By M. Tekel, on April 30th, 2012% 
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 and science fused and became her latest book, Sexual Selections. You’ll find intimate, exposed pictures of young models juxtaposed by botanical slides and spider vagina, which brings our human urges into new light, exposing them for what they are – merely urges.
Filthfiller.com spoke to Natacha about her new book and some of her views on sexuality. You can read it after the jump. (WARNING: Some images may be NSFW, unless you have a cool job.)
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By Troy Farah, on March 26th, 2012% 
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 hear lead vocalist Derek Born describe it, it’s “Just straight up, good rock ‘n’ roll.” This Saturday is a landmark for the band because it’s a party for their debut album release, A Bomb and a Bull.
Falling somewhere between grunge and hard rock (with a healthy splash of metal) Tonsil Yeti is one of Flagstaff’s most vulgar (and fun) bands, touting song titles like “Orangutan Handjob” and “Legs So Fine.” The Yeti features Derek Born (vocals), Chris Wargo (lead guitar, also of Fight the Quiet), Will Joffroy (rhythm guitar), Mark Broom (bass) and Dave Swain (drums).
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By Troy Farah, on March 22nd, 2012% 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
By Troy Farah, on February 28th, 2012%
Multilayered songwriter Citizen Cope declares his independence and thrives
By Troy FarahPublished on 01/26/2012 in Flag Live
“You have the first moment you have a good show, the first time you make a good song in the studio and the first time people start liking it. That’s the good thing about it. Good things come along and they add to each other.”
So says Clarence Greenwood, better known by his stage name Citizen Cope, whose bluesy assortment of go-go and hip-hop beats, barefoot acoustic jams and chilled-out rock has been featured in everything from “Scrubs” to “Sons of Anarchy” to the stoner comedy “Accepted.”
Yet, Greenwood isn’t exactly a superstar—life for the soft spoken guitarist and producer is independent in more ways than one. He lives on the fringe, touring nearly half the year while keeping an underground status. That isn’t to say his music isn’t recognizable—“Let The Drummer Kick” was recently certified RIAA gold and Greenwood himself was highly pleased with the usage of “Hurricane Waters” in the Hurricane Katrina documentary “Trouble the Water” and “107 Degrees” in “The Lincoln Lawyer.”
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By Troy Farah, on February 28th, 2012% By Troy Farah Wed., Feb. 22 2012 at 9:00 AM in Phoenix New Times
Ambition goes a long way — just askSareena Dominguez, who signed with River Jones Music Label a scant six months ago, is releasing her debut in the spring, and is currently booking her first tour — and she’s only 19.
Raised in Gilbert, Dominguez came from a rather large family in a suburb, to her, the perfect place to focus solely on her creativity because as she puts it, “I almost had to make up my own. There wasn’t too much creativity going on where I was.”
Her deep admiration for old classics like Etta James, Janis Joplin, and modern soul singers like Amy Winehouseand Adele, is driven by how they “take command of an entire room.” With her soft-spoken, laid back demeanor, Dominguez is kind of the opposite, lacking the deep contralto vocals, but still able to grab your attention with her coffeehouse jams a lá label-mate Courtney Marie Andrews or Ingrid Michaelson. Like a harp, Dominguez plucks gently at her acoustic guitar, her voice a less sugar-coated version of Lenka, with a lot more suave and rockstar personality.
Read the rest on the New Times Music Blog, Up On The Sun.
By Troy Farah, on January 18th, 2012% 
Arizona’s Authority Zero have become international icons while staying true to their roots
By Troy Farah
Published on 01/12/2012 in Flag Live
With hit singles like “One More Minute,” “Revolution,” and the Wall of Voodoo cover “Mexican Radio,” Authority Zero are arguably the most popular band to come out of Mesa—and they’re especially familiar with any kid who got into skateboarding or punk around the turn of the century. Noted for their mix of reggae, ska-punk and their Spanish and Portuguese inspirations, the four-piece admit a deep admiration for Sublime, Pennywise and Bad Religion, making them a distinct and flavorful semi-local act.
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By Troy Farah, on January 18th, 2012% 
A conversation with the eclectic Tempe nine-piece Dry River Yacht Club
By Troy Farah
Published on 12/15/2011 in Flag Live
Recently reunited in August, Dry River Yacht Club’s nine members embody the indie creed that “more is more” and band mates are there for more than just back-up vocals. Keeping in spirit with Gogol Bordello or DeVotchKa, the band plays their unique blend of gypsy tunes, a self-described mix of “acoustic symphony indie-rock on a dancin’ pirate’s rusty yacht”—and the nonet dress the part. Now the Tempe-based band are taking their gig more places than ever. Flag Livesat down to speak to Henri Bernard (percussionist,) Kristilyn Woods (bassoon) and Megyn Neff (violinist) about their new EP and the musical atmosphere in Arizona.
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By Troy Farah, on May 5th, 2011%  Soundtrack to the Working Life
Irish-American punks Flogging Molly are taking their vision much further than they ever imagined possible
By Troy Farah
Published on 05/05/2011
They’re Irish. They’re punk. They’re Irish-punk. You know, they’re Flogging Molly.
For 14 years, Flogging Molly have circled the globe on a nearly endless tour playing intense, intoxicated tunes evoking the Dead Kennedys and the Dubliners. Only Dave King, lead singer and guitarist, is actually from Ireland. The band itself was formed in Los Angeles around the Irish pub Molly Malone’s, where the seven-piece band played so often they felt like they were flogging the bar to death. Now the name makes sense, doesn’t it?
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By Troy Farah, on March 28th, 2011% By Troy Farah
Published on 03/10/2011
Their name was torn from the pages of a magazine—not the Herman Melville classic, but the members of the Devil Whale are still well versed in literature from Carl Sandburg to Theodore Roethke, blending smarts with rock.
According to lead singer Brinton Jones, a lot of their influences are “the kind of generic ones”—the Beatles, the Kinks, the Velvet Underground. But the band throws in plenty of modern influence from Destroyer to Dear Hunter to Guided by Voices. The result is good old-fashioned, multi-layered indie-pop—a bit melancholy, but rife with sharp lyrics like on the track “Underwater”: “If you wanna be rich like them/don’t rob them—become their friend/but don’t give them your middle name.”
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By M. Tekel, on March 3rd, 2011%  Much like the controversial law SB 1070, a new piece of legislation dealing with immigration, SB 1611, has drawn some angry critics. Protesters gathered outside Flagstaff City Hall Wednesday evening waving signs and chanting “Si se puede” at traffic. Students and citizens, young and old, stood together and later took turns giving speeches through a bullhorn. If passed, SB 1611 will tighten identification requirements on every level from school enrollment to hospital visits to getting a job to driving a car. It would be illegal for an undocumented immigrant to enroll in university, to drive, to get treatment from a hospital or talk to a police officer. Russell Pearce, the bill’s main supporter, says this is just to stop taxpayers from paying for illegal immigrants and the bill is merely “cleaning up.”
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Specialty Gunk Runner
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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
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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!
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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
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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
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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
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