Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

The trouble with a festival as action-packed as Viva PHX is there's no way you could ever hope to take in every act worth seeing. But that's also what makes Viva PHX great. There are 70 bands playing 17 stages, all in downtown Phoenix on a single night — this Saturday, March 12.

That means decisions must be made. The official hashtag is #FirstWorldMusicGeekProblems,

If you know someone whose list of must-see Viva PHX artists is the same as yours? You may be co-dependent. You should really get that looked at.

In the meantime, we've narrowed the playing field to 30 recommended artists, which is not intended as a slight to any act whose name is not included here (with two or three exceptions — you know you are).

The names who get the biggest font size on the Viva PHX poster — Crystal Castles, the Growlers, Rocket from the Crypt and Neon Indian — are all included here. But so are a handful of tiny-font artists, from Mrs. Magician to XIXA.

Charlie Levy of Stateside Presents launched Viva PHX in 2014, modeled on the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, which features artists performing in various venues across the city.

Tickets are $25 for a wristband good for general admission, on sale now at ticketfly. A fast pass is selling for $45.

You’ll need to trade your ticket for a wristband, which will be available from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, March 11, and after 3 p.m. Saturday, March 12, at Talking Stick Resort Arena, 201 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix.

Once exchanged, your wristband is your ticket, lost wristbands will not be replaced.

McDowell Mountain Music Festival 2016 guide: From Beck, Kid Cudi to top Arizona draws

And now, without further ado, our recommended artists:

Crystal Castles

Staking their claim on the more experimental side of electronic pop, they took the blogosphere by storm with 2008’s “Crystal Castles,” which NME later declared one of the 40 greatest albums of the decade. The second of three self-titled Crystal Castles albums arrived in 2010 with the Cure’s Robert Smith singing lead on what remains their highest-charting U.K. single, “Not in Love.” Alice Glass left the group in October, 2014, but Ethan Kath has carried on, recruiting Edith Frances, with whom he’s been recording a fourth Crystal Castles album, sharing two promising new songs – the ominous “Deicide” and the dreamy yet pulsating “Frail” – in advance. (10:45 p.m. Central Ave. at CityScape)

The Growlers

These California rockers have been known to self-identify as beach goth, but I hear more beach than goth in last year's "Chinese Fountain," where the cleanest guitar sound since Vampire Weekend's first album is topped by old-school indie popcraft and Brooks Nielsen's aching vocal presence, a sleepy-headed rasp that should appeal to fans of Damon Albarn and the Strokes alike. Under the Radar said: "It is the combination of vibrant, light-hearted instrumentation and intelligent lyrics that make 'Chinese Fountain' one of the best guitar albums of the year." But I'd add Nielsen's vocals to that combination. (10:45 p.m. Monroe Street Stage)

Biz Markie

The Clown Prince of Hip-Hop, whose ’89 breakthrough, “Just a Friend,” made a VH1 countdown of 100 greatest hip-hop songs of all time, has achieved the most unusual sort of late-career resurgence since joining the case of a kids’ show called “Yo Gabba Gabba!” He also famously performed his greatest hit on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” with Jeff Goldblum and the Roots in 2010. (10:30 p.m. Second Avenue stage outside Crescent Ballroom)

Neon Indian

"Psychic Chasms," Alan Palomo's first Neon Indian album, was named the 14th best release of 2009 by Pitchfork. A year later, the Texas-born son of Mexican pop star Jorge Palomo made Rolling Stone magazine's list of 2010's best new bands, hailed as "a laptop virtuoso who's become the face of 'glo-fi' thanks to the dreamy keys on 'Psychic Chasms.' " Produced by Dave Fridmann, the followup, "Era Extraña," pulled in raves from Q magazine, Under the Radar and Mojo, whose critic sized it up with "it's a dream, this pop." And last year’s “Vega INTL. Night School,” recorded on a cruise ship, of all places, definitely lived up to the promise of those earlier recordings. As Pretty Much Amazing raved, “It goes down like a reimagined debut, because it introduces a newly carefree, naturally focused Neon Indian.” I bet it was the boat drinks. (9:30 p.m. Central Avenue at CityScape)

Rocket From the Crypt

These guys are like a soul revue as commandeered by Iggy and the Stooges, attacking the groove with the reckless abandon of classic garage-punk and the horns of, well, a soul revue. They haven’t played the Valley in what Viva PHX promoters have assured us is a “long, long time.” Into music that rocks in relentless pursuit of a really good time? Then, this could be the Viva PHX set you’re still talking about when next year’s Viva PHX rolls around. (9:15 p.m. Monroe Street Stage)

