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Donna Jean's is now D.O.A.

Cool, dive-y live music venues in the West Valley are very few and far between. And there's apparently one fewer as of this writing, as Donna Jean's Libations over in Glendale has closed.

Recent rumors of the bar's recent demise led us to its Facebook page, where proprietor, um, Donna Jean posted that her namesake's last day of operation was this past Sunday. Local rockers Tell Me About the Rabbits (who were regulars on its stage) got the honor of being the last band to pull a gig there.

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facebook.com/thewesternaz

The stage at The Western in Scottsdale, where (apparently) the buffalo roam, as do local country bands.

A few hours from now, the dulcet crooning of Mario Moreno and the swingy sounds of his backing act The Ramblers will waft out of The Western and into the Scottsdale night air, announcing the arrival of the area's newest live music spot.

The stylish honky-tonk, which (as we reported last month) was born of a partnership between nightlife impresario Tucker Woodbury and concert-promoting guru Charlie Levy, celebrates its official grand opening tonight. And though the joint's debut is about three weeks removed from the early-April opening that its proprietors originally aimed for, The Western is well worth the wait.

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Photos by Benjamin Leatherman

A new outlet for hip-hop culture and turntablist gear will make its debut this evening along Roosevelt Row, just in time for this month's edition of First Friday. Coolin' Out Hip-Hop Shop, a new brick-and-mortar boutique run by the local nightlife promoter and clothing company of the same name, is opening in one of the ground-level retail spaces at Artisan Village.

David Dimmick, a partner in Coolin' Out along with nightlife impresario Chuck Huus, says that the shop will focus on all four elements of hip-hop culture, which (for those of you who need a refresher) includes rapping, turntablism, graf art, and b-boy dancing.

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www.facebook.com/hifibars

Hi Fi Kitchen and Cocktails in Scottsdale.

As any Scottsdale party monster would tell you, Saddlebag Trail in Old Town tends to go full tilt boogie with rowdy behavior and exceedingly loud music after sundown, courtesy of high-end hangouts like El Hefe, Wild Knight, and EPIQ.

Starting this evening, the din's only going to get noisier and livelier as the aforementioned clubs are getting a new neighbor when Hi Fi Kitchen and Cocktails holds its grand opening and begins pumping amplified electronic beats into the ears of its patrons and out into the night air.

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Photos by Benjamin Leatherman

Sara Robinson and the Midnight Special performs at Last Exit Live last night.

It's gonna be an action-packed weekend for Brannon Kleinlein. The 38-year-old will be busy overseeing the locals-only side stage at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival at Margaret T. Hance Park. It's certainly a major task that he'll have to juggle along with this weekend's debut of his new downtown Phoenix music venue Last Exit Live, which held its soft opening on Thursday night and will host a MMMF after-party tonight.

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Benjamin Leatherman

The vinyl frontier awaits at Revolver Records in Tempe.

The record store gods giveth and they taketh away. Over the past six months or so, they've imparted another iteration of Eastside Records in Tempe, a mega-sized Zia Records on Camelback, as well as the equally quaint Record Room in Scottsdale, while claiming beloved East Valley shops like Rockzone and the beloved Hoodlums.

Their latest gift to the vinyl-loving masses debuted this past weekend when Revolver Records opened up a second location near McClintock Drive and Southern Avenue in Tempe.

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thewesternaz.com

Like April . . .

There's certainly no dearth of hangouts in the Valley where cowboys, cowgirls, or anyone else sporting a western shirt can down something tall and strong, get in some two-stepping action, or just hear some ol' fashioned daggum country music, pardner. Off the top of our heads, we can name close to two-dozen down-home dives or other Southern-fried spots alone.

Early next month, said list will have one more entry -- and a stylish one at that -- when the buckaroos behind The Vig, The Little Woody, and Crescent Ballroom open The Western in Scottsdale. Dreamt up by nightlife impresario Tucker Woodbury, who's partnering once again with concert promoter Charlie Levy, it's going to be a vintage roadhouse and country music venue with the heart of an old-school honky-tonk and plenty of style to boot.

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Benjamin Leatherman

Last Exit Live

There's been a growing cacophony coming from inside Last Exit Live in recent weeks, including plenty of banging, thumping, and grinding. Such clamor isn't from any ear-crunching local hard rock acts testing out the soon-to-open downtown Phoenix bar and music joint, however, but rather from a flurry of renovations that owner Brannon Kleinlein and his crew are giving the place.

The construction will reach a crescendo soon as Last Exit Live is scheduled to debut less than a month from now, on March 22, and a horde of local bands have already signed up to perform at the venue.

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Benjamin Leatherman

Monsterland in Mesa.

If there's been one certainty in the Valley's goth and industrial scenes during the past several days, it's that nothing's for certain.

As we previously reported, DJs like Apollynon and Aeternum put on what they thought were the final goth/industrial sessions at Sanctum this past weekend, as it was widely rumored that the club was undergoing a possible ownership or format change. The plan was to relocate their events over to Monsterland in Mesa and pick up where they'd left off at the similarly spooky haunted house/nightclub.

During the last 24 hours, however, everything went crazy after two big bombshells were dropped on the goth scene.

See also:
- Mesa's Monsterland to Close Next Weekend
- Club Candids: A Final Night of Goth and Industrial Music at Sanctum
- DJ Dossier: Apollynon

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockzone-Records

It seems the record store world is in a constant state of shuffle in Phoenix.

Recent months have seen Zia Records move up the road to its biggest location yet, Eastside Records reborn on Forest Ave., and the birth of Scottsdale's The Record Room, which joins wax shack stalwarts like Stinkweeds and Revolver Records in providing vinyl hounds ample crate digging grounds.

But where there's ups, there's downs: Hoodlums in Tempe closed its doors this fall after 14 years, and now Stephen Wilkinson, owner of Rockzone Records in Tempe, says he's closing his store down this month.

See also:

Hoodlums Music and Movies in Tempe To Close in August (Temporarily?)
Eastside Records Returns to Tempe...Again
Danny Marianino Signs Don't Ever Punch a Rockstar at Zia Records Over the Weekend

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