• Courtesy AZPM
• Joe Peña in the AZPM stairwell

Arizona Public Media engineer extraordinaire Jim Blackwood was so intrigued by the acoustics in a stairwell in the basement of the AZPM studios that he decided to start recording performances in there:

But recently, recording engineer Jim Blackwood decided to try something new. For years, Jim had noticed the unique acoustics of the five-story stairwell that is right outside the studio door. He decided to try recording musicians in the stairwell's confined, reverb-rich space. And now you can hear the result.

Greyhound Soul's Joe Peña is the first musician in the well. Check out his session, which aired last Friday on Arizona Spotlight.

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There's a lot for music fans to like about this year's installment of the annual concert extravaganza HoCo Fest, whether that's 80's Night with Howard Jones and Men Without Hats on Thursday, Camilo Lara, Sergio Mendoza and Taraf de Tucson on Latin Night Friday, the free festivities on Saturday, Sunday's finale featuring Scout Niblett and Chelsea Wolfe.

Want to go to one of the nights for free? Enter our contest for four tickets to the evening of your choice (other than Saturday, since that's free already) now. We'll pull two winners on Wednesday afternoon, notify those winners via email, and those winners will select the night they'd like to attend and their tickets will be ready at will call. Fun for everyone!

For more information about Club Congress and HoCo Fest, including ticket prices, lineups and such, visit the Hotel Congress website.

Good luck!

Oh, Miley Cyrus. You used to be such an adorable scamp, what with your Disney Channel sitcom/toy-selling vehicle, music and movie career.

But, as pretty much everyone with a computer has seen, Miley went wild at last night's MTV Video Music Awards, collaborating on stage with "Blurred Lines" singer Robin Thicke as both a performer and a prop for Miley Cyrus to grind upon — and yeah, treat this link as NSFW.

For those who aren't going to follow that link (not a bad decision, mind you) here's a preview of what you would've seen, in GIF form (editor's note: I put the rest behind the cut, so you have to make a conscious decision to expose your brain and soul to such things):

Bad news for Tucson's music lovers: Toxic Ranch Records, supporters of the local punk, independent and underground sound, has announced that it will be closing soon, citing a desire from TRR's landlords to expand their own space.

From the TRR Facebook page:

A few of you may have heard, but we've been given notice from our landlords (owners of Caruso's) that we need to vacate the building by the end of this year. They supposedly have plans to expand their restaurant and evidently we are in their way. We are considering a re-location to a smaller, more affordable space, but after some major personal changes in the last 2 years, and declining foot traffic, and the gentrification of downtown Tucson it may make sense to call it quits and convert to an online-only business. Instead of crying about it, we have remodeling the space to better accomadate live music and plan on a series of in-store performances, to celebrate our 22 years of supporting underground music before we are officially given the boot. Look for updates on coming live events. And would it kill you to drop by and pick up that record, t-shirt or other gimcrack you've had your eye on before it's too late?

• Linda Ronstadt

Details are apparently forthcoming as part of an extended interview set to run next week, but the unfortunate news for the day is that AARP.com announced that Tucson legend Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's disease, which has robbed her of the ability to sing and needs assistance to walk:

Legendary singer Linda Ronstadt, 67, told AARP today that she “can’t sing a note” because she suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosed eight months ago, Ronstadt began to show symptoms as long as eight years ago. But she ascribed her inability to sing to a tick bite (“my health has never recovered since then”), and believed the shaking in her hands resulted from shoulder surgery.

In a wide-ranging interview with AARP’s music writer Alanna Nash to be published on aarp.org next week, Ronstadt revealed how she discovered that “there was something wrong” with her voice.

“I couldn’t sing,” she told Nash, “and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew it was mechanical. I knew it had to do with the muscles, but I thought it might have also had something to do with the tick disease that I had. And it didn’t occur to me to go to a neurologist. I think I’ve had it for seven or eight years already, because of the symptoms that I’ve had. Then I had a shoulder operation, so I thought that’s why my hands were trembling.

“Parkinson’s is very hard to diagnose, so when I finally went to a neurologist and he said, ‘Oh, you have Parkinson’s disease,’ I was completely shocked. I wouldn’t have suspected that in a million, billion years.

“No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease,” Ronstadt said. “No matter how hard you try.”

Ronstadt walks with the aid of poles when on uneven ground, and uses a wheelchair when she travels.

The Cold War Kids show that was scheduled for the Rialto Theatre on August 18 has a new date, September 20. Your ticket for the previous date is still good for the new one.

We, however, will not be rescheduling our feature on the band which we ran last week, so you'll just have to read it online. Still holds up, however.

Because he is a terrible person, former Phoenix New Times music editor/current something-or-other at Zia Jason Woodbury has been bragging on Facebook about how much he's been enjoying the new Howe Gelb record, The Coincidentalist, which the rest of us suckers have to wait until November to hear. This doesn't quite soothe my deep jealous anger, but at least we all get to hear “Vortexas" now, which features alt-country weirdo Will Oldham joining Howe.

While the whole "Drunk History" concept isn't all that new - Funny or Die has been doing these skits online since 2007 - and it might just be the slightly higher production values at work, but the recent run of episodes on Comedy Central have become must see television at the Gibson house. Winona Ryder's appearance as executed Quaker Mary Dyer was about as enjoyable as anything I can remember on TV this year, and then last night, in a synergy of my interests in 70's country music and intoxication, the segment discussing Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner was educational, emotional and hilarious. You should really be watching the show in its entirety, but here's a clip from the Parton sketch to whet your appetite.

While it'll still be awhile before Black Joe Lewis hits Club Congress on December 7, you can preview the soul/blues/R&B-stylings of his new album Electric Slave on Soundcloud now. Enjoy!

Thank yourself, Tucson, for making it possible to listen to awesome original programming by real DJs playing one song at a time on Community Radio KXCI.



We love them so much that we don't even mind that they keep bringing back the ’70s like a lost cat. After last Saturday at the Rialto we relived 1973 for, with luck, the last time in our lives. And, face it, we had fun imagining what those ’73 hits would have sounded like had some of our favorite Tucson musicians been around to give them a spin.

Here are CE Elliott's photos of the night's festivities: