Modified Arts, an all-ages venue in downtown Phoenix that has been a staple of the local music scene and a vital venue for touring indie bands for nearly 11 years, will change direction and transform into a space focused mostly on art. (Read more here and here.) As such, I am collecting thoughts and [...]
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Modified memories: David Jensen (Art for Starters)
Del the Funky Homosapien: Lyrics to Go 2009
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Artist:Del the Funky Homosapien
If I were to take part in my own feature, I Used to Love H.E.R., and write a little something about my favorite hip-hop album, the choice is pretty easy: Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest. At a time when I was devouring so much hip-hop, Midnight Marauders was the pinnacle, a classic that [...]
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Port O’Brien on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
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Artist:Port O’Brien
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Album:Threadbare
Though I foolishly overlooked Port O’Brien’s 2007 album All We Could Do Was Sing (I’m making up for that now), I’m happy to have spent plenty of time with this year’s excellent Threadbare.The Oakland-based band closed a tour run with Sea Wolf on Friday at a sold-out Modified in Phoenix, and Port O’Brien brought a [...]
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Blakroc: Webisode Week 7 feat. Q-Tip
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The release of Blakroc – the hip-hop collaboration project of the Black Keys – will be released Nov. 27 (that’s Black Friday), and I get the feeling it’s going to be like a modern-day Judgment Night soundtrack, which really was a trailblazer (don’t laugh … I still have it on cassette). With a lineup that [...]
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Famous L. Renfroe: Children
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Can’t tell you much about Famous L. Renfroe, other than a few basic facts: He recorded this record in 1968, providing pretty much every sound save the drums and excellent back-up vocals, and released a limited run of records on his own private press. Beyond that, not much is certain, other than obvious: This record [...]
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Incoming: Rob Dickinson, Dec. 18
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It’s been a little more than four years since former Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson released his solo debut, Fresh Wine for the Horses, but he’s starting to stir – perhaps a sign that some new material could be on the way.This year, he released a cover of the Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me [...]
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Dfactor: Shake It
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Phoenix rocker Dfactor is one busy guy. In addition to ceaselessly recording lo-fi power pop, he maintains a hyper-active blog, Waved Rumor, where he details everything pop-culture, occasionally detouring to deliver charming, curmudgeonly rants about kids at shows paying more attention to their cell phones than the gig. Like his lyrics, everything he does is blindingly [...]
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Sea Wolf: Wicked Blood (video)
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Alex Brown Church brings Sea Wolf to Modified on Friday, a day before Halloween, which makes this new video for Wicked Blood – the leadoff track on the album White Water, White Bloom – all the more timely. Delivered in black-and-white, the visuals play out like some beauty and the beast tale, set against the [...]
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Kurt Vile: Freak Train (video)
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Though I spent the better part of Tuesday’s Kurt Vile show at Modified lamenting my habitual inability to remember earplugs, I couldn’t help but be pulled in by the lo-fi psych-rock of Vile & the Violators.The songs, mostly from his 2009 LP Childish Prodigy, went from loud to louder – riding a crescendo of feedback [...]
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Weezer: Live in San Diego, 2001
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I came across this excellent bootleg last week, which finds power-poppers Weezer at a pivotal time in their musical evolution: Following the extended hiatus that befell the band after the commercial failure of Pinkerton, this show features the band blasting out old favorites and debuting songs from the soon-to-be-released Green Album, live in 2001 to a [...]
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DJ Shadow: Artifact (w/Zack de la Rocha vocals)
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Track:Artifact
The fine folks at Solesides.com never let me down. This time – via Twitter – they introduce us to a vocal/rough version of Artifact, a track off DJ Shadow’s 2006 LP The Outsider, an album that was unfortunately met lukewarm praise at best.Zack de la Rocha’s highly charged political screeds were meant for this punk-rock-sounding [...]
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Editors: Papillon (video)
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When nobody was looking, Editors went ahead and released a new album. In This Light and On This Evening is available digitally with a physical U.S. release due out on Jan. 19.After a few spins, I’m not sure what to make of this new, synth-heavy direction the band has taken. The dark/industrial undertones are ripe [...]
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The Whigs: In the Dark
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When we went to San Diego Street Scene last year, The Whigs were stuck in one of those somewhat sweaty/sparsely attended afternoon time slots, when festivalgoers are still shaking off the exhaustion from the previous day. But we made a point to catch the Athens, Ga., trio and it was just the jolt I needed [...]
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Frightened Rabbit: Swim Until You Can’t See Land (video)
Thanks to Casey for calling attention to the new video for
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Mayer Hawthorne: Green Eyed Love (video, remix)
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We are heading to the Clubhouse tonight to check the sorta-odd twin bill of Mayer Hawthorne and Ghostface.And wouldn’t you know it: Stones Throw released a new video today for the Mayer’s Green Eyed Love, the closer on his excellent debut A Strange Arrangement. The video coincides with the release of a six-track 12-inch EP [...]
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Designed Entropy I – Gold Robot Records
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Album:Designed Entropy I
It’s always a thrill to get a package from our man Hunter at Gold Robot Records, a boutique vinyl label that deals mostly in limited-run 7-inch gems.The latest is Designed Entropy I, a four-song compilation that features cuts from Bomarr, Copy, Meanest Man Contest and Roman Ruins.The 7-inch – produced on brown/orange-colored vinyl – was [...]
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People Under the Stairs: Trippin’ At the Disco
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Track:Trippin’ At the Disco
A few weeks ago, I downloaded the digital single for the new jam from People Under the Stairs – Trippin’ At the Disco - and completely forgot to post about it until Weiss offered up the video for the track today.PUTS continues to be one of the most prolific but overlooked acts in hip-hop. Their [...]
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Asthmatic Kitty: Library Catalog Music
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Artist:Lowell Brams
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Track:Alpha to Theta
(Jason continues to breathe air into this blog while a rather busy time for work keeps me from doing much other than eating and sleeping.)I’ve been really delighted with Asthmatic Kitty’s Library Catalog Music series, a set of instrumental albums designed by the label “for possible use in films and television, background sounds for home [...]
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Q-Tip (feat. Norah Jones): Life is Better (video)
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Just a couple weeks after the proper release of his once-shelved album Kamaal the Abstract, Q-Tip is back with a new video for Life is Better from The Renaissance, his critically acclaimed return that was one of my favorites of 2008.Much like the revered Midnight Marauders album cover(s), this is Q-Tip’s ode to hip-hop – [...]
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Music Go Music: Live on Face Time
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I think that if it were the 70s, I’d probably be one of those “Disco Sucks” guys, probably jamming out to Boston on headphones while getting stoned in my parents’ basement, or maybe, if I was really cool, shaving my head and going punk. After all, I despise my generation’s club music, be it obnoxious [...]
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