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| Sasquatch! Music Festival |
Joleen Lunzer
​Joleen Lunzer
The stand-up comedian headlines the Tempe Improv Thursday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m.
When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station
would play right now? I recently found a station that plays hip hop/R&B from the 90's and early 2000's, 101.1 FM. I also like 100.7 FM.
What's the first album you bought? I'm pretty sure it was Milli Vanilli, Girl You Know It's True. True story. I was about 9 or 10 years old at the time. Me and a few of my girlfriends would meet in my friend Julie's basement and perform in our own Milli Vanilli cover band. We could lip sync even better than they could. I was always partial to Milli. I thought he had the prettiest hair, and I loved the biker shorts he wore.
What's the first concert you saw? Michael Jackson Bad Tour in Minneapolis, Minn. I was 8 years old. After that concert, I had a life-size cardboard cut-out of MJ that I kept in my bedroom. I loved that cut-out until 1992, when my younger brother and his friends punched his head off and threw darts at his private area. That was a sad day.
What's your favorite concert you've ever been to? Ani DiFranco, 2001. I was 21 years old when my friend Jen and I took a Greyhound bus from St. Paul, Minn. to Pittsburgh, Pa. to see her live in concert. It was my first and last time on a Greyhound bus. I spent most of the trip back to Minnesota sitting next to an inebriated man who peed his pants. Good times.
​Before the Corporatization of Mill Avenue, the Tempe party center was more about music and less about $3 Long Islands.
But the Downtown Tempe Community is looking to bring the street back to its roots with Music on Mill, a weekly music series on Thursday nights that has been a passive Mill Avenue District mainstay since 2009. The "passive" bit is what they're trying to get rid of.
They're looking to rekindle a bit of the old '90s Refreshments and Gin Blossoms Mill Avenue magic. Rather than accepting any solo artist or small time acoustic band that comes their way, Music on Mill is looking for "higher profile" bands, both local and touring, that can draw a crowd to the entertainment center on a week night.
(We're looking at you What Laura Says, Black Carl, Dry River Yacht Club and Mergence.)
"The merchants and the DCC wanted to come together on a night that isn't a Friday or Saturday that wouldn't cost money - something cheap," says Jimmy Cerracchio, director of business development at the Downtown Tempe Community. "We figured we have a huge history of music here, so we should keep that going."
This month, Third Thursdays on Mill is taking on a "Geek's night out" theme. Guests are encouraged to dress as their favorite scientist.
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So, I may not be the flag-waving American I should be, but hot damn, there's just something about hearing the national anthem that gives me chills. 
Most of the attention in the build up for this weekend's showdown has been placed on dueling quarterbacks Tom Brady and Eli Manning, million dollar commercials, and the halftime show featuring Madonna and LMFAO. But before Sunday's festivities begin, a certain battle cry will be belted out on television's biggest stage; the super bowl.
Whitney Houston's 1991 performance set the bar pretty high, Jennifer Hudson created a lot of buzz in 2009, and Christina Aguilera came close to solidifying her place among the iconic performances before she forgot a line.
So when Kelly Clarkson picks up the mic in Indianapolis will she straight up nail it, or flub it?
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"All My Ex's Live in Texas." 
That's true for me. What about you?
The one and only "King of Country", George Strait, will be in Phoenix performing live tomorrow night, Friday, February 3.
Now maybe it's just the fact that I am originally from Texas that makes me excited to him live again. When I moved out here, I kept wondering if there were any country stations, because when I asked most seemed disgusted. However there is a big scene right here in the Valley, most just overlook it. Just tune to KMLE 108, who in excitement and support of Strait keeps calling themselves 1-0-STRAIT.
Strait always seems to write about things that are close to him. Since the early '80s he has brought true western swing, honky-tonk styles all with such a traditional sound of country music. Not the Taylor Swift crap. Sorry, but this whole pop-country thing annoys me.Sticking to his true Texan, country roots, Strait is a true troubadour
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It's official, folks: Emo is cool again. Don't believe me? Listen to "Fall In," the third track on the highly buzzed about Attack On Memory from Cloud Nothings. The song is straight out of the late '90s/early 'aughts emo playbook: Strained vocals, frantic drums, and the kind of guitar tone that defined albums by Braid, The Promise Ring, and Texas is the Reason.
Chris Conley of Saves the Day
It reminds me of something from Four Minute Mile by The Get Up Kids, and a time right before "emo" started earning the ridicule it regularly received from old-school punkers. Plenty of those older emo dudes are still kicking around -- including Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, who is scheduled to perform tonight at Crescent Ballroom as part of the Where's the Band? tour. He's joined by Chris Conley of Saves the Day, a band with one perfect album to its name (Stay What You Are) and some other pretty good ones, as well as Ace Enders (The Early November), Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It), and Anthony Raneri (Bayside), which is kind of like Nirvana touring with Bush, Silverchair, and Puddle of Mudd, but hey, who's keeping score?
Despite the snark, Where's the Band is one our shows to catch this weekend. Read on for more must-see gigs this weekend in the Valley.
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The Lost Leaf in Downtown Phoenix is notoriously loud. Both on the crowd side and on the music side. 
Last summer, I saw Former Friends of Young Americans singer Toby Fatzinger and Marco Holt of The Tremulants perform solo sets there and they were literally drowned out by the bar-hopping crowd.
Even though they were rocking by their lonesomes, that's a pretty loud decibel level the crowd has to hit to compete with a plugged-in guitar.
When Snake!Snake!Snakes! visit the Leaf tonight, they'll be rolling with full band in tow, so they shouldn't have that problem. They'll be busting out two sets at the free First Friday show.
Snakes! will be taking the stage at 10 p.m., so make sure you get there early enough to secure your corner of the bar. Oh, and crowded or not, vocalist Jonathan Messenger says you'd better bring your dancing shoes.
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| Cover your eyes, DJ!ZZ is coming atcha! |
For some DJs starting out in the business, it's often a difficult choice to make. The handle has to be catchy, memorable, marketable, and look good on a flier.
We've seen plenty of DJ monikers over the years, including many that were good (Osama Spin Laden, Jungle Jim), bad (DJ Booth, DJ Weddings), and downright tasteless or groan-worthy (Bassline Killer, Muppetfucker).
And then there's local selector Gilbert Robertson, who -- in our humble opinion -- probably chose the worst nom de guerre ever: DJ!ZZ.
Needless to say, we're willing to bet the dude doesn't get hired to work at a lot of weddings.
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| There's no way in hell that Berry Gordy could actually be proud of these guys. |
