Deep Purple

Record Store Day's Hot Heavy Metal Vinyl Releases

It looks like all these Record Store Days are paying off. In 2012, global sales for vinyl records hit $171 million, their highest point since 1997--the same year that Hanson's "MMMBop" topped the charts. This Saturday, April 20, marks the sixth annual Record Store Day, when artists and labels dish ... More >>

Excavating Heavy Metal's Blues and Jazz Roots

"The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would take it." --B.B. King "Metal confronts what we'd rather ignore. It celebrates what we often deny. It indulg ... More >>

Unearthing Metal's Classical Roots

I wasn't raised on Anthrax or Zeppelin, or anything between in regards to the heavy metal alphabet. No, the soundtrack of my youth was classical music. I competed in classical piano competitions for the better part of a decade, and Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Wolfgang Amadeus ... More >>

Top Metal Festivals of 2013

When the lineup for Rock on the Range was announced last week, a flurry of emails between myself and three other of my fellow chick metal journalists/enthusiasts ensued regarding flights, hotels, and tickets. We had all attended the weekend festival together in 2012, and relished the thought of a he ... More >>

Top Phoenix Music Stories of the Week

The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories f ... More >>

Does the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Matter At All?

So, hey, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame went ahead and announced their Class of 2013, which this time around, includes Rush, Public Enemy, Randy Newman and someone called the Disco Queen, Donna Summer. Those that were nominated, but didn't make the cut included Kraftwerk, Deep Purple, Joan Jett and ... More >>

Rush Has Spent Four Decades Doing Its Own Thing

The Best Metal Songs for Football

Hang on guys, here's something you won't believe: Phil Anselmo of Pantera/Down is mad about something. But it's not the sort of thing we're used to him being mad about. As you're no doubt aware, with the weather beginning to act like it might cool down, college campuses swelling with textbook-toti ... More >>

Slash, Celebrity Theatre, 9/5/12

See also: Slash Still Has an Appetite for Destruction See also: Buckethead on His Time in Guns 'N' Roses: "No Answer." See also: Guns N' Roses at Comerica Theatre, 12/27/11 See also: Tommy Stinson of Guns N' Roses and The Replacements: "A [Replacements] Reunion Is About As Likely as an Original Guns ... More >>

Iron Maiden, Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion, 8/6/12

Iron Maiden Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion Monday, August 6 See the full Iron Maiden @ ASHSP slideshow. See also: Deep Purple Tribute: Iron Maiden, Metallica, More Salute Keyboardist Jon Lord See also: Six Desert Metal Bands You Need to Hear See also: Iron Maiden Put on Awesome Show for the K ... More >>

Deep Purple Tribute: Iron Maiden, Metallica, More Salute Keyboardist Jon Lord

See also: Six Desert Metal Bands That You Need to Hear See also: Alice Cooper's Mom Has the Original "School's Out" Panties There aren't many bands that I hold higher than Deep Purple when it comes to putting down the groundwork for heavy metal, driven by British rocker Jonathon Douglas "Jon" Lord ... More >>

Top Five Must-See Shows This Week

Yeah, yeah, yeah...we get it Mondays suck (we've read Garfield). But it means the start of a new week, which means a bunch of killer shows in and around Phoenix. And here are a few of the coolest, our top five must-see shows this week.

Metal Mondays: Heavy Metal Is Going to Be Fine

See also: Metal Mondays: Phoenix Needs a Heavy Metal Strip Club A friend of mine brought up a very pertinent question the other day, questioning the validity of current heavy metal. Metal will always have fans, turned on by classic metal gods who've been around for decades or whatever crap current ... More >>

Dick Dale at The Rhythm Room, 3/5/12

Dick Dale Rhythm Room Thursday, April 5, 2012 Driving to the Dick Dale concert Thursday night at the Rhythm Room it seemed, in retrospect, fitting to have Little Barrie on the stereo cranking out the title track from his new album, King of the Waves. "You're not gonna be saved, if you're not kin ... More >>

