Tucson's favorite darkly psychedelic caballeros are back with the lead single to their second LP Genesis, set to release Feb. 19, 2021. While the new single "Genesis of Gaea" covers similar ground to their previous work – a smoky combination of rock, cumbia and psychedelia – the track lingers more with layered vocals and subtle piano.

But perhaps most exciting is a hint at a narrative theme for the full album. "Genesis of Gaea" features a wild visualizer of archaic symbols both religious and mathematical, fitting with the song's lyrics about water and wine, tearing and ascension.

“The song has a sort of latent uneasiness, a darkness to contrast the melodic passages,” said XIXA co-bandleader and songwriter Brian Lopez. “The song also delves into the Art of Deception as a means to sow disorder and chaos, the age old battle of good and evil, that’s a thematic cloud throughout the entire album and surely a relevant topic in today's current affairs.”

According to the band, the new album will see them delving deeper into Peruvian chicha, extracting and refining their core, and giving voice to their most primal instincts – perfect for a mystical night lost in the warm borderlands.

A new collaboration between two Tucson musicians serves as a welcome reprieve from the lingering summer. Inanna’s Dream by Tucsonan Serena Gabriel was composed as an “ambient sonic odyssey,” drifting between the worlds of new age, drone and electronic music. Inanna’s Dream is the premiere release on the Soundquest Music label, formed by local ambient pioneer Steve Roach, who is featured on multiple tracks.

While the album features several hallmarks of Roach’s style – sweeping synthesizer notes, tribal percussion fused with ambient tones, a massive yet meditative atmosphere – Gabriel makes the album unique with her hypnotic vocals and a combination of acoustic and electronic instruments.

With a goal of interweaving ancient musical instrumentation and modern technology, Gabriel touches on feelings of vulnerability as well as rapture. She accomplished this through cool yet mantric performances on the harmonium, flute, lyre and dholak drum. In usual style, Roach contributes his expertly layered atmospheres performed on a score of keyboards.

The album’s highlight is “The Song of Sending,” which features all the elements that make Inanna’s Dream unique. A calm harmonium is infused with Gabriel’s airy vocals and steady percussion. Several layers build as the drones grow darker, yet remain subtle as incense smoke. “The Gazing Pool” is another treat, with strings panning back and forth on top of reverberated tones like drops of water.

It should be noted, however, this album really is for fans of ambient music; multiple tracks stretch past the 10-minute mark, with the album’s culmination “Changing Tides” drifting on for the better part of an hour.

According to Soundquest Music, Gabriel is a musician, dancer, healing arts practitioner and medicine music provider, whose aspiration is that her dedication to the vast potential of sound for positive transformation can be experienced through the essence of the musical offerings she creates.

It’s fitting that the project’s name references Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and sensuality, but also war, because the album is as soothing and hypnotic as it is immense. 

Tucson's resident soundscaper Steve Roach is hosting an "ultra-intimate" concert stream this Saturday on both YouTube and Facebook. This will be the first in a series of virtual concerts until the world opens back up for live performances. And after the show, Roach will host a Q&A about his music.

A longtime Tucson resident, Roach is a pioneering figure in modern ambient and electronic music. Over more than three decades, he's experimented with spacious drones, tribal rhythms and futuristic synthesizers, occasionally blending all these styles together.

His exploratory art has landed him multiple accolades, including two Grammy nominations. He's also performed his trance-inducing music at Tucson's All Souls Procession closing ceremony.

Read our review of Roach's album Trance Archaeology on our best local albums of 2019 list.

The livestream beings at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22.

I’ve been bitching about the Go-Go’s not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for years. They, along with Pete Townshend solo, Smashing Pumpkins and Tommy James and the Shondells should’ve been first-ballot inductees, but nope, Bon Jovi is in there instead.

Now that I’ve ranted, let me tell you about The Go-Go’s, a super fine documentary from director Alison Ellwood that covers the band from their punk rock days up until the present. Yes, the group only had four albums, but when you are talking about trailblazers, you have to put the Go-Go's at the forefront of rock and roll history.

