So, my girlfriend and I just broke up. Coincidentally, or maybe because April is just a shitty month, the inverse happened to Camille Standen, who wrote a piece for Noisey about how her shattered relationship ruined all the songs she used to love.

I can relate, but I wouldn't say my favorite songs have been ruined. Hearing The Temptations sing "My Girl" -- with that lyric, "I've even got the month of May" -- just fucking tore me up, but otherwise I seem to be okay, and the music in my rotation hasn't changed much.

Music is always sweeter at two points in a relationship: The start and finish. When you first meet, it's like rediscovering The Velvet Underground, and when you break up, it's like rediscovering what The Velvet Underground actually sang about. Who loves the motherfucking sun, indeed.

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Singer with an ulcer I know, I know it's serious.

I've never seen Morrissey in concert, and who knows if The Smiths will ever reunite (highly unlikely), so as a longtime fan, I was excited when I heard he would be playing a show in Tempe. First, he was scheduled to perform at the Marquee Theatre on November 21; then it was postponed. Then the show was rescheduled for February 10, and postponed again. It finally was rescheduled for April 19, but, ultimately, canceled for good.

Morrissey had good reason, of course. In a press release, he revealed that he has "suffered a series of medical mishaps over the past few months including a bleeding ulcer, Barrett's esophagus and double pneumonia." Although I understand he had good reason, I was still disappointed, so I expressed it like Morrissey would: With his own words.

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As I announced a couple of weeks ago, I'm stepping down from the music editor position here at New Times, but it's with great pleasure that I announce that a more than capable gentleman by the name of Dan Moore will be stepping into the role.

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Lokey Foto

The members of OTO back in 2001.

Renewal is the absolute lifeblood of this time of year. As we roll into spring, damn near everything starts growing, everyone's energy tends to pick up, and it feels like there's some cosmic reboot going on. So when long-defunct Phoenix act OTO picked this weekend to reunite and stage its first performance in more than a decade, it seemed downright apropos.

The live trip-hop/drum 'n' bass sextet, which broke up back in 2001, may have become an relatively obscure footnote in local music history (having produced only one album and starred in less than a dozen gigs), but were a relatively big deal during their heyday way back when. Their reunion tonight, which takes place during an off-the-radar First Friday affair promoted by downtown party guru Quincy Ross, should be equally as big.

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Doing some crate digging at Tracks in Wax, I uncovered a rather strange relic: an album showcasing local music. The cover was a faded license plate with the words Arizona Sounds Vol. 1, sponsored by KDKB 93.3 FM. It was printed in 1977.

As a Phoenix native, I've always had an interest in this sprawling metropolitan's weird history, so finding a dusty record with 12 local artists from yesteryear (none of whom I've heard of before) really piqued my interest. Thankfully, short blurbs about each artist were printed on the back of record, as Wikipedia and Google weren't very helpful. It reads, "KDKB radio has always taken an interest in local artists featuring their music both on tape and in live "on the air" broadcasts." I find that strange, since they obviously don't do much of that now. You can read the whole transcription here but otherwise there is little to no information on these bands online. Let's break this album down and dive into a little of vintage Arizona, shall we?

See also:

-100 Years of Music That Defined Arizona
-Kimber Lanning on Sleepwalker's "Out of Here" (1998)
-Howe Gelb on Rainer's "One Man Crusade" (1994), "The Inner Flame" (1997), and "The Farm" (2002)
-Sara Cina on the Gin Blossoms' "Found Out About You" (1989)

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The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants.

So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories from the week of January 14-18, 2013.

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The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants.

So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories from the week of Dec. 10-14.

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The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants.

So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories from the week of December 3-7.

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The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants.

So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories from the week of November 26-30.

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The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants.

So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories from the week of November 12-16.

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