SXSW: Japan Nite There was no shortage of variety to the musical stylings presented at this year’s SXSW Music Conference, but you’d be hard-pressed to find more genres represented at a single showcase outside of Japan Nite at Austin’s Elysium venue. Featuring the likes of Omodaka, Okamoto’s, Chatmonchy, and Jinny…
Michael “Mikey Shoes” Shuman, bassist for hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age is headed to the Yucca Tap Room Tuesday night with his other band, Mini Mansions. The band is on their way back from SXSW, and will be passing through Flagstaff and then Tempe before heading to…
When Mike Herrera takes The Underground stage tomorrow night for an acoustic solo show, the performance will be a quieter one than his past shows at the Mesa club. He’s hoping the vibe he remembers from his band MxPx’s past performances there isn’t muted, too. “I remember the first few…
One of the best, and worst, things about living in Phoenix is that we’re a pitstop on the way to and from loads of other more exciting places.Yes, we’re strategically located six hours from LA, four hours from Coachella, and a long day’s drive to Austin’s South By Southwest. While…
”An old broom knows the dirty corners best.” -Old Irish proverb There’s nothing like St. Patrick’s day falling on a Wednesday to separate the men from the boys. By “men” I mean the poor saps cursed with the responsibilities of grownup life, leaving them unable to really let lose mid-week…
A lot of people bag on Kings of Leon for being wanna-be arena rockers. Yet the “arena rock” tag was never literally true — not in this country at least. While the Kings might be able to, say, sell out three nights at London’s O2 arena, they were still playing…
Carnival Brasil at The Sail Inn Who says you have to go to Rio to experience Carnival. We had more fun than you can shake a Capoeira master at right here in Phoenix at The Sail Inn. Check out the dancing insanity…see photos Arizona Aloha Festival at Tempe Beach Park…
Dear residents of the Phoenix metropolitan area,I hope you enjoyed Cizmarch Madness, Rampage Fest, or the two-hour series premiere of Minute To Win It this weekend.While I’m sure those of you who made it out to one of the “Let’s catch the bands heading to SxSW” shows had a fun…
If you believe that record sales equal musical relevance, then you may think that classical music — which accounted for less than 3 percent of all record sales in 2009 — needs to be locked up in some museum archive along with the dinosaur bones. However, if you listened to…
I’ve always thought that folk and punk had way more in common that people gave them both credit for having.They’re both strongly focused on community and social justice. They’re both working class movements. And while they both achieved mainstream success at some level, the seeds of each movements are to…
Conan O’Brien has announced via his twitter account (@ConanOBrien) that he will tour North America this spring.O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” will span 30 dates will kick off April 12 in Eugene, Oregon and will come through Phoenix on April 30. Much speculation had been made whether…
David Bazan was worried he’d be marginalized. At least that’s what he told me over the phone a few weeks ago, discussing public reaction to his latest album, Curse Your Branches”Honestly, what I actually thought was that the record was going to be so marginal, because anyone who cares so…
Jimmy Martin-Nelson (a.k.a. Death to the Throne) is a little hesitant discussing the success he’s experienced in recent years as a DJ. No less a source than the Web sites of Rolling Stone and Vibe have heaped praise upon the funky Phoenician for his remixes of songs by such heavyweights…
[jump] Shows announced in the past week:Iron Maiden: With Dream Theater, Thursday June 17, 7:30 p.m. Cricket Wireless Pavilion, 2121 North 83rd Avenue Phoenix, (602) 254-7200. Caribou: Tuesday, May 18, 7 p.m. Clubhouse Music Venue, 1320 E. Broadway Rd., Tempe, 480-968-3238. Sage Francis: Thursday, June 10, 7 p.m. Clubhouse Music Venue, 1320…
The musical genre of rock ‘n’ roll has had something of a curious symbiotic relationship with the bombastic world of professional wrestling over the past decades. Both experienced major heydays in the 1950s and inevitably became intertwined in the early 80s when such grapplers as the Fabulous Freebirds began using…
Rocky Votolato had a lot to celebrate last night at the Rhythm Room. To start with, the Seattle singer-songwriter just recently released his sixth album, True Devotion. Votolato’s latest record continues the folksy roots sound that his fans have become accustomed to. In addition to his latest album release, another…
Flying Blanket CD Release Party In Photos The Love Me Nots, Dear and the Headlights, Sister Cities, Black Carl and other local bands rocked the house at Martini Ranch on Friday, March 5, 2010…see photos Landmine Marathon at Chaser’s Despite some technical difficulties in the form of Landmine Marathon singer…
It’d been almost two years since Kirkwood Dellinger released a record, an 8-song EP called Miniature Stallion. The title of that record is a reference to a man whose unfortunate demise came about as a result a colon punctured while having anal sex with a horse. A great title, to…
Dressed in mod 60s garb — men in black suits with skinny pants and ties, women in leggings and polka-dot dresses — equipped with classic-looking instruments and metal vintage microphones, The Love Me Nots look like extras from a spy movie. At first glance, they look like a benign lounge…
The answer to your question: Yes, Mike Watt and his new band, The Missingmen, reached back nearly 30 years to pull out of the musical vault a play a handful of songs by Minutemen, the band that secured Watt’s legend as one of the best bass players in punk rock…
I’ve been behind local metal band Hemoptysis since I reviewed their debut EP nearly a year ago. In fact, I picked the neo-thrashers as our automatic bid to South By Southwest this year, and am happy to report the band is playing a showcase at Soho Lounge on Friday, March…
Minibosses 10th Anniversary Show at Yucca Tap Room It’s official. The Minibosses have been rockin’ covers of 8-bit tracks for a decade. To celebrate, the band played a full on set of their classic game renditions at Yucca Tap Room on February 27, 2010…see photos A Storm of Light &…
