Melissa Ferrick

Melissa Ferrick’s been quietly fighting her way out of pigeonholes for the past few years. First, she got branded with the “granola/Lilith Fair crowd” label, not because she actually played at Lilith Fair in 1999, but because she’s a female singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar. Then, she got stuck with…

Method Man

As one of Wu-Tang Clan’s most popular members, Method Man is a ’90s hip-hop icon. “Hey, you, get off my cloud!” from “Method Man” is a hip-hop quotable as lasting as the Rolling Stones track from which he borrowed it, as are other Meth-isms like “Can I get a zoooooo”…

The Vibrators

Boasting one of punk’s essential band names, The Vibrators played their first show 30 years ago, when punk was still a baby pulling the safety pins out of its diaper, supporting The Stranglers. By the end of that first year, they had a classic single out (“We Vibrate”) and had…

Pretty Vacant!

As if he wasn’t already busy enough running the ultra-popular Shake! on Saturdays at The Rogue East, DJ William Fucking Reed is kicking off another weekly dance night for hepcats and hotties alike with Pretty Vacant! at Anderson’s Fifth Estate, 6820 East Fifth Avenue in Scottsdale. Every Friday, Reed will…

Various Artists

A hefty chunk of Phoenix’s musical glory days is contained on these two discs, collections of soul and funk singles from the ’60s and early ’70s that remind the listener that the ‘Nix once aspired to be a real music town, like Detroit. Actually, listen to either one of these…

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

Thursday 19AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Bunkhouse Lounge: DJ Doom (dance) Cash Inn: DJ Kat (country) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) Grilled Expedition: DJs Playboy, & JeX (Top 40) Harley’s 2303: DJ Juan (progressive house) Hollywood Alley: Blunt Club with Emerg McVay, Hyder, Tricky T,…

Radar Love

Just a few Fridays ago, in the broad lobby of U.S. Airways Center, I, along with another hundred or so other people, got to witness the latest fusion of turntablism and classical instrumentation envisioned by DJ Radar and his longtime composer and collaborator, Raul Yañez. This time, unlike the Concerto…

Rock Squatter

If, as he suggests with the title of his new CD And Now That I’m in Your Shadow, Damien Jurado stands behind his whisper-voiced folk brethren like Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, he undoubtedly moves front and center when it comes to delivering the somber smackdown. Jurado’s…

Second-Hand Perspective

In the opening track of What the Toll Tells, Adam Stephens of San Francisco’s Two Gallants plays the role of a murderer facing the gallows, yowling like a tortured young Black Francis over country-punk guitars while keeping counsel with the dead. He’s shot his wife and dumped her body in…

Underground Aesthetic

Alfred Weisberg-Roberts, a.k.a. Daedelus, looks like a man from another time. He adheres to a style he calls “Victorian dandyism,” and sometimes he wears clothes that make him look like an 19th-century British gentleman. He grows his sideburns thick and long to accentuate his appearance. He calls himself a romantic…

Chief Beef

If you’re jonesing for some new local tuneage that isn’t hardcore metal, pouty skinny-boy rock, or indie folk, look no further than Chief Beef. Chief Beef — singer/guitarist John Lipfert, bassist Christine Lipfert (yes, they’re husband and wife) and drummer Stewart Alaniz — just might be one of P-town’s best-kept…

Fat Rhabit

For a band named after a slang term for a Tommy Chong-sized spliff, Fat Rhabit doesn’t sound much like typical stoner rock. In fact, it doesn’t sound like typical anything. On its six-song, self-titled EP, which was recorded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the band plays straight-ahead rock laced with every…

Jeremy Enigk

Life’s gotta be hard if you’re Jeremy Enigk. No matter what he does, the singer/songwriter’s new music will always be compared to his emo-core pioneering of ’90s Sub-Pop powerhouse act Sunny Day Real Estate, and The Fire Theft, which Enigk fronted shortly after SDRE’s demise. On top of that, World…

Mushroomhead

The band wears ghoulish masks and uniforms, has an eight-man lineup, and plays a metal mashup that incorporates elements of hip-hop, industrial, and hardcore. Sounds a lot like Slipknot. But people who write Mushroomhead off as a Slipknot rip-off probably haven’t heard the one about the time Mushroomhead (formed in…

Scissor Sisters

The members of New York-based band Scissor Sisters admit they were feeling the pressures of a “sophomore slump” when they headed into the studio to begin recording Ta-Dah, the follow-up to the Sisters’ critically acclaimed 2004 self-titled album. One of the things that made that first record so outstanding was…

The Decemberists

Like an indie-rock Bob Dylan, Decemberists front man Colin Meloy prefers a mythologized past to an uncertain here and now. While The Crane Wife touches on political and romantic issues, the war songs are set during the Civil War and the broken-down relationships spring from fables. On earlier records, Meloy’s…

Mofro

The goofy band name may suggest they have mo’ ‘fro than any hippie band since Sly dissolved the Family Stone. But even if that were the case, it wouldn’t be what ultimately separates the guys in Mofro from their jam-rock brethren. No, where these two really stand out from the…

Yellow Swans

The Portland, Oregon-based duo of Pete Swanson and Gabriel Mindel Saloman effectively straddle the worlds of both freeform noise and more mainstream songwriting. As the Yellow Swans, they collaborate — with experimental noise artist John Wiese, among many others — tour, and operate their Jyrk label within the parameters of…

Dashboard Confessional

Dashboard Confessional frontman Chris Carabba has an understandable reputation as the father of contemporary emo, which he most likely earned by penning weepy, whiny songs about how much girls have messed him up. Listening to his albums is generally like flipping through the diary of a depressed 14-year-old boy, and…

Bloodfest 2

Remember Quentin Tarantino’s sensational revenge flick Kill Bill Vol. 1, particularly when the Texas Rangers happened upon the gory, blood-splattered aftermath of a slaughtered wedding party? That’s probably what you’ll see near the end of Bloodfest 2: A Wedding Massacre on Friday, October 13. This red-drenched rave will feature a…

Panacea

Northern California duo Panacea makes the kind of dreamy, mystical hip-hop that mid-’90s Bush Babees fans would find familiar. They make songs like “Ecosphere,” where producer K-Murdock makes soulful and yearning tracks that rapper Raw Poetic chops up with his edgy yet insightful vocals. “Stars, I count them, one two…

Seven Nights of DJs and Dancing

Thursday 12AZ 88: Mr. P-Body (synth pop, electro) Bunkhouse Lounge: DJ Doom (dance) Cash Inn: DJ Kat (country) Club Central: DJs Ernie G. (hip-hop, R&B) & Luis (salsa, merengue) The Door: DJ J Nasty (hip-hop, Motown, Top 40) Grilled Expedition: DJs Playboy, & JeX (Top 40) Harley’s 2303: DJ Juan…