For lovers or the lovelorn, Emile Marchand & Naim Amor fill the air at Agustin Kitchen with sweet sounds. Details here.

Heather Hardy hosts Lil’ Mama’s Love Fest at Monterey Court. With Mitzi Cowell, Angel Diamond, Koko Matsumoto and other special guests. Details here.

From Chicago, garage power poppers North By North bring their Never-Ending Tour to Sky Bar. With Black Medicine and Marshal Man. Preceded by the NailPolish Drag Show. Details here.

The Lousy Lovers Club presents, from Germany, The Booze Bombs. “Rock a Bop” into the night at the Surly Wench Pub. The Shivers and The Vooduo open. Details here. t

And, the ladies of country collective Loveland twang Cupid’s bow at Tap + Bottle Downtown. Details here.

“I’m writing fairy tales, and I hear my life story in them, but they’re not about me,” Case says. “I still can’t figure out how to describe it. But I think that’s why we make music or write things. You’ve got to invent a new language.” Neko Case at The Rialto Theater with Canadian singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle. Details here.

Arizona Friends of Chamber Music presents San Francisco’s Alexander String Quartet with Cliburn Competition medalist pianist Joyce Yang. The evening’s program spans the full history of music composed for piano and strings. From the very first major effort in the genre by Mozart to new works by composer Samuel Adams. At the Leo Rich Theater. Details here.

A veritable smorgasbord awaits. This month’s Ladytowne Live features the synth-pop of Ziemba (from NYC) and the intrepid acoustic post-punk noir of BreakingGlass. A performance by circus troupe Les Femmes Marveilleuses. Interviews with Joanna Lynne Smith (Southwest Love Fest), Lola Torch and Ziemba’s René Kladzyk. With stand-up by Autumn Horvath. At Club Congress. Details here.

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Courtesy of Monterey Court Studio Galleries & Cafe

This Nashville songwriter penned such hits as “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” for Travis Tritt and “Heartbreak Town” for the Dixie Chicks and many others. Darrell Scott performs at Monterey Court. Guitarist Peter McLaughlin opens the show. Details here.

The latest installment of Losers’ Lounge is an “anti-Valentine’s Day” mashup. Featuring techno/emo synth queen Snackbirdy, easy-listening troubadour Franklin Ross and country blues powerhouse Najima Rainey. At Owls Club. Details here.

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Courtesy of Losers’ Lounge 9: Snackbirdy / Najima / Franklin Ross Facebook event page

David Dondero has been many things in this life: From gas station attendant in New Jersey to being named by NPR’s All Songs Considered as one of the “best living songwriters” alongside Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Tom Waits. At Exo Roast Co. Details here.

Her work has been featured in Vogue, The FADER and i-D Magazine.

New York via El Paso, René Kladzyk is a performance artist, musician, perfumer and cultural geographer. Her nom de guerre: Ziemba.

Released in the summer of 2016, Ziemba’s debut full length album Hope is Never was recorded in upstate New York at Black Dirt Studios. It functions as a reliquary for the beauties of life and its inescapable perils. Sentient, introspective and forward-thinking, like the artist herself, pushing boundaries.

Utilizing the powers of technology, traversing space and time, XOXO connected with Kladzyk for a Q&A. Brace yourselves.

Your oeuvre contains soaring a cappella pieces, lushly ambient experimentalism, as well as melodic synth pop ear-candy. In the digital age, as an artist how do you incorporate artifact in with technology?

Well, working with fragrance is in some ways a rejection of the nature of music consumption in the digital age. It's spatially specific and ephemeral. It necessarily has to ground you to the right now, and encourages you to pay attention to the present moment in ways that you may not be accustomed to. So in that sense, it's an appropriate artifact to accompany my digital music releases, and hopefully pulls the listener more entirely into the sonic world. Liz Pelly wrote an interesting article about the ways that Spotify is transforming music listenership, turning everything into Muzak—a background to enhance some "vibe" or another. My aim is the opposite of that.

The narrative in the video to “El Paso” depicts the stark dichotomy that exists on the borderlands. What was life like straddling between El Paso and one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Ciudad Juárez?

