“Emperors of Japan” sounds like something somebody would name their band while under the influence of psychedelic drugs. The Phoenix band sounds like it’s on a fabulous trip, too. Their latest album, Activator, opens with a song called “The Jesus Bee,” which is all woozy surf guitar with indecipherable, upper-register…
While 18-year-old guitarist and principal Eyes Set to Kill songwriter Alexia Rodriguez’s lyrical phrasing continues to advance, her preoccupation with depressive themes suggests a deeper wisdom already at work. She may not have known it at the time, but ever since she first scrawled her band’s name in her notebook,…
In this new Putumayo collection, we look at a variety of jazz-inflected, electronically inspired songs that come mostly from Western Europe and are influenced by the many Middle-Eastern and Latin musicians who live there today. One of the first tracks to catch your attention is Toufic Farrouk’s “Destins et Désirs,”…
Jack Johnson would undoubtedly make a wonderful dinner companion. Unlike the average rock star, who might well break the good china, wipe his face on the curtains, call your mom the C-word, and violate your Pomeranian, he’d be charming and kind, even if he found out you use environmentally unfriendly…
If a guy looks like the missing link between Bat Boy and a young Jason Vorhees (in that scene at the end of Friday the 13th where the, um, rather intent-looking lad shoots out of the water) and plays it up, then you know he’s probably got no shame about…
Though Waters, Gilmour, & Company are no longer touring as a band (their last appearance was at Live 8 in the summer of 2005), Floyd fans have a good opportunity to experience the band’s music in a theatrical format in this show that covers the band’s career, from classics like…
If you combined Elvis Costello’s pop sensibility with the White Stripes’ early, stripped-down sound and Weezer’s geek chic, you’d have something like Los Angeles indie trio Miniature Tigers. Sans bassist, the group’s songs tend to hang on the high end, but with all the colorful jangle and grit of garage…
Over the past year, the Goat Head Saloon, 1423 South Country Club Drive in Mesa, has given groovy types around the PHX a place to trip out and chillax to the kind sounds of local jam bands and other irie musicians. And now, the Mesa jam shack will be taking…
I had so many memories of drinking in the afternoons with transvestites and guys doing lines in the bathrooms at the cool, old haunt that used to occupy the corner of Seventh Avenue and Indian School Road. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tarnish any of those “good times.” But,…
Ever since we loitered at the Scottsdale Civic Center as 14-year-olds, we’ve been dying to drink at AZ88. Its banana-boat lighting and pink bathrooms were so enticing that we couldn’t wait until our 21st birthday. Now that we’re well past that milestone, AZ88 has endured as one of our favorite…
If somebody had told me that one night, I’d be on my knees, staring at Ludacris’ crotch for two hours, I’d never have believed them. But here I am, on the Saturday night before the Super Bowl, kneeling right in front of the stage at Celebrity Theatre, where Ludacris is…
Phoenix-based hip-hop artist Vocab Malone is clearly passionate about two things: God and rap — so much so, that he spends his 15-song album explaining this to you, underscored by unremarkable old-school beats. While this topic is interesting for a few songs, such as the moody album opener “Hard” or…
Roughly two years after her comeback album with New Bohemians (2006’s Stranger Things), Edie Brickell gets together with stepson Harper Simon for a collection of new songs that has a stronger musical connection to her solo material than to her old band. The disc has a laid-back feel, despite the…
In the midst of his career renaissance as the silver-fox master of many musical milieus comes the 30th anniversary reissue of Nick Lowe’s debut solo album. Jesus of Cool has been restored to its original title and running order after first seeing life in the U.S. as Pure Pop for…
It seems every time you turn around, a new Hot Topic-approved emo band appears. So, to break away from the rest of the gloomy pack, Seattle quintet Emery has relied on its unpredictable song structures and articulate/semi-religious lyrics. Beginning with their successful debut album, The Weak’s End, Emery has been…
Rock stars often sing of desperation — touring is hell (fans and groupies want of piece of you, sigh), gimme shelter (in a private helicopter), and “you don’t have to live like a refugee.” Rebellious punk bands sing of disaffected-youth angst and how soul-destroying life in the ‘burbs is. Then…
If you’re looking for the ideal business model of how to achieve pop success in a marketplace where radio play lists keep shrinking and album sales are no longer a financial surety, 32-year-old Australian singer Sia Furler is as good a candidate as anyone. Ethereal in every regard — her…
G. Love’s voice rides a rollercoaster of melodies — up, down, and around hairpin turns with a crafty grace that owes as much to old-school hip-hop as it does to classic R&B. While Love (born Garrett Dutton) gets top billing, his music’s most distinctive element is his backing band’s shuffling,…
Baby Dee became a legend in New York’s art music underground for her antics with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and her penchant for roaming the city on a gigantic tricycle, smoking a cigar and wearing a bee costume. Onstage, and on her recent Safe Inside the Day CD, Dee’s shamanistic…
Normally, we avoid pimping our company’s shit in this column (so as to avoid becoming soulless corporate shills and all), but we figured y’all would let us slide on plugging our annual Ultra DJ Spin Off on Friday, February 15, at Myst, 7340 East Shoeman Lane in Scottsdale. A half-dozen…
Released in 2005, this was the second compilation (of three, so far) designed to showcase the artists on Ludacris’ DTP label. Of the 17 tracks here, Luda appears on eight — three are solo tracks (if you count “Intro”), and the rest are group efforts like “That’s My Shit,” with…
Some of the hottest parties hit this place during Super Bowl weekend, so by the time Sunday rolled around, we had a mean case of social anxiety disorder. We figured all the other photographers in town would snap their fair share of glitz and glamour shots over the weekend, so…