Afrika Bambaataa

Two words. “Planet Rock,” a groundbreaking blast of electro-funk genius for the party people, relocating Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express to the South Bronx with one futuristic German keyboard riff riding a breakbeat to the breaka-dawn with a constant reminder to "rock it, don't stop it." In addition to inching hip-hop closer to a mainstream breakthrough, ”Planet Rock” is often cited as ground zero for electro and a major stepping stone to several other electronic genres - techno, house and trance included. Some people have called the Godfather of Hip-Hop and the title suits him. (11:30 p.m. Monarch Theatre)

Chuck Ragan

The Hot Water Music front man tends to let his inner Springsteen take the wheel as a solo performer. That extends from the "Nebraska"-style folk songs of "Covering Ground" to 2014’s "Till Midnight," which hit the ground stomping with the folk-rock urgency of "Something May Catch Fire” and this year’s “The Flame in the Flood.” (11 p.m. Crescent Ballroom)

This Will Destroy You

These post-rock Texans specialize in epic instrumental suites that tend to seep into your headphones and/or speakers like a soundtrack to a sleepy morning and inevitably work their way around to a dramatic climax. Released in 2014, “Another Language” pulled in a rave from Clash Music, whose critic wrote, “If this is post-rock, it’s in the purest sense of that prefix: it’s rock that goes beyond expectations for the genre, even while working within its confines, to somewhere that you sense its players aren’t quite accustomed to yet.” (10 p.m. Crescent Ballroom)

Lydia

These Gilbert rockers are blessed with a singer, Leighton Antelman, who sounds like he was born for airplay. And they surrounded that voice with an album’s worth of accessible yet atmospheric indie pop produced in part by Aaron Marsh of Copeland and in part by Colby Wedgeworth, who’s worked with The Maine and This Century. (10 p.m. Masonic Temple)

Sage Francis

The underground hip-hop icon arrives in continued support of 2014’s "Copper Gone," his first release in four years and fifth official album overall. RapReviews found it to be "among his best work," adding that "he raps with the passion and fury of a rapper on his first LP, while Exclaim! proclaimed it "definitely a high point in Sage Francis's already significant career." (9:40 p.m. Second Avenue stage outside Crescent Ballroom)

Beach Fossils

It’s been three years since “Clash the Truth,” their latest effort, on which Brooklyn’s Dustin Payseur continued to assert himself as a master of chiming, atmospheric dream-pop while ratcheting up the post-punk urgency on such obvious highlights as “Generational Synthetic,” “Careless” and a title track that recycles a Sex Pistols riff to dramatic effect. (8:15 p.m. Central Avenue at CityScape)

El Ten Eleven

El Ten Eleven is an LA post-rock duo whose debut was hailed in the pages of Spin as "sort of a Silverlake-style Sigur Ros" in 2005. They followed two years later with “Every Direction is North,” by which point Spin had gone back to ignoring them. But they’re still going strong on the artistic front, if the sound of last year’s model, “Fast Forward,” is any indication. It’s a melancholy effort, its writing inspired in part by the death of drummer Tim Fogarty’s father. PopMatters responded: “Charting out harmonically and rhythmically saturated archipelagos of modulated loops and electronic blips, Fast Forward emphasizes the way multiple voices are expressed and reshaped through various stages of interaction, finding unique expressions of grief in its complex instrumentation.” (7 p.m. Central Avenue at CityScape)

Skream

This English DJ/producer was a pioneering presence on the dubstep scene with the LA Times calling his "Midnight Request Line" dubstep's "most recognizable crossover hit." His latest solo album is "Outside the Box," which arrived in 2010 and brought home raves from Spin and Pitchfork while moving his sound in a poppier direction. As Pitchfork wrote, "Of all the contradictions Skream has somehow managed to reconcile, a crossover bid that doubles as a back-to-the-roots move might be the most audacious." (1 a.m. Ivory Room)

Eleanor Friedberger

She made a name for herself in the early 2000s as the voice of Fiery Furnaces, a Brooklyn-based indie-rock duo that also featured her brother Matthew. The siblings have been on hiatus from Fiery Furnaces since 2011, the same year Eleanor went solo with "Last Summer." By the time she gets to Phoenix, she'll be touring on "New View," which follows the excellent "Personal Record," an album as intensely introspective as the title would suggest, despite the fact that the songs are all co-writes with John Wesley Harding. (10 p.m. Valley Bar)

Kitten

Chloe Chaidez more than lives up to the promise of that band name in moments as spunky as “Japanese Eyes.” She’s like a new Kim Wilde for the latest edition of Kids in America, although the particular chug of that rhythm guitar is closer to “Our Lips Are Sealed.” She really hits her stride, though, on the chorus, purring, “Is this love, love, love I’m feeling? Is this love or the wrecking ball?” with the perfect blend of quirk and passion. Kitten’s self-titled debut was hailed as “an album of swaggering dance club passion that aims to move your soul as much as it does your feet” by All Music. (9 p.m. Masonic Temple)

