By Troy Farah, on May 17th, 2012 
Jack White’s blah solo excursion and a delicious remix album
Published on 05/10/2012 in Flag Live!
Jack White – Blunderbuss
Rating: 2/5
Of all the band-related breakups last year—among them Bright Eyes and LCD Soundsystem—the White Stripes’ demise was the least disheartening. The duo had a long, steady career and ending it when they did was perfect timing. What if, instead, the band had become saturated with their ego, released a bunch of unforgivable, crappy albums and started an endless tour circuit where they relived the “glory days of the 2000s,” if such a thing will ever exist. Frightening thought.
Read More
By M. Tekel, on May 16th, 2012
It’s hard to tell your friends “I’m going to the Donkeys show” with a straight face. No, not some perverted freak-show in Mexico. I mean the psychedelic San Diegan blues rockers The Donkeys, who tore the Yucca Tap Room apart with their ’60s-inspired pop and ’70s-era jams, a blend that’s earned praise from indie contemporaries like The Mountain Goats and The Hold Steady.
The Donkeys treated the bar and lounge like they were regulars, which is pretty close to the truth — this is hardly their first rodeo in Tempe. Lead guitarist Tim DeNardo described this town as a “home away from home,” mentioning the many friends who’ve let them crash on their floor or otherwise helped them on their odysseys through Arizona. Tempe was their first stop on a very short, very packed tour toward the Atlantic, including visits in New Orleans, Brooklyn and Chicago.
Read More
By C. Bass, on May 14th, 2012  C. Bass brandishing a shard of glass. Photo by M. Tekel One fine day, Tekel and I were out driving, looking for an opportunity for adventure. This opportunity was a closed down Lone Star Steakhouse off the I-17. There is no spooky or off-color reason this place was closed — Lone Star was dealt a blow by the recession, and they shut down 27 restaurants around the country, leaving them with 152 godless locations. I can only say good riddance; may the rest of the Lone Stars shut down within my lifetime. Not even Texas wants this lowbrow restaurant, as no locations exist within the “Lone Star” state itself.
Pulling into the dead empty parking lot, I parked the Rod under a tree. We tried the doors, to no avail, and we noticed that no windows had been broken that weren’t boarded up. In fact, aside from some graffiti and a junction box stripped of its copper wire, the place was pretty intact. That, however was only on the outside.
Read More
By M. Tekel, on May 10th, 2012  This isn’t some Oprah bullshit. We read kickass books and at the end of it, have a swag party with cocktails, cigars and coke. Most of all, we talk all posh about literature. It’s an incentive to read and discuss ideas rather than what’s on TV or who’s sleeping with who.
Tekel’s Book of the Month Club existed in some form as a weird Facebook group, but now it’s public. Anyone can (and should) join!
Read More
By M. Tekel, on May 9th, 2012
By M. Tekel, on May 7th, 2012 It’s Monday, so dry  your tears — you undoubtedly heard over the weekend that MCA, who made up an entire third (!!) of the Beastie Boys, succumbed to cancer at the age of 47. Of course, reading through the many obituaries and tributes, the focus is more on Adam Yauch’s (as his mother called him) charitable lifestyle, instead of the tumors that ate his face off.
What Yauch died from was called parotid cancer, which affects the salival glands. It’s really rare and no one is really sure of the cause, but it probably isn’t smoking or alcohol consumption. No word on “breath stinkin’” or “glue sniffin’” yet though.
The saddest part is the cancer was likely caught in Stage I or II, where the survival rate ranges from 75% to 91%. But it’s likely (there aren’t any definitive sources on his death yet, but this sheds a lot of light) that Yauch’s situation went to Stage IV, a survival rate of 39%, where the cancer spread into his lymph nodes and sucked the life out of him.
Read More
By M. Tekel, on May 4th, 2012  Photo: Wikipedia I saw Anton Newcombe the minute I walked into Crescent Ballroom. At first I wasn’t sure it was really the Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman, because I was stoned out of my mind and he looked shorter than I imagined.
In the bathroom, I also saw Matt Hollywood the guitarist, who I had a dream about getting into a fight with several months ago. I pissed right next to him, thought about telling him about the dream, but decided to say nothing.
Fuck. Here I was at the show of my dreams (literally) and I couldn’t even talk to these guys. Read More
By C. Bass, on May 4th, 2012  sketch by C. Bass Editor’s note: Magazines don’t typically review chain restaurants, but we’re Filthfiller and we’ll do what we want. This will be a one time deal, but besides, we’re making fun of old people and that’s comedy gold.
I went to Golden Corral earlier this evening, and I had a very bad experience. How bad, you ask? I’ll tell you how bad. Buckle up.
