No calendar year is complete without at least a handful of insurgent, crit-consensus staples that can’t quite win over the populace. M.I.A, Strokes, Liz Phair — we’re waving sadly back at you from a future where even Maroon 5’s label status is uncertain. Among 2007’s more deserving memes is Battles,…
Following in the footsteps of Latina crossover artists like Shakira and Aterciopelados, this Mexican pop singer takes her music into directions from pop-flavored rancheras and rock to reggaeton-inspired moments. Critics may dislike this lack of focus, but that is precisely the point. Though born in Mexico, Rubio was raised in…
Scottsdale’s debaucherous nightclub scene has gotten a bit dirtier in recent weeks, courtesy of new hot spot Dirty Pretty Rockbar, 7443 East Sixth Avenue. The swanky hangout, operated by the peeps behind the equally chic Pussycat Lounge, has been clogged with A-listers and other booful collar-poppin’ types ever since it…
Some 50-odd years ago, deep in the bowels of Texas, a young sharecropper’s son was hired by a white family to stand silently in the parlor and crank the arm on the Victrola. As the strains of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith pumped out of the horn and into his…
This week, Club Candids decided to check out the Rhythm Room All-Stars show, where Big Pete Pearson and crew blared their tunes from the stage all night. This Phoenix favorite didn’t offer the shiny youth we’re used to seeing, but there was plenty of fodder for photos nonetheless. (Click here…
“I’ve never had so much fun standing in line in my life!” My friend Bones is thrilled that we are, indeed, standing in line at Scottsdale’s Martini Ranch on a recent Tuesday night, because when we get to the end of this line, we’ll be meeting the members of Tesla,…
If you happened to go out on Saturday night, you may have noticed the thick stench of rampant pheromones and incredibly attractive people completely losing their minds. We think it may have had something to do with the moon, because at the Clubhouse Music Venue in Tempe for FauxShow’s Menomena…
When Desiree Duponte, one half of Phoenix death metal duo Hellen, passed away on Friday, April 13, it was a tragic case of destiny unfulfilled. Desiree, along with her sister Mindy, had been creating some of the most innovative, eclectic metal to ever come out of the Valley, and the…
Remember in 1997, when you’d had just about enough of bands that would step on the distortion pedal and yell at the top of their lungs for the choruses, then everything but the bass and drums would drop out for the verses and get all spooky like the Pixies? Sure…
The heirs to the Replacements are hip-deep — Lucero, Drive-By Truckers, and Bottle Rockets leading the heap — but that shouldn’t dissuade you from parking your ass in front of Two Cow Garage. The Columbus, Ohio, trio is just a step behind that illustrious company, led by frontman Micah Schnabel’s…
Second acts in rock are mostly tiresome, so it would seem Radio Birdman’s reunion is a completely unnecessary exercise by a band whose existence was nearly as obscure as it was brief. But nearly 30 years of mythologizing dictated the inevitable comeback. Such is the case of these Aussie proto-punks,…
When legendary producer Brian Eno heard Giorgio Moroder’s studio work on the Diana Ross classic “I Feel Love,” he said that it was the most perfect track he had ever heard, and it was the future of all music. Though that might have seemed revolutionarily impossible in 1977, he was…
Hailing from Denver, The Photo Atlas sputter and jerk with convulsive rhythms, dancing over jagged guitars and frontman Alan Andrews’ nervy, falsetto squeal. Though the formula may not be the most original, the execution on the quartet’s debut LP, No, Not Me, Never, is so terrific, and the hooks dig…
Musicians shouldn’t be allowed to use the word “raw” to describe their own work. But the terrible twosome known as the Black Diamond Heavies is hereby awarded carte blanche. From the distorted “whoo!” that opens the song “Guess You Gonna,” it’s clear that the Heavies like to keep things as…
All right, you metal maniacs! Here’s a hard-hitting album that’ll give you a sore throat just from listening to it. 3 Inches of Blood takes all the melodic sensibilities of ’80s metal monsters like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and serves them with a heavy dose of modern thrash madness…
With the numerous lightsaber-wielding chicks adorning the promotional flier for female-focused rave She Wars, it’s likely a few nebbishy nerds or sci-fi freaks will show up at the Icehouse, 429 West Jackson Street, looking for their own personal Padmé. Unfortunately, the dozens of DJ dames from around the globe who’ll…
It’s Saturday at 2 p.m. I’m hung over from a mammoth drinking session in Apache Junction, but I woke up early this morning and started driving. I’m on a mission. See, I found this industrial ladder on Craigslist, but scribbled the address and now I’m lost in north Phoenix. How…
Now is as good a time as ever to redefine “desert rock.” For most people, it means expansive country rock with a couple of cacti in the background. But now, thanks to urban sprawl, it often means expansive country rock music surrounded by lots of sports bars and move-in-today apartments…
Seductive jazz singer Wensday made her first Phoenix appearance at Alice Cooper’s 2006 “Christmas Pudding” concert, where she performed a soulful version of Cooper’s power ballad “Only Women Bleed.” That track is included on Torch Rock, with ad-libbed lines like “Just kick that jackass out of town.” The other 12…
What is Ozzy now, a hundred or something? You’d think the old coot would call it a career rather than further tarnish his legacy. Like most icons past their prime, though, maybe he just doesn’t know when to say when. He’s clearly saddled by idiots. Why else would he choose…
Near the conclusion of Austin Powers (the first one), Dr. Evil taunts our hero, “There is nothing worse than an aging hipster.” Veteran femme rock icon Grace Slick has said “old people” look, uh, foolish playing rock ‘n’ roll. It is a nice trick if one can manage it —…
This Portland trio clearly doesn’t want people to know much about its background. Its latest album, Friend and Foe, though visually impressive with its cutout CD booklet and clever use of contrasting colors, contains almost nothing in the way of information about the band. The band also makes a concerted…
