It’s almost impossible to believe Bobby Bare Jr. is the son of legendary countrypolitan crooner Bobby Bare. Bare Jr.’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics, dry vocals, and ’60s pop-infused melodies are in direct opposition to his father’s schmaltzy country fare. To be certain, there is the occasional pedal steel lick, but the younger…
Beware the Jabberwock, my son, not to mention the Jubjub bird, the sneaky Snark, or any of the other boojumed bizarrities that will surely journey Through the Looking Glass for Tis Brillig, on Saturday, October 20, at the Starlight Room, 16737 East Parkview Avenue, in Fountain Hills. Dubbed by organizers…
Rather than espouse the many virtues of Weird Al Yankovic’s live show, I’ve elected to let my inner child write a brief “review” of the spectacle and follow it up with an off-the-wall, exclusive interview I had with Weird Al a couple weeks before his Phoenix show.
Have you ever wished more bands would take a cue from the Navy Seals and—as you’re quietly admiring the architecture of the venue rafters—creep up behind you, grab your hair in a fist, and open your carotid artery from ear to ear? I know I have, ha ha! Although Black Moth Super Rainbow didn’t quite do that to me, they did pleasantly surprise me in a manner akin to being licked on the back of my neck by a frisky unicorn. They stir up an extremely creamy blend of vocoder-heavy psychedelic synth pop, and ANALOG synth pop no less, meaning there’re nice fat waves of color rolling off your tongue and eyelids as the hard and heavy rhythm section crams it in your nostrils and/or armpits. Drums and bass were locked in, the Nord/Kawasaki synth axis roamed around like a freewheelin’ Atari astronaut, and the vocodings moved in and out of the proceedings with eyes agog.
Thursday 11 Anderson’s: S.W.A.G. Thursdays with DJ Essence, DJ Astonish, & Bryce Breeze (hip-hop, reggae, R&B) Axis/Radius: Ladies Night (hip-hop, rock, dance) Baja Tilly’s: DJ Adrian (old school, R&B, cumbia, reggaeton) Big Fish Pub: Chronik Frequency Thursdays with the Hazardous Crew feat. DJ Ladykilla, DJ Papi Cholo, DJ Spawn, Kyle…
We’re just finishing up a nice dinner at Dick’s Hideaway on a random Wednesday night when I hint at the urge to slum it for a few. Carla picks up on my slobbering (and the fact that I’m done paying $9 for a glass of wine). She says she has…
Shane Ocell has the biggest, hardest . . . callus I’ve ever seen. It’s the size of a small marble, sitting on the knuckle of his right middle finger. He cultivated the knot through his unconventional drumming style — holding the stick between his fingers while using the rest of…
Via Vengeance’s songs sound gritty, dense, and calculated. The rhythms are snappy and solid, with seamless, simple timing changes that often lead into even simpler guitar interludes, but show attention to composition nonetheless. Not that Via Vengeance is machinistic prog rock by any stretch of the imagination. This is raw,…
It was the eve of the new millennium at Joe and Maxine Zawinul’s beautiful place in lower Manhattan. The music of Marvin Gaye filled the home — “What’s Going On,” as I recall. Zawinul had invited me to a small family celebration, and all my other plans for the big…
So witty, so inquisitive, so downright loquacious is Elisa Ambrogio that a telephone interview with her threatens to unravel at any given moment, to turn obliviously tangential — not unlike the music she’s made, until recently. A question about authors who influenced the Magik Markers singer/guitarist’s graphically provocative lyricism on…
The best descriptors for Devendra Banhart’s latest album, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, come in pairs; one at a time doesn’t do justice to its heady tensions or its creator’s labyrinthine mystique. The record is kinetic yet placid, pensive yet droll, erratic yet strangely cohesive. The fact that singular phrases…
One of the mantras that emerged from the hippie counterculture movement of the ’60s was “never trust anyone over 30.” When you’re young, idealistic, and wearing rose-colored raver sunglasses to protect your eyes from the early-morning sunrise assault, that seems all right — especially since 30 seems impossible, a nonreality…
Derivative, repetitive, insipid, insincere, and pandering, Songs About Girls also has the worst insert booklet in recent memory — seven pages of will.i.am mugging in a checkered suit. The first song, “Over,” a lover’s lament featuring a sample from Electric Light Orchestra (never a bad thing) isn’t terrible. But with…
The epic, soaring sonics on Happiness Ltd. , Hot Hot Heat’s latest effort, owe a debt to some tricked-out production that results in a number of satisfying swells. The strongest candidates for airplay are front-loaded for instant gratification, while the rest of the album needs time to ferment. Comparisons to…
While putting together his latest verbose yet exhilarating album, None Shall Pass, Aesop Rock moved from New York to San Francisco, got married, quit smoking, and turned 30. So, it’s not surprising that the record shows changes in his style; rather than battle-rap-style posturing, it focuses on semiautobiographical stories from…
Two things separate real musicians from wanna-bes — the willingness to tour without quarter, and the head-down attitude to plow forward, faithful in one’s abilities. Martin Sexton qualifies on both counts. He busked for the money to make his first album, 1991’s In the Journey, and won a Boston-area music…
Before those hand-holding mop-tops from Liverpool hit these shores, instrumental rock was extremely popular. The charts belonged to The Ventures, Dick Dale, Link Wray (big influence on The Who’s Pete Townshend), and even Brits like the Shadows and Tornados. After Beatles, Stones, Dylan, and the “sophistication” that followed in their…
Like their contemporaries in U.K. Subs, who lived in the same building, the seasoned pub musicians who formed the Vibrators in 1976 brought a blues tradition to the nascent punk scene. But while the scene was highly politicized and angry, the Vibes got their kicks from sexually charged fun; tunes…
For most of the past decade, the record-rocking diva known as Sonique des Fleurs has been a mainstay of the Valley’s EDM scene. Since debuting in 1999, the 30-year-old sultry spinstress has been a fixture at countless local raves, club nights, and DJ events around the ‘Nix (including one gig…
Heavy Metal: A Box Set Review in Three Acts: Act One:
[Jo Momma’s living room. Some empty bean bag chairs are stacked against the back wall. A tapestry for Mötley Crüe’s Theatre of Pain album hangs above them. As the curtain rises, Pontius Arse comes running into the room, carrying a really cool box that’s made to resemble an amplifier, with a knob that goes to 11. He is followed by “Diamond” Blackie Rocket]
Since the rest of the blogosphere is racing right now to review Rainbows, I figure I’d be a sheep and do the same thing. Let’s do a time-lapse chronicle of the proceedings. First listens, of course. While addled by fatigue. And I haven’t checked YouTube or bootleg sites for which of these songs have been released before, so excuse me if some of this is old news. (I saw Radiohead in a high school auditorium in 1997, so I have cred.)
by Matt Neff Photos by Luke Holwerda Seismic Fortitude Tent/City Yellow Swans Mouthus The Trunk Space October 6, 2007 Better Than: The Best This show not only demonstrated everything that’s wrong with today’s music “underground,” it also hurt my ears and made me question my will to live. Although I’d…
