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(12/05/13 12:13am)
Ever since Mesa-area band Captain Squeegee formed in 2002, it has dodged musical genres. Combining ska, blues and rock influences, the band creates a trademark mind-boggling sound which has gained it quite the local following.
(11/27/13 1:33am)
One decade after they formed in Argentina, garage-rock power trio Coni Duchess, Ignacio Villarejo and Martin Guevara Solimo received rave reviews at 2009's the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Capsula, thats name derives from David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity," makes no effort to hide their love for the glam-rock icon. In 2012, the band re-recorded "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars," releasing its album/LP and documentary film "Dreaming of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars".In late August, the band paired with Bowie's longtime producer Tony Visconti to release its studio album "Solar Secrets" — a more streamlined collection of swirling guitars, acid-charged vocals and raw rock 'n' roll a la Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" and "Queen Bitch."Capsula's been preparing to make rounds in Tempe and Scottsdale, promoting its latest and most psychedelic-heavy album, “Solar Secrets.” The State Press spoke with Martin Guevara, Capsula's guitarist and vocalist, about touring worldwide, working with legendary producer Tony Visconti and what it means to evolve from garage-glam to psychedelic rock in 2013. State Press: Let’s talk about your new album. “Solar Secrets” is like a night-and-day difference from 2012’s “Ziggy Stardust.” I think you’ve said earlier it’s an album for guitar lovers. What inspired you to make such a different album?
Martin Guevara: When we did “Ziggy Stardust,” it was kind of not a side project because we did very “Capsula” things. It has our sound, it has our soul, you know?
It was in the process in the evolution of the band. I think it was like growing and developing our sound. And I think (in) “Solar Secrets,” you can see all that growing and all that developing of our sound, of living these last 15 years on the road. So I think that’s mainly what you can hear on the new album.
SP: You guys are working with Tony Visconti right now, which is really cool. You actually named your band after a David Bowie lyric and now you’re working with his former producer. How is that?
MG: Having the opportunity of working with him, I think it was the greatest experience we’ve ever had. Personally, I suppose that he’s amazing. He’s a master in terms of living, of life. His life is so intense, and at the same time, he’s so close to you. When we’re working together, when we’re producing, you can see all these ideas (of) what he was doing at the studio. When we’re working at the studio he always had the perfect work to tell you, "OK, we’re going to take that this direction on the song or that direction, or into a new opening, a new level of your own music." That’s what’s really crazy. We still can’t believe that we were working together. It’s really like a dream come true.
SP: You’ve been touring worldwide. You’re playing these huge rock-and-roll sounds in some fairly small venues here in Arizona at The Sail Inn and The Rogue Bar in Scottsdale. How crazy are the shows?
MG: We think here it’s like some kind of magic of the desert that I’ve only really seen it onstage. I think here in Arizona people love music, but in a different way than in other places. They really feel the music, so for us, it’s amazing. We’ve been playing the last weeks on the east coast and it was amazing, but we said last night, we played in Tucson, and we can start to feel that energy in Arizona, that magic of the desert that we feel.
SP: It’s kind of hard to describe your sound. It’s at times, like David Fricke of Rolling Stone said, “garage-glam on a platter,” but the new album is kind of dark. “Solar Secrets” reminds me of some psychedelic that hasn’t been around in rock music for 40 years. Why did you guys decide to make an album like that?
MG: We’d been working for a couple of weeks before getting into the studio with Tony and it was more than preparation. It was playing at the rehearsal room, recording, being like, "OK, let’s see what can we do in other songs, which ones of that song can be really a challenge for us, for changing our sound. OK let’s go to another place, to somewhere that is kind of different than what people are expecting of us." Taking the risk, taking the challenge of getting to new places, new atmospheres, new harmonies, some new vocals and new sounds from the guitars. So yeah, I think Tony’s part of that.
SP: How did starting in Argentina and then moving to Spain and coming to the United States and doing worldwide tours influence you guys?
MG: We have that idea in our minds that for a band, staying in a city is like dying. A band needs to be on the road, to be touring, to know new cities, to show your music to different crowds, to different audiences … OK, let’s see what’s happening in different cities, in different places, how they are feeling and listening and feeling our music. So I think it’s like the essence of the band — being on the road and showing our music to the most people we can.
