Saturday, May 19: Yellow Submarine @ AMC Desert Ridge

The actual Beatles don't actually show up in the 1968 animated flick Yellow Submarine (not until the end at least, and that's not John, Paul, George, and Ringo providing voices), but don't let that dissuade you from taking in a special noontime showing of the new digital print of the movie at AMC Desert Ridge this Saturday. Not only does the movie exclusively feature one of The Beatles' grooviest rockers, "Hey Bulldog," but it's a visual swirl as a technicolor Fab Four take on the music-detesting Blue Meanies.

Some Beatles conspiracy theorists allege the movie is a twisted allusion to the Biblical book of Revelation, while plenty of parents are wary of taking their kids to what is obviously more of an acid trip than anything Sid and Marty Krofft dreamed up (but not by much). You (or your kids) don't need to be high to enjoy Yellow Submarine, but we're not judging if you are. --Jason P. Woodbury

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See also: Musical Instrument Museum Debuts "I Am AZ Music" Exhibit
See also: Alice Cooper: No More Mr. Bad Guy

When Alice Cooper, Phoenix's resident lord of the underworld/radio personality/Christian activist, pops up in the Tim Burton new flick, Dark Shadows, what he's wearing should look mighty familiar.

The duds, modeled after his 1970s leather daddy motif, have been on display at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix since its I Am AZ Music exhibit opened earlier this year. Surrounded by memorabilia from his years (including a promotional inflatable pencil from the "School's Out" marketing blitz), the costume is one of those used in the film, a humorous take the English goth-soap Dark Shadows from the '60s and '70s.

"[The outfit was] made specifically for Alice to wear in Dark Shadows by [costume designer] Coleen Atwood," MIM curator Cullen Strawn says. "It's based on an outfit he wore in the '70s."

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Zombie Popcorn

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that The Devil's Carnival showed up in Scottsdale on Easter Sunday. It was a perfect day for the gleeful underground horror/ rock musical freaks and geeks to get dressed up and go out to play while everyone else is decorating eggs and eating jellybeans?

The dark rock musical/experimental short horror film was put together by Repo! The Genetic Opera creators Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw I, II, III IV) and Terrance Zdunich, and features an impressive array of figures from music, including Five Finger Death Punch frontman Ivan Moody, Clown from Slipknot, Nivek Ogre from Skinny Puppy, and more well-known actors like Paul Sorvino and Bill Moseley.

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A scene from Red Beans and Rice

Listening to other crate diggers stories of amazing scores might be the only thing vinyl nerds love as much as collecting records. Jealously inducing tales of that time you found "that rare 45, for, like, 50 cents."

It's at once infuriating and inspiring, a little more fuel for the fire as you dig through dusty boxes at garage sales, record stores, and Goodwill stores.

"I'm a vinyl collector, and I love hearing about digging stories and experiences from other collectors," says Darrell D. of Jamille Records. "I would seek out these stories and find them on YouTube. I came across a lot of good stories, but they always seemed to be short and not have much detail. There are a lot of digging videos out there will celebrities, DJs, producers, whatnot. So I decided I'm going to make my own video. I'll make it an hour long, so people have enough time to sit back experience the whole culture of vinyl collection, and I'll delve into different collectors and talk about the experiences they've had."

The resulting film was Red Beans and Rice, released in 2010. D. speak with collectors from all over the country, including folks instantly recognizable to Phoenix collectors. D. is back with a follow up, Red Beans and Rice 2: Audio Vibes, and he's screening it Saturday, April 7, at FilmBar.

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Directors Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz got a lot more than they bargained for when Matador Records and Jay Reatard -- the nom de punk of Memphis songwriter Jay Lindsey-- approached them about filming a short electronic press kit for his album 2009 album Watch Me Fall. Originally intended as a short, sort-of-commercial promoting the garage rocker, it became something more as Lindsey revealed more than the duo expected.

"He liked the idea of people coming from outside to document what he was doing," says Hammond. "He wanted to get to the truth. He said, 'Show people who don't like my music.' He didn't want it to be a fluff piece. I think we were both very surprised with what we got. We thought it was just going to be this little portrait."

"You don't feel compelled to go beyond a standard five-seven minute EPK," says Markiewicz. "This was something more. For whatever reason, Jay poured out so much."

