Chris Pratt, aka Star Lord, was a guest on DJ Whoo Kid's Whoolywood Shuffle show, and he was very candid about his cloudy pot smoking past. I don't know which is cooler: the fact that he lived in a van in Hawaii and smoked weed everyday, or that he knows all the words to Dr. Dre's The Chronic 2001 album.



Pratt admitted he was a big Eminem fan, so he proved it by reciting Slim's verse from "Forgot About Dre." Naturally, the internet took the original interview, mixed his rap over the track and made viral gold in the process.



I hope this is the first track of Awesome Mix Vol. 2.

If you enjoy angry rock and roll and miss the early part of the 2000's, this year's KFMA Fall Ball is right up your alley as the annual radio fest is teaming up with the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival this year, bringing Godsmack, Seether, Escape the Fate, Buckcherry, PopEvil and the always promising "more TBA." 


The fest is scheduled for Kino Stadium on September 21st. Tickets go on sale Saturday for $25 at local Pizza Huts, rising in price after that. So there you go.

Falling behind on your trashy summer romance reading? All of that "Spain Vacation" savings went instead to repair the AC compressor? Well, thank Dios it's Friday because The Rialto Theatre has the answer to your prayers in the form of "Nouveau Spanish Flamenco Guitarist" and just all-around sexy, hairy beast Benise.

Roni Benise, aka "Benise," is actually an accomplished guitarist, and he's got a crack crew of musicians backing him up as they lead through Latin and poly-rhythmic world-music interpretations of classics from musicians such as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Bach, and The Eagles. The clip above is from "The Spanish Guitar," a dramatic globe-trotting adventure staring Benise and produced by the same team that brought you Dancing with the Stars. His promo boasts a live show that reaches "near-Cirque du Soleil" heights, but the Rialto stop is part of his current "unplugged" tour.

That said, still expect Benise's sultry flamenco dancers, sweaty manes of hair, and a damn good excuse to skip Zumba this weekend. If you want to check out this unplugged version of what has been described as the "Latin River Dance," you better act fast—this heaving guitar-slinger sold out last night in Phoenix and Tucson is the last date on his current tour. Tickets are still available, from $27 - $75, depending on how close you want to get to the sexxxy. Doors are at 7:00 p.m., show starts at 8:00 p.m., and more details are available at Rialto Theatre.

"I told Linda Ronstadt I had a crush on her back in the day." How many music fans over the years have wanted to tell Tucson's favorite daughter these words in person? When you're the leader of the free world, you can make these kind of things happen.

This whispered admission occurred last night during an awards ceremony as singer Linda Ronstadt received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. The White House was recognizing her "one-of-a-kind voice and her decades of remarkable music. Drawing from a broad range of influences, Ms. Ronstadt defied expectations to conquer American radio waves and help pave the way for generations of women artists."

NPR Radio talk show host Diane Rehm was there as well, having received the same award in 2013, and got an additional thanks from President Obama for interviewing him as a young, struggling writer. Today, Ronstadt was on The Diane Rehm Show in a rare interview, and the first discussing her book, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, which will be out on paperback in September.

During Rehm's in-depth interview, a good-humored and relaxed Ronstadt discussed those many musical influences, and how her artistic choices were a reflection of her upbringing in Tucson. Ronstadt continually persevered in a mind-bogglingly diverse forty-plus-year career that saw the pop artist conquering the genres of country, rock, jazz, big band and mariachi. While taking questions from Rehm's audience, Ronstadt covered many topics from Simple Dreams, including her childhood growing up in such a naturally musical family; strict piano-teaching Catholic nuns; hard times in The Stone Poneys; and enjoying her first hit song, 1967's "Different Drum."

Ronstadt also touches on Arizona politics, the Mexico border, and coming to grips with the realization that her voice was rapidly deteriorating following her Parkinson's disease diagnosis. Particularly touching is her sharing the sadness of not being able to sing harmony with her nephews here in Tucson, some of whom perform solo ("Mikey", ) or as part of Ronstadt Generations. Life with Ronstadt's adopted daughters, a subject she rarely addresses, is also discussed.

Listen to the complete interview here: Linda Ronstadt on The Diane Rhem Show (07/29/2014)

I think by allowing a signup through Facebook, I might have just given up my personal information in exchange for the opportunity to RSVP for a concert, but hey, I really want to see Classixx again. A DJ/production duo from LA, Classixx have played Tucson before, but they're returning to Club Congress on August 28 for a Red Bull sponsored show, with Superhumanoids, Hustle & Drone and The Flavr Blue. The show's 18 and over, but if you want to go, visit Red Bull's site for the show, exchange some personal info, pledge your eternal devotion to energy drinks, and there you go. Free concerts, yay!

If you have fond memories of 90's AM radio here in Tucson (and I'm not sure what this says about me, but I really do), you'll definitely want to set some time aside from actually working to check out Slow Jam King R Dub's documentary AM Mayhem: The Story of Tucson's Power 1490, which is now available to watch for free on YouTube. Put on some Cross Colors shorts and a bootleg Bart Simpson shirt and make an afternoon of it.

Hope you like new music from local bands because it's coming. Lenguas Largas will embark on a nationwide tour in celebration of their new album, Come On In. Listen to the Tucson band's new album at 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at The District Tavern, 260 E Congress St. You can learn all the words and sing along when they return to the Old Pueblo with California band White Night at Club Congress on Monday, Sept. 1.

