Local favorites Andrew Jackson Jihad once asked, “Why doesn’t Mirah come to Phoenix?!” The singer-songwriter (born Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn) has spent the past decade with the Pacific Northwest indie fortress K Records. Whether over the backing of her own acoustic guitar or in collaboration with the likes of Phil…
We imagine you young ‘uns are sick of hearing how fab the 1960s were, but it was a time when assorted strains of roots music were literally in the air. Take Aurora “Rory” Block — as a teen in NYC’s Greenwich Village early in that decade, she heard folk and…
Ozomatli play the type of music one would expect from a band that takes its name from the Nahuatl word for an Aztec astrological sign. Their mix of Latin, hip-hop, funk, rock, jazz, and reggae comes from a group that stretches from seven to 10 members, playing both traditional rock…
With acts like Band of Horses, Grand Archives, and Fleet Foxes already on board, Seattle-based indie label Sub Pop seems to have firmly established itself as the leading purveyor of country-tinged folk-pop played by sensitive, bearded guys from the Pacific Northwest. Thus, it hardly seemed like a radical departure for…
Zach Sciacca (a.k.a. Z-Trip) may not look like the Easter Bunny, but just like ol’ Peter Cottontail, the renowned Phoenix-born turntablist is planning on delivering some treats this weekend. We ain’t talking about sugary peeps or gooey chocolate, however, as Sciacca will instead be serving up some sweet beats as…
We were a little hesitant about shooting at Saturday’s debut of the returning Hip Joint DJ night at the Paisley Violin. Not that we don’t adore the little eatery/coffee shop/art gallery/anything venue down on Grand Avenue…we just weren’t sure it could wrangle a real party crowd.But, holy crap, were we…
Generally, I write positive reviews about bands that are good at what they do. I like a little bit of everything, so it’s not that hard for me to appreciate either a delicate ballad or ear-shredding thrash. Shit, I genuinely love the first Britney Spears record, and think Toby Keith…
This weekend is probably the biggest three days of music I can remember in my time in the Valley, with two multi-day festivals (Country Thunder and Tempe Music Fest) along with Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Fall Out Boy, Leonard Cohen, Bonnie Prince Billy and Calexico all coming to town.Think you’ll…
One of the things I love best about Bright Eyes (yes, I unapologetically love Bright Eyes) is the way the band mingles so many rootsy sounds in songs that end up sounding contemporary. It’s for that reason, and not just Matthew Reveles’ vulnerable, emotive vocals, that I compare the Tempe…
Bruce Springsteen is an icon who’s divided music fans like few other artists have. There’s a sizable faction of fans that worshipfully buys every album, attends every concert, and generally believes that “The Boss” can do no wrong. Nothing written here is going to persuade them not to go to…
It’s perfectly normal to admit you enjoy a small dose of the Grateful Dead. One need not be a hippie or a ponytail enthusiast in his 60s to enjoy the Dead, as the popular — and painfully accurate — stereotype dictates. For example, I enjoy putting on American Beauty and…
If your first assumption was that Phoenix alt-rockers Mondegreen came up with their name as some sort of quasi-artsy way of saying “green world,” you wouldn’t be alone, but you’d be wrong. Despite its vaguely Frenglish vibe, the word “mondegreen” was actually coined by American writer Sylvia Wright in 1954…
Respecting a band for being out there and doing its thing in front of strangers night after night is something we take for granted in this evolving music culture. We (myself included) are too quick to judge a band after hearing only one or two songs. We dismiss it as…
It’s that time of year again, when Valley country fans by the thousands kick up dust in the trampled alfalfa fields at the Canyon Moon Ranch outside Florence, where the annual Country Thunder music festival trots out four days of the biggest names in contemporary country music. After a lackluster…
If you were a club kid or music fan back in 1995, chances are you might have heard about a swanky little soiree called The Hip Joint. Seeping with style, the fly fete went down weekly during the middle of the Clinton era at bygone venues like Jamaican Blue in…
Maybe it’s because I don’t listen to a lot of it in my off hours – that time when I want only the sweet, sweet voice of Karen Carpenter to sooth me over AM radio – but I’m constantly surprised by the depth and quality of the Phoenix metal scene…
We trust Hoodlums to put on a damn fine event. So when we heard about the “Support Your Local Band” Poster Art Show, put together by Hoodlums and the Spraygraphic.com community, we were in, baby!On Saturday, March 28th, we perused the walls that were filled with some stellar artwork, honoring…
There’s not a ton of live music in town this weekend — especially compared to next weekend’s musical bonanza of Country Thunder/Tempe Music Fest/Springsteen/Bonnie Prince Billy/Calexico/Leonard Cohen — so this week’s flier is for a dance night. Not just any Dance night though, as Benjamin Leatherman wrote in this week’s…
Grindcore, for the uninitiated, is the extreme genre of metal that prizes blast beats (i.e., drumming that mimics both the speed of a machine gun and the impact of percussion grenades); ultra-heavy, lightning-fast guitars that aim to disembowel you with every riff; and scary, demonic slaughterhouse growls. Basically, the kind…
Given the liquid gyrations of their anime styling and the general sexual repression of their Japanese homeland, it just makes sense that a group of Japanese dudes would start a “Japanese action comic punk band” called Peelander-Z. But we hear you say, “Didn’t Peelander-Z form in New York City?” Before…
It sounds strange to say, but the idea of a white dude from the Midwest starting a hip-hop label doesn’t even seem that unique anymore. Ever since Atmosphere turned Rhymesayers Entertainment into an emo-rap empire and Insane Clown Posse built Psychopathic Records into a marketing juggernaut that Gene Simmons would…
Rockabilly is a genre known as much for its flamboyant, ’50s-rooted imagery as it is for its music, so the juxtaposition of rockabilly music and an old-fashioned burlesque show seems like such a natural fit that the only surprise is that nobody thought of it sooner. Big John Bates and…
