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…
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. The Senators – “Hummingbird” “Hummingbird” is the first new song since last year’s deluxe release of Harsher Than Whiskey / Sweeter…
Though it’s premature to call Gus Campbell a guitar god, he is a true talent. One could use adjectives like “wunderkind” or clichés like “He’s an old soul,” but the truth of the matter is the kid can flat-out shred for any age. At 16, Campbell has a maturity and…
Before the Riot Grrrl movement of the early ’90s or before the advent of social media, there wasn’t a network of like-minded all-female bands across the country working together. All you had was the notion of DIY bands, pockets of groups in far-flung areas of the country maybe mining similar…
Twentieth-century writer Charles Colton coined the saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” For veteran club DJs Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, their modern interpretation of the phrase was to take the essence of their favorite ’60s records, mesh it with their favorite electronica club sounds, and create a…
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…
Watching Ultra Music Festival’s idyllic official after-movies, you might get the impression that UMF is some kind of utopian music-based society where the young and beautiful run only in slow motion, where everyone is welcome and everything is pleasant. In some ways, this is true. You’re more likely to have…
In the song “California (Hustle & Flow)” from Social Distortion’s Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes, singer Mike Ness professes, “Life gets hard and then it gets good / like I always knew it would.” Ness, the one-time Fullerton, California, street punk and lone surviving member of the legendary So Cal…
There’s no doubt that THC is all about making you feel good. It causes you to laugh, feel nostalgic, forget all your worries. Plus, it makes barbecue taste 10 times better. And by THC, I’m talking about Texas Hippie Coalition…
Phoenix Lights is giving Sunday Funday a whole new meaning this weekend when Hardwell, Zeds Dead, Robin Schulz and more DJs drop in to Civic Space Park in downtown Phoenix for day raving antics. A little background for the youngins or those not on-point when it comes to “alien” sightings…
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…
On the gorgeous spring afternoon that Dinosaur Love agrees to meet me, he insists on rendezvousing in front of the giant red Tyrannosaurus Rex outside the Phoenix Art Museum, because of course he does. The singular mind behind this obsessive music project, better known as Peter Kulikowski, arrives modeling a…
The past Harper and the Moths record was based on a depressing time. Singer Harper Lines had moved to Seattle for love, and what resulted was a heartbreak record aptly titled Love Songs for the Damned — released after Lines trekked back to his home state of Arizona and reunited…
Forget being left out of the Grammys; you rarely hear about anything in those heavy metal and hard rock in the news, unless someone passes away or gets arrested for something ridiculous. But it doesn’t really faze metal and rock fans that much. We don’t really care about whose dating…
By Liz Ohanesian We can’t fault the person who thinks there are no female DJs playing this year’s Coachella. After all, Annie Mac — whose affiliation with BBC Radio 1 makes her pretty high-profile — is buried one row from the bottom of the third-day line-up. (One other lady DJ,…
If ever a song were to frame the longevity, trajectory and torque behind the Boston based heavy metal act, Godsmack, it would have to be the first single, “1000hp”, from their sixth studio album of the same name. While the track sounds like a piece of hype music, the autobiographical…
Right now, things are still nice outside as far as the weather goes. But if you’ve lived in the Valley for any stretch of time, however, you’re probably well aware by now that its not gonna last much longer. Like it or not, we’re on the cusp of warmer temperatures…
On Tuesday, a California federal jury ordered Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke to pay $7.4 million to the estate of Marvin Gaye, finding that the duo ripped off Gaye’s classic “Got to Give It Up” for their 2013 song of the summer “Blurred Lines.” The two songs share a similar…
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…