Here's the latest track from the new record:


Click here to pre-order their new album off Bandcamp.

In the shorthand of the pop music world, Thriller has come to mean the pinnacle of an artist’s career.

Michael Jackson’s 1982 classic is the all-time best selling album and represents the King of Pop’s most creative and vital period. So when the genre-bending dance-punk sextet !!! (pronounced Chk Chk Chk for simplicity’s sake) set out to record their latest, the feeling of being at the top of their game started to seem like they were entering the Thriller zone.

“It was just something that was in the air the whole time. It was like a game we would play. We’d just say ‘What’s the hard rock Thriller? It’s Back in Black. No, it’s Appetite for Destruction. And we’d do that back and forth for different genres,” says the band’s singer Nic Offer. “But there was a feeling that we were doing something really good so we said ‘Let’s call it THR!!!ER. It just came together. It definitely felt like a high point for us. It felt like we’d really achieved a record we didn’t know we could do.”

Released last April on Warp Records, the band’s fifth album is a more dynamic take on dance rock, a creative experiment that came from a new in-studio partnership with producer Jim Eno (the drummer in Spoon). Though the band was coming off disappointing sales for their fourth album, the live performances were hitting an energetic high-water mark

“When we were doing the tour for Strange Weather, the record didn’t do as good as we wanted, but we really felt so good about the band at that point. It was a new lineup and we were getting along, having a great time and the shows were great,” Offer says. “We needed to work hard to keep it going.”

The band’s songwriting had sharpened, and for the first time, !!! had an album’s worth of songs written and arranged before they even set foot in a studio.

Since the band members live in different cities now, songwriting is done via email and individual contributions can show surprising results. “Even When The Water’s Cold” is a particularly good example, Offer says.

“When Rafael sent me an instrumental and a completed version with vocals, I got it and worked all night on it, but I didn’t listen to his vocal version, just the instrumental version,” Offer says. “I finished and listened to his version and it was cool because we’d inadvertently written about the same thing. We both had swimming in it. We sat back and didn’t know what to do with it.

“A couple weeks later we were playing in Spain and hanging out in the hotel room, smoking spliffs and going back and forth and we just said ‘Let’s combine them.’ We took some of my melody and some of his melody and we jammed them in together and they made perfect sense. It just came together. It was pretty seamless in the end.”

Having the songs mostly complete, they worked with Eno in the studio to introduce some unexpected elements, shaping the songs into a record that both stretches the band’s sound mold and exceeds fan expectations.

“Jim was a huge part of it, but I think he’d be the first to say we brought him a good batch of songs of. We had a connection and it felt really good,” Offer says.

Along the way the band backed away from any worries that changes in sound might alienate their audience.

“We take an album template as ‘Do whatever and it will sound like you.’ You shouldn’t be trying to make it sound like you it will, definitely. Don’t worry,” Offer says. “Most everybody listens to many styles of music, so it’s not so strange to switch. A big unifying thing for us has always been dance music but there’s lots of different dance music. I’ve had some arguments with friends in other bands, there’s this thing that you have to think about your audience. But as a kid I remember listening to somebody like Bauhaus and they’d attempt so many different styles, but at the end it all came under that Bauhaus blanket.”

Pushing the envelope sound-wise also resulted in a nine-song record that avoided settling into any rut, with dynamic song-to-song shifts. From “One Girl / One Boy” to “Slyd” to “Californyeah,” the album’s singles represent a creatively restless band. 

“With a lot of records, I hear three or four songs and I don’t need to hear the rest of it,” Offer says. “You’re just trying to make and album that you’d like.”

When !!! began in Sacramento in 1996, they were drawn to dance music, which was all-but nonexistent in the rock world, so Offer and his bandmates sought elsewhere.

“During the 90s all we listened to was R&B and hip-hop. We didn’t like a lot of the rock music that was going on. In the ‘90s it was very separate. Rock music became very rock. Rock music wasn’t supposed to have drum machines. I feel like the ‘90s music separated specifically into white and black music and now it feels a lot more integrated. I think now is a good time for mixing styles together,” he says.

But that era gave !!! a unique voice from the very beginning.

“There should always be a little bit of trying to create your own thing,” Offer says. “I’m sure whoever is creating the most exciting music now is some who thinks the current music is bullshit and they’re thing to do their own thing. We definitely wanted to make our own music.”

!!! play Club Congress tonight with Acorn Bcorn at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 for the all ages show.

It's been one hell of a week for the local music scene. Steff and The Articles teased a new track "Call You Mine" earlier this week. The always evolving and maturing four piece indie band debuted the offical music video for "What a Terrible Thing to Do" off the Why It Was So EP.

From Bullett:

“The song revolves around a feeling of guilt derived from not being able to love someone back, but still using their love to fill a certain amount of loneliness,”Koeppen tells me. “More specifically, it speaks of two people experiencing intimacy on different emotional levels. The video reflects this personal experience of mine during the aftermath of a past relationship, as represented by the contemplativeness of my character and the overall disconnect between both characters.”

"Weird" Al Yankovic debuted his 14th full length studio album Mandatory Fun earlier this week. I have been listening to it, and I'm pretty impressed that he can still keep us interested after 31 years of parodies. The electic funny man has been debuting daily music videos since the album released.

So, check out the latest video for his parody of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy":