Pop-Punk and Emo

Alkaline Trio - Marquee Theatre - 4/28/2013

Alkaline TrioMarquee Theatre, TempeSunday, April 28, 2013 I've got a big, fat fucking bone to pick with you, Alkaline Trio. In case you haven't heard, I'm sick and tired of waiting to hear "Radio." I wish you would have swapped some new songs for "Nose Over Tail," "Clavicle," and all of Goddamnit. ... More >>

Alkaline Trio @ Marquee Theatre

Paramore @ Comerica Theatre

10 Star Wars Songs To Ease Your Rage Now That Disney's Killed LucasArts

Ever since Disney's acquisition of LucasFilms was announced, the prognosis by fans has been mixed. Three new Star Wars movies is good news, right? Sure, but what about yesterday's news that Disney has shut down LucasArts? Yeah, the future of the saga a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away is up ... More >>

Alkaline Trio's Good Mourning: 10 Years Later, It's a Gothy Pop Punk Classic

It's not uncommon for fans to have a soft spot for the first album they hear from a beloved artist. It might not be the band's defining work, but it was your entry point, your gateway. I'll always carry a torch for Alkaline Trio's fourth album, Good Mourning, and in this case, it's a significant alb ... More >>

Paramore's "Now" Shows Off New Direction for Band

Paramore doesn't need the Farro brothers to go on. So long, founding brothers Josh and Zac. Frontwoman Hayley Williams is soldiering on, bad haircuts and all. It looks like the band's big move into maturity might just abandon the sparkly pop that made the band famous. Who cares it was the pop-fuele ... More >>

Fall Out Boy Returns to "Save Rock and Roll," But Is It Too Late?

For the excitable Generation Y character in all of us twenty-somethings: Fall Out Boy has returned. With their 2005 mega-album From Under The Cork Tree, the Chicago-based four-piece put a poetically self-aware spin on the theme of pop-punk. They laced the album with ironic and lengthy song titles, t ... More >>

The Story So Far: The Renaissance of Pop Punk?

Touring with New Found Glory seems like a dream come true for any up and coming pop punk band...especially one that takes its name from the closing track of Sticks and Stones, like California band The Story So Far does. The group just wrapped up a tour with NFG, where the pop punk vets played Sticks ... More >>

The Story So Far @ The Nile Theater

H2O's Poppy Major Label Debut, Go, Has Aged Very Well

I have a theory: The first album you listen to by one of your favorite musicians ends up being one of your favorite releases by said band, regardless of how it was received by critics or fans. Of course, this isn't always the case, but who hasn't ever had to answer to "You like that album, really?" ... More >>

Does Reubens Accomplice's I Blame the Scenery Hold Up More Than a Decade Later?

See also: Reubens Accomplice Returns With Sons of Men (Download) See also: Reubens Cubed: Reubens Accomplice Makes a Bi-Coastal Album While Still Keeping a Desert Address If the rest of Reubens Accomplice's forthcoming Sons of Men sounds anything like "I'm Leaving," it's bound to be a great album. ... More >>

Reubens Accomplice Returns With Sons of Men (Download)

See also: Reubens Accomplice --It's Not a Dill Spear, Either See also: Reubens Cubed: Reubens Accomplice Makes a Bi-Coastal Album While Still Keeping a Desert Address You know you're in trouble when bloggers start resorting to cryptozoological terms to describe your long-awaited third record. It' ... More >>

Jawbreaker: You're Not Punk, and I'm Telling Everyone

Every now and then, you stumble across a band that speaks to you at just the right time, and they end up becoming one of your all-time favorites. This group seems to understand what you're going through better than any of your peers, and acts as a gateway drug to all of its influences and similar ba ... More >>

Warped Tour 2012, Camelback Ranch Baseball Stadium, 6/28/12

Vans Warped Tour Camelback Ranch Baseball Stadium Thursday, June 28 Despite my trepidation about being able to handle the heat and a slew of young bands that had little to do with the Warped lineups of my youth, I survived. Another Vans Warped Tour is in the bag. This was the first year it was he ... More >>

Thrice Takes a Break

Set Your Goals

Man Overboard's Justin Collier on Pop Punk, New Jersey, and New Found Glory

​Man Overboard, a Garden State pop punk group, is enjoying a whirlwind career. After touring with New Found Glory last year, the band just wrapped up a series of shows in the UK, and is gearing up for its first American headlining tour. The group has released 50 or 60 songs since it formed ... More >>

Weekend: Where's the Band, The Expendables, The Shop, Sluggo, and The Noodles

It's official, folks: Emo is cool again. Don't believe me? Listen to "Fall In," the third track on the highly buzzed about Attack On Memory from Cloud Nothings. The song is straight out of the late '90s/early 'aughts emo playbook: Strained vocals, frantic drums, and the kind of guitar tone that defi ... More >>

New Found Glory @ Marquee Theatre

Fall Frenzy, Braids, Casablanca Lounge, Mean Streets, and the Rainbows Festival Over the Weekend

Fall Frenzy: blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, Matt & Kim, and Halocene Arizona got a special show last night, a combination of the yearly Fall Frenzy event and The Honda Civic Tour. Jimmy Eat World took My Chemical Romance's spot and locals Halocene shared the stage with Matt & Kim and blink-182 for an e ... More >>

Fall Frenzy: blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, Matt & Kim, and Halocene

Arizona got a special show last night, a combination of the yearly Fall Frenzy event and The Honda Civic Tour. Jimmy Eat World took My Chemical Romance's spot and locals Halocene shared the stage with Matt & Kim and blink-182 for an evening of fun and nostalgia.

