Roy Orbison

Benjamin’s Weekend Word: First Friday, Just Blazed, and Richard Cheese

Watching the Wheels: a music soundtrack for hyperdrivers

SEARCHING FOR AMERICAN SUPERSTARS

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN LAUGHLIN, NEVADA, AND CLINT'S WELL, ARIZONA, YOU MIGHT FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE IN THE '90S. ROGJT.

ALL THE WAY LIVE

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN LAUGHLIN, NEVADA, AND CLINT'S WELL, ARIZONA, YOU MIGHT FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE IN THE '90S. ROGJT.

The Mother Road

A new compilation disc celebrates the mythology of Route 66

Boldly Going

The latest voyage of the Enterprise is a trip worth taking

Brotherly Louvin

The high lonesome hardships of country's best duo are getting easier to hear

The Look of Love Lost

Two new releases pit the new songs of Bacharach & Costello against the old classics of Bacharach & David

Mystery Men

Face it, you don't really know what the Everly Brothers have been doing all these years, do you, Bird Dog?

Letters

From the week of October 19

Raul Malo

Today (Omtown/Higher Octave)

Best Lounge That Was Tiki When Tiki Wasn't Cool

The Bikini Lounge

Big & Rich

Horse of a Different Color
(Warner Bros. Nashville)

Hock the Line

Cheap laughs, lame cameos, and lifeless Cox

The Heymakers

Cheap laughs, lame cameos, and lifeless Cox

k.d. lang

Cheap laughs, lame cameos, and lifeless Cox

The Top 10 Reissues of 2008

By Chris Gray It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, ... More >>

'Billy Boys

By Chris Gray It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, ... More >>

Lang time coming

By Chris Gray It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, ... More >>

Roy Story

Is late musician spinning in his grave?

Lauren White

At Last
(Groove Note Records)

Various Artists

We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song
(Verve)

Chris Isaak

What a wicked hit it is

Adam Green

Jacket Full of Danger
(Rough Trade)

The Volebeats

Like Her
(Turquoise Mountain)

Hollywood Hells

David Lynch crashes on Mulholland Drive, but the wreckage is smashing

Great Scott

Tragedy brings out the best in Valley musicians, as top bands unite for a benefit concert

The Superfine Dandelion

The Superfine Dandelion

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, Hoss

An archival concert collection finds Waylon Jennings very much at home in the Valley

The Artist Formerly Known As Print

Our quarterly roundup of the latest in music books

Puppet Rulers

Reissue of the Meat Puppets' '80s catalogue reclaims the band's crucial role in the Amerindie revolution

Sixty-One Things to Know About Bob Dylan

Reissue of the Meat Puppets' '80s catalogue reclaims the band's crucial role in the Amerindie revolution

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL HIS LIFE?A TRIBUTE ALBUM TO THE LATE ARTHUR ALEXANDER GIVES HIM THE GOING-AWAY PARTY HE NEVER GOT

Reissue of the Meat Puppets' '80s catalogue reclaims the band's crucial role in the Amerindie revolution

HERE'S THE BEEF

SLEEPY LABEEF IS NO HAS-BEEN OR NEVER-WAS. HE JUST IS.

Rooster Coup DeVille Stream New Song, Schedule CD Release Show

Michael Cozzo (left) & Joe Curran of Rooster Coup DeVille​Michael Cozzo has been a fixture in the local country and rockabilly scenes for several years now, first as a singer/guitarist in Liquor Store Junkies, then as a solo bluesman and now as frontman of local rockabilly act Rooster Coup DeV ... More >>

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes at Clubhouse Music Venue on 6/22/2010

Shawn AndersonEdward Sharp and Co. on stage in Tempe.​"This place is crazy," the tour manager tells me on the phone, and, indeed, the Clubhouse in Tempe is crazy-packed for Tuesday's sold-out performance by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. Before the opening act - Dawes, a folk-rock foursome ... More >>

Barenaked Ladies at Dodge Theatre on 7/25/2010

Shawn Anderson​Barenaked Ladies Dodge Theatre July 25, 2010Ed Robertson is probably the more talented of the two founding members of Barenaked Ladies. Creative input aside, Robertson is a master chameleon, both able to mimic the boisterous nerdiness of ex-frontman Steven Page and do all the little ... More >>

