The holiday season always calls for some self-reflection, no matter if you’re a Nordic Satanic metaller keeping track of virgin sacrifices, or Taylor Swift rolling in gold coins Duck Tales-style from sales of her new CD — oh yeah, did you know if you call Papa John’s to order pizza,…
Look, you can keep the emotive rants and daddy-issue screeds, because at its best, metal’s always about doomsday. This is the year the Mayan calendar ends, making the title of Massachusetts metal band Shadows Fall’s seventh record, Fire from the Sky, seem not so coincidental. “These days, the world seems…
When The Faint’s seminal album, Danse Macabre, was released 11 years ago, its combination of pulsing synths and heavy guitars made the band stand out. Sure, bits and pieces sounded like New Order or Depeche Mode, but there was a modern urgency that still rings loud and clear over a…
It’s one thing to make a cartoon that affectionately sends up the theatrics of death metal. It’s another thing entirely for Brendon Small, co-producer and co-creator of the animated Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, to make three albums of astute extreme metal under the guise of his imaginary creation. Metalocalypse is…
Rock bands like Korn and Muse may be all about dubstep now, but even before emo rocker-gone-EDM-DJ Skrillex arena-rockified the genre, John Dadzie, better known as 12th Planet, was spreading the bass-heavy word. Let down by the drum ‘n’ bass genre’s refusal to change, the DJ started exploring the emerging…
Thanksgiving is a time for traditions both good and bad, whether it involves gathering at Grandmama’s house for the annual government-sanctioned gorge on mashed potatoes and stuffing or tolerating your creepy uncle’s yearly onslaught of awful jokes. Meanwhile, local house music godfather Pete “SuperMix” Salaz will once again be staging…
We’re taking the day off to do the Thanksgiving thing: give thanks, eat too much, and pass out watching football. Hope you enjoy your day. We’ll be back tomorrow, but in the meantime, turn up this funky Thanksgiving cut from Vince Guaraldi’s 1973 soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. If…
The final night of Sticky Fingers this past Friday went down much like any of the other editions of the long-running indie dance night. Both floors of Bar Smith were packed with members of the young and hip crowd sporting a variety of quirky fashions, DJ favorites like Borisimo and…
To continue my rant from last week about bitches who rock (see The Butcher Babies, Boobs and Blood) and in conjunction with Revolver Magazine’s announcement of their 2013 Hottest Chicks in Metal calendar, I must pay tribute to two more female-fronted bands that I saw last week at the Marquee…
Over a year and a half has gone by since Rebecca Black made her dreadful debut, which means it’s time for another American tween to publicly embarrass herself to the rest of the country’s delight. Just like Rebecca’s video, this one got millions of hits and over 73,000 comments on…
Rapper T.I. must have seen something he liked when he stopped by Phoenix this past weekend. His Atlanta-based record label Grand Hustle is showing Arizona some love with a new mixtape, The Phoenix Edition Mixtape. The 17-track release showcases some of the Valley’s up and coming hip-hop acts including Yung…
It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what’s pulsing in the world of underground shoegaze pop, but it seems to sound an awful lot like the hazy, languid rock of San Francisco’s Young Prisms. Heavy, droning, swirly, fuzzy, gothic, melancholy, and cathartic, Young Prisms’ music is reflective of an…
In the hands of Dutch symphonic metallers Epica, just about any subject matter can take on operatic proportions, from tales of romance to quantum physics. But lately, the six-piece’s style, which builds heavily on classical instrumentation, has focused on current affairs. With 2012’s Requiem for the Indifferent, guitarist/vocalist Mark Jansen…
Gliding across a musical spectrum, from the infectiously groove-laden “Itchin’ on a Photograph” to the dance pop of “Tongue Tied,” from the indie quirkiness of “Naked Kids” to the bubblegum pop of “Sunny Day,” Grouplove clearly has a group love of all forms musical on its debut album, Never Trust…
Second best isn’t that bad, right? To call horrorcore rappers Twiztid — Jamie Madrox and Monoxide Child — the second most popular Juggalo act (after Insane Clown Posse) doesn’t seem all that fair. ICP are the originators, of course, making Madrox and Child something like apostles to Shaggy 2 Dope…
If the eggheads at NASA ever decided to send another compilation of tunes into the far reaches of the universe (à la the “Music From Earth” collection that’s aboard the Voyager spacecraft), we’d suggest including a track or two from local DJs Joseph Mercado, Byron Fenix, and RMC. Though the…
Rush does its own thing. Resolutely, absolutely, completely. The “Holy Triumvirate’s” fierce individualism can be viewed as a tribute to one of its heroes, Ayn Rand, but it’s okay if you’re not into the Objectivist thing; you can appreciate Rush for exactly what it is: a power trio that’s enjoyed…
Last weekend’s cold spell made finding an appropriate outfit for Saturday night shenanigans a bit of a challenge. It was way too cold to rely on go to cute dresses or button down tops, so it was time to dig cozy hoodies and sweaters out of storage. In spite of…
You know, we’re not sure we can trust this Grouplove band. Just say it out loud. “Grouplove.” Sounds pretty hippie-ish, right? Might as well be named “Communelove,” or “Socialistlove,” right? Anyway, beyond that, the Los Angeles-based outfit named its debut LP Never Trust a Happy Song, and it’s got songs…
Here’s what I expected from The Butcher Babies on the opening night of their “Hush Little Baby” tour: Sexy, sexy bitches; electrical tape-adorned boobs; vocals ranging from erotically melodic to ear-shatteringly demonic, intermixed with headbang-worthy breakdowns. For those of you who don’t know what you’re missing out on, we’re not…
Hate him or love him for it, there is no question that UK-born producer Christopher Mercer (a.k.a. Rusko) helped change popular notions of dubstep, making the genre ubiquitous in American dance clubs. In 2009, American tastemaking indie EDM label Mad Decent started pushing Rusko’s UK bass stateside. By that time, American…
It’s not clear whether Reverend Peyton actually is an ordained minister or just likes the moniker, but his Delta-blues-meets-moonshine-fired-hillbilly songs are undeniably sermon-like, with an all-or-nothing fire-and-brimstone delivery. Then again, all that hootin’ and hollerin’ also makes him sound like a man possessed. In any case, it’s the spirit of…
