As much as I prefer music that bears the stamp of the town that birthed it, there’s something to be said for a band that becomes so obsessed with another region’s music that it transforms itself to the point that it plays the music perfectly. The Love Me Nots, regarded…
Superficially, Asylum Street Spankers appear to be two things they are not: neo-/retro- pre-rock ‘n’ roll pop/swing/whatever (remember that Lounge Nation rag from the ’90s?) and a zany band that does “jokey songs” (remember the Dead Milkmen and Weird Al Yankowhasis?). Wrong. While these Texans perform ancient tunes and originals…
In the past few decades, there’s been an overlap in Los Angeles between the somewhat more academic avant-garde scene and punk rock. The Minutemen wove minimalism, jazz, funk, and rebel politics into a punk aesthetic (or was it the other way around?), and in the ’70s, très avant collective Los…
When I listen to pop music, I like to have a good time enjoying its light, airy guitars and super-sweet vocals. I’d like to think that pop music and I came together on our own terms, happy to be in each other’s company. Those forces behind the International Pop Overthrow…
Why is it that we crave controversy from our pop singers? Might it be because we love to look at their lives through a microscope? Are our culture and our lives that dull and boring that we are forced to react to every little thing someone like Jessica Simpson does?…
When Slipknot chose the title All Hope Is Gone for their fourth studio album, they definitely weren’t referring to the expectations of their audience. If anything, when the album dropped last summer, the band’s legion of fans got everything it wished for in the form of a hard-rocking collection of…
If you’ve ever drowned your sorrows in suds on a Sunday night at the Yucca Tap Room, you know that DJ Dana gives you the perfect soundtrack for whatever heartbreak ails you, spinning classic country discs from her vast collection of wax as well as hosting a local country act…
Jen Deveroux knows how to put on one hell of a party. Just look at the 30-something scenester’s wildly successful “Adult Swim” shindigs she and indie promoter Psyko Steve presented this past summer at the Hotel San Carlos’ rooftop pool. (The events were so crowded that the Phoenix fire marshal…
VW TrainwreckDramaturgy(self-released)”Punk rock, comedy, and politics” can be a great combination — look at NOFX. But when a local band declares they’re playing with these elements in their self-penned biography, I get a little nervous. VW Trainwreck’s new album, Dramaturgy, is exactly why. With a band theme song, a track…
Since it seems pretty popular to show up to work hungover on Fridays, we figured Thursday night would be a sure fire way to put together a stellar slideshow. We headed to one of our favorite drinking holes, The Yucca Tap Room, to snap some shots and get the weekend…
This flier of the week comes to us by way of suggestion from New Times contributor Jose Gonzalez and, I have to say, it portends great things for The Necronauts’ show at Trunkspace tomorrow. The lo-fi indie/punk band has a cool sound, full of grumbling, fuzzy guitars that often remind…
Sound the City is the latest Valley band to carve out a large fan base before picking up high school diplomas, following the lead of successful locals Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Greeley Estates, and The Maine. The pop-rock band, whose members are seniors at Corona del Sol and Desert Vista…
At first listen, The Expendables sound like just another ska-punk band from California, a state teeming with such bands. But on closer examination, it becomes clear that this Santa Cruz foursome owes as much to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest as they do to Sublime or No Doubt. Expendables songs…
I admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for cheesy ’80s prog metal. If you perused my collection of old cassettes, you’d find all sorts of stuff featuring intricate dual guitar leads and operatic vocals, all performed by dudes with ridiculous poodle hair. Heir Apparent, Crimson Glory,…
Go ahead and count the number of British musicians who came to the Valley in the past year — you may even be able to count them on both hands. It’s a low number, thus making the stop by Brighton boys Fujiya & Miyagi all the more intriguing. Their name…
Eric Crespo was doing fine as the guitarist for Portland, Oregon band Alarmist when he decided to go his own way and start his own one-man band. The result of his brave ways is Ghost to Falco, a passion project that does Portland’s booming music scene justice. Crespo’s calm but…
While a helluva lot of music from the 1990s really sucked (Spice Girls, Ace of Base, all those boy bands), one brief moment toward the end of the decade caused mainstream robots to wrap their heads around the Swing Revival. With Swingers re-defining cool and raking it in at the…
Logan Howard (a.k.a. DJ Element) has cooler friends than you’ll ever have. Among his plethora of pals are a slew of artists, rappers, and turntablists, all of whom can transform an ordinary club into a playa’s paradise filled with phat beats and hip-hop treats. And they’re doing just that during…
Rarely does a death metal act succeed in spooking a seasoned critic like me, but I have to say there was truly something unsettling about Iwatchedherdie.’s The Ill Effects of Hope. Midway through the seven-song disc I just felt vaguely disturbed by the imagery, the haunting keyboards, the crushing guitars,…
On Friday, February 20th, we felt it was high time we head to Hanny’s (for best results, check the slideshow). It’s only been the most talked about downtown bar since, well, before it even opened. Geez, what’s our problem, anyway? Get on it already!If we had to pick one word…
Rarely will you find me at a Scottsdale dance club on a Saturday night — if you’re looking for an Up on the Sun contributor, keep your eyes peeled for Kelly Wilson — but, if you do, there’s a very high probability it will be at The Rogue for “Sir”…
Like it or not, DJ William Fucking Reed’s debaucherous weekly dancefest Shake! has been a Saturday-night institution for booty-shaking hepcats around P-town since launching in 2005. And after four years of rocking the Rogue Bar in Scottsdale, it’s still managing to survive and thrive amidst an ever-turbulent nightlife scene. One…
