The 2013 Southwest Terror Fest is approaching and the new (full) poster is available and with one quick glance you can tell it will be an event to be reckoned with. In fact, it is double the mayhem of last year's inaugural event, featuring 65 bands over the course of four days at the Rock, Thursday, Oct. 10 through Sunday, Oct. 13. A limited amount (only 50) of the 4-day VIP passes are available at a reasonable price of $55, and single day passes are available at the door.

David Rodgers might be one of the harder working people in Arizona when it comes to the metal music scene, and he has been able to build this event into what it is now, which is a marathon of metal madness. It would fantastic to see this continue to grow and become a mainstay of Arizona music.

Any local music fan should consider attending at least one night, if not two, or better yet, all four nights.

Check for updates here. Also, the poster:

So call in sick or take a vacation day on Monday, Oct. 14th, because the 2013 Southwest Terror Fest is coming and it's all out of bubblegum.

Although there were many fantastic acts last year, and the local bands were some of the highlights. Most of the local bands played on the second stage, letting the out-of-towners play on the main stage. The second stage is is on the floor, and the experience can be both intimate and chaotic. Having the band so close is a nice touch, but at the same time on some heavier songs the crowd can get a bit rowdy and even mosh into the band members.

Powered Wig Machine was the first band that really moved the crowd on the second stage. They played as if they were on the main stage and commanded the room with hard and unique anthems and genuinely put the room in order. This is a band that should be looked at in the coming future. They represent a cross-section between groovy funk-metal and a sludgy desert rock. They didn't necessarily play for the crowd but still managed to own it.

In all fairness, I'm a huge fan of Anakim and that was my personal highlight of the Friday show. In this respect I'd like to say that they need to play a bit more around town and tour past the state line with another act. Instead of being a prog-metal band, they're more of a metal band with some progressive hints. The sound is very straight forward and hits you in the gut and the head at the same time. Anakim has a phenominal tension-building intro in "Calling the Wind" that keeps the momentum building until a heavy burst of energy hits with the main part of the song, at which point it sends the crowd into a rampage.

The second night's highlight was, for me personally, again, the second stage. I'd always prefer to see local acts, and Godhunter was the headline of choice. With an LP release on the horizon, they are fully capable of playing for a full set and have played enough to always entertain the crowd. One can tell immediately that this band has enough experience that they know how to jump around the stage, keep the audience engaged beyond really acceptable limits, but yet still play amidst the chaos. At least twice someone fell over a mic or an amp and was pulled back into the crowd. They know how to let their roadies (and friends) pick up the fallen equipment and play on. David Rodgers, the guitarist and occasional singer, is the one that really put the work into making the Southwest Terrorfest happen. He is extremely dedicated to the craft and the scene, and his passion echoes through the band. Never missing a beat, they played with all-out and dominated the second stage of the second night.

I'm looking forward to many years of this showcase of music. I'd hope that it can expand to include outside stages or, perhaps even, downtown venues and alleyways. Tucson has always been a known underground scene for great music on all levels and types of music. This has the making to become a desitination point for metla fans everywhere.

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Devo. In anticipation of their show at the Rialto on Friday night, I though't I'd share my 10 favorite Devo tracks.

10. Space Junk/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

A fragmented and paranoid tale of falling space debris and a particularly unlucky girl named Sally. Skylab fell out of the sky and landed over parts of Western Australia in 1979, a year after this album was released.

9. That's Good/Oh, No! It's Devo

Devo on full-on synthpop mode. An upbeat song about the joys of bland conformity. So upbeat in fact that the "Bad Boys" from San Francisco used it for their dance routine in the 1987 Crystal Light National Aerobic Championship. I don't think they were in on the joke.

8. Gut Feeling (Slap Your Mammy)/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

Probably the best intro of any Devo song. Imagine if the Autobahn was placed smack-dab in the middle of Ohio. People tend to forget that Devo is a damn good guitar band.

