Halloween celebrated by adults can be a frightening concept. Even though we’re too old to be afraid of ghouls and ghosts, there are plenty of scary things to witness. Poorly conceived costumes make everyone cringe, but the real horror is having to stare at overgrown bellies and saddlebags squeezed into…
Better than: That one time, at band camp.
Five things that truly blow my mind (in descending order):
5. Plexiglass.
4. Why the plural of “fax” isn’t “fux.”
3. Nostrils.
2. The idea that our whole universe could be the product of a “cosmic defect.”
1. March Fourth Marching Band, “Portland, Oregon’s premier surrealist big-band groove machine.”
Every week, we’re going to be reviewing a music DVD. We kick off with Twisted Sister’s The Video Years…Twisted Sister used to scare the shit out of me. When I was 8 years-old, I would lay on my bunk bed in the dark, blasting the Under the Blade album, imagining that huge, leather-skinned monsters with oozing eyeballs were going to come creeping out of the shadows to eat me.
With their knee-high boots and go-go dresses, it would be easy to dismiss the Gore Gore Girls as more gimmick than substance, but these four hard-rocking, Gretsch guitar-loving chicks out of Detroit Rock City have more in common with Kiss than they ever will the Spice Girls. Equal parts Motown,…
Ghouls and goblins aren’t the only things that are gonna go bump in the night during the next seven days, as countless DJs, turntablists, and spin doctors will blasting phat beats all across P-town in celebration of the annual frightfest known as Halloween. One of the bigger shindigs will be…
There’s gotta be something in the coffee at Hear Music. Not only did they snatch Paul McCartney away from a 40-plus-year relationship with EMI, but they also got the elusive (and often reclusive) Joni Mitchell to go back into the recording studio nine years after her last CD, Taming the…
Thursday 25 Anderson’s Fifth Estate: MODE Thursdays with Sol Martinez, Sonique des Fleurs, & guests (deep house) Baja Tilly’s: DJ Adrian (old school, R&B, cumbia, reggaeton) Big Fish Pub: Chronik Frequency Thursdays with the Hazardous Crew feat. DJ Ladykilla, DJ Papi Cholo, DJ Spawn, Kyle Wise, AWOL, & Dmok (techno,…
Ever wonder what’s haunting the heads of musicians? We do, so in celebration of Halloween, we figured we’d try to scare up some tales of the supernatural from a few of our favorite artists. And though we couldn’t conjure any tales about the ghosts of Jim Morrison or Kurt Cobain,…
Every time I’ve been around Eddie Kelly, the singer for Blessedbethyname, some beautiful woman has shoved her breasts in my face. Kelly works as a DJ at Centerfolds Cabaret on Peoria Avenue, and even though I’ve been trying to interview him in a “quiet place with few distractions” for the…
We know it sounds weird, but every once in a while, people congregate in a specific area for something other than alcohol. As foreign as that concept may seem, we experienced it firsthand at the super-popular opening of the “Deck” art show at Bragg’s Pies Factory on Saturday, October 20…
Like looking at a middle-aged man’s comb-over, sometimes we have to stare into another’s mirrored shades to appreciate the ridiculousness of our pretensions. You can lie to others about it, but in your heart, you see the greasy, chicken-stained fingerprints of the truth. Southern Culture on the Skids recognizes the…
All 16 of the stripper anthems here are old school, from the obvious (Rick James’ “Superfreak,” the Commodores’ “Brick House”) to the almost hilarious, like Samantha Fox’s “Touch Me (I Want Your Body),” and Clarence Carter’s “Strokin’.” Aside from the fact that there’s not a single Billy Squier song here…
One problem with the popular singer-songwriter genre is an egocentric focus on storytelling elements that feel a bit too sophisticated. Unfortunately, this lack of connection with the listener normally equals a disposable product rather than a timeless work of art. French Quarter main man Stephen Steinbrink — who brings a…
This compilation easily could serve as a “Greatest Hits” of the Phoenix indie-rock scene. The CD opens with “Various Kitchen Utensils” by Skybox, a band that relocated to Chicago a couple years ago but whom we still claim as our own because their brand of quirky ragtime rock is catchier…
With song titles such as “Dead Voices,” “Cruel Beauty,” and “Forget Yourself,” it’s a sure bet the USSA debut disc isn’t going to be tagged power-pop or Americana. With members including Paul Barker of Ministry and Duane Denison of Jesus Lizard (and Tomahawk), USSA, for the most part, sustains its…
The main difference between all the “Earth-friendly” artists that jumped on the Live Earth bandwagon (or flew to the concerts on fuel-guzzling private jets, in the case of the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers) and French death-metal band Gojira is that Gojira gives a crap whether it’s fashionable…
He played with some of the best when he was just 17: Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Otis Rush, B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. Guitar Shorty (born David Kearney) credits the flamboyant Guitar Slim with inspiring him to incorporate somersaults and flips into his lively stage show. Settling in Seattle, Shorty…
Hold a Will Oldham look-alike contest, and Alabama native Matthew Houck might just win it (not that you could tell from his severely backlit Pride album cover). And like Oldham’s former Palace Music collective, Phosphorescent is pretty much Houck and whatever cats he drags in with him. But that, my…
For an indie-pop group, Georgie James has had a rapid ascent, and they deserve it. Former Q and Not U drummer John Davis put his head together with the band’s other primary member, fellow Washington, D.C., songwriter Laura Burhenn, in 2005. Before long, they were opening for Camera Obscura on…
I still have a headache from visiting R&R Stix in East Mesa. I usually wait a couple of days after I hit a bar to review it (mostly to rid myself of the hangover), but I can’t wait to get this place down on paper. I’m feeling like hell, my…
Live and Collective Soul: Placentas on the floor and a groove core as deep as the Grand Canyon.
Do I ever feel ambivalent about this show. I guess I’ll start off by saying that both headlining bands (Sic Alps and the Magik Markers) are hip/hyped lo-fi garage noise acts that appeal exclusively to narrow/open-minded electric guitar addicts such as myself and that I was favorably inclined toward them in the first place. Hand me their records and I’ll amuse myself for hours like a happy rottweiler with a fresh side of moose. Windy sighs would be heard from my cloistered cell and you’d marvel at the idiot strength of my patience for semi-inept noise/psych bashings. But put me in a room with them and let me see how pathetically simple their getup is and you might just crush my cynical, cynical spirit.
