Blogs

By Brendan Joel Kelley

It's finally Friday, and since you're probably reading this at work you're likely desperate to clock out and get the weekend kickstarted. If you aren't going to the hard rock/metal installment of New Times' Summer of Sound series, your best bet is to hit up the Paper Heart, where the boys in Chronic Future will be joined by the cult freakazoids in Runaway Diamonds, as well as Back Ted N Ted, Treasure Mammal, and Miniature Tigers. That one promises to be the cutest lil indie show of the summer. If that's not your style, you've got Chocolate Fountain playing at the Goats Head (Country Club and the 60) tonight as well.

Meanwhile, this is likely my last post up in this area of the blogosphere, because I'm moving to Alaska next week to pursue new adventures and escape from the blistering heat. So, for one last time, I'm going to drop some dope new local music on you, this time from a band called Cardiac Party, who've impressed me more than anything I've heard in quite a while. See for yourself.

Cardiac Party - "Ice Pack for Head Wound"

Cardiac Party - "Noodle's Root"

That's it, it's been fun kids. If you need further contact, the myspace is www.myspace.com/brendan_revolver

By Brendan Joel Kelley
If, like myself, you missed the Drunken Immortals release party for their latest and greatest LP, Hot Concrete, you're in luck. The band seems to seldom be without a videographer, so here are two songs, "Chain Reaction" and "Apachee," from the record, live for you, and a bonus after the jump of the band performing in Paris on the Shut Up and Rap Tour.

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By Brendan Joel Kelley

Burning Brides

I'm still nursing a hangover from last night's adventures out: Violet Wild acoustic at Last Exit, then watching Jason Devore of Authority Zero play at the Yucca's open mic night. Nonetheless, this hangover will probably pale in comparison to what I'll suffer after Friday's installment of New Times' Summer of Sound series. This is the hard rock/metal edition, with Burning Brides headlining along with locals Jack Ripper, Greenhaven, Blessedbethyname, the Iris, Blackmarket, and Giant Killer. This one's at the Clubhouse, and like always, it's only three bucks. Read more about the bands after the jump...

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By Brendan Joel Kelley

If you haven't seen the boys in Who Cares - the Reno based hip-hop/jazz trio that includes MC Borg One, Rhodes piano player Maximus McMaster, and sax player Jamal Tarkington - you're in for a treat this Thursday night when they hit up the Blunt Club (you can read more about Who Cares here). The band not only makes great flyers like the one above, more importantly it creates some of the smoothest, most heartfelt, downtempo hip-hop that you'll hear played live. The last time the three played the Blunt Club, it turned the ordinarily rambunctious party night into a smoky jazz-club like atmosphere, with Tarkington's wailing sax carrying everyone to a different dimension (of course, I was pretty stoned at the time, which I highly recommend - it is called the Blunt Club).

The band is based out of Reno and Sacramento, but maintains a strong Arizona connection, which is definitely a blessing for us. If you haven't heard Who Cares, check out the tracks below, and I'll see you Thursday night at Hollywood Alley - and if you can't make it on Thursday night, Who Cares will be at the Hidden House on Friday night with the Insects.

Who Cares - "The Scarecrow and the Magpie"

Who Cares - "The Winter Came Back"

By Brendan Joel Kelley

Last night our intrepid photographer friend Luke Holwerda hit up the Police's reunion tour stop at US Airways Arena, and snapped some awesome shots (more after the jump). Here's Luke's report on the gig:

The crowd was really truly excited when the boys walked on stage for the first time. I could even see Sting give a nervous, almost bashful smile when he heard the initial roar. (I always clap as much as I can, so I dont come off like a chump with a camera.) Everyone was rocking, and super animated. Andy was rocking the balls off his Strat, while Sting dug new holes into his beautifully worn p-bass. Of course Stewart sported the ever fashionable drummer gloves. They even started jumping around the stage at one point! Rock music keeps the dust off your bones.

