"Fast Times at Dropout High." It all started with a 4-track demo slipped to The Vandals' bassist Joe Escalante at a Cincinnati show in 1996 that landed them a record deal. Twenty-three years later, these pop punks are still touring the world and doing things their way. The Ataris sing "The Saddest Song" at 191 Toole. Alien Atmosphere opens...
"Lemme hear ya holla." E is for Exbats! The bubblegum pop and slashing garage rock of Bisbee's The Exbats promises to bring a "Maximum of Happy" to Tap + Bottle–Downtown... Dropping atomic bombs of bass, EDM duos Barely Alive + Bandlez maraud in search of plunder. At Gentle Ben's. Flanked by Oblivion and Wolfie... Guitarist Eugene Boronow spreads bossa nova's heart-warming sound. On the Agustin Kitchen patio... It's free jazz! Lookout Tucson Jazz Concert Series continues. This week sees the dynamic configuration of pianist Chris Peña, upright bassist Thøger Lund and Josh Carruthers on drums. In the Lookout Bar and Grille at The Westward Look Resort...
Go Deeper: DJs Atom Energy and Lunarfluxx take you on a trek through the EDM underground. This week they welcome guest DJ CHKLZ. At Passé... Led by award-winning fiddler, Billy Shaw Jr. Band perform Southwestern country rock for Boots & Balls Thursday. At The Maverick King of Clubs... "Americana's Most Wanted," Mark Insley and guitarist Damon Barnaby, are at Iron John's Brewing Company–Congress... Impending doom fills the air as Denver-blackened sludge metallists Oryx are at Wooden Tooth Records. Flanked by locals Manguera and Demon Grass... Divinely scratchy vinyl will be spun, anything goes. At The Libertine...
Friday, Nov. 15
The son of Nigerian immigrants. The title of this Texas rapper's major label debut, Brandon Banks (RCA, 2019), is his father's alias—the name listed in a federal case that led to his incarceration. Turning a troubled past around—his teenage years without a father and days running with the Crips—this MC's stark storytelling chronicles a rise from abject poverty to critical acclaim. "I don't do any fabricated-ass shit. Everything I'm talking about in my raps is real." Underground legend, Maxo Kream keeps it real. At 191 Toole. Backed by Q Da Fool and REY... Hip-hop/gangsta rap/horrorcore artist Chris Rouleau's adopted stage persona is that of a reincarnated gang member killed in the late 1980s. Out on the Forever Dead And Dirty Tour catch Blaze Ya Dead Homie at House of Bards. A.X.E. and Boonbox are up first... Akin to a piping hot bowl of spicy pozole rojo—Mexican soul food—that soothes, helping to remedy malaise, The Carnivaleros offer up a rambunctious "Danceroo" to get the hangover started right. At Monterey Court... Genre hopping, Mexi-Americana singer-songwriters FebboFuentes perform for the betterment of the human soul. In the tasting room at Sand-Reckoner... Joined by a rotating cast of Tucson's best pickers—tracing back the roots of country music, from the Appalachian Mountains to the flats of Bakersfield—Freddy Parish's monthly residency continues. Dry 'n' Dusty at Exo Bar... Influenced by afrobeats, dancehall and UK funky, this rising London-based producer's vibrant and melodic tracks fuse together syncopated rhythms from around the world. This edition of El Tambó features Mina. Resident DJs Sonido Tambó spin sides into the night. On the plaza at Hotel Congress... Smog City indie poppers Raised on TV despondently drag themselves off the couch to bring the Road Dogs Tour to Sky Bar... Guitarist/lap steel player Joe Novelli (Orkesta Mendoza, The Cloud Walls, Nive and the Deer Children) is known to perform a genre-jumping hybrid of fuzzed out soul-rock, noir-folk, dirty-country and punk-blues, to form a lush musical palette. At Hotel McCoy... Pelt, Tongs and Soda Sun promise to fill the rapidly cooling night air with diversity. At The Boxyard... While attending college, recording on his laptop, this young hip-hop artist caught the attention of Bombcity Records, which released his first mixtape, Songs For Debutantes, in 2008. Out of Oklahoma, Jabee is at Thunder Canyon Brewstillery. Sharing the stage with Cash Lansky, Jaca Zulu and Topnax & FonZ. Runt hosts... Metric Tones presents Communiverse Vol. IV: A three-day micro-music festival, art, dance and community event. Featuring Soulular, Lunarfluxx, Santa Pachita, Paper Airplane Project, Legion of Mario, SkrUb, Tell Your Girl and more. At Solar Culture, MSA Annex and Irene's Holy Donuts... With songs about "Stripper Poles" and "Cherry Pop Tarts," Funky Bonz have been "Making It Funky" since 1993. At Saint Charles Tavern... Jazz saxophonist Autumn Dominguez leads her trio. On the patio at Bacio Italiano... Multi-instrumentalist Amo "Chip" Dabney joins Rockers Uptown for a night of reggae with an occasional hip-hop twist. At Chicago Bar...