Blink 182-Grows Up -- But Just a Little

Halocene's Addie Nicole on Can You Hear Us Now, and Playing Fall Frenzy

​Last weekend, X103.9 crowned Phoenix-based rock band Halocene winner of the Fall Frenzy Showdown at the Marquee Theatre. That means that Friday, September 30, the band will join Matt & Kim, Jimmy Eat World, and blink-182 at Tempe Beach Park for Arizona Fall Frenzy. The young band just released ... More >>

New Found Glory's Steve Klein on New Album, Changes in Pop Punk, and the Fate of International Superheroes of Hardcore

With the exception of a few heartbreaks, New Found Glory has continued to write music for the past 14 years with minimal obstacles. And since the band's songs largely deal with matters of the heart, you could consider all those bum relationships song fodder. The band is gearing up for the release ... More >>

Matt Johnson of Matt & Kim Talks SB 1070, Fighting Kim, and Getting Naked in Times Square

​You'll never see another musical duo that's as energetic and excited about playing music as indie rockers Matt & Kim. There's just two of them, but they put on one hell of a great show. The first thing their concertgoers often notice is how happy they are when they perform: vocalist/keyboardi ... More >>

Alkaline Trio at Nile Theatre, 7/24/11

Melissa Fossum Alkaline Trio​Alkaline Trio The Nile Theater July 24, 2011 After 15 years, the guys in Chicago punk staple Alkaline Trio still rock as hard as ever. It just may be a bit harder to hear them over the roar of their boisterous fan base. From the moment the band took the stage at th ... More >>

Alkaline Trio @ The Nile Theater

The Top Ten Pop Punk Songs That Got Me Through Those Awkward Teenage Years

But someone did understand. Someone knew exactly what to say to get us through. From the anthems of loneliness to the uplifting reminders that things would get better, pop-punk kept our little hearts ticking through it all. To this day, these songs still cause little prickly twinges of nostalgia t ... More >>

Jimmy Eat World Added to Fall Frenzy Lineup; Tickets on Sale Today

Wikimedia CommonsJim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World​Arizona's own Jimmy Eat World have been added to the lineup for the X103.9 Arizona Fall Frenzy. Punk band blink-182 and indie duo Matt & Kim were already slated to play the Frenzy, as part of the 2011 Honda Civic Tour.Jimmy Eat World will be touri ... More >>

Blink-182 Schedules a Show in Tempe, Minus Boycotting Tourmates My Chemical Romance

Wikimedia CommonsBlink-182 drummer Travis Barker​My Chemical Romance may still be participating in Sound Strike, but punk band Blink-182 hasn't scratched Arizona from its tour itinerary. Per the band's website, Blink-182 will be performing at the Tempe Beach Park Amphitheatre on September 30. Bl ... More >>

Coheed and Cambria Bring an Epic Sci-Fi War Soundtrack to Tempe

The term "progressive rock" conjures all sorts of sound bites, good and bad, from the jam meanderings of King Crimson to Geddy Lee's nasally wail in Rush. The music of Coheed and Cambria, playing the Marquee Theatre on Monday, is often labeled progressive rock, but it's really more just rock that's ... More >>

Coheed and Cambria

Yellowcard

The Get Up Kids @ The Clubhouse

Jimmy Eat World's Invented Hits Number 11 on Billboard Chart

​Internationally successful multi-platinum recording artists Local band Jimmy Eat World just missed a top ten hit on Billboard's album chart with their new record, Invented, which debuted at number 11 this week. Jimmy Eat World has toured the world for nearly 20 years and is signed to DGC/Intersc ... More >>

Fueled by Ramen Artists: Where Are They Now?

Nicki EscuderoCobra Starship​Nicki EscuderoThe Cab​It's hard to believe amid all the Fall Out Boy radio hits, award-winning Panic! at the Disco videos and female-fronted bands that came about because they were inspired by Paramore (who perform tonight at the Dodge Theatre), one of record label F ... More >>

The Paramore Paradox: Why Hayley Williams Can't Leave the Band That Made Her Famous

A Second Goodbye: Two Song Sampler

​Artist: A Second GoodbyeTitle: Two track sampler.Basics: Young Scottsdale upstarts A Second Goodbye have a seven song EP on the horizon, but for now we have a two track sampler CD to satiate those pop punk needs. Pop punk is too widespread and vigorous these days to try and figure it all out or q ... More >>

We Are the In Crowd Steps Up as Latest Pop-Punk Darlings on Vans Warped Tour

​It's nice to have a little diversity on the Vans Warped Tour, the summer punk rock festival that's notorious for its multitude of sweaty, shirtless guys running around on-stage.This year, following in the footsteps of powerful female singers Katy Perry, Charlotte Sometimes and Hayley Williams of ... More >>

Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves

Thrice and Story of the Year Play ASU's Devilpalooza

It's easy to miss being a college student when shows like Arizona State University's Devilpalooza go down on campus this Friday, February 19. Thankfully for graduates and drop-outs alike, the event is free to the public, so you can make like a sorority sister, too, as bands such as Story of the ... More >>

New Found Glory

Tim Burton Looks to Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy?

Alice in Blink-182 Land?​How could a man of such brilliance, who creates such visually stunning pieces of art, who can seemingly do no wrong, allow the likes of Blink-182's Mark Hoppus and Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz to write for the soundtrack of his latest creation, Alice in Wonderland? We may ne ... More >>

The Used

The Get Up Kids Really Were Worth Writing Home About

Q&A: Get Up Kids' Matt Pryor Talks Jumping Around, Playing Pop Music and the Emo Handbook

​ Any attempt on my part to play "rock critic" on this assignment would be complete bullshit. Few assignments have ever made me want to high five my inner fifteen-year-old more than a chance to interview Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids, a band that dominated my Walkman in early high school. I'd spen ... More >>

The Cab

Lights! Camera! Take Action!

10 Emo Songs That Don’t Suck