Things became even more complicated when Linsdey died of complications "cocaine toxicity" in early 2010. The film morphed into an exploration of Lindsey's career, roots, and his relationships. The film screens Saturday, March 10, at FilmBar, and features live performances by The Wongs and Destruction Unit, both featuring Lindsey's friend and former bandmate Ryan "Elvis Wong" Rousseau.

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Filmmaker/documentarian Nico Holthaus plans to film a fictionalized account of the Tempe music boom of the '90s with homegrown talent.

By any yardstick you wish to measure it, you probably owe Nico Holthaus a drink. If nothing else. Mill Avenue Inc, his 2008 documentary chronicling the corporate invasion of Tempe, is a talking history time capsule of the faces and places that made the Tempe music boom of the '90s happen. But it did more than that. It raised awareness about what really transpires when store chains and greedy developers choke the life and soul out of an art community and it has spawned an ongoing series of Holthaus documentaries about similar struggles throughout the country. Last year saw the Tucson chapter of this saga The Avenue which told a happier tale of how the community fought back and won.

Now Holthaus is directing a fictionalized account of those halcyon days of Tempe jangle, based on former Refreshments bassist founder Art Edwards' 2003 novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix and he's using Kickstarter (yes, that again) to get the necessary funds and is auditioning actors SAG and non-SAG this Sunday at ASU.

We spoke to him about his hopes and some of his fears on going ahead with the project. And to see him make lots of "air quotes."

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Calling that Mott the Hoople a band's band makes it sound like humans didn't like them. Oh, but they did. In fact they loved them, back in the days when they sold out halls all over England but no one bought their records and then again later when everyone did. If the only blip they ever registered was "All the Young Dudes," it would've been enough to enshrine the band's name forevermore but there was so much more to Mott the Hoople, the only band to really report on what being a rock star was like on the inside, when it was losing or when it was winning and it still felt like losing.

A fantastic new documentary directed by Chris Hall called The Ballad of Mott The Hoople (Redeye Label) has just been released on DVD and just getting glimpses of the band makes you grateful for every bit of footage that survives. Recently, I had a chance to chat with Mott songwriter/frontman Ian Hunter to promote an upcoming Ian Hunter and the Rant Band gig in Detroit. Natch, we spoke about Mott and beyond.

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​Nearly every piece I've read about Pearl Jam's 1991 release Ten turning 20 has been some variation on the "this makes me feel old riff." And it makes sense. I didn't buy Ten when it first came out, but I wound up with a copy of it a few years after (courtesy of my mother, believe it or not). The record's anniversary does make me feel old.

While I don't think the record holds a candle to subsequent works like VS., No Code, Vitology, and Yield (a remarkably solid four-album streak through the '90s), 10 remains a touchstone for the Alternative Nation, and a mile-marker on the road that lead to underground sounds take over mainstream rock radio. Turn on the radio now -- Pearl Jam is probably playing on some station, be it a classic rock or "modern" rock one.

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Given his penchant for tequila, you've no doubt woke up feeling like a zombie after a Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers show (lord knows we've felt it). But on Friday, October 28, Clyne and friends will literally be getting zombified -- dressing up as the undead for Harold's Haunted Honky Tonk Halloween in Cave Creek.

"Yeah, you know, it's Halloween, and in the past we've done a couple of Halloween things [in the past]," Clyne says over the phone. "This year, I just felt like doing "zombies." I've always been a fan of...since high school, ever since I saw Day of the Dead. Zombies are just fun. Probably more fun for guys than they are for gals [because] there's usually some degree of violence associated with encountering zombies. They guys are like, 'Yeah,' and it's cool because zombies [you can] at least dislike, if not loathe zombies, and not be politically incorrect. It's going to be fun."

In celebration of the spooky fun, we asked Clyne to tell us about his five favorite zombie movies in time for Halloween, and to get ready for his country-rock undead gig.

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The Replacements' classic lineup

One of the preeminent rock bands of the 1980s finally has gotten the rock-doc treatment, and local fans of The Replacements will get a chance to see it at 7:30 p.m. today at the Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 North Central Avenue.

Color Me Obsessed is self-admitted Replacements fanboy Gorman Bechard's love letter to the Minneapolis band, which started in 1979 in founding guitarist Bob Stinson's basement, put out a handful of essential records (Sorry, Ma . . . through Tim), put out a handful of non-essential records (after Stinson was booted from the band in 1986) as they took a stab at the big time, and eventually petered out in 1991 with a final concert in Chicago's Grant Park.

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