A smooth groove with some spectacular guitar weaving – not to mention a pinpoint lead vocal from prolific frontwoman Anamieke Quinn, who appears on our list twice with two different groups.
Her guitar and that of Matt Ventre give all the texture for this Phoenix psychedelic rock combo that released their full-length debut, “Poisonous Dwellers of the Desert,” in 2015 and from which this deep cut quietly rises above a packed album of fresh sounds.
Complementing the soulful sensibilities to create, in the band’s words, “moonlit dreamscapes of the Great Southwest,” is bass player Brenden McBride and drummer Ehren Stonner. The album was recorded at the Scratchin’ Post in Scottsdale.
And if you get the chance to see Treasurefruit live, you might even experience the addition of horns and doo-wop girls as well. SS
Describing his own influences and upbringing as “Sonoran Desert soaked,” they don’t come much more Arizona than Jim Bachmann. The singer’s roots music blends traditional country, honky tonk and blues with unmistakable nods to the Mexican-influenced sounds of the Southwest. And though Bachmann is only recently now Tulsa-based, his 2022 “lockdown record” during COVID was peak Arizona.
Recorded at Pyramix Studios in Glendale, Bachmann filled the West Valley studio with a who’s who of Valley musicians for this special track that, in his words, “conjures the relentless desert heat breaking like a high fever into the woozy, cooler summer nights.” P.H. Naffa (of Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers) joins on drums, the exquisite Jon Rauhouse is in full force on steel guitar, and Pete Gonzales (of Goldwax Revival) is there on bass.
“The ‘Sitting Under the Moon’ record was done kind of all over the place,” Bachmann said. “I enlisted as many friends as I was able to.” SS
This longtime Valley punk trio bills itself as “queercore comedy to rock your pubes off,” and their knack for storytelling will kill you laughing at times (with lines like “I wanna french Judi Dench”) but make no mistake, they rock.
Ivana Pluchya, Baretta Lynn and Roc Smith, who bring all the noise in this three-piece lesbian band, know a thing or two about song titles with no closet big enough to contain “Cameltoe” or “Razor Burn.” They even get epic with tracks like “Lady of the Lake,” at over five-and-a-half minutes compared to their usual three-minute velocity blasts. About the only other song of theirs to go that long is, from 2011, “Peanut Butter Sexy.”
It's best to catch their live show atmosphere to get it. They play all over the Valley, as far north as Flagstaff and as far south as Bisbee. Their 2016 album title “Better, Better, Better,” recorded at Fivethirteen recording studio in Tempe and featuring the track “What I Need,” was inspired by a gig at Kactus Kate's Saloon in Cottonwood. SS
What started out as the title song for a new movie filmed in Tucson instead became a standalone single for a couple of Tucson’s most celebrated indie rockers, Brian Lopez and Gabriel Sullivan of XIXA (pronounced CheeCha).
Lopez and Sullivan were hanging out with British filmmaker Alex Cox (“Repo Man,” “Sid and Nancy”) who was in town to film – as writer and director – the movie “Tombstone Rashomon,” a crowdfunded film telling the tale of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The two were asked to write the movie’s title song. Filmed at Old Tucson Studios, what band more exuded Tucson vibes to write and record the theme song?
Lopez sent a crude demo of “Tombstone Rashomon” over a voicemail to Sullivan in which he “sang” the melody and played a beat with his hands on a table. Within an hour, Sullivan was in a studio putting together a demo. “It sounded like a full-fledged song. I was like ‘Wow that’s amazing,’” Lopez remembered.
With keyboardist Jason Urman they wrote a bridge and brought the song into Dustin Stone Recording Studio in Tucson to lay it down.
“This is where it gets funny,” Lopez says.
Cox loved the song, as did producer and actor Geoff Marslett, who also appeared in the film.
Lopez, though, says a dispute in song authorship developed between the band and a music publisher at the time. The band didn’t budge from their creation, nor did they want to get into anything legally. So the song was simply pulled altogether from the movie of the same name and instead became a single for XIXA.
“You just have to laugh at that kind of stuff,” Lopez said.
Things were cool after all that actually. Both Lopez and Sullivan worked with Marslett on future films together. When not performing with XIXA, Lopez has toured with KT Tunstall and has played lead guitar with Calexico on their tours. XIXA even released a new album “XOLO” — pronounced ChoLow — in March 2025. SS
Jazz has never been in short supply around Arizona, in Phoenix especially. Part of that long lineage goes back to when Armand Boatman moved here in 1973.