The divided life of the border is very different depending on a number of axes of privilege. For me growing up in El Paso, and crossing to Juárez for family gatherings and nights out with friends, I had the privilege to not be there when the violence increased so dramatically. Whereas, for my stepmom, a Juárez native, crossed back and forth every day while the violence was at its height, to take care of her mom. And then the experience is a whole other thing entirely for people who can't leave at all, because they lack the resources, the papers or are tied there in other ways. It was an interesting dynamic around that time, because so many of the more privileged people of Juárez moved over to El Paso. Even the mayor of Juárez lived in El Paso. I don't actually know if he still does…

I did my master's research in El Paso and Juárez, during the height of the violence. I did interviews with thirty-something people living on either side of the border, and most expressed a conflicted relationship with life on the border. On the one hand, the border is a profoundly special place. I think most fronterizos are very proud. To be of two cultures and have the diversity of experience that comes with that. But, on the other hand, if you have to cross back and forth with any regularity, it's a sort of psychological journey. Your whole comportment changes when you cross between the two countries; the way you drive, your attentiveness to your surroundings, your level of trust in your neighbor. Having to do that on a daily basis takes a toll.

It's wild too, with Trump's false narrative about the border wall fixing violence in El Paso, and how this may impact people's understanding of the border. El Paso has always been the safer neighbor to Juárez's "city of sin," spectating the violence across the Rio Grande. During the Mexican Revolution, people paid admission to sit on rooftops in downtown El Paso and watch the Battle of Juárez. If you're curious you should read David Dorado Romo's book about this, its amazing. In many ways it’s emblematic of the economic imperialism that characterizes the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico, so much bloodshed to get drugs to American consumers (the world's largest drug market). I think a lot of Americans look at the bloodshed in Juárez as though they are not connected to it, and that's the problem. But it’s in the cartels' interests to keep the violence out of El Paso, and helps Americans to dissociate their recreational drugs from the blood of Mexicans. It helps people to forget that El Paso is one of the biggest ports of entry for drugs into the U.S., the fact that it’s also one of the safest cities. Trump can tout the safeness of El Paso all he wants, but the violence in Juárez is intrinsically connected to the economic vitality of the borderlands, and should not be forgotten when we talk about what a "secure border" looks like. The interesting dynamic of our southern border today is that as the borders have become more porous for money and goods through agreements like NAFTA and the growth of the drug trade, it's also become much more difficult for actual people to cross through. For someone like my stepmom, who grew up being able to cross back and forth with relative ease—it would take 5-10 minutes, while now it typically takes several hours. This has radically changed the nature of being a fronterizo.

“El Paso” casts an unblinking eye on the underground histories of the U.S./Mexico border region: The Bracero Program, maquilladoras, NAFTA, U.S. border quarantine policy, drug cartel violence, femicide. What is your hope as an artist by injecting political commentary into your art?

I believe that artists fuel cultural change, and so there is an ethics to making creative work for the public. Not everything I've made has overt political commentary in it. But, it's all political on some level. I would say the common thread of all my creative work is that its bent on combating nihilism, and encouraging hopeful future vision. Part of this is the idea that people should care about the plight of others, and understand that we are all connected. The hyper-individualism of our culture is a destructive force. I made the video about “El Paso” because its a situation that I have a unique window into, that I thought many people would benefit from seeing, and so on some level I felt a personal obligation to share it.

Tell us about the succubus that inhabits Lala’s cave?

That is a long story. I don't know if I can get into it for the scope of this article. Its actually kind of difficult to talk about. I would say though that the main points are that she's real, and that part of making that EP was trying to engage with how hard of a time Western culture has with empowered sexual women. I became extremely fascinated with the femme fatale archetype.

After releasing several EPs, singles and a full-length album, what motivates you to continue to search for “sounds in trucks and pipes, and refrigerated caves?”

There was a time when I decided that I should live my life in such a way where if I die tomorrow it's okay, because I haven't been wasting it. That's what I try to do. I continue with music because it continues to be a way to foster connection that I think is meaningful. It matters beyond me and is my unique contribution to planet Earth. Music is a fundamental part of what makes us human. It’s such a joyous thing.

"Sometimes I feel with you as if I'm lost in time, outcast, and its my favorite place." - Ziemba

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“Do you remember the life before this?”

Sometimes, in dreams, I think I do. I have no recollection of writing the lyrics to that song, it's kind of a mystery to me. I just found it in a notebook of mine, in my handwriting.

In addition to being a musician, you are a perfumer. Tell me about "A Door Into Ocean," both the fragrance and the song?