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By Brendan Joel Kelley

As I was reminded by my music editor, Niki D'Andrea, this morning, this weekend is packed with good music, some of it New Times related. First of all, tonight is the jazz/blues/swing installment of New Times' Summer of Sound Series, featuring DJ Seduce, Sonorous, Calumet, Paris James, and legendary blues guitarist Coco Montoya as the headliner. That's at the Brickhouse, and it's only three bucks.

Then, Saturday night, Ms. D'Andrea herself will be DJing at "Wifebeater" at the Sets (the flyer says that the wifebeaters are required as dress code), along with SixStitch, Burning the Bridge, Evilsaurus Rex, and more.

Finally, on Sunday night, come say goodbye to country/punk troubadour Chip Hanna at the Yucca the night before he goes to Germany to tour with the Berlin Three. It should be a perfect end to a sweltering weekend.

By Brendan Joel Kelley

Recently I wrote a column about the use of certain pejorative words - "ho's," "bitches," and "niggers" - in hip-hop and the controversy that's sprung up over them recently. Luckily, it's not just the media that's concerned.

Here in town, there's a group called Make Hip-Hop Live, which is "a new organization in Phoenix dedicated to increasing awareness and discussion about the issues facing the hip-hop community; fans, artists, and everyone in between. Our first project of the summer will be the free showing of the film 'Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes' followed by a public discussion on sexism and homophobia in hip-hop culture."

That movie screening went down at 3 Roots Cafe in Tempe a little over a week or so, and they caught the discussion afterwards on tape. See for yourself:

By Brendan Joel Kelley

Since I assume that if you're reading this you likely just don't have enough to do at your place of employment, I thought I'd point you towards another site that's got the potential to do some cool shit. It's phoenixrockcity.com, a site with a plethora of forums, and, well, that's all right now. After spending some time sorting through it, I've got to say that I think it's overreaching quite a bit. There are eighteen different categories for the forums, including "vaudeville," "alternative sports," and "dance/deejays," which pretty much eliminates the need for their "miscellaneous" category. As of now, a couple of months into the site's existence, at least eight of the categories have no posts at all.

If I were in charge of phoenixrockcity.com, I'd take a cue from the folks at AZPunk.com and pare things down a bit. Thus far even the music forum is mostly musicians pimping their shows, which doesn't really make me want to come back regularly. The fun shit is when there are actual conversations, like on AZPunk. Of course, I'm sure the phoenixrockcity administrators are already paying attention to AZPunk, they don't need me to tell them that. So I'm hoping that the membership surges and the number of forums shrinks, then it could be a valuable resource.

By Brendan Joel Kelley

A Second to Die

If you haven't noticed, I've spent a lot of time discussing metal lately, both in its traditional and innovative forms. It's earned me the ire of some and the praise of others, and apparently broken up at least one band (that's unconfirmed, but I hear that Malo de Dentro split because the singer didn't like me making fun of his saying, 'fuck you if you don't support local music' and then splitting before any of the other bands played when I wrote this story).

Although I definitely prefer the underground, unorthodox forms of the genre, there's good stuff that leans more traditionally as well. I mention it because if that's your thing, you should pencil in a show at Chasers this coming Saturday, June 16. It features Pathetic, Fracture Point, Sanity in Death, A Second to Die, and In This Mind. The show's all ages, costs six bucks, and starts at 7 p.m. The promoter thoughtfully put together a CD sampler of the bands to pimp the show, and from what I've heard, it's all pretty solid. See for yourself:

Pathetic - "Agnostic Nostalgia"

A Second to Die - "With This"

By Brendan Joel Kelley

My technical difficulties now resolved, here are the tracks I promised to give you from the Smob's just-released-last-night album I Hate Your Face. Fresh off of a triumphant release party last night at the Sets with Zion I and Tajai sharing the bill, I'm about to go meet Kreecher, Stoic, 1IB, Miss J, and Mince shortly for some afternoon beers - you'll read about the results of that soon enough. Meanwhile, enjoy the tracks and let me know what you think of 'em.

