By Troy Farah, on February 28th, 2012% 
In Rotation -Sailing the seas of cliché and pandering
By Troy Farah
Published on 01/26/2012 in Flag Live
The Internet
Purple Naked Ladies
1/5
It seems like every three months, some branch of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) releases a new album. It’s getting harder to keep up, but luckily, the Internet’s Purple Naked Ladies can be skimmed over. Like other Odd Future releases, production is kept to a minimum, but it doesn’t have the charm. The opener, “Violet Nude Women,” sounds like what happens when my cat plays with my Roland digital piano, and “They Say” is so sleep-inducing it feels like drinking a gallon of Nyquil.
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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 December 28th, 2011% 
In Rotation
The very best of the 2011’s musical offerings
By Troy Farah
Published on 12/22/2011
Well, now that he’s almost gone, I can talk all I want about 2011 behind his back. What a long year. I can’t really say it was good or bad, but just somewhere in between. Pretty neutral. The Arab Spring led to some pretty neutral results. Occupy Wall Street, also pretty neutral. The Iraq Invasion is wrapping up, but the War on Terror gets more and more frightening over here. So, pretty neutral.
Although, in the long run we should choose to champion what was exceptional, and few things were as exceptional this year as these album releases. That’s right, it’s Flag Live’s Best Music of 2011.
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By Troy Farah, on December 1st, 2011% 
A visionary director’s creepy side project and sonic spacey narcissism
By Troy Farah
Published on 11/24/2011
David Lynch
Crazy Clown Time
Rating: 3/5
If a director ignores music, he’s hardly a director. It follows that David Lynch, whose films epitomize the phrase “avant garde” as much as they represent the words “[expletive] confusing,” pays so much attention to what melody is going on in the background. It’s not weird (or even news) that Lynch has been expanding his creativity to a different territory, this time with his solo record debut: Crazy Clown Time. Lynch has recorded music multiple times before, several times for the movies “Twin Peaks” and “Inland Empire” and once with superstar producer Danger Mouse.
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By Troy Farah, on November 18th, 2011% 
Wilco’s consoling pity party and too many turntables for DJ Shadow
By Troy Farah
Published on 11/10/2011
Wilco
The Whole Love
Rating: 3.5/5
Like most Wilco albums, their eighth release, The Whole Love, requires multiple listens. Subtle-yet-complex arrangements spattered with bold, but depressing (and occasionally nonsensical) lyrics make this Chicago six-piece at times inaccessible. Yet, for The Whole Love, not all of the love is there.
“Art of Almost,” the album’s opener, would have made for a better record title. “Almost” captures Wilco’s efforts more clearly here—a rather colorless product with themes typical of Wilco, without the heart.
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By Troy Farah, on October 21st, 2011% 
Mediocre musical salvation and the empty message of the Chili Peppers
By Troy Farah
Published on 10/13/2011
Switchfoot
Vice Verses
Rating: 3/5
Reviewing Christian rock is somewhat like analyzing Justin Bieber or the “High School Musical” soundtrack—of course it sucks, because it isn’t marketed to you. In a way, Christian rockers are kind of punk rock, because they don’t answer to anyone and they seem to care far less about money, but the majority of it that isn’t boring is merely imitating something else.
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By Troy Farah, on October 10th, 2011% 
A hipster yawn and N.W.A’s heirs apparent
By Troy Farah
Published on 09/15/2011
MellowHype
BlackenedWhite
Rating: 4/5
Self-descriptions like, “This album is packed with gun sounds, grams of coke and dead cops—the perfect soundtrack for mobbing on a dark Halloween night” is what makes the whole Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) collective so enjoyable. Half the group ain’t even old enough to drink and they’re dropping albums more creative, ballsy and fun than almost anything hitting the airwaves.
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By Troy Farah, on September 3rd, 2011% 
The confessional style and restless spirit of songstress Amy LaVere
By Troy Farah
Published on 09/01/2011 in Flag Live
Soft-spoken, with a voice like a Midwestern version of Fiona Apple, Amy LaVere wields an upright bass almost bigger than she is when playing her Americana tunes about falling in love, falling out and, sometimes, murder.
LaVere’s third album, Stranger Me, was written over four years while LaVere dealt with the deterioration of a long-term relationship and the death of friend and producer Jim Dickinson. Filled with bitterness, confusion and LaVere’s trademark self-sufficiency for coping with loss, Stranger Me was lauded by Spin magazine as the “breakup album of the year,” and certainly earns that title.
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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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