…
Psychedelic music — sounds to evoke or accompany chemically enhanced/altered states of imagination/perception — existed long before Syd Barrett or John Lennon dropped their first tab of “sunshine” in the 1960s. In 1830, prompted by the double-whammy mojo of unrequited love and opium, French composer Hector Berlioz composed his masterwork,…
Despite his announcement late last year that he had fathered an illegitimate child, Alejandro Sanz remains an internationally beloved Latin balladeer. An aging heartthrob and the bestselling pop star to ever come out of Spain, Madrid native Sanz is not yet a household name in America, despite hitting big with…
Chris Martin recently said that Scottish band Travis “invented” Coldplay, and repeat listens to Travis’ fifth album, The Boy with No Name, provide ample evidence of Travis’ influence on a whole slew of UK bands, from Coldplay to Keane to Snow Patrol. Perhaps if Travis frontman Fran Healy had married…
In the fast-and-loose world of alt-journalism, filled with clever quips and erudite observations, it’d be all too easy to make some sort of salacious wordplay out of that fact that harmonica-playing blues savant Jason Ricci is openly gay (and likely incorporating the phrase “mouth organ” in some fashion). Frankly, that…
Why is Disneyland in California? Call me an idiot (as some surely already do), but I’d venture to guess it’s because Disney studios were founded in Cali and the entire movie industry (Disney included) thrives in the Golden State. So it makes sense that a huge theme park based on Walt Disney’s cartoon characters would be planted in Anaheim.
Compared with other holidays, Thanksgiving hasn’t inspired bards overmuch. There are no traditional hymns, no instantly identifiable music associated with the day save possibly various football broadcast bumpers. Nevertheless, here and there we find certain songs that — in lyric or in spirit — fit the theme of the day…
Herbie Hancock brought the electronic funk and (surprise, surprise) lyrical jazz to Orpheum on Friday night with a lesser-known quartet lineup that wasn’t any less worthy of sharing the stage with the funk master.
This past Friday night, the streets and sidewalks of Old Town Scottsdale were absolutely overflowing (as they usually are on the weekends) with nightcrawlers in the midst of kicking off their weekly routine of drinking, debauchery, and debasement. But while the usual crowd of Fembots, douchebags, and $30k millionaires were bound for more ostentatious joints like Next and Dirty Pretty Rockbar, the cooler cats were chillaxing at the Venue of Scottsdale, where renowned Valley recording engineer and producer Larry Elyea was feting the 15th anniversary of his studio, Mind’s Eye Digital.
This past Monday, a pair of stone cold BFFs named King Khan and BBQ rolled through town on their way to god-knows-where, and man alive did the whole sordid affair ever stink of greatness. These two shifty characters are veterans of ’90s garage-rockers the Spaceshits, where they were known by various pseudonyms (Blacksnake, Needles, Creepy, etc.) that have given way to this, their latest incarnation, the King Khan and BBQ Show.
Vibe magazine recently named the “51 Best MySpace Rappers,” by state. I’m not sure how Vibe determined who made the list, but I beg to differ with their Arizona pick. The only artist from ‘Zona that passed muster with Vibe was a Phoenix rapper who goes by the handle MC Magic. Now, I’ll admit, I’d never heard of MC Magic until I saw this list. So I checked out the songs on his MySpace page, and they’re pretty solid — mostly a mix of reggaeton and other Latin flavors, R&B, and low-key, seduce-you type rhymes (think Pitbull-meets-D’Angelo). But while MC Magic’s tracks are slick, I feel that Vibe totally overlooked at least a dozen of our best local hip-hop acts. Believe it or not, P-city is a hip-hop haven, and we’ve got an amazingly diverse array of artists here, any one of which could (and should) have made the Vibe list.
We drink a lot. And in an attempt to keep from getting fat from all the extra calories, we’ve switched to the low-sugar, low-calorie (and low-tasty) citron and soda. It takes an effort to swallow that swill all night, so we decided to take an opportunity to sample some more…
I was 16 years old when my older cousin started dating the guy who would turn me on to punk rock. This was in a very backward Pennsylvania town during one of my transitional teenage years. By this time (1996-’97), most of the cool kids in my school were in…
Thursday 15 Axis/Radius: Ladies Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) Baja Tilly’s: DJ Adrian (old school, R&B, cumbia, reggaeton) Big Fish Pub: Chronik Frequency Thursdays with the Hazardous Crew feat. DJ Ladykilla, DJ Papi Cholo, DJ Spawn, Kyle Wise, AWOL, & Dmok (techno, breaks, electro, hip-hop, drum ‘n’ bass) Bikini Lounge: Sophisticated…
It’s been 22 years since Celine Dion turned the Colosseum at Caesars Palace into the place where female pop stars go to die as publicly as Roman gladiators once did, but, of course, for a hell of a lot more money. Last night, Kelly Clarkson joined the club that, since…
As an Australian and occasional resident of his mum’s homeland, this writer has a serious passion for Aussie rock. Unfortunately, it’s been a few years since he’s called Australia home and, because of that, he’s a little behind on what’s happening Down Under. For a little help, he turned to…
Has our ‘Shell gone all “born again” or something? Nope — eclectic folk-rocker Michelle Shocked has discovered the joys and power of the African-American gospel tradition. Although she’s being singing in an African-American church choir for a while, with the live recording To Heaven U Ride, Ms. Shocked has avidly…