SP: What is your favorite song you’ve produced or performed off of “Solar Secrets?”
Martin Guevara: If you listen to it on a vinyl record, the last song on the first side that is called “The Fear,” is one of my favorites this time. Every day, it’s changing. Today, it can be “The Fear.”
Capsula will be performing at The Sail Inn on Nov. 27 at The Rogue Bar in Scottsdale on Friday, Nov. 29.
Reach the reporter at aovnicek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aovnicek
(11/20/13 3:00pm)
Camaron Stevenson, like most journalism students, is just trying to get ahead of the game. From his own video production company, Ansre Entertainment, LLC. to his most recent venture, a pilot episode shot for a unique sketch comedy show “What Just Happened?” that is currently being pitched to national television networks, Stevenson is up for creating anything to build his portfolio.
(11/13/13 12:12am)
Tempe rapper and self-declared "hometown hero hopeful" Bill "Mouse" Powell dropped his year-long project “These Are The Good Times” on Tuesday.The album's 10 songs, which are available for free download, dip low in tempo and mood before
they dive through quicker, upbeat songs. "These Are The Good Times" is
an album to drink to, but it maintains Powell's unavoidable down-to-earth manner.“The music kind of sounds more patient than a normal hip-hop record,” said producer Andrew "The Ref" Johnson. Powell, who grew up in Avondale, started rapping when he was 15 years old. Like Powell's previous albums, "These Are The Good Times" strays away from mainstream hip-hop, instead incorporating a more soulful influence and laid-back atmosphere.“It has that whole 'get together' vibe,” said Alan "ILL AL" Taylor, who joined Powell to produce the rapper's previous album, "Where It's Cloudy." “I think good hip-hop records do a good job of catching your attention when you want to listen," he said.Powell featured artists on keys, trumpet, percussion and guitar on nearly every song of the album, working with local influences to create a more powerful, mature sound. "These Are The Good Times" breaks the bounds of the traditional hip-hop formula, but the end product is far from unorthodox.Johnson said the artists were free to experiment with a basic framework when they came to the studio to record. "It was almost like when they came in, it was a blank canvas, but I got to pick the size," Johnson said.But the rapper agrees that the collaborations and aversion to too many samples benefited the album. "Bringing in all the musicians and actually handcrafting everything ourselves really made it a little bit more of an involved task," Powell said.For Johnson, really taking control of this album with Powell's leadership and collaboration was an experience that beats being confined to someone else's writing.“It feels better to release music that just originates from your brain instead of starting somewhere else," Johnson said.Of Powell's approach to "These Are The Good Times," Taylor said that Powell is just trying to find his own and "stake his flag," by claiming some portion of the scene with his identity.Here’s a go-to song list for several “These Are The Good Times,” must-listen tracks. Track No. 1. “Heaven”: The Tempe-based rapper wastes no time establishing an honest dialogue with the listener on the album's opening track. "Heaven" performs excellently as a lounge act, progressing through a slow, dreamy antithesis to today's atypical raucous, in-your-face hip-hop. Danny Torgersen of Captain Squeegee drifts in on the trumpet, a testament to Powell's devotion to collaborating with the best local artists on the album, complete with lyrics as raw as the melodies. ("You know that kid on your block who should've been an astronaut,
but'd rather spend his whole life on a beat?
/ Well that's me / I'm going in.")Track No. 2. "Two Weeks": Underground Arizona hip-hop education begins at this song. For what Powell lacks in experience and age, he makes up with vigor and clever composition, sampling "Sultans of El Sur" by The Mercury Program and featuring Sean Lee of The VeraGroove on keys. "Two Weeks" gets in your face, but not in the way mainstream rap does. Track No. 4. "Brass Monkey": An enthusiastic, melodic rendition of the Beastie Boys classic by the same name, "Brass Monkey" samples “Jeans” by Quadron. It's a worthy listen for fans of Drunken Immortals and Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra, for which percussionist Scott White plays.Track No. 6. "Cliff Clavin": The album's ultimate drunken anthem arrives in the form of "Cliff Clavin," an organic, uplifting track. Like his summer song, “Holding Home (The AZ Anthem)," the sound is nostalgic, fun and honest. ("Tell the people that ask why I dropped out of school that there's kids out of state that wanna hear me rap.")Track No. 8. "Good Times II": Featuring Jason DeVore of Authority Zero, Scott White on percussion and additional
guitar by Kris Hill of Drunken Immortals, "Good Times II" is the song a group of musically inclined friends would improvise on a drunken Saturday night in a backyard. The sound isn't traditional hip-hop, but it's natural and catchy. Thanks to Powell's backers on kickstarter.com, "These Are The Good Times" is available for free Tuesday.Reach the reporter at aovnicek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aovnicek
(11/05/13 3:00pm)
5/5 Pitchforks
(10/29/13 4:00pm)
Independent western film “Cowboy Zombies” premiered at Tempe’s Harkins Valley Art Theatre on Oct. 25. Paul Winters of Winters Film Group wrote the quirky western more than a decade ago. Winters Film Group produced “Cowboy Zombies” almost entirely in Arizona and rented theaters throughout the state to show it.