At the time that I made “A Door Into Ocean,” I had already done several releases where I created a fragrance to accompany the music. “A Door Into Ocean” was the first time I wrote the music to accompany the fragrance. The idea was more to create a certain type of space or mood, really quintessential ambient music. Something uplifting, sensuous and sweet. I wanted the soundscape to be something you could play on repeat and get lost in, for it to move through space the way fragrance does.

As featured in the song, what is a LIGO chirp and why was it important to incorporate it into "A Door Into Ocean?"

The LIGO chirp is the first documented evidence of gravitational waves, ripples in space-time. It was proof of part of Einstein's theory of relativity, and showed how new exotic matter is created in the universe—new life, new worlds. Around the time that I composed “A Door Into Ocean” I was beginning to work on my new album Ardis, which is a parallel world. I site the birth of Ardis as this moment that was recorded with the LIGO chirp, the collision of two neutron stars. A Door into Ocean is the name of a feminist science fiction book by Joan Slonczewski, and was one of the books that inspired Ardis. I would say that “A Door into Ocean” was an early experiment for the compositional approach to Ardis, even though Ardis is musically quite different.

Is hope never or a fold?

Both. The idea was that hope pulls you outside of time. It’s this weird mingled combination of nostalgia and future vision. By a fold, I mean a fold in the fabric of time. Never in that its outside of time. A lot of the album Hope is Never was trying to cope with several significant losses, while attempting to hold memories in some way.

What is on the horizon for René Kladzyk?

Ardis. I'm releasing the first songs from Ardis next week. Even though it's an album, I'm releasing it in three stages throughout the spring. Each part, or territory, of Ardis has its own fragrance connected to it. This show in Tucson will actually be my first live show upon its release.

Ziemba performs as part of Ladytowne Live at Club Congress on Wednesday, Feb 13.

On “Yellow Bike” David Bazan waxes nostalgic about the thrill found in childhood bike rides in his hometown of Phoenix down the uncertain roads that accompany the onset of adulthood. Indie rockers Pedro The Lion are at 191 Toole. With the haunting folk of Tomberlin. Details here.

Their career—which includes a sizable catalog of country, pop and gospel hits—spans decades. The Oak Ridge Boys bring their trademark harmonies to The Fox Theatre. Details here.

Before pursuing a solo career, this Canadian keyboardist worked with Laura Vinson, k.d. Lang, Ian Tyson and others. Stewart MacDougall performs at Monterey Court. Details here.

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Courtesy of Monterey Court Studio Galleries & Cafe

His 2015 single “Faded” received platinum certification in 10 countries. No small task. Norwegian electro house DJ/producer Alan Walker lands the Different World Tour at The Rialto Theatre. With compatriot K-391 and Zaxx. Details here.

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Courtesy of The Rialto Theatre

Gabriel Sullivan is hosting a songwriter night every remaining Tuesday in February. This week’s spotlight brightly shines on Kid Congo Powers and The Pink Monkey Birds. Powers pedigree includes being a member of The Gun Club, the Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. At Owls Club. Details here.

Bluegrass & Brews Jamboree features The Freddy Parish Trio and Cadillac Mountain. At The Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley. Details here.

Chill, but kinda sad, “Blossom (Wasting All My Time)”—from this Nashville singer-songwriter’s debut album Clean—was demoed in her dorm room basement without a second thought as to it ever seeing the light of day. Soccer Mommy at Club Congress with Motiongazer. Details here.

Arizona Theater Company is putting on a show this Valentine's Week and we want you to go! Packed full of music, this show will keep you dancing song after song. Showings are at the Temple of Music and Art located at
330 S. Scott Ave.

Organizers describe the event:

With Love, Marilyn stars Erin Sullivan as Marilyn Monroe in a special one-woman tribute performance to one of the most iconic romantic ingenues.

And here is your chance to go for free!

Show times vary starting Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) to Sunday, Feb. 17.

Enter with your name and email for a chance to see the show on us. Entrants must be 18 or older to participate. Good luck!

On “Tenderness—” the lead single to Laura Gibson’s acclaimed fifth album Goners (Barsuk Records)—she innocently asks the question, “Do you want tenderness?”

Then, just as ghost children wave in the rear-view mirror, the story shifts, “I’ve been taught that I should wait to be chosen/That I haven’t known love until I’ve been destroyed by love.” The solace of the beguiling golden light becomes something dark-hued and cautionary.

Gibson expands, “I wanted the songs to feel like fables, to unfold with dream logic.” Her songs are haunted. Odd birds act as harbingers before transmogrifying into wolves.

