The year is 1978. Son of Sam gets life, the Pistols lose theirs and John Lennon still has his. Sandinista guerrillas attempt to extricate Nicaraguan life by overthrowing its government. John Belushi spoofs frats in National Lampoon’s Animal House. We are standing in the Phoenix Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum 10 rows…
The Go Whatcha Doin’ (Sub-Pop) For rock ‘n’ roll fans, these are troubled times. Contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with the emergence of the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin, Limp Bizkit or any of the other cretins currently occupying the upper echelon of Billboard’s Top 200. Manufactured…
It’s a muggy Friday night outside the Metro in Chicago, a club just down the street from Wrigley Field. As drunk and raucous Cubs fans head into the stadium for that night’s game, inside the club, equally drunk and raucous fans wait for an event of a different kind: a…
This week Petula Clark takes the Gammage Auditorium stage in the touring version of the Broadway musical Sunset Boulevard, stepping into the mole, I mean the role, of Ms. Norma Desmond. And when she utters those immortal lines “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille,” you can bet her beauty…
Life isn’t easy for Anton Newcombe, the 31-year-old cultish maestro behind the Brian Jonestown Massacre, possibly the most controversial band you’ve never heard of. Newcombe — also known as Anton A. Newcombe and, inexplicably, Dr. Anton A. Newcombe — is the only constant of the decade-old group. The Brian Jonestown…
You’ll have to excuse Bob Corritore if his head has been in the clouds lately. It’s understandable given the fact that the release of his All Star Blues Sessions album (HMG/Hightone Records) is the culmination of a lifelong dream for the 42-year-old promoter, radio personality and performer. At lunch with…
L7 Slap Happy (Wax Tadpole/Bong Load) The women of L7 look and write songs these days as if the ’90s took them for a hard ride and put them up wet, as the band’s three remaining members clock out for the decade with Slap Happy, an album as heavy and…
There are few equivalents in the business world to the independent record company. Most are labors of love rather than profit. To music lovers first, business people second, indie-label owners perform a valuable service in releasing music by artists that the big, corporate imprints can’t, won’t or don’t know about…
Hans Olson has been typecast as a bluesman in his 30 years on the Valley scene, and he wants everyone to know that’s not his role. “A bluesman is a guy who lives the blues. I don’t live the blues. It’s just my favorite kind of music.” Despite the disclaimer,…
Early in 1965, Cannibal and the Headhunters, a Chicano vocal quartet out of East Los Angeles, took “Land of 1,000 Dances” to No. 30 on the pop charts, shutting down a version by their archrivals Thee Midniters (which reached No. 67) in the process. It was the third national hit…
As monsoon winds swirl around the south Scottsdale practice space of Shoeless Joe, three members of the Tempe quartet — bassist Theron Wall, singer/rhythm guitarist Dave Wolfmeyer and lead guitarist Chad Hines — wait for drummer Michael Wood to arrive. “You’re late,” someone shouts as Wood finally emerges from an…
The Church A Box of Birds (Thirsty Ear) In 1989, almost in spite of itself, The Church sat conspicuously in the U.S. Top 20 with its lone chart hit “Under the Milky Way,” a tune — even by the group’s standards — that fell short of its water line. At…
The desert surrounding Jeff Dahl’s Cave Creek home is lush, made fragrant and green from recent monsoon thrashings. His neighbors on the next acre, the ones who run a Christian day-care center, have a sprawling ranch with many horses. A guy from Dokken lives just up the road. And there…
By the time the punk-rock revolution finally arrived in the Valley around 1978, the music quickly began to become filtered through the overheated minds of its desert practitioners. Groups like the Consumers, the Nervous and the Chemists offered up a uniquely Arizonan take on the anarchic sounds coming from New…
Once, during the early 1980s, Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel tried to escape from the enormous shadow that had blanketed the Western swing band since its 1973 debut album, which featured the immortal Bob Wills cut “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” The Austin-based band had run into a…
In theory, but all too rarely in practice, music can — as former rock scribe Jon Landau once wrote — “answer every impulse, consume all emotion, cleanse and purify — all the things that we have no right to expect from even the greatest works of art but which we…
Supersuckers The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World (Sub-Pop) Tucson-to-Seattle transplants the Supersuckers have gone through most of the ’90s performing their satanic cowboy punks gone metal shtick with their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. As the decade draws to a close, the group has resurfaced with…
Now I look back, think I’ve known all the time I’ve been fighting myself for so long All the vows we made gone for old rags and lumber Disappeared on a cart down the road “Love Lived Here,” Faces, 1972 Although Ronnie Lane penned those lines, you can’t help but…
A beautiful summer day in Brooklyn, and the barking dog and the voice of a female companion in the background suggest Blondie guitarist Chris Stein is taking a stroll while talking on a cell phone. “This is good,” he exclaims. “Wow!” Stein isn’t excited to be talking to a reporter…
Wind-blown wisps of lightly graying hair swirl around the singer’s temples and brow as he mewls the lyrics to his early ’80s mouth-breather hit “Everybody Wants You.” The song’s stretched words flutter in the air, leaving many of the 6,000-plus in attendance to muster a faint gasp of recognition. Scant…
“That was fucking insane.” When all was said and done at last Wednesday’s Buck Owens birthday salute, that succinct verdict from Flathead bassist Kevin Daly was probably the assessment that best captured the tenor of the evening. Standing in a corner and looking resplendent in a Nudie-style suit and silver…
The Blue Hawaiians Savage Night (Coolsville/Interscope) It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for the Blue Hawaiians, since there’s really no way that their hybrid of lounge and surf music won’t be associated, however misguided it may be, with a scene that reached its peak more than two years…
