We've lost count of the times boastful beat-jugglers have bent our ears dissing the skills of their fellow wax workers. To say that a little backbiting and trash-talking goes on in the Valley's DJ scene is about as obvious an understatement as admitting that Amy Winehouse likes to let loose once in a while. We expect a strong Rock Fight next summer, too, in the name of keeping the Valley hot.
DIVE GAY BAR BOSTON SERIES
This series enjoyed its inaugural run this summer, with preliminary rounds every Saturday from May 31 through June 21, semifinals Saturday, July 5, and Friday, July 11, and finals the following Saturday, July 12. Perhaps the reason the battles were such wars was because not just any band could pay a fee and enter - the contestants were chosen from CDs sent to KUPD DJ Shan Man. Among the 22 bands who duked it out (and advanced) in the preliminary rounds were metal monsters The Human Condition (featuring Wiley Arnett from Sacred Reich), trip-hop/rock outfit Bionic Jive (featuring Blunt Club host Emerg McVay), hard rockers The Sammus Theory (who've enjoyed some exposure already on MTV2), and metal band The Asylum. So it was with local rock station 98 KUPD's "Rock Fight" series (also sponsored by New Times). When the grand prize for a Battle of the Bands series includes 70 hours of recording time at Highland Recorders (birthplace of recordings and mixes for the likes of Fall Out Boy and Phunk Junkeez), $500 cash, a $750 shopping spree at Highland Clothing in Scottsdale Fashion Square, and an opening slot at U-Fest to set the stage for acts like Disturbed and Slipknot, the competition has got to be good. They're so beautiful in the way they're completely out of place that you can't help but listen.
Maybe that's why Dry River Yacht Club works. But put them in a concert hall or a theater and they'd still stand out. Though they play venues like Rhythm Room and Yucca Tap Room, they don't quite fit in with the alt-country rockers or the R&B acts they share the stage with. The percussion is like a range of accents punctuating the lilting, singsong style of the vocalist.Ĭalling Dry River Yacht Club experimental doesn't cut it. The guitarist plays like a percussionist, bobbing up and down as he slaps his guitar body to keep the beat. The sounds they construct are as haunting as they are unique.Įven in a music scene as varied as Phoenix's, Dry River Yacht Club stands out. The band members pick up their respective instruments and begin to play. Onstage there's a bassoon, a bass clarinet, a cello, an assortment of percussive instruments stacked and hanging near a Mac, an acoustic guitar, and, beside the singer's microphone, an accordion.