It would be an answered prayer for most up-and-coming ambient artists: a personal invitation from the members of Sigur Ròs to join them on tour. But when that fantasy scenario actually happened for San Diego musician Jimmy LaValle, his response was unexpected. You see, he really wasn’t that familiar with…
Hours before he takes the stage as the headliner of the Plea for Peace tour, Cursive front man Tim Kasher is looking shaggy. His hair’s grown out considerably, and he’s sporting a ruffian’s beard. “I’ve just pledged that I’m gonna keep growing my hair out until I fix my life,”…
After moving 80,000 copies of its Lava Records debut, A Passage in Time, Mesa’s Authority Zero returns with a mlange of ska, punk, rock, and even an Irish drinking song on its sophomore effort, Andiamo. Seamlessly wavering between reggae-dub (“Madman”) and acerbic punk songs such as “Revolution” and “PCH,” Authority…
After a six-year hiatus, the Beastie Boys return with To the 5 Boroughs and alternately position themselves as pop culture bottom feeders and political pedants. While anti-Bush screeds “That’s It That’s All” and “Time to Build” come across as heavy-handed, the terse “Open Letter to NYC” does manage to channel…
Just as the words colour and color don’t mean quite the same thing, there are no American analogues to Syd Barrett, XTC, Robyn Hitchcock, David Sylvian or the Legendary Pink Dots (acid reference almost certain). The Pink Dots emerged from England in 1980, moved to Amsterdam (legal cannabis influence almost…
If you’ve ever sat in your third-period trigonometry class and daydreamed that Ben Folds would hook up with the guys from Weezer to record an album (and really, who hasn’t?), then boy do I have a band for you: Piebald. Don’t let the third wave ska-style name throw you off…
After 17 years, is No Doubt coming to the end of its New Wave/ska-pop road? You don’t need a Magic 8-Ball to see that signs point to yes: Gwen Stefani is currently at work on her solo debut with the likes of OutKast and Missy Elliott, and also getting her…
The bohemian vibe is always present at the Sail Inn in Tempe, but the producers of this Friday’s Buhay party aim to amp it up even higher. Buhay (pronounced “boo-HIGH,” it’s Tagalog for “life”) is bringing Montreal producer and DJ JoJo Flores to town to add his soulful house grooves…
Still holding out hope they’ll find those pesky WMDs? While Saddam’s hoard may never be discovered, you’ll uncover plenty here at this showcase of East Coast hip-hop legends. The Mash Out Posse (Lil’ Fame and Billy Danze) of Brooklyn’s infamous Brownsville section bring their sarin-tipped ghetto rhymes and experimental rap-rock…
Electroclash was just a 15-minute cocaine high on the pop time line, so Miss Kittin is deservedly cranky on her solo debut-cum-comedown, I Com. She kicks off a liturgy of her sub-A-list duties (adding people to the guest lists, kissing cheeks) on the opening track, “Professional Distortion,” before reminding us…
The mere mention of Vancouver’s Skinny Puppy elicits images of traumatic soundscapes that often spiral into the chaotic; the band’s output was matched only by its flair for the visually unsettling. It was that combination that put Nivek Ogre, cEvin Key, and the late Dwayne Goettel shoulder to shoulder with…
Though he mostly emotes with a morose mumble instead of a caustic croak, Hayden just might be Canada’s answer to Vic Chesnutt: an endearing, love-troubled kook with a penchant for poignant, sometimes darkly humored yarns spun all indie-folk-like. In “Wide Eyes” — a mournful strings ‘n’ piano ballad that opens…
Top 10 sellers at Zia Record Exchange (1940 West Indian School Road) for May 30 through June 5: 1. Slipknot, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) (Roadrunner) 2. Method Man, Tical 0: Prequel (Def Jam) 3. D12, D12 World (Shady) 4. Usher, Confessions (La Face) 5. Avril Lavigne, Under My Skin…
Sometimes, breaking the law pays off. Last year, two young women from Tempe started sneaking into every stop of the Vans Warped Tour to illegally sell a compilation CD that they went into debt to produce. Going a little hungry didn’t stop them, and scrounging for gas money didn’t discourage…
The three guys performing at the Mason Jar on a spring Friday night have a crowd bunched close to the stage, including a clique of teenage girls who occasionally yell “I love you” and “You’re sexy” at the band of siblings — yet another boy brother band, in the tradition…
Anyone who has heard interviews with the group Velvet Revolver pretty much knows the members could have named themselves the Rehab All-Stars. Front man Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, is notorious for his drug use and surrounding shenanigans. The behavior of his bandmates/Guns n’ Roses expatriates — guitarist…
Crawling like a sunrise across a parched desert landscape, Califone’s rootsy folk-blues has all the spacious grace of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti Western soundtrack, ushered into the 21st century by the background clatter and thrum of electronics. Forged from the ashes of Red Red Meat, the Chicago quartet continues to…
The HorrorPops may look like the Cramps, but they’re more razor-edged pop than horror. The outfit’s parts fit together like Roger Corman’s Frankenstein — not quite as scary as hoped. The Concrete Blonde head of Siouxsie Sioux is stitched onto the torso of Gwen Stefani. Dick Dale’s arms are added,…
If you dig a little digga digga doo, Asylum Street Spankers has a paddle for you. Jazz and swing at the core, the Spankers (a “spanker” is slang for someone who plays an acoustic instrument) will dip into any genre, turning rap songs and television show themes into riotous swing…
With VH1’s I Love the ’90s mere weeks away from airing, it’s officially okay to long for the decade when the record industry co-opted college rock and ran it into the ground with predictable noise merchants. But it does seem an odd time for a still-new group of Phoenix punkers…
Top 10 sellers at Hoodlums (ASU Memorial Union) for May 21 through 27: 1. Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Love Bad News (Sony) 2. Mission of Burma, Onoffon (Matador) 3. Method Man, Tical 0: Prequel (Def Jam) 4. Gift of Gab, Fourth Dimensional Rocket Ships Going Up (Quannum…
Oh, you can count on plenty of blue-hairs lining up to vote this November — the old-lady variety, that is, not the ones surgically attached to a skateboard. Whatever the reason, our nation’s voting-eligible youth simply can’t be bothered to pull the levers on Election Day. Hoping to alter that…
