Blog: IckMusic

This past Saturday and Sunday, I made my way to the latest installment of my favorite local festival, the 10th annual McDowell Mountain Music Festival , this year taking place for the first time at Margaret T. Hance Park in downtown Phoenix. To set the scene, the park sits on top of Interstate 10 just north of downtown proper (the aptly named Deck Park Tunnel runs right under it). It’s a nice expanse of green in the midst of the concrete jungle. On the outskirts of the park were a few vacant lots, a fair share of [...]

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March 22 Update - Tickets went on sale today at noon local time. $277 total for each ticket (*gulp). I opted (rather, my bank account opted) for the May 1st late show. Here are links to all the Tempe / Marquee Theater shows: → April 30 - 8pm show | 11:30pm show → May 1 - 8pm show | 11:30pm show ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ It's looking like Prince [...]

Good things come in 32s, and it so happens that three quality videos crossed my eyes & ears this fine March evening. First, an adventurous and delightfully random new tune from Vampire Weekend called "Diane Young." Second, a new video from Christopher Owens for "Here We Go Again": And third, it's 3rdEyeGirl, Prince 's latest backing band o' ladies, laying down a groove for a tasty Hohner workout by the man himself - on an instrumental dubbed "Plectrum Electrum". [...]

The very talented and thankfully local band, American Revival   is back with a new lineup and new EP called Thank Ya Kindly.  Folks, the lads have done it again. It's a North Woods corker! From the first few wonderful seconds of the opening track's acoustic guitar, I fell head over heels in love with their new EP. "953 opens up the record by firmly planting an alt-country flag in the ground and it's very, very deep. The track also has a Byrds-like feel to it that I found refreshing and inspiring to the point of [...]

Austin City Limits is amazing week in and week out as it is, but when one of my favorites hits the stage for the 30 minute showcase, it always seems to capture something special that gives me a brand new appreciation for the music and the artists I admire (one previous example: John Prine's 2006 appearance  when he introduced me to Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons." This weekend's premier episode with Delta Spirit and Bob Mould brought that same type of moment for me when Matt Vasquez (of Delta Spirit) introduced and sang the [...]

• Delta Spirit - Vivian

I'm not sure if it was seeing old school funk n' R&B masters Cameo on Friday night that launched me into the frame of mind (probably is), but I'm knee deep into that sound, and in the middle of a Parliament and Funkadelic listen-a-thon the last couple of days. Particularly, I'm hooked in to the early stuff for both of George Clinton's sister acts. The debuts for both bands came the year I was born: 1970. I've been really digging on Osmium , the debut [...]

• Parliament - Little Ole Country Boy

On the fourth song into their set in the Main Room, at First Avenue last night, Tom Chapman, lead singer of Battle, East Sussex's Keane , realized he was going to have a personally transformative evening. It was during the devastating and tender track from their 2004 debut, Hopes and Fears , entitled "We Might As Well Be Strangers." I saw him look out into the audience during the peak of the song and his face visibly changed. The mystique that is the club First Avenue wrote its fire in the sky long ago, [...]

Everyone's allowed a pure and simple nostalgia trip from time to time, right? For me tonight, it was the funk/soul/R&B of Cameo that brought me back to simpler days. Crazy to think that the last time I saw Cameo in concert, Ronald Reagan was president and I was a junior in high school. After discovering Prince in '84, I threw myself into all the funky sounds I could get my hands on. Cameo was a huge part of that mid-802s funk explosion in my life. Sitting [...]

It's been ten years since Da vid Bowie has released any new music and most of us were beginning to think that he packed it in. He just turned 66 so no one would blame him, right? Yet here is...back with a corker of a new track called "Where are We Now?" It's sort of a cross between Young Americans mellow Bowie and the Berlin Era. The new album, entitled The Next Day will be out March 11th in the UK and March 12th in the [...]

"Don't try to get me down. Don't try to harsh my mellow, man!" Because after multiple listens over the last 24 hours, the short & sweet Lysandre album, brand new from former Girls frontman Christopher Owens , is doing the trick. And yes, Owens does indeed use the "harsh my mellow" line in "Here We Go Again." So for anyone who doesn't know, I am enamored with the Girls catalog - the two albums and one EP. Christopher dissolved the band in mid 2012 to [...]