Let me start by saying that every food place within Surprise/Sun City/Peoria/Youngtown is fucking atrocious. The food is little more than excrement from the wild animals they presumably have chained up in the back – it doesn’t matter what you order, they are going to bring you a stinking plate of shit. It also doesn’t matter if it is a franchise or a chain, even a particularly good one, the branch on Litchfield road and Bell is a fucking reeking cesspit. Read More
By Troy Farah, on May 3rd, 2012  Reviving the Volta and a good kick to the Shins
Published on 04/26/2012 in Flag Live!
The Mars Volta
Noctourniquet
Rating: 4/5
The Mars Volta, infamous for their cryptic lyrics, songs often exceeding 10 minutes and experimental, dissonant riffs, thoroughly define modern prog-rock. Fans of the group want music that’s challenging to understand or appreciate. And, because the group does everything against the rules, they even threatened to break their own and release a pop album.
That threat was realized in 2009 with the band’s fifth album, Octahedron, which was so lukewarm, it felt curdled. It sucked in the same way catfish feed, the same way leeches get your blood, the same way politicians pander to voters.
Read More
By M. Tekel, on May 2nd, 2012 Dave hates it when I take pictures of him. Hard to see why, right? Well, hey, he’s not totally photogenic, but he is single, so give him a call, guys!
Read More
|
Specialty Gunk Runner
-
Last Night: The Donkeys at Yucca Tap Room 5/14/12
Originally published in Phoenix New Times’ Up On The Sun
It’s hard to tell your friends “I’m going to the Donkeys show” with a straight face. No, not some perverted freak-show in Mexico. I mean the psychedelic San Diegan blues rockers The Donkeys, who tore the Yucca Tap Room apart with their ’60s-inspired pop and ’70s-era jams, a blend that’s earned praise from indie contemporaries like The Mountain Goats and The Hold Steady. The Donkeys treated the bar and lounge like they were regulars, which is pretty close to the truth — this is hardly their first rodeo in Tempe. . . . → Read More: Last Night: The Donkeys at Yucca Tap Room 5/14/12
-
Tekel’s Book of the Month Club Returns!
This isn’t some Oprah bullshit. We read kickass books and at the end of it, have a swag party with cocktails, cigars and coke. Most of all, we talk all posh about literature. It’s an incentive to read and discuss ideas rather than what’s on TV or who’s sleeping with who.
Tekel’s Book of the Month Club existed in some form as a weird Facebook group, but now it’s public. Anyone can (and should) join!
. . . → Read More: Tekel’s Book of the Month Club Returns!
-
The Filthfiller Interview: Jerking-off, spider dongs and BDSM photographer Natacha Merritt
San Francisco-based photographer, Natacha Merritt, made waves in 2000 with her book Digital-Diaries, an erotic exploration of her excellent sex life as she toured the underground S&M and slut-sex scenes. The book moved over 300,000 copies, featured in everything from The Wall Street Journal to Playboy to Rolling Stone.
So what do you after your pornographic diary becomes a best-seller? Well, for Merritt, she went back to school to study biology. Perhaps that’s an odd choice, but between photographing Cirque du Soleil performers and amateur models, she was getting close and personal with arachnid genitalia. Her passion for sex . . . → Read More: The Filthfiller Interview: Jerking-off, spider dongs and BDSM photographer Natacha Merritt
-
Rock Monster: Flagstaff’s Tonsil Yeti gets by (and triumphs) with a little help from their friends
Published on 03/22/2012 in Flag Live
(Author’s note: This article was the blood and sweat of over eight months, where it was post-poned and delayed repeatedly. I feel like I became really close with the band in that time and I’m finally glad to see it in print. Enjoy it uncensored after the break.)
It took a number of beer-pounding sessions before settling on the offbeat name Tonsil Yeti. Other suggestions thrown about were Bronson Johnson, Six Year Old Girls, Konkey Dong, Vagiant (taken, as it turns out), and Bloody Sex. But what exactly is a Tonsil Yeti? To . . . → Read More: Rock Monster: Flagstaff’s Tonsil Yeti gets by (and triumphs) with a little help from their friends
-
Phoenix Indie-Rock Band Knesset Is Big in Japan
By Troy Farah Mon., Mar. 19 2012 at 7:00 AM in Phoenix New Times
Released last year, Coming of Age is an appropriate title for Knesset’s first album, as the band is only now starting to step up locally. Pronounced KA-NESS-ET and named after the legislative branch of the Israeli government, these locals have played in the background of Phoenix since 2007.
. . . → Read More: Phoenix Indie-Rock Band Knesset Is Big in Japan
|
|
