Music

On a recent Thursday afternoon, disgruntled by the heat, Phoenix drivers, and the smell of my pants, I drop my Boston terrier, Murray, at home and high-tail it to a small bar in a strip mall marked by a fuzzy neon orange-red glow. I arrive at the Dilly Dally ready…

Who coined the term “world music?” Was it foreigners, resigned to Yankee cultural imperialism, who created it for Americans to signify “music you aren’t expected to like”? Or was it Westerners themselves, who like to tap their toes to a snappy melody but are traumatized by any instrumental music more…

There’s a hippie hiding in here somewhere. Behind the dreamy, intentionally off-key harmonies, under the shuffling, soft snare drums, inside the closet with the plucky guitar that’s trying to fade out of all the songs, there’s something very sloppy-’60s-stumbling-into-silly-’70s going on. It’s pop, but it’s confused, as if somebody dosed…

More than the Grateful Dead, San Francisco’s Jefferson Airplane defined the summer of love’s hippie ethos: lysergic lyrics (“White Rabbit”), an anti-authoritarian, us-versus-them attitude, and sonic eclecticism (rock, folk, jazz, blues, and world music). Sweeping Up captures all this, with the original Airplane at the peak of its powers. Guitarist…

Of Rhode Island MC Paul “Sage” Francis’ fourth solo album, Filter magazine wrote, “You can call it emo or you can call it hip-hop.” (Cue the sound of squealing brakes.) Huh? Francis may have been a member of Midwest emo-rap group Atmosphere, but there is nothing emo about this album…

Effortless projects seem to be kissed by fate, just like the newly released EP by local indie-electronica trio Number Sine. Formed after a chance meeting at Pita Jungle, and signed after sending out only one CD, they’re gearing up for a national tour. Their self-titled EP is the quintessential summer…

Stand Still, Look Pretty is an apt title for pop-country duo The Wreckers. Not only are Michelle Branch and her former backup singer, Jennifer Harp, easy on the eyes, but their lilting, almost childlike harmonies are gorgeous. With practically interchangeable vocals on their debut CD, Branch and Harp chirp their…

Reality does bear out this theorem: The smaller the band, the greater the intensity. Trios have generated some of the loudest, most intense, most volatile squall: Cream, Blue Cheer, Minutemen, Painkiller (John Zorn, Bill Laswell, and ex-Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris), and Hüsker Dü. (Taking the point further: Japan’s math-core…

As the guitarist of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Jason Trachtenburg swaps singing duties with his teenage daughter (and drummer), Rachel, while his wife, Tina, operates a slide projector, casting old images of other families’ birthday parties and vacations to time with the music. Trachtenburg is equally quirky and innovative…

Hyphenates abound in Phoenix’s downtown art scene — it’s relatively commonplace that bohemian types hawking paintings during First Friday or plucking guitars at Modified Arts probably have a record-spinning gig at a nearby bar or nightclub. Hence the meaning behind Everyones a Fucking DJ, which takes over the Upstairs Bar…

Our biggest complaint about the First Friday art walks is the lack of venues for getting stinking drunk. Carly’s has a huge waiting list, The Roosevelt is packed beyond capacity, and Bikini Lounge’s cash machine is usually tapped out by 10 p.m. The situation is so desperate, we’ve had friends…