Ben Lee may be headlining the “Fun! Fun! Fun! Tour,” but the artist most likely to live up to the spirit of that tour name is Rooney, a band whose infectious self-titled debut felt like the Beach Boys bringing in Rivers Cuomo to save the day when Brian Wilson had…
Holy cowbell, biker babes! This co-ed stoner metal band sure has some gritty gee-tars and hard rock chops on its fourth studio effort, Their Rock Is Not Our Rock. The album takes its title from Deuteronomy 32:31, but the only gospel Fireball Ministry seems to be preaching is the gospel…
If you take a cynic’s view toward “expanded” reissues of recent albums, then, yeah: Anymore, the masters don’t even get shelved before record labels are padding releases with videos and B-sides, and dangling them before the same folks who bought the albums last year. From a consumer’s standpoint, buying such…
Based on polls conducted last week, here are some of the reasons Americans chose The Elected this year: 1) They ran a positive, intelligent, feel-good, idea-filled campaign with their second album, Sun, Sun, Sun; 2) They’re uniters, not dividers — the quartet’s message of country-tinged indie- and chamber-rock appealed to…
The thinking-man’s-metal tag that hangs on Isis seems bad for business, but guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner and his comrades don’t appear to mind. After all, the jacket of their new CD includes the quote (“Nothing is true, everything is permitted”) that inspired the album’s title, as well as a quasi-footnote conceding…
Everybody knows that Dubya is a diehard country music fan, but even the good ol’ boys would have wrinkled their noses if Trace Adkins had played “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Unfortunately, that hick-hop song didn’t surface until last year, so there was no chance…
Wherein Tom Waits cleans out the closet, holds a garage sale and finds the crowd begging for more, more, more. Hence the 26 soundtrack-compilation-etc. familiars and 30 “new” songs that sound like all the old ones, spread over three discs that glibly and ably summarize the career thus far: “Brawlers”…
Despite the best efforts of several generations of right-wing extremists, it’s impossible to watch this DVD, Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows (Image Entertainment) today and truly understand just how electrifying Elvis Presley would have seemed to the kids tuning in to Ed Sullivan’s weekly variety show in an age…
Last month, two Argentinean children appeared on the popular free video Web site YouTube with their endearing rendition of the classic Sepultura protest song “Refuse/Resist,” live from their living room. Within days, the video became the latest Internet phenomenon. At press time, an estimated four million people had downloaded the…
It’s no secret the devilish dance demons of Sadisco hate Tranzylvania. Besides nursing a grudge over how an overzealous bouncer at the popular weekly goth night allegedly broke Sadisco member Dark Father’s arm last year, members of the freaky faction of DJs and party fiends feel Tranzylvania is “boring and…
The Trucks
Here’s a group of girls who look like they’re dressed for a slutty, gender-bending slumber party, singing a song called “Titties” that asks a question like, “What makes you think we can fuck, just because you put your tongue in my mouth and twisted my titties, baby?” But The Trucks…
Old folks’ music. An antique museum piece. A bleak and forgotten cause. All stereotypes to describe the American-born and -bred art form known as jazz. By these standards, the music created by 76-year-old jazz legend Sonny Rollins belongs locked in a climate-controlled room along with Renaissance paintings, 17th-century novels, and…
When I heard the Rolling Stones were coming to Phoenix on another of their supposed “final” tours, I overdrew my checking account to buy tickets. Usually, when I break the bank for music, it’s to buy rare vinyl pressings by obscure sludge/punk bands like Drunks With Guns, Lubricated Goat, Grong…
American Music: The Hightone Records Story boxed set (Hightone Records) is extremely likable in concept. The imprint is a hardworking indie out of Oakland that has spent the past 20 years documenting modern roots music. In fact, Hightone has released records by some of the last great bluesmen, including R.L…
Thursday 16Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cat Eye: Punk Rock Thursdays with DJ Diesel (rock, punk) Club Central: DJ Luis (salsa, merengue) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) Dos Gringos: DJs Benjamin Cutswell & Kid Vicious (rock, ’80s, old school hip-hop) e4: “Passport” with DJ Tranzl8r (hip-hop mash-ups) Grilled…
Drunk on Tuesday Yeah, Wednesday, but nonetheless, I’ve got a couple of songs from the punk rock quartet Drunk on Tuesday for you. These Phoenician ne’er-do-wells are preparing a full length for your listening pleasure, busting out with some classic/basic West Coast p-rock in your face. Whatever that means. I…
Who Jesus? Ask Willie…. Ordinarily I’m a pretty blasphemous motherfucker; Jesus and I haven’t had much of a rapport since I was in short pants. But, like an early Christmas miracle, I got a little bit of the Lord up in my hot little hands recently that, although its unlikely…
Fat Rhabit Last month Casey Lynch reviewed Fat Rhabit’s self-titled debut EP, giving the local rockers a pretty glowing assessment. Just this morning, the band’s manager Sean Shepherd sent over a couple new tunes from the Rhabit’s upcoming full-length “rock opera-ish” album, due out around March. The Grand Rapids transplants…
Army of Robots Last week I dropped a couple of new demo tracks from Army of Robots for your listening pleasure; after a debauched drinking marathon this weekend, frontman Daggrr hit me off with one more new track for you. “Fabulous” is about picking up a girl (who ends up…
Still Alive Speaking of trite, I really couldn’t come up with a better title for this blog post; you’d think I’d have learned more Espanol in my eleven years in Arizona… but I digress. I just got my hands on the latest release by Still Alive, a reggaeton group from…
Sonny Long Once in a while we music critics get lucky and an especially stinky CD ends up in our hands… an easy target, something genuinely bad. I scored that recently, when I got my hands on some tracks by PHX rapper/R&B-er Sonny Long, whose debut album The Resume is…
Dave Wade Is a freebie… the Dave Wade Trio playing at Trax (the former Sail Inn) this evening. Along with guitarist extraordinaire Charles Bond and drummer J.B., Wade takes every style he can think of and jumbles them all together, be it jazz, reggae, blues, Middle Eastern music, or straight…
