With new album w h o k i l l, Merrill Garbus — the fearless, ferociously talented woman behind beatnik pop outfit tUnE-yArDs — aims for the history books. “I always want to be at the forefront of progressive pop, like Deerhoof or the Dirty Projectors,” Garbus says. “They’re changing…
A year ago, Odd Future were the hottest shit in the rap game. They were crude, smart, and original. Fans and critics caught on, excited by the obnoxious rhymes and lyrical violence. But now that Tyler the Creator’s album Goblin has dropped to lackluster sales, critics are re-evaluating. Maybe Odd…
Move over Mara Salvatrucha.Watch your backs Bloods and Crips. The rabidly loyal Insane Clown Posse fanbase otherwise known as Juggalos have earned the title of “hybrid gang” in the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment. The report states that, “many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity…
Bob Marley once said that “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Reggae music, especially, has a way of making you forget your problems. Maybe because the kinds of people who listen to it are the usually same kind of people who enjoy getting…
It’s been a long time since the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson first began orchestrating one of rock’s most anticipated albums. Finally, after nearly four and a half decades of half-releases and bootlegs, Capitol Records is issuing the official release of the Beach Boys’ long lost album Smile. Wilson reconstructed his…
The last time Roger Waters pulled a big marketing stunt, it made a lot of people really mad — so I’m not at all surprised that the piggy bank that showed up yesterday at the New Times building proves that Waters isn’t into desecrating sad-indie kid memorials every time he…
If electronic dance rock from Arizona is your thing, then you need to know about Analog Society.Analog Society was one of the bands that was in the running to be the opening act at this year’s Fall Frenzy. They’re a five-piece local band with a cool rocker chick and they’re worth a listen,…
On the official Rock the Revolution site, presidential candidate Ron Paul says: “I always knew that if you were going to have a revolution, you needed two things. Young people, and music.” Well, it used to say that at least. Now it just says: “Rock the r3volution Tour Has Been…
It’s happened to us all. You’re excited to catch a show, and in your over-exuberance, you wind up drinking too much and missing the whole thing. This week’s installment of Record Heat finds Brad Dwyer struggling with the same situation. We know you probably got your Halloween adventure out of…
“I Want To Know What Love Is,” “Cold As Ice” and “Urgent,” then you’re in luck because Foreigner is making their way to Phoenix in January.If punk rock, underground hip-hop, or cabaret punk are more your style, plenty of venues will be able to offer you those types of shows…
Most of local band The Dead Eyes of London’s music has a distinctive fuzzy rock sound, but surprisingly, the track that seems to be a fan-favorite from their new album is the soulful, almost doo wop-y track, “In the Middle of the Fog”. The track is off their current self-released, nine-track…
Christopher Danowski Danowski is the co-conspirator of Theater in My Basement, which is working on a new series of performance/video/installations on the nine muses and planning for the next Teatro Caliente festival in January 2011.When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play…
Phoenix-based rapper RoQ’y TyRaiD is no stranger to political discussion via hip-hop. His last album, The Podium, featured songs culled from weekly appearances on the Redy Set Radio Show on 99.3 The Beat FM, where RoQ’y addressed political issues and the news of the week with a new tune. With…
Former emo boy Sonny Moore is bringing dubstep to the masses as Skrillex. Benjamin Leatherman examines the roots of the bass-heavy genre and examines its rise in popularity. Meanwhile, indie rock supergroup Wild Flag brings their show to Phoenix for Halloween, and Das Racist puts the smart in smart ass.We’ve…
Just in time for Halloween, Tugboat has managed to creep the internet like it has never been creeped before. (That’s counting “Two Girls, One Cup,” by the way.)Just last week we told you about the series of creeptastic videos Tugboat released to promote their October residency at Long Wong’s. But…
This week, New Times ran a list in our print publication highlighting some of the most interesting posts published at Up On The Sun over the past week. Here are links to those posts. What’s the scoop on Up on the Sun’s new webcomic Record Heat? What songs best fit…
It’s a good thing there aren’t many residences near Big Surf Waterpark in Tempe. It’s creeping toward midnight on a Friday night in October, and the Sound Wave Music Festival is in full swing, causing a maelstrom of electronic beats to echo across the pools and slides. While Phoenix expat…
The knock on underground hip-hop has always been that it’s not sufficiently “fun.” Hip-hop radio stations routinely light up with requests for crass, chorus-driven ditties (often of the Southern variety), while alternative rappers are too often dismissed as humorless and boring. Sure, most people can agree that Mos Def and…
In 2010, former Sleater-Kinney guitarist and NPR blogger Carrie Brownstein announced she was starting a new band. A MySpace page went up. No music, only a cryptic message: “What is the sound of an avalanche taking out a dolphin? What do get when you cross a hamburger with a hot…
It’s a pretty common complaint around town that awesome acts often skip Phoenix on tour. Well, here’s a story that argues the opposite. New Orleans-based rap duo The Knux are kicking of their tour here in the Phoenix Metro, at Scottsdale’s Rogue Bar on Tuesday, November 8. The band often…
Clanging acoustic guitars, pitched somewhere between Led Zeppelin’s ballads and John Fahey’s American Primitivism, and then, a voice, singular and unmistakable. It is the voice of Lou Reed: “I would cut my legs and tits off when I think of Boris Karloff and Kinski / In the dark of the…
Catching the band at the Marquee will be an entirely different beast than getting sloppy at the Birds Nest at the Phoenix Open, where the band has played during the past two tournaments, but the Marquee show should definitely be sufficient for all of the local hippie chicks and jam…
