Jewel Spirit (Atlantic Records) Jewel Kilcher may have made a mint by marketing guilelessness, but she’s a bit savvier than she lets on. Consider that her latest single, the characteristically preachy “Hands,” instructs listeners that “only kindness matters.” Of course, a pesky music fan wouldn’t be out of line to…
Elvis Costello once sang about a fictional couple who had “songs for every occasion.” You could make the case that Jamal Ruhe has bands for every occasion, or at the very least, bands for every type of song he wants to play. Ruhe, guitarist for the late, lamented Tempe band…
As the film world’s foremost peddler of nostalgia-driven baby-boomer romanticism, Nora Ephron is acutely aware of the crucial role that music plays in selling her three-hanky tales. The soundtrack to her 1993 megahit Sleepless in Seattle not only enhanced that film’s sentimental mood, it sold more than two million copies…
“Dude, it was like Animal House fucked Satan and had a baby,” says the heavily tattooed and pierced Nikki Sixx over the phone from a tour stop in Arkansas explaining the genealogy behind Motley Crue, his voice youthful-sounding but hoarse with a Spicoli-like cadence. “You know, Satan with a sense…
In the event of a nuclear holocaust, one that would leave nothing standing save for a few insects, some grass and a few varieties of moss and algae, there in the smoldering ruins in downtown Phoenix would stand the Madison Bar. Of course, it would remain. And it would still…
Beck Mutations (DGC Records) When did the release of a new record start to be treated like an election campaign? Consider that the press dubbed November 17 Super Tuesday simply because Garth, Mariah and Whitney were all moving product that day. Even more surreal, a few days later, Garth Brooks…
She walked west on Polk over 13th Street, a block north of Van Buren. White tennis shoes, tight jeans, a man’s button-down work shirt gathered and tied in a knot at her navel. She had a slim build with long kinky dark hair running down past her shoulders. Her lips…
When John Dixon was a 15-year-old student at Tempe High School in the early ’60s, he made pocket money on the weekends by working dances as a DJ. Dixon and two friends had formed a company called Have Records Will Spin, and true to their word, they spun 45s at…
When Miles Davis put out Bitches Brew in 1970, he brewed controversy. This album marked the great divide of his career. He had boasted that he could put together a rock band to rival Jimi Hendrix, and Bitches Brew was the result. Many critics denounced it as a sellout. Nonsense…
Four months ago, Nita Craddock was fed up. After 23 years as the owner of Nita’s Hideaway, she was only too glad to sell off the popular Tempe bar and wash her hands of the whole business. When a Nita’s farewell show on July 12 resulted in patrons running off…
Okay, so here’s a scenario for you: You’re minding your own business, gamely trying to do your job, when two hostile skate punks come up and stick their stiff willies in your face. What do you do? Well, if you’re Jim Louvau, gamely trying to do your job entails working…
Not long after the death of former Gin Blossoms founder Doug Hopkins five years ago, his family began the task of assembling his musical legacy. With the help of one of Hopkins’ closest friends, Robert Shipp, the process of tracking down and cataloguing more than a decade’s worth of material…
Washington, D.C.’s Jason Farrell is a man with big ideas and skills to match. Besides playing concurrently in two bands on two different labels (vocals and guitar for Bluetip, guitar for Sweetbelly Freakdown), Farrell immerses himself in filmmaking and graphic arts and plans an interconnected multimedia project encompassing all of…
I first approached Mose Allison after a 1997 show at Poor David’s Pub in Dallas. Some mook from the audience cut ahead, tugged Allison’s shirt, and patted him on the back with deadpan sincerity: “Hey, you got an interesting way with lyrics. Very original.” I cringed, but Allison cordially nodded…
Not long ago, Pete Forbes was talking to a Nashville rep for Risk Records. The label rep had called Forbes after hearing the Phoenix singer-songwriter’s thoughtful, well-crafted debut CD, The Gulf Between, which was released earlier this year. “This record is great. I love this record,” the rep said. “Oh,…
When the Rolling Stones staged the first genuine rock ‘n’ roll circus in 1968, they distributed gold-embossed metallic tickets to their fan-club members and lucky NME readers, fed them, gave them 20 hours of music, clowns and amusements and then arranged for buses to take everybody home. All free o’…
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? –William Shakespeare She got a TV eye on me. –Iggy Pop A few weeks ago, I bought a Zenith black-and-white portable TV from a hawk shop for $39. The set came with a fucked-up channel-changing knob, a coat hanger doubling as an…
Candyskins Death of a Minor TV Celebrity (Velvel Records) Born of the same Oxford, England, pop scene that produced Radiohead and Supergrass, the Candyskins were formed in 1989 by the Cope brothers–frontman Nick and guitarist Mark. Along with lead guitarist Nick Burton, bassist Karl Shale and drummer John Halliday the…
You wonder whether Bruce Springsteen knew he was going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this coming January when he put together Tracks, his new four-CD collection of outtakes, B-sides and demos. If he wasn’t going to the Hall of Fame already, this boxed set…
When Sunny Day Real Estate broke up in 1995, it was a respected but obscure indie-rock band. At that stage, the group would have been happy to pack a club in its native Seattle. Three years later, when the quartet decided to re-form, it found itself generating long lines a…
Tempe Bowl has been a bowling center for nearly four decades. It’s only been a music venue for the last year. But with the bowling alley recently experiencing financial difficulties so severe that its future is up in the air, it’s the local punk-rock scene that has rallied behind this…
There are nasty rumors swirling about Archers of Loaf and their label, Alias Records, and they go like this: A skeleton crew is running the once-thriving indie label, which has sunk to releasing back order and product that’s already in progress; and Archers, the label’s last bastion of credibility, will…