Saturday, Nov. 16
Influenced by alt-rock and Native American traditional music, Katherine Paul grew up on a reservation in Washington state. On her 2018 release, At The Party With My Brown Friends, this Swinomish/Iñupiaq singer-songwriter finds her power as a radical indigenous queer feminist. Black Belt Eagle Scout tells her heart's dreams at Club Congress. Hikes provide support... This Russian-American band performs a mishmash of funk, surf, rockabilly, reggae, disco and traditional Russian music. "Let's get drunk and funk" being their motto, Igor & The Red Elvises get freaky at 191 Toole... Playing original jazz, bossa novas and experimental French esoterica, Dark Maps—Jeff Grubic, Sean Rogers and Dmitri Manos—create a unique atmosphere in the courtyard at Mercado San Agustin... Flying like an eagle, Miller Time: A Tribute to Steve Miller swings into town. At the Rialto Theatre. "Take The Money and Run"... The ukulele-driven, gypsy-inspired, whimsical indie-pop of Little Cloud create a microcosm of bitter-sweetness inside a glass of wine. In the Sand-Reckoner tasting room... Holding steady after 34 years, reggae institution Neon Prophet demonstrate just "How The West Was Won." At Chicago Bar... Club Sanctuary resident DJs Plastic Disease and Black Flagg host Strange & Unusual: A Tim Burton themed dance party. Industrial/EBM/dark dance shall spin. At the Surly Wench Pub... They play as if the fate of their very souls were held in the balance. That look of intense passion—along with the same rush of exhilaration they must have felt when jamming these songs out for the very first time—is the reason why this band of veterans continues to draw an audience. The mighty Greyhound Soul return to Che's Lounge... Driving down a lonesome highway, the sun setting behind a ridge, singer-songwriter June West travels with her Fender guitar, a beat machine and a repertoire of songs that draw inspiration from soul, country, blues and rock 'n' roll. She performs with "Angels in Disguise," Sadgalnina—a 21-year-old R&B singer—and THEM&i, both a part of Ojalá Systems. At Exo Bar... Led by vocalist (retired Command Sergeant Major) Connie Brannock, Little House of Funk, like a violent thunderstorm, will energize the evening air with R&B. At Monterey Court... The Iron Maidens pay tribute to the music of, you guessed it, Iron Maiden. At EncoreTucson. Locals Drop D and Flying Half Full add to the lineup... "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues." A distant relative of folk hero Davy Crockett, red-dirt Texas country crooner Charley Crockett does just that. With pop singer-songwriter Abraham Alexander. At The Rock... Still can't get enough live music, food trucks and local brews? The Fifth Annual Stone Avenue Block Party features sets by Los Esplifs, Sonido Tambó, Mariachi Los Diablitos and The Jovert Street Steel Drum Band. At the Jewish History Museum...
