By Lilia Menconi Mmmm. Boobies. Now check the slideshow. If you happened to be a ’90s rocker (pick your flavor — butt or punk) in Phoenix, you surely caught a Plinko or Pelvic Meatloaf show as you made your rounds among the Nile, Party Gardens, and the Mason Jar. The…
Being a booze pig, I pride myself on knowing the location of every dive bar in town. It gets a little more difficult when you are in the sixth-largest city in the country. Because our desert-gobbling sprawl is so huge, I often ask friends and strangers alike, “Do you know…
Given the band/album name and cover image, I half-expected this band to sound like either cheesy ’80s cock-rock throwbacks or raucous hardcore punk. It’s neither. Although the band describes its music as “metal/hardcore/Southern rock” on its MySpace page, I’d say that description’s only about two-thirds accurate. It’s definitely hardcore metal,…
Danger Mouse is arguably the most adventurous producer to tackle a Beck project since the Dust Brothers helped birth a 1996 baby called Odelay (the Dusters’ return for 2004’s Güero doesn’t count). The resulting sound is satisfyingly dense and intricate; the neo-surf of “Gamma Ray,” the delicate psychedelia of “Chemtrails,”…
Wild rumors are standard-issue for the intentionally enigmatic Reggie and the Full Effect. But if the latest Internet scuttlebutt is true, Last Stop: Crappy Town is Kansas City native James Dewees’ (meaning the entire band’s) final album before he goes full time as the keyboardist for My Chemical Romance. Such…
The members of Journey must be feeling the band’s name is more meaningful than ever these days. It’s unlikely any band has a comeback as thoroughly modern and convoluted as these AOR mainstays, pulled back into public consciousness by HBO and YouTube. Since the 1996 departure of lead singer Steve…
Rich and famous bands into their 10th year and sixth album demonstrate a worldview tempered by easy women and shysters. Hard-working bands with a growing cult following, like the Bay Area trio Totimoshi, demonstrate a worldview tempered by . . . actual observation! Singer and guitarist Antonio Aguilar describes the…
Rick Rubin already had been working for ZZ Top — the Houston trio recently enlisted Rubin to produce its next album — and now ZZ Top works for Rubin as well. Billboard reported that ZZ Top has signed a new record deal with Rubin’s American Recordings, an imprint distributed by…
When Coloradans talk about great musical artists with local roots, they seldom mention jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Frankly, the omission is mystifying. Frisell has been releasing albums under his own name since 1984, and there’s not a single embarrassment in his extensive catalog, despite the variety of stylistic options he’s…
While people have often picked on Lovett for his looks (they’re just jealous they didn’t have a brief marriage to Julia Roberts), you can’t really argue with Lovett’s merits as a performer — the man’s released 13 albums, won four Grammy Awards, and appeared in more than a dozen films…
If you’re planning to head to The Door in Tempe to hang out at Groove Candy this coming Hump Day, a minor course correction is in order, yo. That’s because the crackalackin’ Wednesday-night hip-hop affair has flipped the script and moved northward to Lyte Lounge, 7419 East Indian Plaza in…
By Benjamin Leatherman It always takes some dexterity to maneuver through the cramped aisles of the seemingly closet-sized East Side Records, 217 West University Drive in Tempe. But believe us, a little fancy footwork and extra is totally worth visiting the shop, since East Side’s got all the good shit,…
Arriving at Chandler Cinemas on a recent Saturday night feels like walking into a subpar episode of The Twilight Zone. The strip mall that houses the cinema (along with a Target store) is huge, but at midnight on a weekend, the entire place is gloomy and dead quiet. When I…
Let’s start off on a positive note: Fetti Profoun is an immensely talented rapper, capable of spitting 16 witty bars that could dust most competitors at MC battles. And the instrumentation and production here are stellar, from the smooth sitar sample that drives the song “Blue Skies” to the sexy…
As the Southern-rap money train runs out of steam, it’s fitting that the style is currently — and, perhaps, terminally — resting in the land of its neon-drenched, reality-detached origin: Miami. Flo Rida, proprietor of the most-hyped release of this commercial down cycle, started his career as a hypeman for…
Katy Perry’s capable of remaking herself for any promising target demographic. In her teens, she delivered achingly sincere contemporary Christian fare that didn’t turn out to be achingly sincere after all, and her One of the Boys persona — flirty, snarky tart — feels equally phony. The production, by a…
The Electric Bunnies’ music makes me feel as though I’m beating off to pornography while my wife sleeps in the same room. Good thing I ain’t married and can enjoy the Electric Bunnies in public. Wow! This four-track, vinyl-only EP is an excellent example of the Miami garage punk rock…
A crew of Digital Age composers, the Republic Tigers pass around song files like intraband demos, loading them onto ProTools rigs and sculpting massive creations from the initial song chunks. Starting with the hard elements of rock — guitar, drums, bass line, melody — the Kansas City band stacks vocal…
Who would ever have thought Stone Temple Pilots would top off 16 drug- and drama-addled years by hitting the road for a reunion tour? Then again, rehab’s expensive, and with at least three albums’ worth of solid music (out of five), the band can make a killing with 65 greatest-hits…
The Atlanta crunk duo of Kaine and D-Roc (Ying Yang Twins) may be better known for their collaborations (the singles “Get Low” and “Salt Shaker” with Lil’ Jon, Britney Spears’ In the Zone album, their Chemically Imbalanced album with Wyclef Jean as producer), but the pair’s latest album, A.T.L. Holes…
Life apparently goes on for the DJs of the recently closed nightspot Glam. Not only is Faux Show founder Jared Alan hunting for a new home for his decadent dance extravaganza, but Kevin the Makeout Bandit and the other beat-spinning boys of the former Word Up! Saturdays have debuted a…
The movie may not be highbrow, but the Rocky Horror soundtrack contains some great songs. Of course, “The Time Warp” is timeless and essential listening for anyone who wants to learn how to do the Time Warp dance in the film, but so many of the 14 tracks here could…