“I’d known for a long time that I wanted to make a record about grief. In some ways, every song I’ve ever written has something to do with grief,” says Gibson, staring boldly into the abyss.

Perfused with ruminations about her distant past and uncertain future, the folk/indie rock singer wrote and recorded Goners during a time of personal upheaval and transition. Much of the album explores the loss of her father when she was a teenager and her wrestling with the decision of whether or not to become a parent herself. Gibson’s pen transforms a scar into a vessel for memory.

“If we're already goners,” she sings in the title track, “Why wait any longer for something to crack open?” The album carries weight and casts a broken spectre over the world at large.

Monday, Feb 11 sees Laura Gibson at The Rialto Theatre on a celebratory tour supporting singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov.

Outside of music, this indie-folk artist labors on his three-acre farm growing medical-grade marijuana and vegetables for market. When not farming, the Colorado-based singer-songwriter recorded Evening Machines, his seventh album, in a studio housed in his barn. Gregory Alan Isakov will be “Raising Cain” at The Rialto Theatre. Details here.

Gutter Town, Clementine Was Right and The Cactus Pricks tumble and twirl at The District Tavern. Details here.
From Welland, Ontario, Juno-nominated musician, poet and visual artist Daniel Romano “delivers mosey croonin’” at Club Congress. With buttressing by Casey Golden and Buxton. Details here.

“Fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me.” Handpicked by Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne for their inherent badassery to open for the ill-fated OzzFiesta inaugural. From the portal of Hell, otherwise known as Los Angeles, Black Sabbitch are at 191 Toole. Details here.

Forbidden by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages! Composers faced a fiery death by bonfire for incorporating the tritone—aka “diabolus in musica”—into their works of music. Progressive trance/electro house duo Tritonal tempt fate at The Rialto Theatre. Details here.

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Courtesy of Natty & The Sunset play Westbound Facebook event page

Veteran musicians Katherine Byrnes and Ryan Alfred conspire on a project, creating a colorful instrumental palette. Acoustic folk instruments meld mysteriously with stunning, unpredictable harmonies to haunting effect. Sweet Ghosts at Exo Roast Co. Details here.

The dynamic folk rock of Natty & The Sunset illume the night at Westbound. Details here.

Chanteuse Emilie Marchand & Dante Rosano create musical magic in the tasting room at Sand-Reckoner. Details here.

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Courtesy of Emilie Marchand & Dante Rosano Facebook page

Brad Moontribe, West Coast rave scene veteran, and Griffin Paisley spin EDM at Solar Culture. Details here.

With traditional Afro-Colombian drums and the Indigenous Colombian gaita (flute) this eight-piece psychedelically electric ensemble transports you to the Andes and Caribbean. Kiko Villamizar celebrates life and Mother Earth at Club Congress. Openers Los Esplifs help to spark things up at Club Congress. Details here.

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Courtesy of Lisa O'Neill at Second Saturdays in Downtown Tucson Facebook event page

All but perfecting every last nuance, Bobby Miller recreates the sights and sounds of the artist Prince in an ultimate celebration. The Prince Purple Madness Tribute Show pops off at The Rialto Theatre. With the ever wicked Miss Olivia & The Interlopers. Details here.

Downbeat Magazine calls Mary Flower a “world-class fingerstyle guitarist and lap slide player.” We’ll add to that, with a supple honey-meets-whiskey voice. In the listening room at Exo Roast Co. Sharing the bill, acoustic blues guitar wunderkind Roman Barten-Sherman. Details here.

The Fineline Revisited: DJ Stubbie spins at the Surly Wench Pub. Details here.

Dash Pocket, blazing up-and-comers, play Americana, folk and alt-country at BlackRock Brewers. Details here.

Blending Americana, folk, country and blues, Lisa O’Neill sings songs sung on porches and in patios. On the Scott Street Stage as part of Second Saturdays Downtown. Details here.

Playing the music of Jerry Garcia, Legion of Mario are at Corbett Brewery. Details here.

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Courtesy of Gem and Jerry Fest - Corbett Brewery Facebook event page

The ukulele-driven, gypsy-inspired, whimsical indie-pop of Little Cloud celebrate Aquarians at Sky Bar. Pianist Sara Mohr opens. Details here.

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Courtesy of ATLiens | Gentle Ben's Facebook event page

The seventh annual Pascua Yaqui Festival of the Arts features Native American arts & crafts, a lowrider car show, live music and more. At Pascua Pueblo Park. Details here.

