Galway County lads a long way from their Irish hearths, these boys have been hammering and crooning and rocking for nigh 15 years or more, and have suffered through some fairly devastating lineup changes of late. That said, they are — and always have been — a cracker live act…
Top 10 selling CDs at Eastside Records (217 West University Drive in Tempe) for September 20 through 26: 1. The Dwarves, Dwarves Must Die (Sympathy for the Record Industry) 2. Leftover Crack, Fuck World Trade (Dig) (Alternative Tentacles) 3. The Cramps, How to Make a Monster (Vengeance) 4. Knights of…
Thursday 30 Acme Roadhouse: DJ J. Alan (house) Acme Bar & Grill: DJR (all genres) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (Top 40, hip-hop) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Piranha Room/Area 51 with DJs Jeremy & Ricky (industrial/goth, electroclash) Axis/Radius: Summer Nights with DJ MCB & Josh Royal (all genres) AZ 88: DJ…
The lines are just beginning to be drawn at the Battle of the DJs spin-off competition at Flip Flops in Tempe (216 and 222 East University). This Saturday night, October 2, marks another installment of the first-round eliminations, and next Saturday will be the last chance for you to put…
Like Sloan, the Tragically Hip’s massive success in Canada and anonymity here is more vexing than Alanis and Celine’s popularity here — and that’s saying something! Like Sloan, the Hip have a rich, arena-ready sound that captures the power-pop punch of Cheap Trick. But unlike the Beatles-inflected Sloansters, the Hip…
The two hottest job perks that come along with being a member of the Minibosses can be summed up by a pair of photos posted on a friend’s Web site. In the first shot, taken on the occasion of the Tempe band’s performance at the Atomix Gamers’ Choice Awards in…
These days, whenever he puts out a new album from either of the two bands he fronts — the clamorous Cursive or the comparatively subdued, acoustic-based the Good Life — Tim Kasher knows the phone calls are coming. Not from family and friends wanting to congratulate him for the achievement…
Disc one: London Calling, the original, remastered and all that. Brilliant, beautiful, nostalgic, powerful and perfect. Disc two: “The Vanilla Tapes,” lost and found rehearsal and demo tracks. A sketchbook jam pad pile of tasty odds and ends. A Clash fan’s dream. Disc three: a DVD containing a 45-minute documentary…
I hold in my hands the newly mastered Stereotyperider album, Prolonging the Inevitable, on a CD-R, the Sharpie permanent marker ink barely dried, with no artwork or bio or anything. Fine by me — my ears tell me this is a seismic follow-up to their debut, Same Chords, Same Songs,…
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the ascendancy of edge-sanded, pop-friendly punk has sent underground iconoclasts into the grimy garage sound that was one of punk’s main inspirations. With a raw primitive attack, The Husbands’ Sarah Reed and Sadie Shaw deliver surf-guitar thunder with gale…
On Demons, its second album, this Baltimore band demonstrates that emo needn’t be the sound of 15-year-old guys complaining about a dateless prom night. Liars Academy plays a muscular post-punk hard rock that’s distinguishable from the alternative rock of Bush and Live because it’s not as catchy or as memorable;…
Here’s the line no one can resist quoting in reviews of Wet From Birth, the fourth album by the Omaha-based electro-punk act the Faint: “I was acting indifferent at the merch booth putting on makeup,” singer Todd Baechle sneers nonchalantly in opener “Desperate Guys.” People excerpt the line because it…
Top 10 selling CDs at Hoodlums (ASU Memorial Union Building in Tempe) for September 13 through 19: 1. Nelly, Suit/Sweat (Universal) 2. Authority Zero, Andiamo (Lava) 3. Flogging Molly, Within a Mile of Home (USA Side 1 Dummy) 4. Various Artists, Garden State soundtrack (Sony) 5. The Faint, Wet From…
I vote for change — to this lousy bill! It doesn’t bode well for Arizona’s image in the national arena that the rest of the country (the “battleground states”) gets Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, and the Dave Matthews Band for this…
Hirsute anti-fashionista DJ Stefascope is back on the scene for the first time in years, hosting his own night, Mopery at the Sail Inn in Tempe (26 South Farmer Avenue). Stefascope is one-half of the Cute Lil DJs (complementing My Friend Andy, who calls Portland home now), the duo that…
Thursday 23 Acme Roadhouse: DJ J. Alan (house) Acme Bar & Grill: DJR (all genres) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (Top 40, hip-hop) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Piranha Room/Area 51 with DJs Jeremy & Ricky (industrial/goth, electroclash) Axis/Radius: Summer Nights with DJ MCB & Josh Royal (all genres) AZ 88: DJ…
One thing we know about this lineup of punky malcontents is that they don’t want George W. Bush to become president again. In order to achieve this aim, they’ve all agreed to put aside all bipartisan spitting and mosh-pit shoving for a cause they can all rally behind — good,…
All across the country, punk rockers recognize him. New Yorkers know his byline. But if you’re neither, the name George Tabb might draw a blank. In short, he’s the “Professor of Punk.” Keep in mind, the man himself — dressed unassumingly in jeans and a mustard-colored tee shirt, with cropped…
There’s a reason crime and punishment stories work best in an antiquated setting. Bloody jpegs of a crime scene can’t match the romance of sepia-toned photos of outlaws staring blankly into an uncertain future. Even the preferred weaponry from the digital age, like an automatic weapon or a stun gun,…
Steve Earle created a firestorm when he wrote a sympathetic song about John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” so he’ll probably take monster flak for this anti-Iraq war, anti-Bush set. With the exception of “Rich Man’s War,” an atypically folky and acoustic ballad that delves into the economic and social…
A punk rock club with its own record label promises great things, and that’s just what Rogue Records — named after the Scottsdale nightspot — aims to do. Of course, its first release by The Half Empties isn’t going to reinvent the punk prototype of loud and fast tunes, but…
