Despite the best efforts of several generations of right-wing extremists, it’s impossible to watch this DVD, Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows (Image Entertainment) today and truly understand just how electrifying Elvis Presley would have seemed to the kids tuning in to Ed Sullivan’s weekly variety show in an age…
Last month, two Argentinean children appeared on the popular free video Web site YouTube with their endearing rendition of the classic Sepultura protest song “Refuse/Resist,” live from their living room. Within days, the video became the latest Internet phenomenon. At press time, an estimated four million people had downloaded the…
It’s no secret the devilish dance demons of Sadisco hate Tranzylvania. Besides nursing a grudge over how an overzealous bouncer at the popular weekly goth night allegedly broke Sadisco member Dark Father’s arm last year, members of the freaky faction of DJs and party fiends feel Tranzylvania is “boring and…
The Trucks
Here’s a group of girls who look like they’re dressed for a slutty, gender-bending slumber party, singing a song called “Titties” that asks a question like, “What makes you think we can fuck, just because you put your tongue in my mouth and twisted my titties, baby?” But The Trucks…
Old folks’ music. An antique museum piece. A bleak and forgotten cause. All stereotypes to describe the American-born and -bred art form known as jazz. By these standards, the music created by 76-year-old jazz legend Sonny Rollins belongs locked in a climate-controlled room along with Renaissance paintings, 17th-century novels, and…
When I heard the Rolling Stones were coming to Phoenix on another of their supposed “final” tours, I overdrew my checking account to buy tickets. Usually, when I break the bank for music, it’s to buy rare vinyl pressings by obscure sludge/punk bands like Drunks With Guns, Lubricated Goat, Grong…
American Music: The Hightone Records Story boxed set (Hightone Records) is extremely likable in concept. The imprint is a hardworking indie out of Oakland that has spent the past 20 years documenting modern roots music. In fact, Hightone has released records by some of the last great bluesmen, including R.L…
Thursday 16Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cat Eye: Punk Rock Thursdays with DJ Diesel (rock, punk) Club Central: DJ Luis (salsa, merengue) The Crown Room: DJ Gable (rock, house, hip-hop) Dos Gringos: DJs Benjamin Cutswell & Kid Vicious (rock, ’80s, old school hip-hop) e4: “Passport” with DJ Tranzl8r (hip-hop mash-ups) Grilled…
Drunk on Tuesday Yeah, Wednesday, but nonetheless, I’ve got a couple of songs from the punk rock quartet Drunk on Tuesday for you. These Phoenician ne’er-do-wells are preparing a full length for your listening pleasure, busting out with some classic/basic West Coast p-rock in your face. Whatever that means. I…
Who Jesus? Ask Willie…. Ordinarily I’m a pretty blasphemous motherfucker; Jesus and I haven’t had much of a rapport since I was in short pants. But, like an early Christmas miracle, I got a little bit of the Lord up in my hot little hands recently that, although its unlikely…
Fat Rhabit Last month Casey Lynch reviewed Fat Rhabit’s self-titled debut EP, giving the local rockers a pretty glowing assessment. Just this morning, the band’s manager Sean Shepherd sent over a couple new tunes from the Rhabit’s upcoming full-length “rock opera-ish” album, due out around March. The Grand Rapids transplants…
Army of Robots Last week I dropped a couple of new demo tracks from Army of Robots for your listening pleasure; after a debauched drinking marathon this weekend, frontman Daggrr hit me off with one more new track for you. “Fabulous” is about picking up a girl (who ends up…
Still Alive Speaking of trite, I really couldn’t come up with a better title for this blog post; you’d think I’d have learned more Espanol in my eleven years in Arizona… but I digress. I just got my hands on the latest release by Still Alive, a reggaeton group from…
Sonny Long Once in a while we music critics get lucky and an especially stinky CD ends up in our hands… an easy target, something genuinely bad. I scored that recently, when I got my hands on some tracks by PHX rapper/R&B-er Sonny Long, whose debut album The Resume is…
Dave Wade Is a freebie… the Dave Wade Trio playing at Trax (the former Sail Inn) this evening. Along with guitarist extraordinaire Charles Bond and drummer J.B., Wade takes every style he can think of and jumbles them all together, be it jazz, reggae, blues, Middle Eastern music, or straight…
Cute Lil’ DJs (My Friend Andy in foreground) Over the last month or so I’ve spent some time watching and listening as DJ My Friend Andy, formerly half of the Cute Lil’ DJs (along with DJ Stefascope), worked on a remix album of Modest Mouse songs – mostly kind of…
There’s a shitload going down tonight at joints around the Valley, including the AZPunk compilation release party at the Sets. If you’re not making it down to that, here’s a couple of other options to sate your thirst for the live music thing. Heather Rae and Shannon of the Moonshine…
Army of Robots Way back in February of 2005, I wrote a column saying that Army of Robots had succeeded Tucson’s The Bled as the best band in Arizona (in my opinion, of course), and that they’d “fucked up the whole paradigm and established a new gold standard for Arizona.”…
Saki Photography Violet Wild A while back I wrote a column about Violet Wild, the band put together from remnants of the Black Moods (guitarist Josh Kennedy) and Mink Rebellion (singer Bobby Scott). Along with bassist Paul Fenix and drummer Joey Schwegler, the boys were working on an album that’s…
“Know any banjo jokes?” my roommate asks me when I tell him I’m going to see local bluegrass purveyors The Breadwinners on a recent Tuesday night. I don’t, but my roomie does. “What’s the difference between a banjo and a vacuum cleaner? A vacuum cleaner has to be plugged in…
It’s the Fourth of July at Cricket Pavilion, and kids wearing tee shirts that pledge their allegiance to every band from Anti-Flag to Less Than Jake are pressed against a makeshift stage at this year’s local Warped Tour stop to see a star their parents may, in fact, have pressed…
Paris, Milan, New York. . . Scottsdale? Okay, so maybe we aren’t top billing for fashion hot spots, but with the ever-increasing flow of higher fashion retail possibilities pouring into the Valley, we may get there someday, dammit. And if you happened to be in Scottsdale on Friday, November 3,…