From Indian Lakes

Raised in a mountain community outside Yosemite National Park, Joey Vannuchhi recorded a set of his earliest songs at a friend's place in Indian Lakes, Calif., self-releasing the sessions as "Songs From Indian Lakes." He started earning an Internet buzz with 2012's "Able Bodies" but really hit his stride on 2014’s "Absent Sounds," which Alternative Press called "a beautiful, quiet and pensive affair, bristling with subtle electronics and wonderfully layered acoustics." (8 p.m. Masonic Temple)

Punk Rock Karaoke

In which members of the Dickies, Bad Religion, NOFX, the Adolescents, Goldfinger and you, my friend, join forces in a punk-rock hit parade. What could possibly go wrong? (12:15 a.m. Crescent Ballroom)

DZ Deathrays

This Australian duo won Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album at the 2012 ARIA Awards (it’s an Australian). And they definitely rock hard on their latest single, a headbanging classic that rocks like Sleigh Bells covering the Beastie Boys, without the rapping or the female singer. NME summed up their first album, “Bloodstreams', as “a siren call to headbanging pissheads everywhere,” which it probably was, declaring second album, “Black Rat,” “just as fun, bright and sloppy, but this time the Brisbane duo are reflecting on sleep deprivation and broken relationships.” (11 p.m. Punk Rock Alley)

Mrs. Magician

There’s a Rocket from the Crypt connection here. John Reis produced “Strange Heaven,” their debut which filters twangy surf guitar riffs through the reverb such pursuits requires while the singer turns the thought that “There’s no God” into a rousing singalong, a thought he punctuates with “la la la la.” Delusion of Adequacy responded with “This summer, don't just think about going surfing, listen to Strange Heaven instead.” (7 p.m. Monroe Street Stage)

XIXA

Gabriel Sullivan and fellow XIXA member Brian Lopez were on the road with Tucson’s Giant Sand in Europe when they started experimenting with chicha, the guitar-driven, psychedelic cumbias born in the Peruvian Amazon, when they couldn’t help but notice that the audience was loving it.

“People would mob us after the show, wanting to know the name of that one song,” Sullivan says. “t was always the chicha cover,” They took that as a very rhythmic sign and started their own chicha cover band, which led to the writing of chichi originals. (12 a.m. Last Exit Live)

Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra

A collective of 15 musicians, PAO includes members of Cherie Cherie, Drunken Immortals, Zero Zero, Playboy Manbaby, Spirit Cave, Sweetbleeders and more. As their name would suggest, they’re on a mission to keep the spirit of Fela Kuti’s afrobeat alive. Or as they say it on their Facebook page, they’re “committed to the global unification of all peoples through creativity, collaboration and celebration.” And if that involves some dancing, which it will, then that can only be a good thing. (12:10 a.m. Valley Bar)

Dry River Yacht Club

Among the more intriguing staples of the local music scene, these Tempe rockers have been known to sum up what they do as “acoustic symphony indie rock on a dancin’ pirate’s rusty yacht.” But their music is probably closer in spirit to what Henri Benard, their drummer, calls it: “Gypsy Western folk-rock.” And they do it with viola, violin, trombone, bass clarinet, bassoon and accordion, the last of which is wielded by a singer whose voice is that rare blend of quirky and soulful that makes Fiona Apple so intriguing. Having seen them rock the Crescent Ballroom just a few back, I can assure you this will be among the festival’s more entertaining sets. (11:15 p.m. Second Avenue stage at Crescent Ballroom)

Celebration Guns

The "Bright Enough" EP earned Celebration Guns a spot on my best local albums of 2014 countdown. I wrote: "Their atmospheric brand of neo-psychedelic dream pop should speak to anyone who came of age with Animal Collective, even while blurring the lines between math-rock and jazz in the process in some of the trickier parts of 'The Harder I Try.' As complicated as the songs' arrangements get, the singing keeps it grounded." (11 p.m. Last Exit Live)

MRCH

Three members of the Prowling Kind — guitar-playing vocalist Mickey Pangburn, drummer Jesse Pangburn and singing multi-instrumentalist Erin Beal — have launched this side project to tap into their interest in the electronic side of modern indie rock. Jesse says they're going for "for more of a Metric/St. Lucia/Twin Shadow vibe." They made our Best December Singles list with “Spin,” of which I wrote, “There’s a shimmering, almost glacial sense of grandeur underscoring Mickey Pagburn’s breathy vocal on this haunted synth-pop gem…. The production is flawless, assuming the goal was to sound like a dream. And all that noise they stir up in the final moments is an unexpected treat.” (10 p.m. Last Exit Live)

