Music

Go ahead and brand Junior Boys IDM (rank shorthand for “Intelligent Dance Music”). Just know that doing so would be a waste of time and precious consonants. Because what the Boys want to be are pop stars, and on their spectacular debut they manage to compress all that is right…

Songwriter/pianist/vocalist Leroy Carr, whose two-disc CD set is one of the highlights of the new Roots N’ Blues Series, was one of the first recording artists to make full use of the new electric microphone. With a crooning style akin to the coming generation of jazz singers, he cut 190…

Top 10 sellers at Stinkweeds Records, 1250 East Apache Boulevard in Tempe, for July 18 through 24: 1. Low, A Lifetime of Temporary Relief boxed set (Chairkickers) 2. Polyphonic Spree, Together We’re Heavy (Hollywood) 3. The Album Leaf, In a Safe Place (Sub Pop) 4. Sonic Youth, Sonic Nurse (Geffen)…

Former D Generation singer Jesse Malin’s made no bones about his love for Paul Westerberg, following Ryan Adams down that now well-worn country-rock path on his last album, The Fine Art of Self-Destruction, which Adams produced. Like most of Adams’ solo work, the album had more trappings than content, and…

Leaving behind much of the gimmickry of their contemporaries, the Phantom Surfers rose to the crest of the surf instrumental revival of the early 1990s, playing solid vibrato-drenched tunes with a wry sense of humor (their stage banter is hilarious). They haven’t put out a record since 2000’s XXX Party,…

When your logo is a pentagram with a pot leaf in the center, and your vocalist is “God of metal” Phil Anselmo (Pantera), you’ve got all the symbolism needed to pull off a skin-peeling speed-metal record. And that’s exactly what Superjoint Ritual did, creating 13 blistering tracks and christening them…

Every day is like Sunday um, I mean, Thursday for Robden Brethauer and DJ Manchester, the impresarios behind Panic!, the long-running weekly Britpop/indie/shoegazer/New Wave night that came to an end in March. This Thursday, July 29, theyre reprising the event at its old home, Andersons Fifth Estate in Scottsdale, with…

In press interviews for his new album, Kiss of Death, Jadakiss, a member of the Lox, asserts that he wants to be thought of as one of the greatest MCs of all time. Though it seems like bravado, the fact that New York’s hip-hop community has taken his statements seriously…

Of all the “The” bands swearing devotion to the Sonics/Stones/Stooges holy trinity of garage rock, the Hives have always seemed to have the most fun. Unhindered by the Strokes’ penchant for rock star clich or the White Stripes’ Machiavellian creepiness, the Hives reveled in the simple pleasures of three chords,…

This English dance-pop outfit is one of the world’s biggest electronic acts in countries that aren’t the United States, where we prefer our techno nerds white, bald and annoying. This is despite the fact that Rollo Armstrong, the producing mastermind behind Faithless, is Dido’s brother and helped construct her easy-drinking…

Ani DiFranco sent me a Christmas card back in 1996, along with a note listing her New Year’s resolutions: “Do more,” “Be more,” “Give more” and “Sleep at night.” She’s certainly done, been and given more in the past eight years, but I doubt she’s been sleeping at night. A…

Who’s your favorite two-piece act? The White Stripes? Mates of State? Local H? Donny and Marie? After this show, it might be the Portland duo Helio Sequence — singer/guitarist/harmonica player Brandon Summers and drummer/keyboardist Benjamin Weikel (late of Modest Mouse, where he spent a year subbing on the skins for…

Accidental supergroups make great rock ‘n’ roll. Take, for example, the Burden Brothers, whose founding members — vocalist/guitarist Vaden Todd Lewis (ex-Toadies) and drummer Taz Bentley (ex-Reverend Horton Heat) — got together to jam on some songs Bentley had written. The two liked the songs so much that they posted…

There’s certainly no shortage of sex in pop music. Hyperactive adolescents who, once upon a time, had to squint to make sense of a scrambled Playboy Channel can now find fulfillment from the first 30 seconds of a Nelly video. What they can’t get, though, is the technique. Enter Chicago…

For someone who’s considered one of the forefathers of hardcore hip-hop, KRS-One sure gets into a lot of scuffles with his progeny. While many artists readily admit the influence KRS-One had on their music (Sublime even gave props to the rapper with its song “KRS-One”), other artists such as Nelly…

1. Lloyd Banks, Hunger for More (Universal) 2. NB Ridaz, NBRidaz.com(Upstairs) 3. Devin the Dude, To Tha X-Treme (Rap-A-Lot) 4. Jadakiss, Kiss of Death (Universal) 5. Angie Stone, Stone Love (BMG) 6. The Roots, Tipping Point (MCA) 7. Los Lonely Boys, Los Lonely Boys (Epic) 8. Authority Zero, Andiamo (Atlantic)…

He rose from humble beginnings to conquer the pop music charts, indulged in all the excesses that celebrity affords, walked away at the height of his fame to embrace religion, and then, years later, made a triumphant return to the mainstream music world. Ladies and gentlemen . . . the…

CLUBS ACME Roadhouse: In its original Scottsdale location, ACME catered to Harley-Davidson weekend warriors. In its new Tempe incarnation, it entertains the college set with dancing and, on Sundays, local rock bands. Dance space is at a minimum, but there’s plenty of room for other social rites. Sun: Live music…