July is the time of year when families get together for cookouts, kids stay up late to watch TV, and music critics compile their midyear Top 10 lists. Yes, we live for this kinda thing. Never mind that there are still six long months of records that will be released,…
Country audiences have always been strongly working-class, and such country greats of yesteryear as Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard sold albums based on how they answered the fears of the average American. Toby Keith does the same thing, but with a wholly commercial slant, pandering to audiences dismissed by the…
Montreal indie-rock quintet Wolf Parade — relentlessly championed by Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock — made a huge splash in 2005 with their exhilarating debut full-length, Apologies to the Queen Mary. Three years later, they’re back with a follow-up, At Mount Zoomer. On the phone to give us his take…
This week’s “Flier of the Week” comes from local rockers Antique Scream. The band is currently on tour, and this flier is actually for a show in Las Vegas, but I chose it for two reasons: 1) the retro go-go chick art is really cool, and 2) notice how it says “from Phoenix, Arizona” beneath the band’s name. Hats off to Antique Scream for giving props to their hometown — I rarely see that from local bands who’re touring nationally.
This week, I’m reviewing the new album by Phoenix hip-hop artist Fetti Profoun. I reviewed his debut CD back in 2006, which I called “one of the most impressive local hip-hop debuts in years.”
So…sophomore slump for Fetti, or did he outdo himself? Read on.
Since it’s Monday, I was going to do a blog analyzing various songs about Mondays, from the usual suspects like the Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” to lesser-known odes like Fleetwood Mac’s “Monday Morning.” But then I got an e-mail from local experimental band Janis Joplin Crap N Vomit, who, in addition to having one of the most intriguing band names in the Valley, also possess some palatable-but-quirky pop skills.
In the spirit of the Fourth of July, and to show appreciation for all those who served and sacrificed for the freedom we celebrate today, here’s an assemblage of USO music performances for our troops.
Rock ‘n’ roll has had a hefty impact on American pop culture and identity for the past 50 years or so, more often than not intersecting with our politics and whatever social unrest afflicts us at the time. With Independence Day right around the corner, we’re celebrating some of the…
Two-time Grammy winner Common, 36, is best known for his socially conscious rhymes on albums like Be and, more recently, Finding Forever, but that probably won’t be the case for long. Like so many rappers, he’s been bitten by the acting bug. Last year, he appeared in shoot-’em-up Smokin’ Aces…
This week’s flier is for a show featuring Phoenix avant indie rockers Emperors of Japan and loony local rockers The Necronauts. We’re not quite sure what it means — maybe that’s Satan or Ming the Merciless in the middle, and the signs along the bottom are letters from the American Sign Language alphabet. I think they spell “SAWA.” Not quite sure what that means, either.
Almost any band can sound decent on a studio record. Enough overdubs, multi-tracking, knob twisting, and processing can make even the crappiest of garage bands sound like disciplined, precise musicians. The true test of a band’s talent is the live show – not just the sound and cohesiveness, but the energy and the connection between band and audience.
For the past six weeks, I’ve been asking local bands to send their CDs to me for review in this weekly “You Asked for It” blog. The original idea was that bands who complained about not getting coverage from us while we covered “inferior” local bands could finally get what they wanted – and the original premise was that a lot of these local CDs would suck (some of the complainers had actually sent me their CDs, and I didn’t like the music, so I declined to write a negative review, which meant no review at all). I vowed to review every single local CD sent my way (in the order they were received), and write my honest opinions, for good OR bad.
Normally, my Monday blog is devoted to “Niki’s Weekend Word,” but this past weekend was a bust for me – not because there was nothing going on, but because 1) I felt ill, and 2) It takes $65 to fill my gas tank and less than three days for me to go through it when I’m driving to clubs all over the Valley.
The latter challenge has led me to become one of those “hypermilers,” people who try to save on gas by doing simple things like not accelerating like a drag racer when red lights turn green (like those idiots who put spoilers on their 80s-model Hondas and suddenly think they’re Tony Stewart) and not doing 75 mph in a 55 mph zone on the freeway.
By Jonathan McNamara A day of punk-rocking, T-shirt purchasing and baking in the summer sun drew to a close as Gym Class Heroes rapped one last song into the Phoenix night. The sweat-drenched fury that is the Vans Warped Tour was over for another year. But fret not, Warped Tour…
From the television screen to the magazine rack, music coverage generally skews young. It makes sense, given that the most rabid consumers are kids with time on their hands and cash to burn as they scour their sources for breaking artists. Eventually, though, an older generation of music fans gets…
After listening to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ unlikely collaboration, Raising Sand, we couldn’t help philosophizing about what other artists we’d like to see record together. We had rules, though, as all good lists should have. Whatever pairings we came up with would have to be, like Plant and Krauss,…
One day last year, Michael Sweet — frontman of the Christian metal band Stryper — was sitting down with a bowl of Cheetos to watch a Law & Order marathon when his cell phone rang. Michael Sweet: Hello? God: Hey, Michael, it’s me, God. Sweet: No fuc — I mean,…
Detractors tell you American Idol is ruining pop music. Alarmists go even further, reminding us that American Idol is pop music evil incarnate, having secretly replaced the rich taste of The Beatles, Elton John, Michael Jackson, and U2 that we used to enjoy with the sound of Davids Cook and…
Proponents and supporters are apparently taking the park very seriously, as yesterday, the park proposition (Senate Bill 1450) passed with a 17-9 vote.
It hasn’t been a very good year for Sky Lounge. The popular downtown dance club made news headlines in May, when a group of men leaving the club got into a fight outside the building that escalated into a shooting, leaving one man injured and another dead.
And last week, Sky Lounge was shut down by inspectors from the City of Phoenix’s Neighborhood Services Department for building code violations.
About a month ago, I posted a blog asking Phoenix artists to send me their CDs for review. This week, I review the latest disc from Valley singer/songwriter Matthew Reveles, whom I first saw perform back in 2002 at a “Battle of the Bands” at ASU West. He’s come a long way.
My weekend began with the news that my favorite Zia Record Exchange location, near 40th street and Thunderbird, was closing down. Bummer. Now I have to drive even farther when I want to browse bins of 99-cent records or maybe pick up a novelty “boxing nun” puppet. I had to console myself with two bottles of red wine and a YouTube marathon of ‘80s commercials