7. Come Back Jonee/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

Again, Devo being a great "rock" band is often forgotten. Devo takes the cars 'n' girls songs of rock and roll's past to its next logical step. What happens when you're having too much fun and you're driving a little too fast? Come back, indeed.

6. Red Eye Express/Duty Now for the Future

If I had to pick a favorite Devo album, it would have to be Duty Now for the Future. Their second album, this is when they struck the perfect balance between the guitar and synthesizer. Red Eye Express is the album's closer and includes some of my favorite off-the-the-wall lyrics. "Something's flattened my cola/something's wrong with my brew/something's rotten in Idaho/and I don't know what to do."

5. Booji Boy's Funeral/Hardcore Devo Volume 2

R.I.P. young man. Taken from the incomparable Hardcore Devo Volume 2, the second installation of Devo's raw and humble beginnings.

4. Mongoloid/Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!

The tale of a man who had one chromosome too many. He wore a hat, he had a job and he brought home the bacon, so no one knew. Years before David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Devo peels away the layers of suburban blandess and finds mutants running amok. The music is ominous, spooky and robotic, and like "Gut Feeling" it also has a stellar intro.

3. I Desire/Oh, No! It's Devo

In a career full of subversiveness and pulling media-savvy pranks, this might be the crown jewel in the Energy Dome. Lyrics are credited to "Casale/Hinckley/Mothersbaugh". Who's Hinckley? None other than John Hinkcley, Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster, living out some sort of sick Taxi Driver fantasy. Some of the lyrics are taken from the love poems Hinckley Jr. wrote to Ms. Foster. How they snuck this past Warner Bros. is beyond me. Does this mean Hinckley Jr. receives royalties?

2. Jocko Homo/Single

The Devo Manifesto. Planet of the Apes meets crazed religious sermons meets Revenge of the Nerds.

1. Beautiful World/New Traditionalists

The moment Devo realized devolution has caught up with modern society and there's no going back. It's a somber, almost melancholy track that's full of spite. "Beautiful people everywhere/they way they show they care/it's a beautiful world/for you/it's not for me."

• Courtesy, Transplants

Punk giants Rancid and Transplants have announced a show at the Rialto Theatre this summer on July 23 after announcing the release of the Transplants' forthcoming record, In A Warzone, set to drop on June 25.

Tim Armstrong, who fronts both bands, will play both sets at each show, backed by Blink-182's Travis Barker, who is the original drummer for Transplants.

The Tucson stop is one of many scheduled across during a summer tour across the U.S. While the Transplants record is the only one set for release, Rancid announced in February that they too are recording their next album, expected to be released later this year.

More information on tickets for the show will come with the Rialto's announcement.

• Courtesy, Constellation Records

The Rialto Theatre recently announced a rather eclectic set of upcoming shows, spanning rap, folk and post-rock.

Geto Boys will make a stop in Tucson on June 11 as part of a scattered tour around the U.S. The iconic rap trio hasn't released a new record since 2005, but has continued to play smaller shows and festivals throughout the country. Anyone who shows up with a fax machine and baseball bat will likely be turned away at the door.

On June 20, Arkansas folk native Iris DeMent will drop by before hopping the pond to play an extensive European tour. The country folk veteran is touring to promote October's Sing the Delta, DeMent's first original record since 1996.

A performance by the post-rock instrumental group Godspeed You! Black Emperor will round out the summer on Sept. 16. The Montreal nine-piece will hit a few shows in Europe before a brief tour in the U.S. THe band is promoting ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND!, their latest record that dropped in October last year.

Tickets to all three shows will go on sale this Friday. Tickets can be picked up at the Rialto's website when they go up.

We feel like we found the candy house at the end of the breadcrumb trail. It's called Alarma : nine solo tracks revealing a side of Sergio Mendoza we never knew. Not only is it not big-band cumbia, it's not the blue jazz Mendoza started out playing before that fateful night he and his band performed a Perez Prado song at The Great Cover Up.

