Story Archive

The Shys

You’ll Never Understand This Band the Way I Do

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008

Like the more heralded Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper, modern So-Cal five-piece The Shys is steeped in bygone radio rock.

Game over

All-ages music holdout Jillian’s succumbs to the tough economy

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008

Las Vegas’ already fragile all-ages scene has suffered what could be a shattering blow: the closing of teen music hub Jillian’s.

Wilderness

(K)no(w)here

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008

If boxing promoter Don King fronted a rock band, he’d probably sound a lot like James Johnson. The vocalist for arty Baltimore outfit Wilderness unleashes every one of his lyrics with equal, unrestrained enthusiasm.

Stargazing

Crowds gather ’round for Vegas foursome’s debut

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

Judging from the throng queuing up for autographs and handshakes outside Zia Record Exchange, it’s a safe guess a well-known visiting headliner has just stepped offstage. Not bad for a local band playing its first-ever show.

Four questions with Q-Tip

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

After nine years of work, Q-Tip has released a new album and is hitting Vegas on November 16th. Weekly talked up the rapper and heard how hip-hop helped elect Barack Obama.

Homie don’t play that anymore

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

“For the last 12 years, I’ve been this guy, ‘Homie’ … and then you wake up one morning, and that whole part of your life is not there anymore.”

Hungry Cloud

Hungry Cloud

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008

When Mike Weller performed in my living room in February, he fashioned a makeshift guitar strap out of a shoelace from my wife’s closet.

Hush Arbors

Self-titled

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008

For anyone not yet immersed in the New Weird America psychedelic-folk movement, Hush Arbors’ new self-titled album makes for a nifty point of entry.

Dead Confederate

Wrecking Ball

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008

The Georgia sons’ MySpace page lists three primary influences: On the Beach (a Neil Young album), Meddle (Pink Floyd) and Bleach (Nirvana).

Three reasons to check out Fabulous

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008

A rave in the Orleans Arena. Sounds … interesting. Strange as the setting might seem, however, the lineup for the Fabulous festival ought to excite any serious fan of electronic dance music.

Deerhunter

Microcastle

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008

It appears Deerhunter has taken more than just friendship away from its many gigs opening for fellow experimental rockers Liars.

Anamorphosis

Halloween EP

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008

Wanna totally freak out your neighborhood? Blare this out into the street while kids are trick-or-treating.

Jimi worship

The Weekly playlist

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008

Covering a Jimi Hendrix song is quite the risky venture; after all, a lot of folks consider him rock’s all-time greatest guitarist, and his voice wasn’t too shabby, either.

Three questions with STS9 bassist David Murphy

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008

Vegoose or no Vegoose, Santa Cruz, Cali-based jam band STS9 is heading back to Vegas this weekend to get some feet tapping. Bassist David Murphy remembers the fest that was and reveals (gasp!) that the band has Republican fans.

Of Montreal

Skeletal Lamping

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008

Kevin Barnes’ tendencies toward the vainglorious served Of Montreal well on 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? On follow-up Skeletal Lamping, it sounds as if he actually believes he has become the character he created.

Apples and oranges

Bleachers’ in-store

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008

Margarita by the yard, meet iPhone. MacBook, may we present football filled with beer.

The Killers

October 20, House of Blues

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008

An encore performance of “Home Means Nevada” earned The Killers ingenuity points Monday night, but their ungainly flub, and subsequent restart, of the state’s official song ultimately spoke louder about the Vegas-bred rock stars’ continued awkward relationship with their hometown and its fanbase.

Air raid

Vegas electro duo gears up for CMJ trip it almost didn’t make

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008

Las Vegas’ Afghan Raiders have been booked for New York’s prestigious CMJ Music Marathon for weeks. At least, they’ve had flight reservations.

Margot & The Nuclear So and So's

Not Animal/Animal!

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008

Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s have barely been around four years, and they’ve already got one helluva complicated catalog.

Talkdemonic

Eyes at Half Mast

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008

Of all the weird, mashed-up musical subgenres in the world today, the wackiest pseudo-mainstream concept of all might just be folktronica. After all, its primary elements—acoustic folk and downtempo electronics—are as different as tree and machine (literally), and a marriage between the two would seemingly blot out the best stand-alone qualities of each.

