Washed Out @ Crescent Ballroom

If you become the soundtrack to FX’s Portlandia, you’ve reached a new kind of hipsterdom. Or is it meta-hipsterdom? The semantics boggle the mind. The show satirizes the many eccentric personalities you’ll find in the “keep it weird” Oregon city, all of which could be considered hipsters on the sliding…

Grieves and Budo @ Chasers

Do our rappers need a long-term view? Are they shooting themselves in the foot by devoting their albums to the nitty gritty of the day-to-day? Take Keith Richards, for instance. It took him half a damn century to air his dirty laundry: the ladies on the tour bus, the squabbles…

Privileged Fridays @ Oceans Seven

Dario Varela rocks the decks like nobody’s business. The 29-year-old DJ has become a staple of Latin dance events in downtown Phoenix in recent years, having spun cumbias and reggaeton tracks in such spots as Sky Lounge, Silver, and PHX Nightclub. Varela’s sights are now set on conquering Scottsdale, as…

Club Candids: Red Light Disco at Club Red

Despite the attendance being a bit of a disappointment to its promoters, Red Light Disco at Tempe’s Club Red last Friday night was far from a letdown for those who managed to show up. Rave kids, EDM enthusiasts, and colorful clubgoers were in the house as DJs spun from an…

Que Se Vende: Impacto Musical Top Selling Albums of the Week

Want to know what new release discs and platters are moving across the Valley at local record stores? We’ve got you covered with another installment of What’s Selling. Shopping at Spanish language record shops is a whole lot different than a regular trip to your local Zia Record Exchange. Discotecas…

Wayne Static on Pighammer

If you’re a Static-X enthusiast, then you’ll probably like Pighammer, the new album from Wayne Static. Actually, when Wayne Static founded Static-X, his original vision was the concept of Pighammer–more electronic and industrial, not based on live performance. Imagine plenty of the evil disco, compressed guitars and hazy vocals, smothered…

Tech N9ne @ Marquee Theatre

As far as American cities go, Kansas City isn’t at the top of the list when it comes to violence, tunes, and scandal. But that wasn’t always the case, with the city’s music and organized crime worlds inextricably intertwined. Kansas City was a hotbed of jazz in the ’40s, acting…

Avenged Sevenfold @ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion

Since 1999, Huntington Beach’s Avenged Sevenfold has been on a tear. Emerging from the Southern California metalcore scene, the band firmly established itself as a force in mainstream metal, with an eclectic style that draws as much from hair metal theatrics as it does hardcore breakdowns. The band’s five studio…

Music of Lord of the Rings in Concert @ Jobing.com Arena

We’re sure that somewhere, there’s a Lord of the Rings fan — they like to be referred to as “Ringers,” mind you — who is totally comfortable with the opposite sex, doesn’t live in his mom’s basement, and doesn’t spend his days dreaming of Mordor and reciting poems about Tom…

Lindsey Buckingham @ Celebrity Theatre

Lindsey Buckingham was always the most punk of the soft-rockers. Never mind his following up Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours with the weird-as-hell Tusk, recording vocals in the bathroom and trying to get Talking Heads with a marching band on the title track; even his Fleetwood hits are models of stripped-down intensity…

New Found Glory @ Marquee Theatre

Mainstream pop punk fizzled out as a commercial prospect when the Hot Topic demographic traded in their Hurley T-shirts and baggy shorts for guyliner and skinny jeans. But no one passed the memo on to New Found Glory, who have stayed true to the brash, poppy force that defined the…

Red Light Disco @ Club Red

Sam Groove is one technologically inclined cat. The 25-year-old DJ wields a laptop, iMac, Pioneer DJM-400 mixer, and various MIDI controllers, amps, and more than 10,000 MP3s at his disposal. When he steps up to the stage at Club Red, 2155 East University Drive in Tempe, during Red Light Disco…

Club Candids at Martini Ranch

There were plenty of shenanigans at Martini Ranch on Sunday, October 2. Fans of hair metal rocked out to Metalhead while others danced in the packed Shaker Room to the sounds of DJ Dave “Wave.” We captured the fun in this week’s Club Candids slideshow…

Flier of the Week: Dearspeak

Be sure to join Dearspeak this Saturday at New City in Phoenix for a very special occasion.They’re playing a show in honor of the release of their new EP, Oh For Freedom. Plus, Dearspeak will be performing with additional members for this show!The event will be an enjoyable evening of biographical music…

What’s Selling: Hoodlums Top 10 Selling Albums of the Week

Want to know what new release discs and platters are moving across the Valley at local record stores? We’ve got you covered with another installment of What’s Selling. After taking most of 2010 off, Chicago indie-pop rockers Wilco are back strong with last week’s The Whole Love release taking top…

Win a Pair of Passes to See Star Slinger at Rhythm Room

There’s no getting around it. No matter how awesome DJ Star Slinger may have been before getting shouted out by Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, AKA Troy on one of TV’s best shows, Community, he was immeasurably cooler afterward. The cred boost wasn’t entirely necessary. Slinger, known as Darren Williams…

Flier of the Week: Quick Henry

Pale Face Sailor, Another Tomorrow, Woodworks, and Every Letter will all be sharing the stage with Quick Henry to bring you a great start to your weekend.If you want to witness the action, check out the scene at the Rogue Bar on Friday night. It all starts at 9 p.m…

ZZ Top @ Comerica Theatre

If you have trace memories of immortal Houston blues-rock combo ZZ Top, it’s probably of two bears with long beards spinning guitars, a drummer without a beard (named Beard), and legs (“she’s got . . . ’em”). A few years before that, though, just before punk broke, Circus Magazine described…

Incubus @ Comerica Theatre

Depending on your perspective, Incubus was either the last big alternative band of the ’90s or the first big post-alternative act of the 2000s. Make Yourself, the band’s 1999 release, launched them into radio-dominating superstardom, featuring enough concessions to the burgeoning nu-metal scene to fit in with System of a…

Viva Voce @ The Rhythm Room

Love connections turned musical duos, like The White Stripes and Matt & Kim, often attract attention, but the unique chemistry sometimes steals the spotlight from the music itself. And, yeah, that often happens with Viva Voce, too. Everyone loves a love story, even if the band doesn’t particularly like to…

The Zombies @ Celebrity Theatre

Breathe In, Breathe Out is the new record from The Zombies. Yeah, those Zombies, the band that recorded “She’s Not There,” “Time of the Season,” and “Care of Cell 44.” The band that recorded Odyssey and Oracle, which created the framework for most modern psychedelic pop. The new record finds…

Blondie @ Foundry on First

Growing old in rock ‘n’ roll is one tricky beast, especially when you are Blondie, a band with a catalog defined by youth culture: sleek, sexy, funky, and ever stylish. Panic of Girls, the new record from Blondie, struggles with the contradiction. At 66, it’s hard to think of singer…