The first all-girl band that played their own instruments to have a number one album (the classic Beauty and the Beat) started from the L.A. punk rock scene, and they were one sloppy band. Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey started in the original group, with bassist Kathy Valentine and drummer Gina Schock starting soon thereafter. After witnessing a totally shitty Sex Pistols show, the girls decided that they should tighten up their act, and the pristine pop sounds of “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat” soon arrived.

Ellwood, with full participation from the band, culls together great archival audio and video, along with fun interviews, to tell their stories. Caffey’s drug addiction, Schock’s health scare, and Wiedlin pulling a Pete Townshend and temporarily leaving the band did a lot to stall their momentum, but they have reformed many times over the years. They had a Broadway show before the pandemic, and current plans for more touring and music, so they have not called it quits.

And, as this film proves over and over again, it’s time the band gets their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if that institution wants to be regarded as anything close to relevant. They were the first, they were one of the best, and their music is timeless. Long live the Go-Go's!

Currently Streaming on Showtime Anytime

If you happened to be around the west coast's garage rock revival back in the early 2010s, then I'm sure you know of Tucson's Prom Body. Their 2014 high energy scuzz-rock album Naughty by Natural is still as Tucson as it gets and deserves a place in your record collection.

With that being said...

Prom Body frontman Michael Fay recently released his fifth album from his solo project, Pollution Salute, called Happy You're Here. The mostly instrumental work builds upon seemingly quirky soundscapes while slightly exposing the darker underbelly hare and there—a bit like old Broken Social Scene demos meets The Rentals, in the best of ways.

The album's opening track, Lazyboy Recliner, is an infectious down and dirty ditty building on a drum loop ala Tony Basil's Hey Mickey, using a hypnotic drone to progress the song and then follows it up with a blown out fuzz bass and spacey one-key keyboard melodies.

Songs like No Fear of Big Dogs was made for the Mac Demarco lover in you—tasty guitar arpeggios that switch from augmented to diminished, yet flow together effortlessly in a wash of reverb and chorus. Others tracks like Dog Is My Co-Pilot sound like an early Kraftwork throwback by building on top of various synth sounds while still leaving a lot of open space. The final track Everybody Gets A Trophy gets major props for it's opening John Carpenter vibes that cut into funky dystopian 80s breakdown.

Happy You're Here is a great example of a creative piece of work that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's perfect to throw on while social distancing with friends this summer.

Check out Happy You're Here by Pollution Salute by clicking here.

Earlier this month, local actor and musician Bradford Trojan teamed up with Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog to release a new album, Meanwhile, a collection of nine bouncy folk-rock songs recorded her in Tucson over the last three years. If you like what you hear, buy it over at Bandcamp.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona climbed past 108,000 as of Wednesday, July 8, after the state reported 3,520 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had 10,485 of the state's 108,614 confirmed cases.

A total of 1,963 people have died after contracting the virus.

Maricopa County has nearly two-thirds of the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 70,128.

Hospitals remain under pressure. The report shows that 3,421 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state, more than triple the 1,009 hospitalized on June 1.

A total of 2,008 people visited ERs yesterday.

A total of 871 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.

With the spread of COVID increasingly out of control in Arizona, some local school districts have announced that they will only offer "distance learning" or online instruction when school starts next month. Unlike in spring, when schools moved online following spring break, districts are planning stricter instructional time designed to mirror traditional in-person classes.

Tucson Unified School District and Sunnyside School District revealed in recent days that they would move to an online-only model, while Catalina Foothills is moving forward with a plan that blends in-person classes and distance learning. Amphi School District announced yesterday that it would start online-only instruction on Aug. 10 and could return to the traditional classroom as soon as Aug. 17, but students will be able to continue with online classes if they choose to do so.
Marana School District had not yet updated its plans as of Tuesday, July 7.

TUSD will launch online classes for all students starting Aug. 10, with in-person classroom instruction delayed until "when it is deemed safe," according to a letter to parents from TUSD Superintendent Gabrielle Trujillo.

