It’s no easy feat to maintain a popular free weekly residency in downtown Phoenix and still be one of the biggest-drawing bands in metro Phoenix. But desert reggae band Black Bottom Lighters manages to find a way. Even though the group cranks out acoustic tunes every Wednesday at Copper Blues…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
It’s not uncommon to see 10 bands on a line-up on any given Friday night, and when it comes to local festivals, that number averages around 20. But the AZ Brutal Fest is taking it to an entirely new level at Rogue Bar in Scottsdale on Friday, April 17, and…
“Festival” is a strong word for what transpired at Hayden Lawn on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus Saturday. But that is certainly not to say that The Underground Foundation’s fourth annual Clusterfest was not a rousing success for the ASU student club concert promoters. There were multiple (two) stages, grass,…
The Sidewinder Music Festival, a country music event scheduled for April 25-26, has been postponed, organizers announced today. The reason given in a statement to New Times was “strategic restructuring.” Etzel Entertainment President Tom Etzel said in the press release, “All of our corporate and community partners have been very…
Mitchell Hillman listens to more local music than just about anyone in the Valley. He presents his picks for best new music in his column, Right Hear, Right Now. Strange Lot – “Into The Night” Strange Lot have just released the first single from their forthcoming full length album Another…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
Bad Religion’s first album came out in 1982. That’s 35 years ago. They’re still pumping out new albums and selling concert tickets nationwide.With this kind of longevity comes a massive catalog of hundreds of songs. Therefore, it’s understandable that you may have slept on a couple of gems on your…
Heavy metal burlesque is nothing new — the Suicide Girls have been doing it for more than a decade, and dance troupes full of rock music lovin’ tattooed ladies have been popping up in every city. I once went to this club underneath the historic D&F Clocktower in Denver, called…
There is little Zia Records hasn’t done to support the music scene in the Valley of the Sun. From consistently releasing music compilations, as well as providing an outlet for local musicians to sell their records, tapes, and cds, to offering the latest music on multiple formats for appreciative fans…
View image | gettyimages.com On Wednesday, one of the most successful Arizona hip-hop artists, Random (a.k.a. Mega Ran), spent the better half of the day fielding phone calls in regard to the “diss track” he released as an April Fools’ Day joke. The track consisted of a menacing beat that…
Mitchell Hillman listens to more local music than just about anyone in the Valley. He presents his picks for best new music in his column, Right Hear, Right Now. Harper and the Moths – “What Are We Giving Up” It was only three weeks ago that Harper and The Moths…
Given the nature of “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” Arlo Guthrie’s signature song, clocking in at 18:37 and containing 2,833 words, one might think Guthrie would be the talkative sort. Maybe other renderings of that epic song, some stretching 30, even 45 minutes, have Guthrie being more economical with his words. In…
All-around bad-boy rapper Mega Ran has had enough of rappers in his hometown talking smack behind his back, so today, he released one diss track to rule them all, complete with art depicting a pen all but bleeding red ink…
Every Wednesday is Heritage Hump Day! That’s because every Wednesday from now to the end of the year or before someone really big stops us, Heritage Hump Records (a temporary subsidiary of Onus Records) and New Times will be bringing you a limited edition collector’s item of a much beloved…
Ultra Music Festival is 36 solid hours of EDM-themed overstimulation. Superfamous DJs! Pop-star cameos! Half-naked ladies! Oiled-up beefcakes! Dancing robots! Human tacos! Toothpaste Man! Pyrotechnics! Cryo cannons! Fireworks! Everything at Ultra deserves an exclamation point. Or maybe ten. And there’s never fewer than 120 decibels rumbling through your already stimuli-flooded…
Though Leftover Salmon has been making music for the better part of 25 years, it took a six-pack of beer to inspire the band’s latest album. However, not in the typical sense of drinking one in the search for ideas. Instead, Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery tapped the band for a quartet…
Any veteran of Ultra Music Festival who attended this year’s three-day event was pleasantly surprised by the increased organization and overall maturity of the audience. Certain seemingly simple measures, like an 18-and-over age policy and significantly improved perimeter security, taken following 2014’s trampling of security guard Erica Mack and the…
There have been a lot of changes at Ultra Music Festival. The audience is over 18 now. And many of rave culture’s familiar accoutrements — finger gloves, glow sticks, rage totems, etc. — have been banned under the fest’s new Prohibited Items policy. There are those of adult age who…
April showers? Not so much in the Valley of the Sun. While the rest of the country experiences the fresh air of spring, we are hit with our first wave of hundred-degree temperatures. But that’s okay, because the season also kicks off with a bounty of band tours, particularly those…
Maarten Hoogstraten has been through tumultuous times the last couple of years. In late 2013, Paul Bäumer, his fellow member of electro-house duo Bingo Players, passed away after a short battle with cancer, which was a devastating experience to say the least. Hoogstraten carried on, however, at the behest of…
For Eazy-E, the concept of gangsta rap was fully formed in his mind. By 1986, the genre, which nobody then called “gangsta rap” (“reality rap,” please) had begun to sprout in L.A. by way of Ice-T’s “6 ‘n the Mornin’,” which was patterned after Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D’s “P.S.K. What…