Highly rated hits like AMC’s “The Walking Dead” spawned a zombie craze in Hollywood, and “Cowboy Zombies” aims for the same amount of gore and suspense that the pros produce.“From the first time I saw 'Night of the Living Dead,' the original one by George Romero, it’s really scared me,” Winters said. Winters took that emotion and built upon it, creating a mash-up of two popular film genres that haven't previously been put together.
Set in 1870’s Arizona, the film spins the typical spaghetti western into a macabre horror film. “We decided not to make a stereotypical zombie film," Adam Cook, director of photography for "Cowboy Zombies" said. "We set out to make a western film with zombies in it. We all had a lot of discussions about the look and feel and the texture … shooting in Arizona, where so many westerns in the past were shot, really helped."The majority of “Cowboy Zombies” was filmed in Cowtown, a man-made ghost town near Peoria that has served as a basic set for over 200 movies.
“It has the kind of beaten look that was perfect to the film," Winters said. "It should look like a real tough place to make a living, and it does."
Winters shot additional scenes in Tonto National Forest and Cave Creek. The production traveled outside Arizona for only one scene in California.
The film looks and sounds like any other western until zombies begin to flood into Wilcox’s small town of Crumpit.
Winters hired professional zombies — actors who specialize in transforming into the undead — to crawl their way onto the set in Cowtown.
“They come in full makeup, and then we used special effects people and makeup people that came out from Hollywood," Winters said. "They built us some heads and rigs that blew up, 'cause you have to have a lot of blood."Lee Whitestar, who played Apache chief Datana in the film, has acted in Winters' previous films, "Red Blood" and "Nate the Colonel." Whitestar said zombies' popularity is apparent in today's film industry, but isn't necessarily something at which to be scoffed. “These people that worked in the movie with us, they were professional zombies," Whitestar said. "They do it for a living. ... It’s a business.”
Cook believes producers and actors alike thought that "Cowboy Zombies" was a blast to film and that the movie will be a fun, well-intended distraction.
“It’s a great form of escapism for people to overcome fear, to overcome the things that haunt them in their day to day life, and to see those kinds of fears being overtaken,” Cook said.But don't let the blood and guts deter you.
“It’s interesting," Whitestar said. "It’s made for family and there’s humor in there.” Catch Cowboy Zombies at Harkins Valley Art Theatre in Tempe until Friday.Reach the reporter at aovnicek@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @aovnicek
(10/26/13 1:00pm)
Pedal Craft Volume 3 blended Phoenix's growing urban bike culture with community during Friday's bicycle-themed poster show, featuring partner booths from State Bicylce Co. and New Belgium Brewing, a guided night bike ride of downtown Phoenix and bike-themed poster designs from 15 local artists.
(10/24/13 1:00am)
At DIE bearmy’s two-day display inside 11th Monk3y Industries' new location on Grand Avenue, unofficial doctor Tara Logsdon cuts tags for her hanging army of teddy bears — a cluster of cute, colorful misfits dangling from bike wheel spokes. Longsdon calls it “Wheel Bearel,” adapting her set to the shop’s unique vibe.
(10/16/13 12:13pm)
Video by Dominic Valente | Photo Editor
(10/06/13 7:49pm)
In central Phoenix, gallery space meets vintage resale clothing, a coffee shop, and on Saturday, a local zine's season debut in an open air courtyard. Supporters of Pages Per Content converged with Coronado neighborhood artists to watch clips of documentaries and semblances of live performances.