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Show Announcements: Willie Nelson, Staind, Chris Isaak, Katy Perry

There were a massive amount of upcoming shows announced this week, including Willie Nelson on the road again and possibly three of the four worst nu metal bands of all time (Staind, Papa Roach, Hoobastank) on a single stage… with the insufferable Adam Carolla. Crooner Chris Isaak and Strokes’ drummer Fabrizio Moretti will also be in town with his side project, Little Joy. Katy Perry will be in town to do a solo show hot on the heels of her Phooson set and Woodstock veteran Richie Havens is coming.
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Best Local Country Radio Personality

Dave Pratt, KMLE Country 108-FMRedheaded radio jock Dave Pratt has been prattling across Valley airwaves since 1981, when he took a job with local rock station 98 KUPD as host of Pratt in the Morning. More than two decades later, Pratt left KUPD (which he calls “the best career decision I ever made” in his bio on davepratt.net) and joined […]
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Phoenix’s Best Haunted Houses: Our rankings and reviews

By Martin CizmarIn the last month I've seen a lot of chainsaws. Quite possibly more than I've seen in the rest of my life combined. Why almost every haunted house in the Valley ends with a chainsaw-wielding dude chasing you out the back door is a mystery to me, but they do.
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The Messiah of Metal

Heavy metal singer Patrick Flannery has lived in the Valley since 1983, and he knows a thing or two about the mingling of faith and freakiness in Phoenix. As a teenager, the Catholic-raised Flannery sang in a choir that performed for Pope John Paul II at Ss. Simon and Jude's...
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Danzig Leads the Blackest of the Black Tour Screaming into Town

Glenn Danzig is the Devil's curator for the Blackest of the Black Tour, a metal mini-festival he's been presenting and headlining intermittently since 2003. The punk alumnus has reached highs beyond most of his peers, but, 31 years into his musical career, he still thinks it's important to help bands...
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The Top 14 Heavy Metal Men of Arizona

Believe it or not, Arizona has always been a haven for heavy metal icons. From the earliest days of heavy metal, the Valley of the Sun has housed and spawned some of the most influential acts in the genre: Flotsam and Jetsam, Sacred Reich, Megadeth, Soulfly, Linkin Park -- hell, our state even has ties to Slayer and Metallica. We’re not sure if it’s the purgatory-worthy heat, the mystic mountains, or the minions of metalheads here, but one thing’s for certain: more famous metal musicians live or have lived in Arizona than the average Joe realizes. The 14 most noteworthy Arizona metal men are listed below, in no particular order.
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No Reservations does a drive-by

By Michele Laudig Huh. So Tony Bourdain finally comes to Phoenix, and the only thing that merits attention to this city -- or hell, this state -- is a two-foot chili dog from Cooperstown? I still don't know if the brief AZ segment pissed me off, made me sad, or...
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Laudig back in action!

By Michele Laudig Konnichiwa, Phoenix! Ohisashiburi! (It's been a long time!) I'm writing to you through the haze of jetlag after spending the last couple of weeks in Tokyo -- just got home about 24 hours ago, and I'm trying to convince my body that it's Thursday afternoon instead of...
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Guitar Hero

Last April, former Phoenix cop George Contreras resigned from the force and opened a guitar shop in South Phoenix. Why give up a cushy city gig? “It’s cooler in here and I’m not getting shot at. At least, not yet,” he quips. These days, Contreras sports a cool Corvette, a...
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Sky Lounge: the latest downtown club closed for building code violations

It hasn’t been a very good year for Sky Lounge. The popular downtown dance club made news headlines in May, when a group of men leaving the club got into a fight outside the building that escalated into a shooting, leaving one man injured and another dead. And last week, Sky Lounge was shut down by inspectors from the City of Phoenix’s Neighborhood Services Department for building code violations.
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Green Fatigue: Is anyone else sick and tired of eco-chic?

Welcome to Phoenix New Times' first Green Issue! Not. This week's paper won't feature a photo spread of all-organic fashions worn by sinewy models who subsist on raw-food diets, shot lounging on Crate and Barrel's brand-new line of eco-friendly patio furniture. (Although it does include a profile of a woman...
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Former Korn guitarist Brian Welch finds Jesus

Brian "Head" Welch, former lead guitarist and founding member of the band Korn, was standing in the murky waters of the Jordan River, waiting to be baptized. As his tears dropped into the same river where Christ once stood, Welch looked, on that March day in 2005, like the Jesus...
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Beelzebabe

Call us shallow, but why are we attracted to the Memphis-based, down-home blues band Delta Highway? Because the cover art for the band’s latest album, The Devil Had a Woman, features a waaay-hot gal with a devil-horned shadow. We hope the hot-to-trot filly shows up with the Highway when the...
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Gettin’ Diddy with It

Diddy’s in town to throw his bling around for Super Bowl weekend, and you can bet your badonkadonk we’ll be partying with him. Thursday, January 31 is “Super Thursday” at Axis/Radius, and Diddy is set to perform for an hour and a half, along with sets by hip-hop stars Next and Valley rapper Pokafase. Not only will I be there in full regalia (that’s right, I’m actually ditching the ponytail/leather jacket look for once), but I’ll be accompanied by independent singer/songwriter Jody Gnant, who’ll be shooting exclusive video footage for this very blog.
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After Shock

Old shock-rockers don’t die, they just play golf a lot. And make public-safety commercials. And -- like any reformed blood-spewing, snake-fondling maniac -- become pillars of the community. So it is – sigh – with Alice Cooper, who’s transformed the notoriety gained from his rowdy days of the early ’70s...
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Better Than Petty?: Hypothetical Super Bowl halftime shows

With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers headlining Super Bowl XLII’s halftime show, we couldn’t help but wonder what other acts deserve the chance to play to one of the year’s biggest crowds. Of course, then also we got to wondering about what rare duets the event could motivate, especially after such great team-ups as Aerosmith and Britney Spears and Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake (which, okay, ended poorly). Here’s what we came up with.
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Night PHX

If nothing else, the British know how to tie one on. So it's only fitting that the Britannia-themed Rose & Crown is stocked with enough brews and booze to keep any Englishman or Anglophile happy (and properly soused). The usual pints of Newcastle, Tetley's, and Guinness are available, as are...