"Some songs just feel like home." Commenters on YouTube (and the internet in general) can be a wicked, often ignorable bunch - but in this case, Youtube user RMBRKFLD is spot on. Phosphorescent's brand new single, "Song For Zula" latches on instantly with its entrancing, dreamy rhythm and Matthew Houck's fragile vocals. The song's first verse lets you know immediately where Matthew's going, and it isn't that bright, sunny nirvana called Love Land. Instead, he takes us into the deep, dark depths, where love will, well, tear you apart. Houck references "Ring of Fire" [...]

A simultaneous tip of the hat, high five and hearty kudos to whoever's responsible for bringing the hilarious Canadian "rockumentary" Cock'd Gunns to the Fuse music channel. First of all,  it's  one of the funniest music spoof/comedies I've ever seen (seriously, it's right up there with Flight of the Conchords and Spinal Tap in my opinion). I've already watched all 13 episodes detailing the adventures of Reggie Van Gunn (guitar), Dick Van Gunn (bass), Barry Cicarelli (drums) and Keith Horvak [...]

• Nick Rose - Wintersong

Who knows who's got his ear these days, but at least it's someone with enough sense to convince Prince to have at least some presence on the internet. There's no web site yet, but the last few days did bring us a new YouTube channel and a new Twitter handle - both under the name of 3rdEyeGirl . The YouTube channel has already uploaded 4 funky offerings: remixes of "Laydown" and "RNR Love Affair" (I agree with a commenter that this should have been the single), a [...]

January 8th update: NEVER MIND! 3rdEyeGirl was an imposter - a no good thievin' rat dipping into the stash of His Purpleness! Fooled again... Who knows who's got his ear these days, but at least it's someone with enough sense to convince Prince to have at least some presence on the internet. There's no web site yet, but the last few days did bring us a new YouTube channel and a new Twitter handle - both under the name of 3rdEyeGirl . [...]

Regardless of how tuned in you think you are to the popular music scene, there's always something good slipping under the radar. One of the most recent examples for me is Butch Walker . The Georgia-born musician and producer has been making waves since his early hair metal days with Southgang . He moved on to the Marvelous 3 in the late 902s, and, and over the last decade, he's found success as a pop/rock solo artist and producer (Pink, Weezer, Fall Out Boy). Butch Walker [...]

Arizona's own McDowell Mountain Music Festival marks its 10 year anniversary in just a couple of months (March 22-24) with a stellar lineup - arguably the strongest lineup in its decade long run. I've made it very clear over the years that MMMF is hands-down my favorite music event in old AZ. I've attended every one of them since 2007, when I watched in awe as Aaron Neville and his brothers belted out "Tell It Like It Is." From its earlier years at Scottsdale's spacious Westworld complex (2004-2009) to the [...]

It's always cool to kick off the new year with some fresh music. It's even better when it's some local boys! Lifted Mindz are a five man, hip hop crew that I first heard during a break of the Orange Bowl just two days ago and they are very, very wonderful. The tune below ("Dora Hade") lays down a nice, thick groove that is reminiscent of early De la Soul. Their message, like Hemingway, is honest, true and strong...a movable feast, if you will, for stream of consciousness expression. What a [...]

For my top five albums of the year, we begin with something I didn't think I would like but then did. And then loved. And then became obsessed with to the point of nausea. But a good nausea. Folks, I'm not ashamed to admit but I heart the Original Soundtrack to Rock of Ages . Heart heart heart!!! Maybe it's nostalgia or maybe I'm just that shocked that Tom fucking Cruise can carry a tune but this disc is Chock-o-Block with great tracks. My personal favorite is Cruise and Malin Akerman's [...]

Channeling my inner Cusack via Nick Hornby, here are my Top Five Tracks of 2012. 5. "Don't Stare At The Sun" - Richard Hawley Haunting and evocative of another time, this song has been stuck to me for the past few months and won't let go. Certainly, it's reminiscent of Tonight-era David Bowie but there's something more than that here. It's echo-y...shimmery...like memories...simply wonderful... 4. "I'm Not The Same Without You" - Donal Fagen The more things change, the more [...]