Modest Mouse has an impressive track record of consistently keeping Arizona on its tour itineraries. At least since playing Boston’s in 1998 – and mostly likely even before that – Isaac Brock’s band has been a regular in the desert.
Since 2000, Charlie Levy at Stateside Presents has booked Modest Mouse at least seven times: twice at the old Nita’s Hideaway ( in in 2000 and 2001); once at the new Nita’s; twice at Mesa Amphitheatre; once at Celebrity Theatre; and, most recently (in 2009), at Marquee Theatre.
And with Modest Mouse playing the first day of both weekends at Coachella this year, it makes perfect sense to return. This time, Levy brings the band to his own venue, Crescent Ballrom, on April 14. The show will be outdoors, behind Crescent, which will allow for a capacity of 2,000, according to Levy, who used an outside stage for the first time in August for the Los Dias de la Crescent event. (The band is also playing Rialto Theatre in Tucson on April 13.)
(UPDATE: Here’s a video of Los Dias de la Crescent if you want to get idea of how the outside setup functions. The stage faces the venue with its back to Third Avenue.)
Presumably, Modest Mouse will have a new album out soon (featuring Big Boi?). But if you’re unfamiliar with the band’s catalog (what’s wrong with you?), I suggest watching this documentary on the 1997 album The Lonesome Crowded West. And then immerse yourself in the 2000 classic The Moon & Antarctica, an album that helped carry me through sometimes lonely and uncertain times in my first two years out of college in Lubbock, Texas. It’s certainly in my top 3 albums of the 2000s, if not in my top 10 favorites of all-time.
Tickets ($35-$40) for the April 14 show go on sale Friday (Feb. 22) at 10 a.m.
Below you will find footage of Modest Mouse’s soundcheck and performance at the Nita’s Hideaway show in 2000 interspersed with some B-roll of Arizona, via Nicole Nelch. Very awesome stuff. And as Nelch points out, the show happened on the same night as one of DJ Z-Trip’s weeklies at Nita’s. I’m so grateful for footage like this at a time when documenting wasn’t as simple as reaching into your pocket.
Definitely in my roots-y, beard-y, folky wheelhouse. Seattle’s 
When I think of ex-Company Flow front man El-P, it takes me back to the late ’90s, when I was first introduced to any sort of off-the-radar stuff, hip-hop wise. I remember my college buddy Dave playing Company Flow’s 
Unabashedly fist pump-y, epic rock from Vancouverians on the rise. This album threw a lot of new ears their way without compromising their music or what they’re fundamentally about.
KEXP strikes again. Over the last couple years, watching that station throw its full support to a local artist it believed in has made me hope for the day when Phoenix bands might also enjoy the fruits of that backing. I imagine I’ll sound pretty corny pledging allegiance to Macklemore as crossover “hipster rap” Exhibit A someday (or now), and that’s certainly justifiable and understandable. He may soon (or now) be “That Thrift Shop Song Guy” (61 million views on YouTube as I write this – guess that rules out a return trip to Club Red on his next visit to the Valley), but before he’s potentially written off as such, I hope people take note of how much is actually going on with him. He’s funny, bluntly honest, and equally comfortable rapping about your grandpa’s coats, 
Not even the slightly guiltiness to my pleasure at this point. I was a big fan of the simplicity and sweetness of 2010’s Crazy for You. On this one, Bethany Cosentino’s subject matter has shifted somewhat beyond the fertile realms of a) boys she has crushes on and b) her cat. The sound is less garage-y, more singer-songwriter-y. Microsoft commercials or no, happy fun time beach rock has become musical comfort food for me.
Simultaneous double fist-pump/knee raise combo to myself for making sure I caught these guys early in the day at Lollapalooza. Not sure I can give myself more pats on the back for seeing a next-level jaw-dropping live band from Australia who neeever plays the U.S. Inevitably, what’s old is new again, and I’m convinced that their brand of psychedelic fuzziness would’ve legitimately been huge in the early ’70s, yet it still sounds fresh in 2012.
Along with being one of the better albums I listened to in 2012, Twin Shadow at Crescent Ballroom was also one of the better performances I saw. Having seen them years ago as an opener for Jamie Lidell (?!) at Rhythm Room and part of a tripleheader (with Warpaint and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) at Club Congress in Tucson, my already lofty expectations were exceeded by a tight, focused, high energy show.
The Baltimore duo, who have been a staple in Casa de Eric since 2010’s Teen Dream, came back with an even dreamier classic. I’m fairly certain Beach House and Twin Shadow need to re-score some ’80s brat-pack era classics together.
There’s not a more interesting or naturally funny person in music right now than the former Fleet Foxes drummer turned frontman Josh Tillman. Along with the drumsticks, he scrapped his J. Tillman moniker, at least for now, and created something uniquely his. As 
So twee. So cute. I’m pretty sure going to tell a bunch of friends (or friends’ girlfriends/sisters) about Hospitality. I saw Vincent Gallo in the crowd at their Crescent Ballroom show. No, I didn’t tell him I went to the same college as Roger Ebert when I had the chance to do so. If I had a job deciding what songs would work in movies, commercials, and TV shows, I’m pretty sure I would have used songs from this album in pretty much anything involving young people and/or coffee. Tell me I’m wrong.
What’s there not to like? Predictably, KEXP was all over them super early, so I’ve benefited from hearing these guys since pretty early on. I missed out on their Lollapalooza aftershow. At least it was for a Toro y Moi DJ set. Also, they won the Mercury Prize. Which is nice. Check out 
Another British band, along with Alt-J, that blew my mind in 2012. Bouncier than Alt-J, and sure to be compared to bands that dwell in more Americana-ish circles, Django Django is a band I can’t wait to see more of.
DIIV (pronounced and formerly called “Dive” – guess there was another band called that very thing) is the side project of Beach Fossils’ Zachary Cole Smith. Unlike Beach Fossils’ jangly, for lack of a better term, “beachyness,” this is dreamy post-punk that would have fit well on the Donnie Darko soundrack. If you like the Cure, Joy Division, or the like, give this one a spin.
