Features

2012 wasn’t really a bad year for local hardcore and metal music, but there seemed to be more noteworthy demos circulating around than official releases. Now, I understand that the distinction between a demo and an official release is really just a matter of using the word “demo” to describe…

Justin Townes Earle can tell stories. It’s what the Nashville-raised singer-songwriter has done for six years, writing albums that have placed him at the forefront of rusty, soulful Americana. His records drip with imagery — muddy rivers, ghosts, “Memphis in the Rain” — and he speaks just as vividly as…

Like any country band worth its salt, Limbeck knows the value of “road songs.” The band’s sophomore record, Hi, Everything’s Great (2003), is a must-have for any cross-country road trip, its lyrics describing the nation’s cities and highways with the same vivid detail as the interesting characters the band has…

“Ascetic House is operated out of the West Temple, a small shed in the Sonoran Desert, and much of the artwork, music, and publications were actualized therein.” So reads the inscription at the front of most of the photocopied chapbooks filled with prose, poetry, and firsthand psychedelic accounts issued by…

Taylor Swift is coming to town on Tuesday, May 28, at Jobing.com Arena. And…never has the thought of the pending apocalypse been so appealing. Sure, Swift has her vocal detractors (like me), but her new album, Red was released in October and quickly sold a whole bunch of copies, which…

This time of year is fun-slash-maddening for us goofy music critic types. It’s a time for poring over notes, for obsessively analyzing what made the records we loved so great. Of course, they can’t all be winners, can they? As we dug into our Best of Lists, we turned up…

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…

I initially conceived this list as a starting point to further explore of one of the biggest albums of the year: “Ayo, if you liked that Grimes record, this shit is pretty good, too.” The Korean and Japanese pop influence on Visions made it easy to like, but it was…

Let’s face it, the Mayan Calendar thing is kind of silly, but I’m still obsessed with it because I often ruminate on The End. It’s an important scenario to consider, no matter how unlikely, because it makes us ask the Big Questions and wonder how meaningful/meaningless our lives truly are…

Once a week Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday. See also: 10 Most Ridiculous Claims Made By Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Dave…

The news waits for no one — at least that’s what we read somewhere — so it’s perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of…

http://www.voiceplaces.com/bar-smith-phoenix-2563616-l/

Shan Man of 98 KUPD You can hear 98 KUPD’s weeknight DJ from 7-11 p.m. every weeknight and find his KUPD blogs at www.98kupd.com. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Is this a trick question and are…

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…

Bob Weir is a restless soul. Already fully engaged with Furthur — his latest and perhaps most true-to-form post-Grateful Dead venture — his solo band Ratdog, assorted musical projects at his TRI Studios, activity in various political and environmental organizations, plus the occasional mountain bike foray, Weir now prepares to…

If you’re the sort who tracks hot EDM blogs and remixes, you might surmise that the popularity of moombahton, the genre DJ Dave Nada invented three years ago by slowing Dutch house records to reggaeton speed, is waning. The style is losing ground to “trap music,” a subterranean take on Southern…

Comedian Gregg Turkington was watching when Arizona’s equivalent to Walter Cronkite said President Reagan’s fake son was being brainwashed into becoming a punk rocker by the evils of sociology (that’s right: sociology, not socialism). Turkington was a teen living in Tempe at the time, collecting punk records and devouring movies,…

Election years tend to carry more chaos then normal ones, but there was something else going on in 2012. Maybe it’s the aura of apocalypse made people a little stranger this year. We had the Syrian Civil War, the Aurora Shooting, Israel being dicks to Gaza and vice versa, Mitt…

Did anyone watch David Letterman Monday night? Well, if you didn’t, you missed the greatest rock band of all time, Led Zeppelin, interviewed after receiving a Kennedy Center Honor. Something about seeing them together made me feel…overwhelmed. They’re still alive but they have no intention of getting back together. How…

The news of Mark Erickson’s suicide in September hit the Phoenix music community hard. Erickson was a familiar face on stage, performing in local groups including ROAR, Gospel Claws, and Sweetbleeders. But it was Colorstore, the band he fronted for nearly a decade, that most reflects Erickson’s commanding, singular vision…

This week’s Take Cover session is a little different, as it’s the first time we’ve featured a touring band. Kopecky Family Band drove 16 hours straight from Norman, Oklahoma, to the Musical Instrument Museum to play a few songs and explore the museum. Tonight the band is scheduled to perform…