This year’s Arizona State Fair has an Old School Jam, featuring Naughty By Nature, Tone Loc, Coolio, Young MC, Klymaxx, Club Nouveau, and Timex Social Club. What many don’t realize is that these bands already toured together once — in 1995, when many of them were at their height of…
By Jonathan McNamara When Music Editor Martin Cizmar asked me to accompany him to Mexico to cover a Roger Clyne concert for the debut of his column, Sonic Truth, I knew it was going to be a big deal. But it wasn’t until I was hanging from a scaffold trying…
By Martin Cizmar
It’s been a good day in metal, what with Metallica opening their World Tour here in Phoenix Tuesday night, and now Guns N’ Roses announcing a release date for Chinese Democracy.
By Martin Cizmar
You know a local band is big when they get not one but two CD release parties. The Stiletto Formal will be all over town this weekend, celebrating the release of ¡Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta, Fiesta! at The Clubhouse on Friday and The Rogue on Saturday.
What makes Barack Obama such a pop culture icon? There are numerous things, but here we present The Top 10 Reasons Barack Obama Is Cool.
By Martin Cizmar
I don’t know why anybody would want to celebrate or encourage Phoenix and Tucson growing together, but apparently someone does, which is why there’s a Phooson festival leading this week’s upcoming show announcements.
Epic is a word that frequently punctuates Larry Elyea’s conversation. Not enough times to warrant a drinking game — like with Sarah Palin and the word “maverick” — but enough to notice it’s the ultimate compliment he can bestow. Sitting in the dramatic control room of his Mind’s Eye Digital…
By now, even if you’ve never seen the 2004 Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster, you probably know that the band was rescued from the brink of its own creative and personal disintegration through a couple years of intensive group therapy sessions led by life coach Phil Towle. Granted, St…
Hey all, SWM looking for some fun and possibly a LTR. Figured I would come on here and try this, as recent career success has made me famous among 14-year-old girls, but I’m far too old for them. I am a musician and I’ve been plugging away in various bands…
By Jonathan McNamara Local bands echoed through the night as bachelorettes hung out near the stripper poles on Thursday, October 9, 2008. See more photos in our Thursday Night Out slideshow…
When will Republican politicians learn that most musicians are Democrats? At the very least, they could make a couple calls before using particular artists’ songs in their campaigns. That would prevent musicians getting bitchy about their songs being used without their permission by politicians they don’t endorse.
By Steve Jansen Full disclosure: A contributor to this blog is currently in a relationship with a member of Miniature Tigers. Just received word this morning that the new Miniature Tigers music video was just added to MySpaceTV Videos today. The featured tune, “Cannibal Queen,” is most definitely one of…
By the ripe old age of 7, Opeth leader Mikael Åkerfeldt already considered himself a metalhead. So the disappointment he felt when his grandmother gave him a classical guitar at that age seemed only natural. Like many an aspiring headbanger, Åkerfeldt pined to rock out with screaming, amplified distortion. “I…
Experimental indie-rock quartet Portugal. The Man — which alternates rocking hard, bluesy, and soulful, like an unhinged Zeppelin, and getting mellow and chamber-poppy with strings, brass, and organs — is led by singer-guitarist and chief songwriter John Gourley, who hails from Wasilla, a small town in southeastern Alaska not far…
In an early scene from one of our cinematic treasures, 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Phoebe Cates’ character “Linda” points out, “There are three girls at Ridgemont who have cultivated the Pat Benatar look,” before the camera hones in on three chicks with striped shirts, tights, spiky hair, heels,…
Few musicians polarize critics like Neil Diamond, but love him or hate him, you can’t deny his ability to write unforgettable pop numbers. Just consider how many of Diamond’s songs have become standards and then, as covers, became standards again. While trying to catalog such a list, we discovered a…
By Jonathan McNamara Fans of the Twilight Series likely have this track on heavy rotation on their iPods, but we mere mortals might be interested to know that the song “Decode” by Paramore from the upcoming film adaptation of Twilight is currently available for a listen on Stephenie Meyer’s Web…
You have only weeks to make Antique Scream your favorite local band. That’s right, a band you sometimes could’ve seen three nights a week on Valley stages, a band used to peering out from those stages to see a “bartender’s only” show then playing their asses off anyway, a band…
Henry Rollins says he is down on bended knee, begging you — to vote. It may be hard to imagine Rollins — muscle-bound, sweaty, tattooed — begging, with his furrowed-brow intensity, for anything. But he’s known for being a man of a thousand media, showing he’ll get his point across…
This week, Panic at the Disco hits town with the Rock Band Live Tour. Some music journalists might jump at the opportunity to interview the dance-punk band, but I’ve already had my chance, and the experience proved to so unpleasant that I just couldn’t bother again. Even for good money…
By Thomas Bond U2 “Under a Blood Red Sky” and “Live at Red Rocks” CD and DVD deluxe edition (Universal) With the U2 deluxe edition CD reissue campaign underway in earnest, this eight-song live EP and concert DVD may seem just a small weigh station between landmark albums such as…
This week, we present “Byrne After Reading,” our new advice column by musician/artist (and former Talking Heads frontman) David Byrne. Dear David: I am a singer who used to be in a popular and highly influential ’80s band until we broke up because we all hated each other. Since then,…
