Phoenix has a history of strange, left-of-center bands: groups like The Beans in the late 1960s, who later morphed into the Tubes; the Spiders, who would become Alice Cooper. Even the often-copied guitar sound of Duane Eddy in the late 1950s was considered to be weirdly revolutionary in nature at the time. When punk rock came to town, a whole new tribe of musical miscreants became standard-bearers for weirdness, and bands like Sun City Girls, Meat Puppets, Jody Foster’s Army (JFA), and Our Neighbors Suck (ONS), just to name a few, let their freak flags fly in the 1980s and beyond. Is it the desert sun, the water, or our penchant for mind-bogglingly dimwitted and self-sabotaging politics? Who knows. Whatever it is, though, the music of Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs is, and probably always will be, different.