Features

Looking for some holiday cheer?

They might help. They might not. But it’s something.

?We at New Times, like Bill Clinton himself, feel your pain. Every year election day rolls around and you’re struggling to plant that cherry tree and buy all the stovepipe hats you can, all so that you can have the best damn party possible.

Whether they’re already familiar with Numero Group’s catalog, music aficionados owe it to themselves to stop by Monorchid Gallery this Wednesday, October 12, to visit the label’s one day only pop-up record store in Phoenix. Active for more than 10 years, Numero Group has a massive catalog that often resembles…

It has to be surreal at times, looking at the San Francisco Peaks on a clear day, and thinking, “How in the hell did I get here?” For veteran show promoter Tyler King, who co-owns the Flagstaff venue The Green Room, this probably happens often. King, who is old enough…

By all accounts local rapper Jose “Low Key” Hernandez was both talented and generous during his short time on Earth. According to his family, Hernandez spent Christmas Day 2015 with his friends, handing out blankets to the homeless and toys to kids as part of the charitable organization he founded,…

Diversity and adversity often go hand in hand. In the case of England’s Culture Club, the two words have always come bundled together, even if the former is more descriptive of what the group represents, and the latter is something they seemingly love to create. A product of the early-1980s…

The Vans Warped Tour is what you’d call a chaotic experience. In fact, during any of the various stops that the touring concert festival makes each summer, it’s easy to get lost in all the bedlam of the hectic cultural menagerie going on all around you and listen to a…

“Jameson,” the ninth track of Zella Day’s 2015 album, Kicker, stands out like a grassy meadow in a metropolis. Sparse in its vulnerability and despair, the song is just Day finger-picking acoustic chords as some gentle guitar lines float through the background. Day was just 18 when she wrote the…

Did y’all hear any rumors this week about a potential Rage Against the Machine reunion tour happening this summer? Probably so, considering it was a major topic of discussion after the mysterious-looking website ProphetsofRage.com was endorsed by a RATM-approved Twitter account on Tuesday, May 17. The relatively spartan-looking site, which…

Attention residents of Chandler: despite what you might have seen on Facebook recently, Slim Shady probably won’t be moving into your hood anytime soon. And if you’ve heard or read otherwise, it’s safe to say you’ve been bamboozled by an Internet hoax. Last week, a story from the website Dailynews11.com…

Waiting 364 days since last year’s Record Store Day probably put a serious ache in the hearts of record collectors, but that veil of sadness is about to lift. Saturday, April 16, is the day vinyl fanatics and music freaks have been rabidly awaiting. Collectors and fans will flood local…

If there were any doubts that Kendrick Lamar dominated 2015 critically, this should lay those to rest. Our former sister paper Village Voice released its annual critic’s survey, Pazz + Jop, today. The project tallied votes from nearly 500 music journalists, who voted for up to 10 of their favorite…

Although there’s something ghoulish about measuring a year’s passage by how many celebrities we lost to the Reaper, the Academy Awards’ and Grammy Awards’ “In Memorium” montages provide a much-needed public service in the “I didn’t know (insert name/pronoun) died!” department. Because everyone knows celebrities generally die in threes, a…

Chester Bennington will no longer perform as lead singer with Stone Temple Pilots, the band announced today.  Bennington joined Stone Temple Pilots roughly two-and-a-half years ago. In a statement released by the band on its website, Bennington said the split boils down to scheduling.  “The last few years have been…