R.I.P. Art Bar (May ’05-September ’08)

Downtown venue stirred up the scene during its short lifespan

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008

When Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes dropped his pants onstage last February, he ensured the Art Bar would live on forever in Las Vegas concert folklore.

The Ting Tings

We Started Nothing

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008

Overhyped? Hell yeah. Overrated? You bet. But what British newcomer with halfway decent hooks isn’t these days?

Mosaic paints a winning picture

Local a cappella group triumphs on (abbreviated) reality show

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008

When is winning a reality TV game show—and the $100,000 check that comes with the title—a bit of a letdown? When the show is MTV’s Top Pop Group.

TV On The Radio

Dear Science

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008

On 2006’s Return to Cookie Mountain, TV on the Radio played musical tour guide for an impending apocalypse, its words cautioning of war, hate, fear and technology even as generous doses of the latter steeped those prophecies in analogously chilling portent.

The Vermin

Joe's Shanghai

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008

Track 18 on the new Vermin album runs for nearly half an hour, but not because the Vegas vets have suddenly embraced prog.

Mogawi

The Hawk is Howling

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008

Mogwai, as a band name, has always stood apart from other film-referencing handles—say, Sweep the Leg Johnny or Save Ferris—because it’s about more than simple pop-culture gimmickry. The Scotsmen’s music transforms placid soundscapes into eardrum-stressing infernos, much the way the sweet, furry Mogwai creatures metamorphosed into terrifying monsters in the ’80s movie Gremlins.

Fall A+E Guide: Music

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008

Clear your calendar and your iPod: This fall brings a variety of concerts and albums you won't want to miss.

The New Year

The New Year

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008

Another new year, no new album from The New Year. That’s how it’s gone for four straight Januaries, and that ever-widening recording void—combined with a dearth of live activity—has fostered suspicions that the band that emerged from the ashes of ’90s slowcore pillar Bedhead had quietly gone the way of its predecessor.

Downtown-apalooza

Neon Reverb looks to fill festival void twice annually

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008

Thirry Harlin was shopping in a convenience store when someone spotted the “RT” tattoo on his arm. “They’d seen my Revolution Theory logo on posters for Neon Reverb and asked if I was going,” he says. “I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s my festival!’”

Love hurts

Five-piece Pentagon goes dark while mulling its future

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008

Las Vegas’ electro-rock superwomen have been hit with a dose of kryptonite. Whether it’s fatal remains to be seen. Much-adored local quintet Love Pentagon has gone on indefinite hiatus, with the future of the group very much up in the air.

The Dandy Warhols

… Earth to The Dandy Warhols …

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

As music fans, we’re auto-conditioned to side with bands over labels whenever the two butt heads.

Thinking big

Young Vegas band prepares to rock and roll all nite—again

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

Stepping onstage in support of theatrical rock legends Kiss—and staring into the painted faces of their fanatical legions—would rightfully daunt any fresh-faced band.

Preservation at a price

A plan’s afoot to save the historic Huntridge Theatre by turning it into a commercial center

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

The next time you’re standing in the historic Huntridge Theatre, you might be picking up a pair of flip-flops. Not at a band’s merchandise table; the 44-year-old building at the corner of Charleston and Maryland isn’t coming back as a concert venue. Last Wednesday at a neighborhood meeting, owner Eli Mizrachi unveiled plans to turn the structure and its adjacent property into a 38,000-square-foot retail and office complex, which he hopes to open sometime in 2009.

Three questions with Deer Tick's John McCauley

We caught up with the underground folk-rock hero from his home in Rhode Island.

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

I’ve played in an ice-cream parlor. I’ve played in the back of a frame shop. I played a fashion show at a VFW post the other day. I’ll never forget the magic-shop show—I think it was the most bizarre venue I’ve ever played. I could do with forgetting the ice-cream parlor show. But nowadays Deer Tick’s mostly playing clubs.

