By Benjamin Leatherman Hot girls. Dancing on the bar. What more could you ask for? Spotlights pierced the north Scottsdale night sky on muggy Saturday night, beckoning in the beautiful people and other top-shelf types to the opening night VIP fete of the Valley’s newest nightspot, the Black Card Ultralounge…
While I took the weekend off to run away to Sedona and celebrate my birthday, several stories unfolded in national music news. Read on for the skinny about Metallica’s upcoming Phoenix concert, Jackson Browne’s lawsuit against presidential hopeful John McCain, and more.
By Jonathan McNamara Star Swim at Hotel San Carlos What Laura Says Thinks and Feels and Miniature Tigers played to a roof top pool full of bathing suit-clad guests during Hotel San Carlos’ continuing event Star Swim. One DJ Night at The Ruby Room The Ruby Room in downtown Phoenix…
By Benjamin Leatherman Dear and the Headlights are scheduled to perform on Saturday at the New Times Summer of Sound Rock showcase at the Clubhouse Music Venue in Tempe. Here’s a rundown of all the concerts and major music and comedy events scheduled over the next 72 hours, from tonight…
Friday, August 15: “That Enthralling Gallop” at The Kitchenette Photography Collective Betsy Schneider’s “France” This week Managing Editor Amy Silverman presented New Times readers with a look at controversial artist Betsy Schneider. Starting tonight, Schneider’s work can be seen in an show called “That Enthralling Gallop” starting tonight at “Kitchenette…
Timewave 2013: The Odyssey II: Friday through Sunday, August 15 through 17, at East West Exchange By Clay McNear Last month, I wrote a catty little blog about the quasi-documentary 2012: The Odyssey. In it, I cattily opined that nothing whatsoever will happen on December 21, 2012. That’s the End…
By Jonathan McNamara If you thought Phoenix rockers Juicy Newt gleaned their name from Juicy Newton, you’d be wrong. The name has nothing to do with the Grammy award-winning singer and guitar player. This band name has “a long and not very lady like story” says Juicy Newt drummer Sarah…
Music licensing corporations aren’t leaving a lot of elbow room for local venue owners(Illustration by Ed Piskor) By Steve Jansen License to Kill the Music On a recent weekday afternoon, I’m standing inside the Trunk Space with co-owner Stephanie Carrico. It’s about 110 degrees outside and a still-sweltering 95 inside…
THURSDAY 14 Axis/Radius: Red Bull Thursdays with DJ MCB (hip-hop, Top 40, rock) Bar Smith: Peppermint Lounge with DJ Brazilia, DJ Mara, & guests (electro, funk, ’80s) Bikini Lounge: DJ HFE (rockabilly, surf, jazz, classic country, indie, obscuro) Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cash Inn:…
In 1986, when I first tried to grow a beard, the consensus was that beards were for murderers and maniacs. Almost no one in mainstream America in the ’80s wore a beard; even in Alaska, a beard was a serious statement that the wearer ate cold beans from a can…
Two years after providing the haunting, gospel-tinged, and mighty crucial backing vocals on Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis’ solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat, the Watson Twins — identical sisters Leigh and Chandra Watson — are back with their own full-length debut, Fire Songs. At home in Los Angeles while on…
If you walk up to the door of a bar and it has a sign that reads, “Restrooms for customers only,” chances are you’re about to enter a dive bar. At least, that is the case with the Caravan, on 15th Avenue and Camelback Road. It’s a sweltering Thursday afternoon,…
Mark Zubia is one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the Valley. He’s seen some success with his Americana bands Los Guys and The Chimeras, but his solo work is equally compelling. Here we have 10 tunes, all of which manage to tell a story alongside a nice melody, in…
Power pop has always been about the comfort factor, the idea that no matter how dicey a boy-girl song situation is, the love emanating from a stack of carefully chosen records is somehow going to make everything all right. Tempe’s Sugar High has not been immune to this sort of…
There is little doubt that saxophonist David Sanborn has earned his place in music history through his many collaborations as a sideman with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Elton John, and David Bowie. On his latest disc, he revisits the blues that influenced him early on, via the work…
Call it freak folk, acid folk, New Weird America, progressive folk, folk-prog, or the result of too many lysergic brain-ticklers at a Renaissance Faire, but Faun Fables — a.k.a. Dawn McCarthy and whomever else she assembles — is at its forefront. A Table Forgotten is a four-song EP/mini-album that resists…
If the most enduring proto-emo bands were the ones that wrote the best hooks, Smoking Popes would be right up there with the Promise Ring and the Get Up Kids. Like those groups, the Popes’ penchant for melody resided solely on the shoulders of a lead singer (Josh Caterer) with…
The former Traveling Wilbury is on a roll these days — in addition to reuniting his pre-fame band Mudcrutch for a much-appreciated CD, he has found a growing number of younger fans during his current tour. According to reports, a large number of 20-somethings have flocked to his shows alongside…
Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins defies a cut-and-dried definition. Influenced by everybody from the Violent Femmes and James Taylor to contemporaries like the Indigo Girls (whose co-founder, Amy Ray, attended Clarkston High School in Georgia with Mullins), the folk rocker maintains a homey pop vibe throughout his albums but doesn’t feel compelled…
What’s that noise? If it sounds like anarchy in the PC, it’s probably the wondrous effectual whirlpool of Valley circuit bender The Coitus. Using “instruments” such as old Atari gaming systems, Casio keyboards, and Commodore computers in combination with modified kids’ toys, synthcarts, and homemade sound contraptions, The Coitus calls…
Whenever we’re out surveying some of the more ostentatious and showy nightspots that make up P-town’s club scene, the lyrics from that Finger 11 song “Paralyzer” seem to roll through our heads. You know, the verse where Scott Anderson sings: “This club has got to be/The most pretentious thing/Since I…
Mark David Chapman was denied parole yesterday, for the fifth time. The man who murdered John Lennon on December 8, 1980 was sentenced to 20 years to life for his crime. The week before his parole hearing, the parole board received 50 letters and a petition signed by 1000 people opposing Chapman’s release. He had three letters of support.
