AFI will ÎSing the Sorrow' to Tucson at the Rialto

Countless bands struggle to work their way out of mediocrity. They play dive bars, coffee houses and street corners ÷ basically wherever someone will listen. Few bands ever shatter the glass-ceiling label of "local band" and ascend to the status of nationally recognized musicians.

For many years, San Francisco Bay area band AFI (A Fire Inside) strummed chord after chord, sang note after note, recorded EPs and LPs and played show after show while remaining on the threshold of relative obscurity. [Read article]

The one thing the Swingin' Utters want people who are not familiar with them to know is that, despite popular belief, they are not just a punk band.

"We mix it up a lot," Darius Koski, guitarist, accordionist and violinist for the band said. "We play different styles of music. Not just straight up punk."

"But wait," you might say, "who the hell are the Swingin' Utters?" They may very well be the best band you have never heard of. And that may change soon, too. The Utters are on their way to Tucson to play at Skrappy's on April 21. [Read article]

One hundred local bands. Twenty stages. Five bucks. Enough said.

Yes folks, the biggest local music showcase in Tucson is coming back this weekend.

Club Crawl, the bigger of the two semi-annual Crawl events (Fall Crawl is a bit smaller), is expected to attract more than 10,000 people out to the bars and clubs on North Fourth Avenue Saturday night.

Many of the attendees may not be familiar with the local bands, but it doesn't stop them from going out and being part of the bar-hopping, band-watching extravaganza. [Read article]

OK, so by now everyone who owns a television or radio knows who Linkin Park is. Most people know that the band's multi-platinum selling debut, Hybrid Theory, was easily the best selling album of 2001. That album also earned them three number-one singles and a Grammy award for one in particular, "Crawling." Their remix album of Hybrid, called Reanimation, was released this summer and also did very well for the mostly South Californians. [Read article]

Rob Zombie, known for his sadistically dark "white-trash metal," has made a movie. One would think immersing oneself in a giant projected version of Zombie's mind, out of which have crawled such songs as "Demonoid Phenomenon" and "Dragula," would be a disturbing, sickening, terrifying experience. And it is.

But Zombie, however freakish he seems, knows his stuff. There is an art to making horror films that requires as much understanding of the human psyche as of cameras and celluloid, and Zombie has obviously done some heavy studying. [Read article]

The U Theatre of Taiwan. "Jesus Christ Superstar." The Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Def Poetry Jam. Eugenia Le—n. "Riverdance."

You may never have heard of any of these performing acts. You may have heard of some and not others. If you do recognize a few, you also realize just how diverse these acts really are. You may wonder what they're even doing on the same page.

They are all part of the UApresents lineup for the 2003-2004 year. [Read article]

View from a soapbox:

With all these wars, new unknown killing diseases with no cure, Michael Moores and George Bushes about in the world today, I wish to implement a long lost hippie-ideal that could do us all a favor: free love.

I'm not talking about having sex with whoever is to the right or left of you (although that might aid in this effort). I'm really talking about easing back a little. Take a look around at those people who you have been busy overlooking for the past semester and a half. Acknowledge that other people might exist outside your comfort zone and may actually be of some benefit to you. [Read article]

There is poetry in our lives, like there are people in our lives, like there is beauty in our lives. Many books are bound on our shelves of idleness. But "only sometimes, someone's/ poem, like a chained dog, barks."

Tucson's Kore Press is publishing "Rigging the Wind" by Jennifer Barber, winner of the 2002 First Book Award. Before its release, the poet will be reading excerpts at Club Congress on Tuesday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m. Barber studied Medieval Literature at Colby College where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She graduated with an MFA from Columbia. [Read article]

Warren Ellis wants out of Washington D.C.

"The car is parked. It's cold as hell and I'm happy to be on the phone," Ellis said.

The Australian-born violinist for the instrumental group Dirty Three thinks the capital of the United States is a little beaten up.

"You got the really wealthy people and then the incredibly poor people. One extreme next to the other. You've got the White House and then the Vietnam veterans missing limbs." [Read article]