And, with my ability to share music with you freshly restored, expect to hear a lot more shortly.

The Smob - "Move Around"

The Smob - "Mad Man Diary (featuring Elijah)"

By Brendan Joel Kelley

I was going to grace you with some fresh new music today, being released tomorrow, but after wrestling with the internet for a while I found out that my capacity to upload and share music with you is temporarily hindered. Nonetheless, if you dig local and indie hip-hop, you should head to the Sets in Tempe tomorrow to scope out Zion I with Tajai (from Souls of Mischief), as well as local cats the Smob, who are releasing their first album, I Hate Your Face, which has guest appearances by Spice 1, Tajai, and Eligh. The Smob, which is 4 dudes and a girl with a pretty voice, throws down pretty impressively on the debut, which is why I wanted to share a couple of songs with you - next time perhaps. Meanwhile, check out the group's Myspace page (linked above) to hear some Smob tunes, and meet me at the show.

By Brendan Joel Kelley

(Thanks to my friend Paula Harms for taking the lovely photos of Andy Hersey)

Last weekend, as I mentioned in a previous post, I took off down south to see my cowboy buddy Andy Hersey throw down at a barn dance in Sonoita to celebrate the release of his latest record, Between God and Country. If you're not familiar with Sonoita, it's a small ranching community about 40 miles south of Tucson, near the Mexico border. I've been down there several times, and wrote about Andy a couple of times, but I'd never been out and about in Sonoita, to really see what the community's like. This time around, I got a good look...

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By Brendan Joel Kelley

Tucson

This last weekend I took a road trip out of town to see some music (more on that later), visiting my favorite little town in southern Arizona, Sonoita, and cruising through Tucson on the way there and back. I don't care much for Tucson, although the smaller town often gets better touring bands coming through there than we do up here (which I wrote about here a while back). It's just a little too weird and podunk down there for me.

Because of that, I took offense at a piece I read in the Tucson Weekly while I was passing through (you can read it here). In it the writer, Linda Ray, reviews a show that was part of a swap with Modified up here; it was PHX locals Lonna Kelley and Fatigo with Tucson's Golden Boots and the George Squier Orchestra, playing first at Club Congress down there and up here at Modified the next day. The writer gave some props to our locals, but opens the story by writing, "Having grown up in Phoenix, I avoid it as much as possible. In this millennium, I've only visited the art museum, attended a Dixie Chicks concert and seen a couple of live shows at Modified Arts."

She later refers to Modified as "a lost Tucson-style nightclub, and an important gathering place for alienated Phoenicians. I like to think of it as sort of a Huxley-like island of misfits, a resilient blue smudge on the red heart of Arizona." And that just made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. I don't consider Modified "Tucson-style" or even a nightclub really (that implies liquor, doesn't it?), so the writer must be so enamored by its art gallery environment and the fact its an all ages venue. It doesn't really matter, as the show she attended wasn't up here but was at the Congress down there. And also, I'm not paying too much attention to a writer who admits to only coming up here to catch Dixie Chicks shows. I just think that the bleeding hearts down there have their heads a bit up their asses if they think Modified is the only joint for "alienated Phoenicians," (and does being alienated imply that they're pining for the oasis that is Tucson?)

If any of the Tucsonians who are similarly ignorant would like to tour some of the great venues, clubs, and nights that pop off, just hit me up kids and I'll take you around, then you can judge for yourselves how we stack up. But I'll still be avoiding Tucson like the plague.

By Brendan Joel Kelley

The Heartless

If you missed local pop/punk/rock outfit the Heartless at the band's CD release party recently, you'll want to check out the tracks below (if energetic pop/punk is your thing). When the band dropped its EP This Could Take Some Getting Used To last year I wrote about the boys busting their asses for the crowds here; their stamina hasn't dwindled with the new release, Never Say Never - the release show at the Marquee last month proved it. These guys bring it, see for yourself.

The Heartless - "I'm Sorry"

The Heartless - "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day"