Looking for a memorable concert to check out this week after the sun goes down? Consider any of the following eight options on our list of the best shows taking place over the next several nights, which include such acts and artists as Junior Brown, The Garden, Simian Mobile Disco,…
As we’re sure you’re well aware by now, Phoenix Comicon is happening this weekend, which means hordes of geeks decked out in cape and cowl will be invading downtown. Thing is, they won’t be the only ones getting goofy while clad in costume. Downtown Phoenix venue Monarch Theatre, which is…
You’re not going to let a little hot weather stop you from going out, are you? Yeah, we know it’s hot, but you can’t stay cooped up for the next five months. You’re gonna get cabin fever at some point, plus there are a lot of great shows happening that…
Short-wave radio, coconuts, dried-out leaves — they’re random objects to most, but for Phoenix-based found-sound noise project RPM Orchestra, they are musical instruments for the group’s next performance. Though none of it is quite as weird as the time they hooked a contact microphone up to a Slinky. Anyone who…
One of the major things that A$AP Ferg and Tory Lanez have in common is that they both have to deal with being compared to their peers and counterparts: Ferg, a member of the A$AP mob, is often held to the high standards set by his team leader, A$AP Rocky,…
Among today’s slurries of synth pop and typical Top 40 trash, who knew a grunge band could still earn so much critical acclaim? Yet Speedy Ortiz does more than just revive sludgy, downtuned riffs with punk attitude. The Massachusetts four-piece are unique, not only because their lyrics are in an…
How’s your Memorial Day weekend going? D.O.A. – Monday, May 30 – Club Red Seething, agitated and anarchistic, D.O.A. continues to unleash tuneful and frenzied songs, proving they are far from retired. For more than 35 years, the band has unleashed rock and roll tethered to lumberjack toughness and ‘green’…
Besides being a little weirded out by the Grand Canyon State’s liberal gun laws — Aluna Francis, one-half of AlunaGeorge, is excited for her show in Phoenix at Crescent Ballroom tonight. That’s not to say she’s all that knowledgeable about the Copper State. “Well I know you can bring guns out in…
It’s Memorial Day Weekend, but that doesn’t mean live music stops. Check out our picks for live music this weekend, and visit our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. DJ Mustard – Sunday, May 29 – Livewire DJ Mustard is just 25, but already he’s es-tablished himself as a top…
Rather than trying to forget about the dark clouds that fell on his life in the last year, Modern Baseball’s Brendan Lukens found solace in writing a new batch of songs that faced everything head on. Lukens — who formed the pop-punk quartet with co-songwriter/guitarist Jacob Ewald, bassist Ian Farmer,…
The image of the reluctant rock star is sometimes more alluring than some throbbing Gibson jockey who does it for the babes, booze, and banknotes. When asked in a television interview if he ever wanted to be a rock star, Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman Anton Newcombe, whose band is playing…
In the world of heavy experimental music there’s nobody with as much clout as Aaron Turner. He founded the seminal record label HydraHead, fronted the post-metal goliath Isis for more than a decade, and has had his hand in so many groundbreaking side projects (Old Man Gloom, Mamiffer, Jodis, Split…
Looking for a memorable show to see over the next few nights? Consider any of the following seven options in our list of concert picks for this week. As always, if you’re looking for even more live music in and around the Valley, be sure to check out our comprehensive…
It’s summertime in the Valley, so it’s about to get disrespectfully hot outside. It’s as if Mother Nature herself is telling you to move, so with triple digits on the horizon it seems like a great time to find some cool shows in the Arizona high country and beyond. There…
It’s a big weekend for landmark local shows in the Valley. At least three different music venues are celebrating birthdays — including The Rebel Lounge, Valley Bar, and Scottsdale’s Chop and Wok — as is indie band Japhy’s Descent. There are plenty of other notable shows also happening, of course…
Japhy’s Descent became a band in the summer of 2011, and that’s right around the same time I became a music writer, so in a sense we, or at least our careers in Phoenix, have grown up side by side. Since then, I’ve written about them. Booked them. Watched them…
There have been moments when Frightened Rabbit drummer Grant Hutchinson was scared for his brother. The words that vocalist and guitarist Scott Hutchinson wrote for the band’s second album, The Midnight Organ Fight, shocked him. “It was terrifying to listen to some of those lyrics,” Grant Hutchinson recalls in his…
There are times when journalistic integrity and putting one’s self well outside of the story are simply too difficult to entertain, let alone do. When the opportunity to speak with drummer Jean-Paul Gaster of Clutch about the band’s upcoming Phoenix show popped up, I met it with, quite honestly, a…
Say what you want about FORM Arcosanti (and our own Troy Farah has already said plenty), but you must admit it’s different. It’s a music festival that this year booked a big-name headliner, Skrillex, and brought roughly 30 more bands, singers, and DJs to Arcosanti, the Paolo Soleri-designed arcology about 70…
Why did I come to FORM at Arcosanti? Was I looking for a good time? Was I looking for something new and different? Or maybe even enlightening or inside? I’m still not sure. But there’s something about music, the desert and seclusion that calls the soul, and lures weary eyes…
Looking for a memorable concert to see over the next few nights? Consider any of the following eight options making up our list of the best shows taking place this week, which include such acts and artists as Filter, Orgy, Atreyu, Titus Andronicus, and Wild Nothing. There’s even a Prince…
If hip-hop or heavy-duty death metal happen to be your bag, this weekend offers you a few different opportunities to indulge your love of said genres. Fans of the former, for example, can check out Vince Staples’ gig at the Crescent tonight, Young Thug’s show on Saturday at the Marquee…
