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Five Killer Bands Inspired By Video Games

In this week's olde-timey paper edition we told you all about local rapper MegaRan, who delivers slick rhymes and rapid-fire lyrics inspired (mostly) by classic video games like Mega Man 2 and Final Fantasy VII, and is appearing live at Martini Ranch tomorrow night. We also mentioned a couple of...
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Mega Ran and Minibosses at Phoenix Comicon

Mega Ran, and Minibosses Hyatt Regency Ballroom at Phoenix Comicon Saturday, May 28If you've ever wanted to run into somebody famous while they're wearing their pajamas, the lobby of the downtown Hyatt during Phoenix Comicon is apparently the place to do it. Friday, in-between music sets by local bands Halocene, Dead Man's...
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A Handy Guide to Local Music at Phoenix Comicon

Who would have thought Spock could croon seductively about making love to you? Oh yes he did -- and this week's music feature, Finding Nimoy, is all about his crossover foray from sci-fi television to '60s folk and '70s space rock singer. Speaking of crossover, Leonard Nimoy's a featured guest...
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The Blunt Club’s Birthday @ Yucca Tap Room

It takes real skills to maintain staying power in the realm of hip-hop. Just look at such one-hit wonders as Buck 65, The Ying Yang Twins, and Das EFX, all of which have faded into rap history. Thankfully, the proficient peeps behind The Blunt Club have little in common with...
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If Video Game Characters Became Rock Stars…

Over the past three decades, two institutions have constantly remained near-universal pastimes of the young and young-at-heart: Rock 'n' roll music and video games. Despite myriad changes in the sound, style, technology and sophistication of both mediums, video games and rock music have endured as uniting forces in an ever-evolving...
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A Look at the Four Arizona Acts to be Showcased at South by Southwest

When it comes to South By Southwest, Phoenix's fortunes are always changing. In recent years, as many as 20 local bands have played at the king-making music industry event in Austin, a half-dozen from Phoenix alone scoring official showcases. This year, there are only four Arizona acts showcasing, including one...
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Game On

We all multi-task, but few do it like Random. The Phoenix rapper (by way of Philly) balances being a middle-school teacher with rocking out-of-state shows alongside nerdcore icons like MC Frontalot. Born Raheem Jarbo, he took on the MegaRan moniker once he started spitting over instrumentals that drew from classic...
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Cheap Thrills, The Ramones, Roller Girl Tryouts, and More

Been missing your weekly dose "dancing and debauchery" via Jared Alan and Sean Watson's weekly Cheap Thrills party? The DJ duo has some fantastic news: it's making a return this weekend for a special one-off. If you're friends with the pair on Facebook, chance are you already know the specifics of...
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Valley Bands Performing at South by Southwest

Random If Random wanted to be any more the opposite of mainstream rap, he'd probably have to take up the banjo and start playing country music. A middle-school social studies teacher by day, Random writes hip-hop music that is devoid of profanity, misogyny, violence and (thankfully) Auto-Tune. Instead, Random's hip-hop...
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Phoenix MC Random Juggles Teaching, Rapping, and Superhero-Dom

A lot of rappers call themselves teachers, but few have self-applied the title as accurately as Raheem Jarbo. For Jarbo — a.k.a. Random or Mega Ran — it's no holier-than-thou, conscience-rap boast. He teaches middle school English and social studies at Omega Academy in west Phoenix. At Omega, Jarbo puts...
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Van Buren Street: Phoenix’s Former Main Drag Is Now Just a Drag

Editor's note: This begins an occasional series about Van Buren Street. I'm obsessed with Van Buren Street. I spend way too much time thinking about this once-bustling thoroughfare, which rather quickly became — and stayed — a miles-long punch line to a joke about how Phoenix is a town that...
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The Love Me Nots: Big In France

The French version of Rolling Stone magazine cannot get enough of Phoenix's own Love Me Nots. The mag ran a massive feature on the garage rock band in this month's issue, which you can read in translated form on the jump. The mag seems to relish comparing the band's sound...