Cancer sucks. Thankfully, Metallica's James Hetfield's and a number of rockers' influence could draw a packed house at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Thursday. Rolling Stone uncovered two videos from the benefit for the Pediatric Cancer Program at the Bay Area's UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.

Here's a video of Hetfield covering The Beatles:

Hetfield wasn't the only special guest:

But a heartfelt Beatles ballad wasn't the only surprise of the evening. In addition to playing two Metallica songs on acoustic — "Nothing Else Matters" and "Until It Sleeps" — Hetfield teamed with two of the evening's other performers, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, for a medley of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" and the American Idiot track "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

Click here if you weren't able to make it but still want to donate.

Here we go again, heartbreakers. Your undivided attention is wanted all over Tucson tomorrow night, and you're the belle of the ball. This is true especially if you like to dance.

There's a catchy show featuring L.A.'s Okapi Sun, The Wanda Junes, Moist Noize and Sun Bones on Friday, May 16, at Flycatcher (A.K.A. Plush), 340 E. Sixth St. Doors open at 9 p.m. $5 at the door.

I dig that Okapi Sun's one goal as a band is “To make you MOVE. We want people to dance and have fun with our music.” That's a goal I can get behind and dance until my heart stops. Click here to get better acquainted with them.

The District Tavern has had some eclectic free shows as of late, and this Friday will be no exception. 

Local all girl punk band Sugar Stains and special guest from Austin, TX., Adrian & The Sickness! will be performing around 9 p.m. at the District, 260 E Congress St. The time isn't listed anywhere, so I called to make sure. If that's not punk rock, then I don't know what is.


I, for one, have never heard of Adrian Conner, so I looked her up. The Austenite is an accomplished pop-rock singer songwriter that plays lead guitar in an all girl AC/DC tribute band, Hell’s Belles. She's currently on a nationwide tour in support of her new album Be Your Own Saviour.

Like what you hear? Go to her website and download Take The World (after the jump).

Southwest Terror Fest announced some big changes and popular acts to this year's event on its Facebook page Monday morning. The annual heavy metal celebration will take place from Thursday, Oct. 16 through Sunday, Oct. 19, at The Rialto and The District Tavern.

Originally, SWTF has historically taken place at The Rock.

Los Angeles bands Neurosis, Goatsnake -(16)- are on the bill. Other national acts include Sunn 0))) (Seattle), Pelican (Illinois), The Body (Rhode Island) Eagle Twin (Utah) and much more.

Check out the full line up after the break.

Seventies heartthrob and Welsh national hero Tom Jones visited his charisma upon the Rialto Theatre last week. Swoons happened. 

C. Elliott brings us documentary photos of the concert that asked the question, "Did someone really throw their chonies on the stage?" Plus: epic 70s jacket!

Local music fixture Cathy Rivers will be taking on some more responsibilities at the 91.3 KXCI offices.  The longtime Tucson resident has accepted the program director position, according to an email from KXCI General Manager Randy Peterson.

"One of our goals was to reposition the duties of a program director back under one person," Peterson said in the email.

The singer-songwriter returned to the nonprofit community sponsored radio organization in 2012 to host the station's afternoon drive show. In addition to hosting The Home Stretch from 3 to 6 p.m., Rivers will coordinate the station's deejay training classes, scheduling subs, deejay airchecks/performance reviews, policies and so much more.

Click here for an interesting interview Weekly music writer Gene Armstrong conducted with the Tucson transplant in 2004. 


I think Rivers should perform a celebratory concert in honor of her new job title.

Fair is fair, Cathy.

C. Elliott gives us a look at the Old '97s show at the Rialto Theatre on Tuesday, May 6.

Here's some good news if you like free music and concerts.

Prom Body is planning on embarking on a summer tour along the west coast, but they need a van for this ambitious journey. So, there will be a quasi-fundraiser to help raise some dinero for the aspiring four-man-band tonight at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. The opening acts scheduled to play include Discos, Jacob Hom, Pete Fine and comedy group Moist Noize.

Doors open at 8 p.m. No cover charge if you're 21 and older, so get a babysitter.

Prom Body will be headlining the show and they demand you learn yourself the words to the new song from their upcoming album Naughty by Natural.

You can listen and download the desert pop band's latest single "My Paradise" after the jump:

In 1990 Tom Walbank found himself, like so many bluesmen of lore do, at a crossroads. An aspiring cartoonist, he was immersed in the Scottish zine culture, with his eye on a career in comics. But he loved playing blues, too.

“I decided I would have to concentrate on one,” Walbank says from his home in Tucson, where he’s resided since 2000. He chose music, and since doing so he’s performed around the world and released dozens of blues recordings, often incorporating dub, punk, and rocksteady textures into his albums – many of which can be heard on his Bandcamp page. Still, his passion for pop art endured. Wanting to explore his dual interests together, he began drawing portraits of blues artists. “I started with one of Bukka White, and I kept doing them wherever I was,” Walbank says. 
In 2012, Walbank collected 250 of his blues drawings for a self-published tome called Picture the Blues. He laughs while explaining that though he put the book on the indie press site Blurb more than a year ago, he never quite found the time to properly promote its existence. No matter – the book has a timeless quality, a sort of catholic overview of the blues, featuring arresting black-and-white portraits spanning blues history, from legends like Muddy Waters, Charlie Patton, and Son House to gospel vocalists like Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rossette Tharpe. He includes lesser-knowns like Mississippi Hill Country queen Jesse Mae Hemphill and Jazz Gillum, jazz players like Charles Mingus and Miles Davis, and a section of pictures of modern raconteurs like Tom Waits and George Thorogood. Walbank’s unique style differentiates itself from blues comics like Robert Crumb and William Stout — his work owes as much to 1920s print advertisements and British artists like Mike McMahon and Kevin O ' Neill, famous for their work in violent pulp publication 2000 A.D, as it does Crumb’s distinctive crosshatching.

Divided into chapters featuring slide players, piano players, harmonica players and other blues distinctions, Walbank’s heavy black-and-white style is accomplished mostly by ink and brush, utilizing stippling – stabbing the paper and “ruining brushes” in the process – to build up grey effects. He applies correction fluid, too, to suggest the look of woodcuts.

“The heavy black-and-white kind of evokes heat to me, like the heat of Mississippi,” Walbank says.

Walbank admits that the book’s asking price, about $200, is hefty, but blues aficionados, the kind of guys forking out hundreds for rare 78s and blues ephemera, are still getting a pretty sweet deal. “It is a little pricey,” Walbank laughs, “but originals are about $400 bucks, so $200 bucks for 250 of them, it’s not too bad, you know?”

Walbank says the goal of the project isn’t to serve as a historical text; it’s strictly art. “There are plenty of great blues history books out there, and I’m a sucker for those,” Walbank says. “But this is just a plain art book. You can do your own research if you come across a picture and you like that picture, but this would be too large if I did historical pieces of writing about each artist. Sometimes, doing your own research is half the fun. You find your own past, if you know what I mean.”

Order Tom Walbank’s Picture the Blues via Blurb.

Apologizes in advance for exposing you to 4 Non-Blondes' "What's Up," even if only for a few seconds, but the rest of CBC Radio's tribute to vocal hooks in 90's alt-rock songs is a fun, if somewhat disjointed, listen. Also, it's a great reminder for me to go to Spotify and listen to some that dog. today. Retreat From the Sun was my jam.