If I told you that Chris Millar has occupied a drum seat behind one of punk rock’s originating groups, many basic rock fans and current “alt or punk” millennials would have no clue who I am talking about.

And, yet, Rat Scabies, as he has been known for the past 43 years, was one of the U.K. punk pioneers that made punk, well punk. And for years he endured band break-ups, reunions, label and lineup shifts. You’ll recall The Damned are one of the U.K.'s top punk-rock three, alongside The Clash and Sex Pistols.

Scabies, who turns 65 (!) in July is not slowing down. In fact, he is maybe more active than in his early days. His latest, a superduo called The Sinclairs, is Scabies and the formable Jesse Budd (known also as Billy Shinbone), frontman of veteran psychedelic-folk group Flipron. They transformed a few jam sessions into a surf music lover’s dream, a 10-song rumble-seat ride called Sparkle (Cleopatra Records). The album, released in May, is described in their official press release as “Easy Listening made difficult.” The description is apt.

From the opening Ventures-esque “La Venta,” and the mesmerizing Santo & Johnny-like “Sleep Walk,” to the ’60s alien soundtrack-styled “Dodgems and Twin Peak-psych echoes of “Lipstick Rumble,” Scabies and Shinbone stretch their chops and make one hip and entertaining road-trip album.

Scabies has stayed super-active since his 1995 exit from The Damned. A list of impressive collaborations includes Chris Constantinou and the Mutants, and he has a new band with Constantinou called One Thousand Motels. Other bands include The Gin Goblins, Professor and the Madmen (with Alfie Agnew and Sean Elliot of Di and former Damned bass player Paul Gray). He has also played with a varied and stellar cast including Robert Fripp, Donovan, Joe Strummer, Jimmy Page and Eagles of Death Metal.

In 2018, Scabies released his debut solo album, P.H.D. (Prison, Hospital, Debt), a mostly instrumental affair that included a trio of Shinbone-sung tunes. Beyond the enduring power of Scabies’ drumming and wide spectrum of genres, the album totals more than the sum of its parts. Scabies played every instrument on the album.

After consulting with writer Casey Dewey and former Tucson Weekly editor Dan Gibson, I removed a 2013 interview with tattoo artist Isaiah Toothtaker from our website.

Here is Dewey's comment on the article:

Eight years ago I wrote a cover story about Isaiah Toothtaker for the Tucson Weekly. The original idea was to write a shorter piece on his musical output, but it turned into something bigger. It became a sit-down “one-on-one” interview, something akin to a “sit-down with one Tucson’s most notorious residents.”



Looking back on it, it was pure exploitation and it stank of tabloid journalism. I haven’t thought about that article in some time, but numerous, horrific allegations about Toothtaker’s behavior have surfaced throughout this past week and that article has been gnawing away at me. If I had scratched under the surface I would’ve walked away from it, or turned it over to someone who was more capable of an investigative piece. I sincerely apologize to anybody who’s been hurt, abused or otherwise victimized by him. If you felt in any way I was legitimizing his behavior, I am truly sorry. I’m not speaking on behalf of the Tucson Weekly, but I will take full responsibility for this ill-conceived article.

Take a break from the quarantine blues and head up to Oro Valley to enjoy some live music in a fun, safe, and family-friendly environment at the Gaslight Music Hall. Playing next Wednesday and Thursday are Little House of Funk and Backroads Country Band, respectively.

Get your groove on Wednesday, July 8 with Little House of Funk, known for dishing out Sonoran soul and “deep-fried blues” and voted in 2018 as Tucson’s best R&B band.

“Their setlists include popular covers, sultry arrangements and dynamic originals for all the hip-swinging, toe-tapping energy you crave,” said Gaslight General Manager Heather Stricker.

On Thursday, July 9 the ultimate country cover band is rolling into town. Backroads Country Band plays all of the hits, including songs by George Strait, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, Travis Tritt, Brooks and Dunn—all the way to the No. 1 hits of today from Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Sam Hunt, Old Dominion, Florida Georgia Line, Zac Brown Band and more.