The fourth installment of 110 Percent, a series in which I talk to musicians about sports, features Canadian MC Buck 65 (born Richard Terfry), who’s playing a rescheduled date at Chaser’s in Scottsdale on Feb. 24 in support of his 2011 release 20 Odd Years, a title that reflects his lengthy music career.But Buck 65 [...]
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It’s sorta strange to think of Nada Surf frontman Matthew Caws as an elder statesman of the indie-rock game, even with that vibrant voice. But here he is in his 40s, a little gray around the edges and performing live in oxford shirts and sport coats.Nobody could blame him for surrendering to nostalgia, as he [...]
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Everything is coming up Wilco lately.There’s nothing quite like a 2 1/2-hour set — stuffed with a catalog-spanning 26 tracks (check the pie chart!) — to gently remind you of the greatness that exists in my Wilco collection. Since Saturday’s show at Gammage Auditorium, I’ve gone on a little Wilco bender, from watching the [...]
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It was a collaboration that was likely bound to happen, but if bringing Philly’s Zilla Rocca and Los Angeles’ Open Mike Eagle together for a show I put on last February in Phoenix helped hasten the process, then I’m proud to have played some (very) small part in the birth of this jam.“Full Spectrum 2″ [...]
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I’m still taking inventory on 2011, though I’m not committed to posting a year-end favorite albums list – something I also didn’t do last year, and at this point, does anybody really care?I think it’s fair to say that Portugal. The Man’s In The Mountain In The Cloud would land in my mythical Top 10, [...]
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It might be helpful if, before I go to a show, I do a little homework on the opening band. Then I’d probably know if said band was any good. I’d also probably know if it was led by someone that’s in another fairly popular band. But then, sometimes it’s nice to be surprised. And [...]
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The third installment of 110 percent, a series in which I talk to musicians about sports, features Serengeti (born David Cohn), a Chicago-bred MC whose 2011 album, Family & Friends, was met with well-deserved critical praise (read a great LA Weekly feature).Serengeti is true-blue Windy City, epitomized by his alter ego Kenny Dennis – the [...]
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It was about four months ago that we heard “Boomerang,” the first bit of material from the forthcoming Miniature Tigers album Mia Pharaoh.Now there’s a release date (March 6 on Modern Art), an album cover (above), a tracklisting (below) and another new tune (”Female Doctor”) as the New York-by-way-of-Phoenix band follows up on 2010’s Fortress.Spin [...]
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As usual every January, I’ve barely wrapped my head around the previous year while new songs and albums are emerging for what will likely make for another promising 12 months of music.The first song to grab my attention for the new year comes from the Yuma, Ariz.-born Shawn Foree (aka Digital Leather), whose forthcoming full-length, [...]
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Not to overly fetishize the notion of vinyl, but if any album belongs on wax — with all its clicks and pops and dusty imperfections — it has to be Morphine’s sophomore breakthrough, Cure for Pain. Other than a rare, 20-year-old Brazilian pressing (copies of which fetch $200-plus on eBay), the 1993 album has previously [...]
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I’ve long pestered my brother about his band doing an INXS cover – preferably something off Welcome to Wherever You Are (such a good album) and preferably the song “Not Enough Time.”Maybe that’ll happen in the future, but in the meantime The Twilight Sad is offering a dark, lo-fi version of the INXS song “Never [...]
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As promised, I sat down Monday night for an interview with Jeremy Yocum, co-founder (along with Joel Leibow) of Wooden Blue Records, a short-lived but well-respected punk label based out of Tempe in the early 1990s that put out the very first recordings of Jimmy Eat World (among others).A sold-out benefit show featuring JEW, Aquanaut [...]
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Looking back, is there anything more terrifying than The Rock-afire Explosion, the animatronic house band from Showbiz Pizza Place back in the day? I had heard about the documentary that was made about the band and a man’s nostalgic quest to purchase his very own Rock-afire Explosion. And now Mayer Hawthorne’s new video for the [...]
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Last month, Phoenix’s Djentrification held a benefit at his 602’sdays night at Bikini Lounge for longtime local MC Puma, who has been battling a cancerous tumor (retroperitoneal seminoma). Puma told me recently he had his last chemotherapy treatment, but the bills likely won’t stop anytime soon. That’s why more of Puma’s peers, friends and fans [...]
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I’ve been fortunate to hang around the Phoenix/Tempe music scene long enough to meet creative and ambitious people from every angle – musicians to promoters to writers and more. And inevitably in Phoenix, being the small big town that it is, paths cross. It usually makes for an enlightening game of six degrees of [...]
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Brassland, the label founded by Alec Hanley Bemis and twin National guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month by giving away a song a day in November.Now, I’m only about 19 days late on this, but there’s still time to get free goodies – and you can easily find some [...]
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The second installment of 110 Percent, a series in which I talk to musicians about sports, features Open Mike Eagle, whose newest album, Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes, is one of the year’s must-haves. Born and raised in Chicago (and now based in L.A.), Open Mike Eagle took time to talk about his love [...]
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Welcome to 110 Percent, a new, recurring feature that brings together two of my greatest joys: music and sports. The goal is pretty simple (if not a little broad): I plan to talk to musicians about sports, be it their favorite team, the news of the day or anything in between. Everything is, ahem, fair [...]
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It’s hard to believe, but the time for year-end list making is upon us (unless, like me, you sort of, um, just didn’t make one last year). In some ways, these lists feel a lot like the NCAA Tournament - we’re swayed by what’s fresh in our minds. Who has been most impressive most recently? [...]
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We heard the first bit of the new Source Victoria album in July with a three-song EP for the single “Once I’m Dead” (available at Bandcamp). Now with CDs for Slow Luck in hand, burning a hole in the cardboard box they were shipped in, the band is offering a listen of another new track, [...]
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