We all have bands that defined our youth--that made us love music, that maybe even introduced us to a new feeling that we didn't know existed. Whether it's the psychedelic rock of the '60s, punk of the '70s, thrash of the '80s, or grunge of the '90s, every generation has its own musical roots.

And as history has shown us, those roots always cycle back and show through again eventually. But rarely do they return as poignantly and quickly as the recent nostalgia-heavy marketing renaissance of '90s alt-rock and grunge.

It's happened so fast that I think it's best to not even think of this resurgence as a "revival."

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Benjamin Leatherman

Seasoned festival-goers at McDowell Mountain.

Music festivals have been around for decades, and they're only becoming more popular. Each year, millions of fans fly around the world to attend more than 270 fests of various genres in the United States alone. They aren't a cheap experience, either: between festival tickets, travel, hotels and basics like food and water, you end up dropping anywhere from $500 to $1000, and beyond (ahem: This might be a good time to check out our list of 11 Ways to Attend a Music Festival on a Budget.)

Which raises one inevitable question: is it really worth going to festivals out of town?

The act of actually getting to a festival out of the Phoenix area can be a love/hate relationship... or at least it is for me. (Please, PR friends--don't revoke my press applications! You can't see this, but I'm batting eyelashes that aren't nearly as convincing after a peace-treaty whiskey shot.)

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It's rare that musicians or other people in the public eye actually admit they've been lying--unless they're found out, Tiger Woods-style--but Trent Reznor is excited about his own "betrayal" of Nine Inch Nails fans.

I guess the lie is okay when the truth stuns and excites millions of fans, right? Three months after announcing their return from a four-year hiatus, Reznor revealed via a Tumblr note that the Nine Inch Nails' eighth LP will be released by the end of the year. It will be the first new NIN music since 2008's The Slip.

"I've been less than honest about what I've really been up to lately," Reznor said in a press release. "For the last year I've been secretly working non-stop with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder on a new, full-length Nine Inch Nails' record, which I am happy to say is finished and frankly fucking great."

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Lauren Wise

Founded in 2007, Columbus, Ohio's Rock on the Range has become one of heavy metal's largest events, and every year, it just gets bigger and better. As Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach said in an interview: "As far as rock festivals in America go, Rock on the Range in No. 1 in my book. Straight f****n epic!"

I attended in 2012, but this year's event (May 17-19) had some significant changes, and sold out -- for the first time -- to ticket-buyers that had traveled from 49 states and three countries.

This year, ROTR expanded to live music all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as opposed to last year's Saturday and Sunday, and the headliners were more focused on bringing then nostalgia for powerhouse '90s rock -- Soundgarden, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn and Alice and Chains, with the side stages bringing more of the metal. Last year, headliners included Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth and Mastodon, and the side stages were more radio rock. So this year, it seemed the stages were switched: The majority of the metal acts were on the side stages, providing a plethora of opportunities to check out the best up-and-coming metallers around -- even if it did force me to hightail it to stages spread across Columbus Crew Stadium for a straight 10 hours a day. But who wouldn't want to try and catch more than 50 bands in one weekend? Especially at a festival that's actually great to watch from the bleachers, even with the pollen floating through the air as thick as snow at times.

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Oliver Scherillo

The cheapest way to sleep at Coachella.

Let's face it: Arizona isn't exactly prime real estate for music festivals. Yes, we have the party-hard atmosphere of Country Thunder and the locally beloved McDowell Mountain Music Fest, the EDM-drenched Soundwave and some killer jazz fests. But our fair desert doesn't yet have the appeal or pull of such festivals as Lollapalooza, Orion, Coachella, South by Southwest, Austin City Limits, Electric Daisy, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands--the list goes on.

For the avid music fan on a tight budget and unforgiving economy, deciding which festivals (if any) to travel to can be a frustrating experience. I myself encountered this same conundrum for 2013. Which music festivals was I going to budget for? How many days would I forgo the grocery store and live off canned soup and well whiskey? And sometimes, even if you do budget well for a festival, it's difficult to take into account unforeseen costs once you are already there: Cabs and rental cars, food, drinks, even water on-site.

Take SXSW, for example. The difficult-to-book flights to Austin, hundreds of dollars a night hotel rooms (even for the dinky ones), and days' worth of food and drinks. Ditto for Coachella and Lollapalooza. Thus I decided to compile some tips and tricks to survive festivals on a budget for all you other awesome music lovers out there--so read on and then book away.

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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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