Parting words

Much-adored pop-punks Fletch gear up for final show, future projects

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

They stood 6-5, with the afros 6-9, hated Tommy Lasorda and charged steak sandwiches to the Underhills’ tab. Okay, they didn’t really, but like the Chevy Chase flick with which they shared a name, popular local band Fletch are a thing of the past.

Stereolab

Chemical Chords

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

Convenient as it might be to trace Stereolab’s continued stretch of relative mediocrity back to the loss of longtime member Mary Hansen, in truth the slippage dates well beyond the 2002 bicycle accident that claimed Hansen’s life.

Calamity Jayne, take two

She helped create a music scene. She served hard time in a federal penitentiary. And Las Vegas’ most infamous musical outlaw lived to talk about it all with the Weekly

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008

A quest for buried Japanese treasure. Low-flying aircraft loaded with cocaine. Three million dollars in the trunk of a Jaguar. FBI agents eavesdropping on phone sex. A cellmate with cannibalistic tendencies. Savory ingredients for a zany Hollywood movie, packaged with a built-in soundtrack from Iggy Pop, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana. Someday, perhaps, but for now the storyline replays mostly in the memories of the woman best known as Calamity Jayne, a curious case of life imitating art if ever there was one.

The Walkmen

You & Me

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008

A lot of folks who thought they liked The Walkmen smelled a rat when they heard 2006’s A Hundred Miles Off, or more accurately put, they didn’t hear one. Nothing on that disc sounded remotely like “The Rat”—the hard-driving track that had garnered so much attention from Pitchfork, the A.V. Club and the like two years earlier—and that cost the New York quintet both audience and acclaim.

Calamity's Most Notorious

Weird and wonderful moments from the club's four-year run

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008

Pissed off Kurt Cobain, contracts on cocktail napkins and Iggy Pop. A selection of the weird and wonderful moments from four years of rock shows at Calamity's.

Banding together

Conference offers some useful tools for its participants; just don’t call it a festival

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008

More than 100 bands and artists performed Downtown over a three-day span last week, and odds are you’ve never heard of any of them.

The Faint

Fasciinatiion

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008

Say this for The Faint: They don’t sweat the trends. The Nebraskans went retro-new wave in the late ’90s, way before anyone was gushing over Hot Hot Heat, Fischerspooner or Infadels.

Five freakiest things about this local punk CD we received

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008

Local music can be very scary. Check out this freaky punk CD we received.

Local track we love

Dreaming of Lions, "The Pillows Don't Talk"

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Duo Chris Leland and Joe Ervin, mainstays on the Vegas folk scene since 2005, have exceeded solid past efforts with this haunting serenade.

Looking on the brightside

Red Light kid grows up, crafts debut with killer hooks and sharp lyrics

Thursday, July 31, 2008

A local teen taking on Las Vegas’ biggest rock band? Call him brazen, foolish or naïve if you want, but Ian Shane Tyler might just be the most business-savvy just-turned-20-year-old on the local music scene.

I wrote what?!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Local duo The Naturals sent out a MySpace bulletin on July 28 announcing a dramatic mid-tour breakup, with the text attributed to … yours truly.

Paul Weller

22 Dreams

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Can you imagine Paul Weller’s latest album shooting to the top of the Billboard 200? Sure, as soon as John Q. Kansas figures out who the heck Paul Weller is.

Excuses for Skipping

Get out of Work Early

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Imagine if Kevin Shields had produced The Go-Go’s and you’ve got some idea where this Bay Area-based, all-female quartet is coming from.

Three questions with Scars on Broadway drummer John Dolmayan

Thursday, July 24, 2008

We caught up with Scars on Broadway drummer and Las Vegas resident John Dolmayan for an update on his new project with fellow System of a Down-er Daron Malakian ... and more.

Coldplay

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A really interesting band played the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday night. Its songs were built on unpredictable arrangements and compelling dynamic changes; its lyrics felt heroic without seeming sophomoric; and its musicians displayed instrumental sophistication belying their relative youth.

Wire

Object 47

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The title of Wire’s latest album refers to its position as the 47th item in the British art-punks’ catalog, an unwise designation considering it reminds us how much peripheral material the band has released since its initial LP trio of 1977’s Pink Flag, 1978’s Chairs Missing and 1979’s 154.