Gloritone bassist Nick Scropos remembers vividly when the myth of major-label recording came crashing down, near the end of the band's monthlong sessions for its 1998 debut. Recording with producer Bradley Cook (Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age) in Hollywood's Grand Master studios, the group expected all the trappings...
It was the best of years; it was the Durst of years. Of the latter, well, Jim Dandy once had his moment in the sun, too, and the critics were right all along: Black Oak Arkansas sucked, the stoned morons who were into the band eventually grew up (or died...
Garage rock was not about taking rock 'n' roll and handing it to creepy label guys with shaky checkbooks. Nor was it about having your parents, teachers, priests and rabbis giving it the thumbs up. It was none of that. It was all about your own, about breathing some kind...
Mental Hygiene Care package: As New Times notes, money isn't everything when it comes to Arizona's lost and antiquated mental-health-care system ("Club Meds," Paul Rubin, July 13). Despite minuscule results, we continue to hammer the brain-altering chemicals of psychiatry into our treatment modalities and ignore the lack of human involvement...
So why ain't this guy a star? David Shepherd Grossman has been the definition of a working musician for going on 20 years now. The guy literally plays 30 shows a month; there's hardly a night of the week you can't catch him gigging somewhere around the Valley. His song...
Chef Gregory Casale of Scottsdale's Gregory's Grill has corked his bring-your-own-wine policy. The three-year-old restaurant will be closed the month of July as Casale tours Napa Valley wineries and meets with local purveyors to select what he calls "an exclusive collection of world wines." Gregory's will reopen August 1 with...
For Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman -- known to their fans as Dean and Gene Ween, respectively -- Ween's new album, White Pepper, was a long time coming. The duo released a double live album, Paintin' the Town Brown: Ween Live '90-'98, last year, but it was a quickly assembled...
Since the Arizona Center opened in 1990, Valley diners have been poised, fork and knife grasped firmly in hand, waiting to pounce on the many culinary wonders promised by downtown's then-developers and politicos. Coupled with the Mercado, the center was to attract celebrated restaurants and breathe new culture into the...
TVK-TV's Claudia DiFolco reaches for my hand and gently brings it to her face. Sliding my forefinger under wisps of hair, she says with a coy smile, "I've got something for your story." She blinks her eyes and they reveal a bright, mirthful innocence. Her cameraman, standing off to the...
A few weeks ago, Willie Nelson was the featured artist on the weekly PBS live-music show, Sessions at West 54th. Over the course of his hourlong performance, it slowly began to sink in that the petite blond vocalist to Nelson's left was not your run-of-the-mill backup singer. It was Shelby...
The white man or woman who plays the blues is often forced to confront a long-standing stereotype: the idea among blues-brained purists that only black artists can truly sing about pain, loss and heartbreak. Of course, music history begs to differ with this notion. Some of the most wrist-slitting blues...
Like many roots-oriented idioms, the parameters of what is considered "true" reggae music are often dictated by stringent dogma. It's a sort of musical fascism that frequently ostracizes bands that don't toe the strict ganja party line. Unfortunately, such narrow dictates usually result in groups that either come off like...
Bless his heart, but Robin Wilson is a strange guy. It's not just the Gas Giants front man's manner of speaking -- a tone that has the slickness of a used-car salesman and the perpetual chipperness of a TV weatherman -- or his conversation -- an unrelenting jackhammer of self-promotion...
Click Here for the Photo Gallery In June 1999 as I began my first week at New Times, my predecessor as music editor brought a large box into my office. "What's this?" I asked. "Pictures." "Pictures of what?" "Local music pictures. It's an archive of our old stuff." Nearly 25...
A call to his new label, Artimus records in New York, informed me that Warren Zevon "is on the road but he's on the list to call you. It just depends on what kind of mood he's in." I knew the call wouldn't come. I can respect a songwriter who...
Stifle Tower I really appreciate your story about the Babbitt growth plan ("Babbitt's Secret Growth-Control Plan," Michael Kiefer, March 2). It is a very important topic, even though it must be a dry read for many. After I read it, I could see that all three plans you presented could...
Alternative rock and golf are somewhat of an unlikely pairing. Sure, Alice Cooper plays golf, but he's old enough to be considered Marilyn Manson's grandfather. And yeah, mainstream people like Hootie and the Blowfish, Huey Lewis and Celine Dion play, but do they really count as musicians? Musicians aren't generally...
There are, of course, the great intro riffs: Sabbath's "Iron Man," Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love," B.O.C.'s "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl," etc. Oft copped, rarely topped. Instinctively grasping this, Fu Manchu still manages to elbow some room with a brand of high-octane, hard-pounding psychedelia that's instantly...
See, Gene Simmons' publicist never gave me a specific time to be available for his call. She just said, "Oh, he'll call you sometime Monday or Tuesday." Then she told me that if I missed his call, he would leave a number on my machine that I could use to...
Jim Kaufman, a developer who has played a key role in the revitalization of downtown Phoenix, has been credited with saving many cherished buildings: The renovated Orpheum Theatre, the art deco Professional Building just south of Bank One center, the majestic administration building on the old Phoenix Union High School...
"Fear is your greatest salesman" was once the rallying cry of insurance vendors the world over. But in the case of this anti-cataclysmic New Year's, fear seemed more like a broken promise. Fear wasn't the reason ticket sales for everything from Phoenix Celebration 2000 to the Judds reunion concert to...
The driver at the Burbank International Airport opens the rear door to his cab and I hop in. He slides into the front seat, puts it into gear and pulls out. Moving toward the airport exit, I tell him the name of my hotel. We turn north and roll toward...
