So when’s that new Gang Starr album gonna drop? In May, now that you mention it. Hip-hop fans have been waiting impatiently since 1998’s gold-selling near-classic Moment of Truth and the 1999 retrospective Full Clip (one of only a few truly essential hip-hop compilations) for rapper Guru and the progressive…
Follow heavy metal’s primary syllogism: Do you like to rock? Yeah! Do you want to rock? Hell yeah! Then let’s rock! You can laugh if you want, but concepts don’t come much more Zen than that. Rock ‘n’ roll, even in its most unbearable, screaming caveman form, doesn’t die, and…
It’s nearly impossible to believe now, but there was a time when the music this man made felt urgent, necessary, even. As front man of British stargazers the Verve, singer and cheekbone-booster Richard Ashcroft piloted the group to musical I-won’t-say-riches that made more ephemeral baubles by Blur and Suede seem…
Funny thing about being a mentor: The young genius you help today may be nipping at your heels tomorrow. No need to tell that to storied R&B producer Teddy Riley. Riley, in his umpteenth entry into the black-music market, has re-formed his doo-wop group Blackstreet, choosing to release its latest…
Soundtracks are usually little more than product packaging for the studio or the label, an effort to attach extra marketing to what might only be a successful motion picture. This one’s different. As a movie, The Slaughter Rule made a name for itself in 2002 at festivals, and last month…
Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger have chosen to relight the Doors’ fire with a “reunion” tour, with the Cult’s Ian Astbury stepping forward in Jim Morrison’s spot. But the two might have known problems would crop up, since, well, people are strange. Already, drummer John Densmore, who declined the tour,…
Iron and Wine’s Samuel Beam may be able to take advantage of beaches in his hometown of Miami, but his lo-fi, home-recorded debut disc on Sub Pop, The Creek Drank the Cradle, has more in common with pasty-skinned shut-ins like Lou Barlow, Will Oldham and Nick Drake. A screenwriting and…
Displaying more Southern hospitality than in his other gig with south-of-the-border escapists Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, former Dead Hot Workshop and Ghetto Cowgirl guitarist Steve Larson has plenty of answers for those of you pondering “what’s so good about being a good ol’ boy?” Striking a vocal resemblance to…
Phoenix trip-hop gurus Lulu in Hollywood lay down a tempting vibe when they’re not subconsciously attempting to turn their music into math equations on Bedlams, their second album. Dark lyrics grace jazz veteran Syl’s loungey saxophone lines and Michael Wheeler’s space-age hip-hop keys, which are sifted through the break beat…
Singer Jamie Monistat VII takes his name from a vaginal cream. The drummer goes by the equally crass moniker Hugh Jass. The band’s name, of course, is a take on the Waco cult tragedy of a decade ago, and its album art takes a not-so-subtle dig at former Attorney General…
There’s an old barroom joke. It goes something like this: “He was the greatest bluesman that no one ever heard of.” Bob Corritore may just know that guy. Heck, with Corritore’s uncanny knowledge of traditional blues, he probably knows the musician’s second cousin, too. He can tell you all about…
“Cute little band. We do okay. We play Sundays. People clap. Everybody goes home. Nobody gets hurt. But it’s really a good opportunity for me to learn the music.” That’s Bruce Connole’s modest take on Busted Hearts, the bluegrass band he formed with Glass Heroes/Beat Angels guitarist Keith Jackson that’s…
Estéban has taken the classical guitar further than anyone ought to be able to nowadays. Even he admits that. “Not many people listen to classical music, let’s face it,” says the Valley lounge icon from his business office in Long Island, New York. “But I’ve always loved jazz, and I’m…
Art Alexakis isn’t a happy guy. He’s the poet laureate of falling apart, and his Everclear’s latest album, Slow Motion Daydream, is no exception. But while the bandleader’s hymns to broken souls (“Science Fiction”), disintegrating situations (“New Blue Champion”) and a world gone wrong (“New York Times”) tread a narrow…
Self-confidence rules on indie-folk tsunami Ani DiFranco’s latest release, the aptly titled Evolve, as she ends her journey with a five-piece band and speeds back toward her roots as a solo singer-songwriter. Now 14 years into her career, Ani’s finally got the art of intellectual musing with her heart on…
Last week marked the return of Mardi Gras to New Orleans, as well as the crawfish, beads and liquor being poured in bar after bar along Bourbon Street. It also meant a musical palette of the region’s wonderful blend of zydeco, soul, funk and blues, and five successive nights of…
Back when he was in the surf band the Bomboras, Jake Cavaliere would ritually end sets by setting his organ on fire. Dressed in matching outfits and accompanied by bikini-clad dancers, the Bomboras could turn a club gig into ’60s film exploitation. In Lords of Altamont, his current band, Jake…
Andrew Ahiakpor has never heard the “explicit version” of star rapper Ludacris’ platinum-seller Word of Mouf and that’s just fine with him. “I think that true talent doesn’t need profanity to shine,” scoffs the 25-year-old UC-Santa Barbara grad from Fairfield, California. “Plus, when words like ho’ and the b’ and…
Phoenix native DJ Z-Trip has a trademark sound that’s been forged by experimentation as well as by an unbreakable will to do things his own way. So, at 31, he doesn’t mince words when he talks about his ability to shake up hip-hop. “Where am I going? To the fuckin’…
Roger Clyne says if there’s no music scene in Phoenix today, it may be partially his fault. Clyne led the sensationally quirky Refreshments in the mid-’90s at the zenith of what some locals refer to as the “Mill Avenue conspiracy,” when talented jangle-pop musicians ruled the bars of Tempe. “Everybody…
“Wow! Look at all that pornography, material waste of photography/When all you need is a fertile mind to formulate pictures of any kind.” from “All You Need Is a Fertile Mind,” an American song-poem. Fans of “outsider music,” from Harvey Sid Fisher to Ken Nordine, unite and embrace the pretty…
Friday, February 7, 2003 Time: 7:30 p.m. Thought Crime There’s no vantage point in central Phoenix as illuminating as the one-story rooftop above Thought Crime, a communal art space on Central Avenue just north of Roosevelt. “The DEA is stationed in that building. You’ve got the transvestite bar there, the…
