Eventually, every single musical variable collapses into time. Live fans and Filter fans and Everclear fans might not have gotten along especially well in the '90s, but here in the unfamiliar 'teens (are we going with 'teens? aught-teens?) they are all bands who were on the radio back when you liked to listen to the radio, and that is enough. They are your Secret Samadhi.
(Maybe? I never really understood any of Live's lyrics.)
That and more awaits you in this week's Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Weekend. (For a full slate of shows, check out our complete concert calendar.)
Sun Bones - The Rogue Bar, Scottsdale - July 5
Rather than stick to vague genre tags or invent new hybrids, the members of Sun Bones offer the term "malleability." It's fitting for a classically trained band that somehow manages to fit four-part harmonies, bursts of punk, comforting pop melodies, and avant-garde excursions under a single umbrella and make it all work. The Tucson band -- voted as last year's Tucson Weekly Up-and-Coming Artists of the Year, under their former name, Boreas -- is touring in support of self-released debut Sentinel Peak, recorded with producer Chuck Dorman at the Saltmine Studio Oasis in Mesa.Read our full feature and listen to the album.
"We had this collection of songs, and we were aware it was a huge variety," says singer-guitarist Sam Golden. "Not a grab bag, but influenced by very different styles. We ordered it in a way to help guide people to the weirdness. It starts out more conventional. We front-loaded [Sentinel Peak] with the poppy songs, and as the album goes on, we slowly introduce the more eccentric side of the band." Sun Bones shine on both Sentinel Peak and in the band's explosive and frantic live performances, where the foursome works itself into such a frenzied place that it seems possessed by the music. "That's really where our punk aesthetic shines through," says guitarist Evan Casler. -- Eric Swedlund
Mayhem Festival - Ak-Chin Pavilion - July 5
The annual heavy metal throwdown known as the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival is making its way through Phoenix this week, and things are about to get heated. This year's lineup is one of the festival's best, with heavyweights Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Machine Head, and Mastodon. -- Lauren WiseRead More: - Butcher Babies: "It Wasn't About Sex -- It Was About Punk Rock" - Jeremy Spencer: "We're Five Finger Death Punch; We Sound Like What We Sound Like."
Future Loves Past + Yellow Minute Split Release Show - The Sail Inn, Tempe - July 6
We were excited to be able to debut Future Loves Past's new single digitally last month, but if you've been waiting for something a little more corporeal, now's your chance: On Saturday FLP and the newly fleshed out Yellow Minute. (If it sounds anything like "Gods in the Mud," the first studio evidence of the new version of the band, it'll be worth the wait.)Opening will be Of the Painted Choir and Boss Frog. It's a lot of good music to celebrate a 7" single, when you think about it, but I'm not complaining.
The Summerland Tour - Marquee Theatre, Tempe - July 6
What do you do when your once-formidable alternative bands fade into obscurity? Start an annual summer tour together! The Summerland Tour is the brainchild of Everclear frontman (and lone remaining founder) Art Alexakis and Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath, and it's back in 2013 for its second go-round.This year, Everclear is joined by Live, Filter, and Sponge. Everclear somehow has plowed ahead all these years, despite several lineup overhauls, while Live has experienced some turmoil as well. Former frontman Ed Kowalczyk left the band in 2009, and a contentious legal battle followed, but in 2012, the band chose former Unified Theory vocalist Chris Shinn as its new lead singer.
Filter has barely been a blip on rock's radar since 1999's Title of Record, but it hasn't been for a lack of trying -- the band has released four albums since then, including June's The Sun Comes Out Tonight. Sponge has released seven records since its 1994 debut, Rotting Piñata, including May's Stop the Bleeding, but outside of "Plowed," the band has struggled to make mainstream waves. Package tours are quickly becoming this decade's version of the state fair circuit, but fans of these bands probably won't mind. -- Brian Palmer
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Mesa Arts Center - July 7
"Weird Al" Yankovic once parodied "Rico Suave." He's parodied two separate Milli Vanilli songs. He been making parodies so long that he donned a leather-jacketed fatsuit for "Fat" before Michael Jackson was a pariah, continued to wear it for 20 years afterward, and has gone on parodying Michael Jackson now that he's a beloved martyr. The one thing most novelty artists have in common is a career even shorter and more ignominious than Milli Vanilli, or Tiffany, or Cherry Poppin' Daddies, or any of the other acts Weird Al has mimicked in the past 30 years.Watch the 10 most hilariously dated videos Weird Al's ever parodied.
So how's Weird Al different? He's funny, for one thing. More than that, he's got his own style, one that's never too far beneath the Lady Gaga or Chamillionaire veneer. It's possible to parody "Weird Al" Yankovic himself -- the voice, the slapstick, the songs about food -- and that makes him something different from the other parodists who've come and gone since: It makes him a star in his own right.
Oh, and none of those other parodists made a movie as transcendently brilliant as UHF. Which ought to count for something.
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