Critic's Notebook

Top 10 selling CDs at Eastside Records (217 West University Drive in Tempe) for September 20 through 26: 1. The Dwarves, Dwarves Must Die (Sympathy for the Record Industry) 2. Leftover Crack, Fuck World Trade (Dig) (Alternative Tentacles) 3. The Cramps, How to Make a Monster (Vengeance) 4. Knights of…

The lines are just beginning to be drawn at the Battle of the DJs spin-off competition at Flip Flops in Tempe (216 and 222 East University). This Saturday night, October 2, marks another installment of the first-round eliminations, and next Saturday will be the last chance for you to put…

Like Sloan, the Tragically Hip’s massive success in Canada and anonymity here is more vexing than Alanis and Celine’s popularity here — and that’s saying something! Like Sloan, the Hip have a rich, arena-ready sound that captures the power-pop punch of Cheap Trick. But unlike the Beatles-inflected Sloansters, the Hip…

Disc one: London Calling, the original, remastered and all that. Brilliant, beautiful, nostalgic, powerful and perfect. Disc two: “The Vanilla Tapes,” lost and found rehearsal and demo tracks. A sketchbook jam pad pile of tasty odds and ends. A Clash fan’s dream. Disc three: a DVD containing a 45-minute documentary…

I hold in my hands the newly mastered Stereotyperider album, Prolonging the Inevitable, on a CD-R, the Sharpie permanent marker ink barely dried, with no artwork or bio or anything. Fine by me — my ears tell me this is a seismic follow-up to their debut, Same Chords, Same Songs,…

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the ascendancy of edge-sanded, pop-friendly punk has sent underground iconoclasts into the grimy garage sound that was one of punk’s main inspirations. With a raw primitive attack, The Husbands’ Sarah Reed and Sadie Shaw deliver surf-guitar thunder with gale…

On Demons, its second album, this Baltimore band demonstrates that emo needn’t be the sound of 15-year-old guys complaining about a dateless prom night. Liars Academy plays a muscular post-punk hard rock that’s distinguishable from the alternative rock of Bush and Live because it’s not as catchy or as memorable;…

Here’s the line no one can resist quoting in reviews of Wet From Birth, the fourth album by the Omaha-based electro-punk act the Faint: “I was acting indifferent at the merch booth putting on makeup,” singer Todd Baechle sneers nonchalantly in opener “Desperate Guys.” People excerpt the line because it…

Top 10 selling CDs at Hoodlums (ASU Memorial Union Building in Tempe) for September 13 through 19: 1. Nelly, Suit/Sweat (Universal) 2. Authority Zero, Andiamo (Lava) 3. Flogging Molly, Within a Mile of Home (USA Side 1 Dummy) 4. Various Artists, Garden State soundtrack (Sony) 5. The Faint, Wet From…

I vote for change — to this lousy bill! It doesn’t bode well for Arizona’s image in the national arena that the rest of the country (the “battleground states”) gets Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, and the Dave Matthews Band for this…

Hirsute anti-fashionista DJ Stefascope is back on the scene for the first time in years, hosting his own night, Mopery at the Sail Inn in Tempe (26 South Farmer Avenue). Stefascope is one-half of the Cute Lil DJs (complementing My Friend Andy, who calls Portland home now), the duo that…

One thing we know about this lineup of punky malcontents is that they don’t want George W. Bush to become president again. In order to achieve this aim, they’ve all agreed to put aside all bipartisan spitting and mosh-pit shoving for a cause they can all rally behind — good,…

Steve Earle created a firestorm when he wrote a sympathetic song about John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” so he’ll probably take monster flak for this anti-Iraq war, anti-Bush set. With the exception of “Rich Man’s War,” an atypically folky and acoustic ballad that delves into the economic and social…

A punk rock club with its own record label promises great things, and that’s just what Rogue Records — named after the Scottsdale nightspot — aims to do. Of course, its first release by The Half Empties isn’t going to reinvent the punk prototype of loud and fast tunes, but…

Seven Mary Three lead singer/guitarist Jason Ross is thankful that his band still has a fervent-yet-intimate following. Since its 1995 debut, Seven Mary Three has undergone major changes. Admittedly, Ross “found” his own voice after mimicking his idols on songs such as “Cumbersome” and “Wait.” “I learned to sing how…

L.A.’s Moving Units never set out to lead a dance-punk revolution. Although they’re often lumped in with like-minded bands from New York, such as the Rapture and Radio 4 — and although they still can’t shake the obvious comparisons to post-punk legends like Gang of Four and Television — they…

Top 10 selling CDs at Zia Record Exchange (2510 West Thunderbird Road) for August 30 through September 5: 1. Insane Clown Posse, Hell’s Pit (Psychopathic) 2. Lamb of God, Ashes of the Wake (Sony) 3. Papa Roach, Getting Away With Murder (Geffen) 4. Danzig, Circle of Snakes (Evilive) 5. Björk,…

Dwelling among the fungi and bottom feeders, in the shadows of the hipster ecosystem known as a regional music scene, appears that rarest of creatures, the noble underdog. The underdog appears at first to have the markings of its more dominant peers. In the case of Detroit’s High Strung, it’s…

Music fans who missed the Warped Tour have a second chance to bake in the sun all day on the playing field at the Peoria Sports Complex. The Edge-FM 103.9 is hosting its annual summer celebration, Edgefest, with a lineup of 40 bands on five stages, including Story of the…

Curran and his band, the Nightlifes, sound like they just stepped out of a time machine sent back to 1949. They’re all young cats, but they perfectly capture the raw vibe of what was in the air when rockabilly, jump blues, electric East Texas blues grit and juke joint R&B…

On its full-length debut, this Los Angeles trio does a commendable job of mixing atmosphere and muscle. Though the band’s calling card is singer Gena Olivier’s Nico-like hypnotic control, Midnight Movies repeatedly back up her musings with a sharp guitar-and-keyboard assault, especially with the monstrously devotional “Love or a Lesson.”…