Jim Blackwood, who mastered the Alarma tracks, made the big reveal today by playing the track "Prison Cell" on his KXCI morning show Your Morning Brew The entire set is just 25 and a half minutes long. Mendoza plays all the instruments.

Mendoza says he created the tracks for a CD he sold on tour with Calexico. He's out of them, now, but plans to make more. Meanwhile, these tracks aren't downloadable, but you can listen all day long.

Enjoy!

I’ll continue to reserve judgement on Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby until it’s released on May 10, but if the film has 1/100 of the staying power of its highly anticipated soundtrack, it may be well worth the (seemingly never-ending) wait.

You can watch a preview above - released Tuesday - featuring 30-second clips of 12 songs from the soundtrack. Produced by Jay-Z, the project is shaping up to be an impressive reimagining of the book’s timeless popularity, juxtaposing the jazz-inspired sounds of the Roaring Twenties era with the music (and on more than one occasion, the lyrics) of some of the most influential acts in the industry today, among them Jack White, will.i.am, Lana del Rey and the late Amy Winehouse.

Latin folk duo Rodrigo y Gabriela are set to play the Rialto Theatre in July, apparently ending their boycott of Arizona as part of the Sound Strike movement.

The Mexico City pair made a name for themselves by playing the street of Dublin, eventually developing a cult following. With their 2006 self-titled record came even more recognition, and the two are now known for their percussive and technical playing styles that anyone would be surprised to hear coming from just two acoustic guitars.

Tickets for the July 17 show will go on sale this Friday, and can be picked up at the Rialto's website.

A new EP from Fleetwood Mac is set to drop any day now, shortly after the group embarked on their seven-month world tour in Columbus, Ohio on April 4.

The EP has no set release date or title yet, but has been foreshadowed by the band for quite some time: Stevie Nicks first mentioned that Fleetwood Mac was working on new material this winter in an interview with Rolling Stone before the band began rehearsals for the tour on February 15:

"We actually have two new Fleetwood Mac songs that I cut with Lindsey [Buckingham] two weeks ago we might play," says Nicks. "I had a really good time working with him for four days at his house. I got to hang out with his family and his kids, his grown up kids, and really connect with him again. We’re pretty proud of what we have done, and we’re looking at it through the eyes of wisdom now, instead of through the eyes of jealousy and resentment and anger."

Hey, fans of Austrian electroswing and ice cream: Next Friday, April 19, is your lucky day.

The Rialto Theatre announced via its Facebook page last Friday, April 5, that Austrian DJ Parov Stelar would be performing on April 19. Better yet, if you stop for dinner at HUB Restaurant & Creamery before the show and present your ticket, you'll get 25 percent off your dinner bill.

The band is on a brief tour of the western U.S. in between their stops at Coachella before hopping the pond for an extensive European tour. Their latest record, The Invisible Girl, was released earlier this year.

Tickets to the show can be picked up at the Rialto's website.

Earlier on Monday, The Maine tweeted out that they will be headlining the 8123 North America Tour this summer, beginning June 4 and ending on July 27.

We will be headlining the first ever @8123 tour this summer with 3 of our best friends! Get more info at 8123.me/tour
— The Maine (@themaine) April 8, 2013

The band, originally from the Phoenix area, first posted a video about their involvement in the afternoon. They told viewers that the opening bands on the tour would be announced every two hours Monday on the 8123 website.

Since then, they have announced that A Rocket to the Moon, This Century, and Brighten will be joining them on the summer tour. The last band was announced at 6 p.m.

The Maine recently completed their fourth studio album on April 2, tweeting "Album #4 is finished, mixed/mastered and ready for your ears! More info coming soon."

Althought details of the summer tour are limited for now, keep checking the 8123 website for dates and venues.

Below are the videos that the other performers posted today, announcing their involvement and excitement for the summer tour.