Sunday, Nov. 17
Acclaimed guitarist Sharon Isbin in cahoots with the mighty Tucson Symphony Orchestra perform a program featuring works for guitar and orchestra by Wagner, Corigliano and Rachmaninoff. Conductor Case Scaglione is at the podium. At the Tucson Convention Center... Art + Music + Poetry + Dance = Chick Magnet. Enter the creative world of womxn, non-binary and femme artists. Featuring the rad sounds of Moontrax, Hannah Yeun, Mattea, WestOasis, Lano, Just Najima, Mudpuppy, Chelsey Trejo, Andrea Delmerico and Gabi Jr. All-ages event. At 191 Toole... This installment of Sunday Sessions features acclaimed Americana singer-songwriter/storyteller Kevin Pakulis and his Band. At Borderlands Brewing Company... Electronically looping together snippets of funk, rap, jazz and R&B with humor, Mik and the Funky Brunch perform at La Cocina... Like a 21st-century mash-up of Sonic Youth and Pete Seeger with cartoonist R. Crumb, Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage's style is scuzzy, urban indie/folk rock. At Club Congress. Golden Boots opens the show...
Monday, Nov. 18
Out of the basement and into the fire, Seattle's Big Bite bring their post-grunge/indie rock to Club Congress. With Droll and Evergreen...
Tuesday, Nov. 19
Soul/blues/gospel/Latin. Roots Rising showcases up-and-coming talent: Matt Andersen, Gaby Moreno and Liz Vice performing both stripped down individual sets and a collaborative finale. At Club Congress...
Wednesday, Nov. 20
Imagine "Sweet Child O' Mine" mariachi style? If heavy metal had a pleasurably sordid affair with mariachi music lots of tequila would surely be involved. It's conceivable that this band of Los Angeles dissenters rose from unconsecrated graves. Like Barrio Viejo's own El Tiradito, where legend holds that Juan Oliveras, a young sheepherder, rests not-so-peacefully after being murdered by his father-in-law, who caught him in flagrante delicto with his enraptured mother-in-law. Metalachi are at 191 Toole. The heavy-as-hell surf music of Shark in the Water gets the party started... Carefully balancing passion with composure, John Goraj established himself as a singer-songwriter with folk leanings before fronting a rising indie rock band. Soda Sun are at Club Congress... Poets Sherman Bitsui and Sharon Vap read at Exo Bar... All three members of this prestigious ensemble are winners of the Naumburg Foundation Prize. Arizona Friends of Chamber Music presents the Naumberg Trio. The evening's program features works by Beethoven. Carter, Schubert and Shostakovich. At Leo Rich Theater...
Thursday, Nov. 21
With a voice that ranges from softly melodic to impassioned caterwauling, this singer-songwriter/author founded art-punk band Throwing Muses at the peppy age of 14 with her step-sister Tanya Donelly back in 1981. As a solo artist, her prolific output is an assemblage of jagged emotional edges tempered by plain-spoken folk. "The songs keep on writing themselves, and I really love them. It's as close as I get to a religion." In a special solo acoustic performance, Kristin Hersh is at 191 Toole. Singer-songwriter Fred Abong—former bassist for Belly and Throwing Muses—opens performing his new ep, Pulsing...
Shout Out
On Saturday, Nov. 16, a mysterious band of garage rockers, flying low under the radar, an "American Creation," The Minds celebrate the release of All Out, their second full length. At 1702 Craft Beer & Pizza...
On The Horizon
"Sweet Jesus of Nazareth!" On Friday, Nov. 22, New Orleans rapper Big Freedia, currently enjoying her reign as the Queen of Bounce (an up-tempo, bass heavy music designed to make "yo' ass shake") brings her legendary Shake Team to the Rialto Theatre. Look forward to bounce dance moves like "the twerk," "the wiggle," "the bend ova'" and the "hands on the ground" to the Rialto Theatre. South Korean boy group Boyfriend hit the stage first... After 30 years of writing, recording and life on the road, Rolling Stone recently wrote that this musical couple, Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, show "no signs of fatigue, whose moment has finally arrived." If only in your mind, the "post-nuclear, pseudo-alternative, folk-tinged art-pop," of Cincinnati's Over The Rhine will have you eating "Blood Oranges In The Snow." On Saturday, Nov. 23, at 191 Toole...
Until next week, XOXO...