Seven Extraordinarily LOUD Live Bands (and Jucifer)

​There's something about LOUDNESS that's deeply appealing to fans of rock 'n' roll, especially when it comes to a live performance. The visceral shock, the days of tinnitus... it all coheres into something that transcends a recording and delineates the difference between headphones at home and ... More >>

Five Finger Death Punch's Jason Hook on American Capitalist, Playing For the Troops, and Spending the Night in One of Saddam's Palaces

​Most bands aren't used to soldiers moshing with M-16s and spending the night in one Saddam Hussien's palaces. But Five Finger Death Punch isn't like other bands. Up on the Sun spoke with guitarist Jason Hook about his favorite tracks off the new album, a night in one of Saddam Hussein's pal ... More >>

Diamond Head @ The Clubhouse Music Venue

Uriah Heep's Bernie Shaw on Into the Wild, Prog, and Chickenfoot

Bernie Shaw, middle​ You know, I've always been into Uriah Heep album covers a lot more than Uriah Heep albums. Don't get me wrong -- there are some killer jams in the discography, like "Lady in Black" and "Gypsy," which skirts the line between prog and boogie, kind of an early example of heavy ... More >>

This Week in Music History: June 27 through July 3

Wikimedia CommonsSaxophones: First patented this week in music history.​Music and musicians have been around for centuries, and every day, new music news breaks. Every Monday, we're going to take a look back at the notable music stories, births, and deaths that took place that week.This week saw t ... More >>

Dax Riggs

X Japan's Yoshiki on Lollapalooza, Hide, and Taking Over America with Japanese Rock

Jonathan McNamaraX Japan moments before playing Lollapalooza 2010. Left to right: Pata, Heath, Yoshiki, Toshi, and Sugizo.​I'm riding in an elevator up to the highest floors of Chicago's Ritz Carlton with publicist Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald. For a sweet lady, she represents some hard-hit ... More >>

Ted Nugent Helped Me See the Need For Civil Political Dialogue

Q&A With The Answer

Question: Who's the straight ahead rock outfit playing with AC/DC tonight that you've never heard of? The Answer.But what's The Answer? The Answer!hehehehe This foursome from Northern Ireland may not be on our radio charts...yet, but since their creation in 2000 they've racked up a few accolades in ... More >>

Watching the Wheels: a music soundtrack for hyperdrivers

Israeli Gears

Monotonix bring licks with chutzpah

Heavy Metal: A Box Set Review in Three Acts

Deep Purple

Swiss time is running out

Groupie Think

Metalling in the affairs of others

Spinal Tapped

In which our heroine observes a Sabbath

Opeth

Ghost Reveries (Special Edition CD/DVD)
(Roadrunner Records)

Drummerpalooza

Feel the benefit

Recluse Driving

The usually elusive Paul Westerberg finally hits the road

Señor Coconut and His Orchestra

Fiesta Songs (Emperor Norton)

Basement Ax

Built to Spill's Doug Martsch is a guitar hero for a generation not interested in 'em

Microbe Brewery

You can call Stereolab's musical mix postmodern rock or experimental pop, just don't call it kitschy

Happy Daze

Nebula conjures up memories of loud Les Pauls, long hair and weed

Renegade Radio

Radio Free Phoenix delivers everything you ever wanted to know about music but were afraid to request

Calendar for the week

Please--No More, Mr. Nice Guy!

Hope You Die Before We Get Old

The reunited Who and Sex Pistols cheat death one more time

Slow Gin Fizz

THE BOYS FROM BRAZILTRANSPLANTED TO PHOENIX, SEPULTURA STRIVES FOR DEATH METAL WITH A CONSCIENCE

GOING WHERE NO JAZZMAN HAS GONE BEFORENEW CD SET BRINGS SUN RA'S INTERPLANETARY MUSIC BACK TO EARTH