Join the space cult. ATLiens invade Gentle Ben’s bringing with them a hard dose of EDM. Details here.
Kill ’em All pays tribute to the music of Metallica. At House of Bards. Details here.

“Don’t be a basic witch.” Hosted by Jenna Dumay, Tucson’s punk, queer, glam drag show Vamp is at 191 Toole. Details here.

Americana songstress Joyce Luna, accompanied by mandolinist Mike Markowitz, perform in the tasting room at Sand-Reckoner. Details here.

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Courtesy of Joyce Luna w Mike Markowitz: Contemporary folk/rock Facebook event page

With folk roots and a rock ’n’ roll hearts, Tucson transplants Birds and Arrows are at Hotel McCoy. Details here.

The evening’s program includes “New Kid In Town,” “One of These Nights,” “Best of My Love,” “Hotel California” and others. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra pays homage: The Best of The Eagles. At the Tucson Convention Center. Details here.

The second annual Beads, Blues and Beer Festival features performances by Whose Blues Band, Bryan Dean Trio, Southbound Pilot, Cadillac Mountain and Brokedown Palace. At The Metal Arts Village. Details here.

“Everyone carries a shadow,” psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote. “And the less it is embodied in conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” As reflected in the music of San Francisco-based, goth-infused indie rockers Balms’ debut album. “Mirror is a journey of self, an exploration confronting the shadow-aspect of the soul.” At Club Congress flanked by fiendishly rad The Exbats and Hannah Yeun. Details here.

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Courtesy of Hotel Congress

Old world traditionalists Kyklo set the perfect atmosphere for the sweet whispers of love or the hushed tones of political conspiracy at Exo Roast Co. Details here.

Mik and The Funky Brunch are at La Cocina. Details here.

Jazz and blues vocalist/harmonicist Paul Green & The Midnight Blue watercolor wash the night at Monterey Court. Details here.

From The O.C., self-described psychedelic hip-hop punk rockers Kottonmouth Kings continue to ask the unchanging question: “Where’s The Weed At?” At The Rock. Details here.

Psych, prog, power is on tap. Silver Cloud Express, The Mind and Still Life Telescope at Sky Bar… With a staggering 40 albums to his credit, electronic wizard Robert Rich has helped define ambient, tribal and trance music genres. At Solar Culture. Details here.

Neo-psychedelic drone artist Efrim Manuel Menuck, of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, will be Pissing Stars at Club Congress. Details here.

With a staggering 40 albums to his credit, electronic wizard Robert Rich helped define the ambient, tribal and trance music genres. At Solar Culture. Details here.

New Orleans punk rockers Sick Thoughts dish at Wooden Tooth Records. With the “music you need a prescription for” of Lenguas Largas and Free Machines. Details here.

Backed by some of Tucson’s finest musicians, vocal spitfire Keli Carpenter and The Big Dream are at Tap + Bottle Downtown.

The Pine Hill Haints self-describe their southern roots sound as “Alabama Ghost Music.” At Owls Club. Backed by leaden-footed Slow Motion Cowboy. Details here.

Courtesy of Haints at Owl's Club Facebook event page

Unleashing her soulful voice and interpretative talents upon The Bards celebrated oeuvre. Joan Osborne sings the Songs of Bob Dylan. At The Fox Theatre. Details here.

They began as a one-man band serenading 20-something university co-ed partiers on the streets of Miami, Magic City Hippies bring their indie-funk-dusted, oven-baked hip hop/soul to The Rock. With the electro indie-pop of Future Generations. Details here.

The evening’s menu features bluegrass, newgrass, and old time favorites. Nick McBlaine & Log Train chug into Monterey Court. Details here.

Sound, visuals and dance combine. Obsidian features Skynia, AWN and ΣΕΘ at Solar Culture. DJs Toby Roberts and Justin Silva spin underground EDM. Details here.

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Courtesy of Obsidian feat. Skynia, AWN, ΣΕΘ and more Facebook event page

Courtesy of 191 Toole

“It Can’t Be Love Unless It Hurts.” A mashup between Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell and Crybaby’s Daniel Coughlan. Tracyanne & Danny are at 191 Toole. With Nashville indie/dream poppers Photo Ops. Details here.

Pedro y Los Liricos play cumbias, rancheras and baladas to benefit La Tierra del Jaguar farm and school. A project working to help save the jaguar and the human in the region of Sahuaripa, Sonora, Mexico. Details here.