Rose McGowan. Dita Von Teese. Evan Rachel Wood. They’re all talented, beautiful, and they’ve all been to bed with super-freak Marilyn Manson. Though this will never make sense to us, we can’t help wondering what other entertainment types might satisfy Manson’s appetite for the bizarre. Lindsay Lohan: Lohan is beautiful;…
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, South Africa’s premier vocal group, made the world aware of the power of Zulu music in 1986, when they sang on Paul Simon’s Graceland. Since then, they’ve won Grammys and toured the globe, captivating audiences with their uplifting harmonies and amazing dance routines — but they were…
Chris Walla plays guitar in Death Cab for Cutie, and in addition to producing all his band’s discs, he’s helmed albums for a litany of indie-rock heroes (Decemberists, Tegan and Sara, The Thermals, and more). Walla’s been called Ben Gibbard’s “sonic wingman,” but the perpetually cheerful multi-instrumentalist recently headed out…
Before tax specialists H&R Block admitted to overstating its earnings for 2003 and 2004 by $91.1 million, founder Henry W. Block used to appear in its TV commercials, itemizing “the 17 reasons why you should let us prepare your income tax.” Taking a subliminal cue from the Block head himself,…
“I’m basically a guy with tits.”
This is how 16-year-old Red Mountain High School student Kelly Ortiz describes herself at the beginning of her “Pageant Queen” episode for the MTV show Made, which airs Saturday, February 16.
Ask your music-loving friend, record-store clerk, or average Joe on the street which band or artist they think has a finger on the pulse of American rock ‘n’ roll more than anyone else, and you’re not likely to hear the name Los Lobos often. Surely, the likes of Dylan, Springsteen,…
Every man has made at least one. The romantic mix CD is a sure-fire way to woo a woman’s heart or, if your goals are more base, get laid. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, here’s a list of songs you should never, ever include on a mix when trying…
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of tagging along with the Phoenix Bach Choir and the Kansas City Chorale at the 50th annual Grammy Awards . At the end of the day, they took home one phonograph statuette for “Best Engineered Album, Classical” during a star-studded affair in Los Angeles. (For a full list of winners, go to http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Awards/50th_show/list.aspx)
When we think of a classical music composer, we picture a man in a tuxedo, sipping bubbly while writing conservative-sounding scores in his study — not a guy sleeping out in the bush to get his inspirations, tackling ancient myths, and causing controversy. Mark Grey, the Phoenix Symphony composer-in-residence for…
With his unique hairdo, colorful suits, and acoustic guitar, Dan Zanes’ musicality and talent are always a pleasure to behold, regardless of your age. Though he has a more obvious appeal to children because of his songs’ themes (“Father Goose” and “The Hokey Pokey,” for example), the apparently endless energy…
Scan the celebrity support of our presidential hopefuls, and it becomes glaringly obvious that none seems to be attracting the funk endorsement. Sure, John McCain has Sly Stallone’s backing, but coaxing Sly Stone out of seclusion would be way more of a coup. Mitt Romney has Donny & Marie Mormonic…
Even as Haight was serving up a summer of love in 1967, something darker was brewing in the Bay. Not Altamont, which was still a couple of years away, but Blue Cheer — a thunderous blues act that delved into the shadowy corners of psychedelia rather than indulging the flowery,…
In 2002, Maroon 5 released Songs About Jane, which went on to sell something like a bajillion copies around the world. Consequently, the band hit the road for so many years that it didn’t have time to record anything other than live albums until this year’s It Won’t Be Soon…
Admit it: Sometimes you sit around listening to your Sex Pistols records and think, “I wonder which punk-rock icon has the biggest schlong?” Or perhaps you’re wondering, “What kind of pizza would that Food Network dude say goes well with the New York Dolls?” The Official Punk Rock Book of…
Diddy’s in town to throw his bling around for Super Bowl weekend, and you can bet your badonkadonk we’ll be partying with him. Thursday, January 31 is “Super Thursday” at Axis/Radius, and Diddy is set to perform for an hour and a half, along with sets by hip-hop stars Next and Valley rapper Pokafase. Not only will I be there in full regalia (that’s right, I’m actually ditching the ponytail/leather jacket look for once), but I’ll be accompanied by independent singer/songwriter Jody Gnant, who’ll be shooting exclusive video footage for this very blog.
“It’s like almond,” Anand Wilder says, “like the nut.” No, this isn’t a setup for a nut joke. Wilder, the guitarist/vocalist of the abruptly acclaimed, suddenly sanctioned experimental rock group Yeasayer is, at my request, clarifying the pronunciation of his first name. “It was definitely a problem in elementary school…
Ah, the new wave of British heavy metal. Affectionately known to metalheads the world over as the NWOBHM, the genre’s sound was characterized by galloping rhythms, operatic vocals, and guitars that straddled the line between wailing, classical-tinged solos and not-quite- thrash crunch. Epitomized, of course, by its most world-famous icon,…
For those of you going through “year-in-review” withdrawal, here’s a day-by-day account of what the year’s given us so far. January 1: Dick Clark’s “New Years Rockin’ Eve” hardly rocks, with Fergie, The Jonas Brothers, Carrie Underwood, and Miley Cyrus doing the honors. But for the third straight year after…
With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers headlining Super Bowl XLII’s halftime show, we couldn’t help but wonder what other acts deserve the chance to play to one of the year’s biggest crowds. Of course, then also we got to wondering about what rare duets the event could motivate, especially after such great team-ups as Aerosmith and Britney Spears and Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake (which, okay, ended poorly). Here’s what we came up with.
Valley folk-rock guitarist extraordinaire Mat Weddle has gotten plenty of worldwide fame in the past 18 months, since the video for his acoustic cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya” debuted on YouTube in August of 2006, including more than 1.5 million views, kudos from iTunes, and loads of press coverage from the likes of Spin.
And the attention just keeps on coming, as last week, legendary shock jock Howard Stern featured the song on his Sirius Satellite Radio show. Shoehorned in between pointed discussions about ABC reality show Wife Swap and Joey Buttafuoco’s new sex tape during the January 10 edition of the show, the self-proclaimed “King of all Media” heaped plenty of praise upon the bearded Obadiah Parker frontman and the song.
“I’m gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room gets filled with lies like these . . . somebody will listen to me . . .” — James Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington “Been broken down too fucking long . . .” —…
Environmental destruction, greed, suicide, and watching your elderly mother die may sound like strange topics to plumb for optimism, but that’s exactly what Oakland’s Rogue Wave manages to do on its latest album, Asleep at Heaven’s Gate. An exquisitely crafted slice of pop that harks back to the days when…
