Anonymity doesn’t come easy for a dude with Technicolor forearms. But despite the many tattoos that checker the thin frame of Myk Porter — they distinguish the Brandtson front man at 30 paces, before you can even make out his features — he and his bandmates have grown accustomed to…
Ahmir Khalib Thompson is the coolest motherfucker on the planet. Musician. Producer. DJ. Actor. Talent scout. Social commentator. Svengali behind the Okayplayer hip-hop community. A man who can pull off punctuation in a stage name: ?uestlove. The kick-ass drummer of the ass-kickingest hip-hop collective on Earth. Oh, yeah. And then…
“I wouldn’t consider us a throwback, but I also wouldn’t say we’re reinventing the wheel of rock ‘n’ roll,” says Ronnie Vannucci, drummer for the Killers. “We’re taking the best parts of the music we were influenced by, putting them in our songs and making them our own.” The Killers…
My friend John has recently been tinkering with activism: When he’s bored at work, he’s been duplicating Kyle Goen’s infamous poster with a picture of President Bush that says “Elect a Madman, You Get Madness” and local artist Scott McKenzie’s Bush “i lied” stickers onto copy machine sticker paper, as…
If you love music, you can probably name a band that changed your life, that was a catalyst for your attitudes and tastes and ideas. That’s not to say you got stuck on it forever, or that you never branched out into other things. But discovering that band was such…
Behold, underachieving, Internet-surfing cubicle-dweller of corporate America: Your next great workplace distraction awaits. For we have invented it: Fantasy Rock Stars. Fantasy Rock Stars aims to combine two of modern society’s most debilitating obsessions — celebrity worship and fantasy sports — into one fabulous national pastime. For the uninitiated, the…
On Saturday, July 3, Ed Ryan, the owner of Drop In Skate Shop, was nearly fatally shot during a botched robbery attempt that happened while he was closing up for the night. The assault left Ryan in intensive care (from which he has since recovered) while his pregnant wife Kari…
Perhaps I’m an anomaly (“perhaps,” my ass), but I’ve recently concluded that making romantic-minded mix tapes and CDs is always an uncomfortable, if not completely humiliating, experience. Case in point: Some time ago I was riding in a close female friend’s car, when I noticed that her tape deck was…
Onstage in tight, flamboyant clothes, with his eyes smeared in makeup and pale platinum blond bangs brushing his super-high cheekbones, Rory Lewarne has the wiry, androgynous good looks of your typical rock ‘n’ roll sex symbol. He just looks like he should be in front of a crowd somewhere, sweaty…
There’ll be a lot of celebrating at Casket Life’s tour kickoff show on Friday, August 6, at Ziggy’s in Tempe — not only is the band headed out for a two-week Southwest/Midwest tour, it’s also become the first group to sign to Stomping Ground Records (www.stompinggroundrecords.com), a new local venture…
Metal is metal and punk is punk, and never the twain shall meet. Or at least that’s been the story for the last 20 years since the two movements’ brief convergence in the mid-’80s. Back in 1985 and ’86, releases by metal bands such as Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax forged…
EPs can serve several functions: as a way to keep impatient fans happy while they wait for another full-length album; as a cost-effective means for new artists to get material into the hands of the public; as a chance for established artists to get weird and experimental without much risk;…
Last week, I caught Jimmy Eat World’s “secret” appearance at the Mason Jar with Braid. That night, after the show, I had a dream. I was watching Arizona’s favorite indie rock sons at some imaginary outdoor stadium, in hospitably mild sunshine. Before the boys played, they were ferried through the…
Donald Martinez eagerly leans into a thick slab of steak with plenty of nuclear-grade horseradish. In wire-frame glasses and a button-down shirt, the slight, dark-haired musician has the kind of pale skin cultivated from long hours spent in front of a computer screen and inside rock clubs. Aside from his…
They buy vinyl records instead of CDs. Their instruments are older than they are. Their favorite groups were popular 35 years ago. And they’re from New York. But don’t jump to easy conclusions — the Walkmen are not garage rockers. “We used to be, definitely, but not anymore,” says lead…
When Dan Stone took his video camera to film the North Side Kings’ July 3 show in Tuba City, he hadn’t counted on capturing heavy-metal history. The Valley hardcore band didn’t get to play because Danzig, the headliner, went on at 10 p.m. instead of the originally scheduled midnight slot…
TThe small brown vial I’m looking at has a sinister appearance to it, bearing only a white typewritten label identifying the powder inside as 5-MeO-DMT — 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine. It came via UPS from an American chemical company to three inner-space explorers I know; now, a couple days later at a house…
THE NIGHT: Saturdays at Dwntwn Club THE DJS: Luis & Cesar 3ro THE SCENE: Minority rules at this upscale club. Before 1 a.m., most of the 300-plus people here are Latinos in baggy jeans and designer dress shirts, with dates in shrinking mini-skirts or tight dresses. The air is heavy…
How big a success has Eamon’s foul-mouthed breakup song “F*** It (I Don’t Want You Back)” become this year? Here’s all you need to know: Even the song’s subject — the ex-girlfriend addressed throughout as a “ho” and a “burnt bitch” — loves it. Of course, Eamon is quick to…
With Modest Mouse hitting town Friday, July 23, as well as sitting high on Billboard’s albums and modern rock tracks charts, and in heavy rotation on 103.9 The Edge, I feel a responsibility to let you know that, if you’ve recently glommed on to the Northwest troubadours’ latest LP, Good…
Amp Fiddler disagrees with the name of the genre he’s been squeezed into, which in his case is neo-soul. His point is that after two decades of session work as a keyboardist with George Clinton, the Brand New Heavies, Lucy Pearl, and others, what he’s doing now as a solo…
While the Valley’s music scene is still adrift, the punk rock community here in the ‘Nix is congealing — not just onstage, but online, at AZPunk.com. Consider the Dames, a local all-female punk trio that sounds like the demon spawn of the Donnas and Black Flag. After guitarist Heather Shope…