Playboy Manbaby

I humbly submit my review of their performance at McDowell Mountain Music Festival this time last year, where they managed to charm the hippies by openly mocking them: After setting the tone for their set with explosive performances of "Brenden Lechner" and "Moldy Cannoli" while wrapping the mike around his neck like a young Iggy Pop and fixing the crowd with a confrontational blank stare, Robbie Pfeffer announced, "We are Playboy Manbaby. Not to be confused with the drum circle." Pfeffer's blend of conviction, intensity and hilarious stage banter help make Playboy Manbaby a must-see presence on the local scene. But his bandmates definitely back it up with just as much conviction and intensity.” (10 p.m. Punk Rock Alley)

The Stakes

Like the Roots before them, the Stakes prefer to serve their brand of soulful hip-hop live, with bassist Alex Meltzer and drummer Kevin Phillips laying down a groove while Ben Scolaro adds keyboards and MCs Lord Kash and ZeeDubb share the spotlight. "Music Volume 1," a brilliant introduction to their sound, also features guitarist Caleb Veazey and jazzy guest vocals from the always-welcome Holly Pyle. Also playing: Co-Audio. (8:50 p.m. Second Avenue stage at Crescent Ballroom)

Bear Ghost

These Mesa rockers definitely occupy the more eccentric fringe of the new-millennial art-rock spectrum on this awe-inspiring followup to "Your Parents Are Only Marginally Disappointed in Your Musical Taste." "Introduction to Blasterpiece" opens the set with a demented funk-rock march that sounds like it was written to accompany Tim Burton down the rabbit hole, especially when the vocals kick in with a chant of "Welcome, you are here to witness our demise." "Necromancin Dancin" filters the rhythms of ska through "A Night at the Opera" with traces of jazz, a quirky falsetto delivery and a twisted chorus hook of "I'm raising the dead / I'm loving the dead." It's all very odd, from the mash-up of hip-hop, opera and a riff that grooves like Aerosmith on "Funkle Phil" to the old-timey touches of "Gypsy," which feels like someone fed the theme-park band a little too much acid. From what Mitchell Hillman wrote in Java magazine, their live shows have featured songs by Queen and Disney soundtrack music, which makes perfect sense considering how often "Blasterpiece" suggests some kind of loopy missing link between the two. (8 p.m. Last Exit Live)

Tobie Milford

A fairly awe-inspiring violinist, Milford recently released his first album in nearly five years, "Listen to the Trees Grow." He constructed the songs on his previous effort, "Alyosha," by looping his own violin. On "Listen to the Trees Grow," he brought in members of the Phoenix Symphony and Downtown Chamber Series, arriving at a richly orchestrated collection of chamber-pop ballads, the strings underscoring the drama of Milford's emotional vocal performances. I doubt the Phoenix Symphony is backing him at this performance, but I’m sure however Milford chooses to present them, those new songs will hold up fine. (8 p.m. Grace Chapel)

Harrison Fjord

Director Freddie Paull had the members of Harrison Fjord haul their gear to the edge of the Mogollon Rim about an hour off the highway to capture a haunting live performance of "Approximately 906 Miles" with that breathtaking view as a backdrop. The nine-minute clip does a beautiful job of underscoring the epic sense of grandeur they bring to the music. And it’s all live, which should tell you everything you need to know about why you should definitely make a point to see them live. (1:10 a.m. Last Exit Live)

No Volcano

Here’s what I had to say about “Who Saved the Party” when I named it to my list of best local releases of 2015: Remember Trunk Federation, those Valley-based indie-rock heroes who hooked up with Alias Records in the '90s, effectively becoming labelmates of American Music Club, Archers of Loaf and Yo La Tengo? Well, guitar-playing front man Jim Andreas and drummer Chris Kennedy have a great new project with bassist Jake Sevier (with whom they also played in Letdownright) and guitar-playing organist Jeremy Randall of Colorstore. "Who Saved the Party" is their first release, on which they somehow found a way to live up to the promise of their first two videos — the slide-guitar-fueled psychedelic majesty of "Tribute" and the far more acid-damaged "New York Drugstore." There’s a hard-rocking swagger to “Keyhole” that sounds like someone channeling the Rolling Stones through Royal Trux and back again and they managed to work a little soul (and funky bass) into the mix on the bittersweet ballad, “Next to You,” changing things up with a sleeper that went on to be my favorite track. (7 p.m. Valley Bar)

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Twitter.com/EdMasley.