A piano playing prodigy since he started at the age of 6, it didn’t take long for Boatman to put together a jazz trio that featured Bob Sachs on bass and Dave Wilson on drums. They recorded in those years at Chaton Recordings in Scottsdale, a studio that reportedly owned a reconditioned Steinway grand piano from 1881.
As its first album, the trio issued a live performance recorded at the Boojum Tree Lounge inside the Doubletree Inn on Second Avenue and Osborn (today it’s the Holiday Inn Express & Suites). The midtown lounge then was a true hotspot for nightly jazz in Phoenix.
The result was the six-song album “Hush Puppies,” which, inexplicably, was never printed with a release date, yet is unquestionably from the mid-70s. The album, according to Pat McElfresh’s liner notes, “Captures the pure essence of three expansively creative musicians. Recorded live at the Boojum Tree in Phoenix, this album represents the best of several sessions, showcasing the trio’s solidarity and versatility.” Boatman also hosted Tuesday-night jam sessions at the Famous Door in Scottsdale during his years in the Valley.
Start with “Wade In De Water,” a seven-and-a-half minute straight-up jam captured that night at the Boojum Tree and based on the old spiritual. SS
The voice of Neko Case has a place in the desert landscape of Arizona and this song, as the sun goes down and bends into darkness with only the moon to light the way, reverberates late into the night. Her voice can easily haunt but this track goes deeper than the night. It stays with you into the coming days and beyond. Case has collaborated with Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb as well as Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino. Let’s hope she keeps coming back to the desert. PH
A true blues legend has spent time in the Valley thanks to our own Valley blues legend, Bob Corritore, owner of The Rhythm Room, blues historian, and one of the world’s most in-demand harmonica players. When Corritore’s friends pass through town, they find themselves on the Rhythm Room stage and also in local studios to cut blues magic with Corritore.
Such was the case when Corritore and John Primer recorded the “Ain’t Nothing You Can Do!” album in Tempest Recording Studio in Tempe with producer Clarke Rigsby. Primer is a living legend of Chicago blues. The three-time Grammy nominee played seven nights a week with Junior Wells at Chicago’s Theresa’s Lounge in the old days. He also played Buddy Guy’s Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago. Primer was Muddy Waters’ bandleader for years and was on the Checkerboard stage that night in 1981 when The Rolling Stones famously showed up to jam.
One of Primer and Corritore's many collaborations gets your attention with the album opener “Poor Man Blues.” SS
Blue Shoes were a skinny tie-wearing, post punk/new wave band from Tempe led by Peggy “Murph” Murphy and her husband, D.R. Wilkie. Blue Shoes not only packed bars and clubs throughout the Southwest they also appealed to kids with TV performances on the iconic “Wallace & Ladmo Show,” notes Fervor Records, adding that with “Better” blaring from every radio in town, demand landed Blue Shoes on concert stages alongside acts such as Talking Heads, The Ramones and The Vapors. SC
Sergio Mendoza and his Orkestra Mendoza have left their mark on the Arizona soundscape and “Caramelos” is just one example of his many foot-stomping grooves.
This one features Salvador Duran off the “¡Vamos A Guarachar!” album recorded in Tucson. With influences from both sides of the border, this one leans heavy into rock and roll, leaving you stomping your boots, primed to dance into the night. PH
This Scottsdale-based, father-daughter duo recorded and self-released their debut album, “From The Dining Room,” in one of the most homegrown folk-rock efforts in Arizona.
Scott “Kriegs” Kriegshauser tells ads.broadjam.com, “I started writing songs about the same time I starting falling in love, in the fifth grade.” His daughter, Emily Johnson, meanwhile, learned to read music at age 4 and is a classical pianist, something exquisitely out front on the standout album track “Free.” Emily also produced the album.
Recorded at The Saltmine Recording Studio Oasis in Mesa and at Porcupine Studios in Chandler, Emily not only wrote the gem of a song but she performed it with a band at her high school graduation from Desert Mountain.
Call their sound Americana or folk-rock or alternative country, just don’t be fooled into thinking those descriptors box them into a cliché sound. They’re anything but on an incredibly strong album that recalls 10,000 Maniacs and all the warm vibes that come with it. SS
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