Among the various influences cited by this Phoenix-based band on its MySpace page, the band describes its sound by telling a story of various alt-rock musicians meeting in a dive bar as they drown their sorrows to Pearl Jam. The Seattle band is indeed the most obvious of all names…
If he hadn’t choked to death in London’s Samarkand Hotel 37 years ago, how many mediocre records would Jimi Hendrix have dropped by now? Stevie, The Stones, Sir Paul . . . they’re all way past the point where any residual genius is still expected. Since The Gold Experience more…
A snotty music critic’s hypothesis: No relevant artist releases a covers album. Several supporting examples have dropped in 2007 alone, and we’ll get to those in a minute. Contrary evidence is scarce, but Exhibit A for the defense is Patti Smith’s Twelve. Smith has always had a knack for rewriting…
It’s unfortunate that Daddy Yankee is the poster boy for reggaeton in this country. It’s even more unfortunate that he took this album as an opportunity to declare himself the Big Boss (of reggaeton, one would presume), mainly because the shortcomings of El Cartel: The Big Boss wouldn’t be as…
Okkervil River’s new release, The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar), was created with an eye to fun and frivolity (per notes from songwriting frontman Will Sheff). Lucky us! ‘Cause the lyrics — featuring suicidal poets and porn stars, burned-out man-children and their shut-down lovers — could really harsh one’s mellow otherwise. Musically,…
Blues singer/guitarist David “Honeyboy” Edwards wasn’t just influenced or inspired by icons Robert Johnson and Big Joe Williams, he actually played with them. Born in 1915 into a hardscrabble existence in Shaw, Mississippi, Edwards was literally baptized in the crucible of the blues. Oddly enough, though, despite continuous activity, he…
P-Town has played host to a number of giants in the drum ‘n’ bass genre over the past six months, including Goldie, Dieselboy, and Dara, to name a few. And now, to top it off, one of the godheads of the d’n’b movement, Jumping Jack Frost, is gonna be thumping…
There’s nothin’ like a good old-fashioned drag show to kick off a CD-release party. Earlier this month, in what was quite possibly the wildest performance ever to grace the stage at Yucca Tap Room, a swarm of drag kings and queens danced, spanked, and stripped the roof off the joint…
I’ve been burping up the taste of local acid-punk band Blanche Davidian for the past two days — specifically, the carbonated cough syrup flavor of the band’s new “Orange Sunshine” shot, available exclusively at Hollywood Alley in Mesa. The shot was the first drink I had when I arrived at…
The psychedelic effects shine through sonically on Blanche Davidian’s second album. Songs like “Queef Action” and “Rottweilers Keep Following Me” brim with fuzz and roar with reverb behind singer Jamie Monistat VII’s spacey, snarky vocals, and the title track is a 61/2-minute raging jam. There’s even the occasional hippie vocal…
Ignore the cheesy cover art. Though it resembles a no-budget local LP pressing from 1970, Talk of the Town is one humdinger of a vocal album. For 40 years — you read right — Jerry Lawson was a singer with the long-lived a cappella group the Persuasions (who can count…
No one can accuse Gilbert’s Scary Kids Scaring Kids of lacking ambition. The local sextet’s self-titled second album is an epic song cycle characterized by the album-opening anthem “Degenerates,” which casts us into a jackbooted future, judging from all the clicks of pistol safeties and ominous helicopter hovering. The song…
Legend says that blues great Robert Johnson made a deal with the devil at the crossroads in exchange for ungodly musical skill. Dax Riggs, former singer/guitarist of indie-rock duo Dead Boy and the Elephantmen, seems to have had a similar meeting with Satan before recording this album. “Have mercy on…
Goodbye Tomorrow might sound like a ridiculously cynical name for a band that hasn’t even released its first album, but . . . well, okay, it is. One can’t help but imagine that lead singer Travis Bryant and his Phoenix-based crew are on some sort of suicide watch and, judging…
Digital Me is the perfect title for Step Kid’s debut EP. Combining the organic rhythms of hip-hop and jazz with the synthetic sounds of electronica and drum ‘n’ bass, the album has a pleasantly bipolar feeling that is slick and futuristic, but profoundly intimate at the same time. The solo…
From blandly cute child stardom to booty-licious, cold isolationism to diva-level, so-in-luv obsession to pan-media omnipresence — that’s the trail former Destiny’s Child centerpiece Beyoncé Knowles has blazed, and whether any of these poses/phases were sincere seems almost beside the point today. Knowles’ career has been such a master class…
If one band could be held responsible for the nü-metal phenomenon that rose in the wake of grunge, it’s safe to say that Korn would single-handedly take the blame. Defining the genre’s funky rock-meets-rap sound with the down-tuned guitars on their hugely influential 1994 debut, the group created a unit-moving…
Seriously swanky pool parties have been the “in” thing this summer, with tons of hotties and himbos hanging out at superchic swimming holes like the Mondrian and the Scottsdale Inn while downing designer drinks, catching some rays, and listening to DJs work the ones and twos. This weekend’s Wet Pool…
We’ve been spending a lot of time on www.dirtyscottsdale.com lately, so when the weekend rolled around, we were properly inspired to guzzle vodka somewhere in Scottsdale. We checked out Mickey’s Hangover on Friday, August 17, and to our relief, the boozers in attendance didn’t quite fit the bill for the…
I’m sad and I feel like crap because a close friend is moving away. That calls for some goodbye libations. I’m lonely enough in this conservative, transplant-filled, call-center-laden convection-oven Valley, and my only respite (well, aside from cocktails) is my close friends. The bigger this Valley swells, the more it…
Not content to sit still and merely conquer the real world, local b-boy legend and undisputed King of Beats DJ Z-Trip has expanded his empire to include video games. His newest effort is the soundtrack to All-Pro Football 2K8 for X-Box 360. The CD starts out with a stadium shaker…
If you took a hand counter to a televangelist, you’d click six times as many references to Satan as to his former boss — it’s way better for the play-acting to grouse and growl than it is to ape a stoic and benevolent Christ. So why should a screamo gospel…