DJ Rolemodel Talks Roy Orbison, Pussycat Lounge, Kanye West, Little Boots, and More

DJ Rolemodel​Name: Randell Carlton Green AKA: DJ Rolemodel Current club nights: Tuesdays at ACME, Fridays at Smashboxx, Saturdays at American Junkie. Genres spun: You name it and I have it. Origin story: Started off as a radio DJ while in college. I was actually fired for playing "Rape Me" by ... More >>

The Heymakers

DJ Rolemodel​Name: Randell Carlton Green AKA: DJ Rolemodel Current club nights: Tuesdays at ACME, Fridays at Smashboxx, Saturdays at American Junkie. Genres spun: You name it and I have it. Origin story: Started off as a radio DJ while in college. I was actually fired for playing "Rape Me" by ... More >>

South by Southwest Was Embarrassing for Arizona -- But Who Cares?

DJ Rolemodel​Name: Randell Carlton Green AKA: DJ Rolemodel Current club nights: Tuesdays at ACME, Fridays at Smashboxx, Saturdays at American Junkie. Genres spun: You name it and I have it. Origin story: Started off as a radio DJ while in college. I was actually fired for playing "Rape Me" by ... More >>

Dirty Beaches Talks Film, Hip-Hop, Home, and Performance Art

​ Dirty Beaches is the work of Alex Zhang Hungtai, a 30-year-old born in Taiwan before spending time in Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, China, and, currently, Montreal. To call Dirty Beaches a band would be a misnomer. What Zhang Hungtai does is more akin to performance art, with live performance ... More >>

Dirty Beaches @ The Trunk Space

​ Dirty Beaches is the work of Alex Zhang Hungtai, a 30-year-old born in Taiwan before spending time in Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, China, and, currently, Montreal. To call Dirty Beaches a band would be a misnomer. What Zhang Hungtai does is more akin to performance art, with live performance ... More >>

Dirty Beaches, Outro Mundo & Where Dead Voices Gather Last Night at The Trunk Space

Maria Vassett​ Dirty Beaches, Outro Mundo, Where Dead Voices Gather The Trunk Space Friday, April, 29 2011 My favorite review of Dirty Beaches' latest LP, Badlands, is also the most negative one I've read. In a review for Dusted Magazine, Doug Mosurock states: So, the '50s sucked, right? They ... More >>

Happy 70th Birthday Bob Dylan: The Seven Best "New Dylans"

​ Bob Dylan turns 70 today. The man who gave us "The Times They Are A-Changin'," the man who wrote "Like a Rolling Stone," "Mr. Tambourine Man," and "With God On Our Side." Over the years, he's influenced and remained busy. He inspired Sam Cook to write "A Change is Gonna Come," and even gave his ... More >>

Dax Riggs

​ Bob Dylan turns 70 today. The man who gave us "The Times They Are A-Changin'," the man who wrote "Like a Rolling Stone," "Mr. Tambourine Man," and "With God On Our Side." Over the years, he's influenced and remained busy. He inspired Sam Cook to write "A Change is Gonna Come," and even gave his ... More >>

Jace Everett on True Blood, Alison Mosshart, Sex, and Religion

​ BY LAUREN WISE If you've never heard of Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jace Everett, there's little doubt you've heard a song he's best known for--the theme from HBO's massively popular, supernatural-saturated television series True Blood. Everett's music is a fusion of blues, rockabilly and ... More >>

Elvis Presley Week Kicks Off at The MIM

​ Growing up, my grandma had a room in her house dedicated to Elvis Presley. We called it "the Elvis Room," and I remember not being allowed to touch anything on display, and boy, there was plenty I wasn't allowed to touch: posters, dolls, records, and commemorative plates. Coinciding with both El ... More >>

Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life and Seven More Music Flicks That Don't Suck

A scene from A Heroic Life​I didn't make it out to the French pop spectacular at FilmBar on Saturday night, but the pics posted on Facebook got me super-pumped to catch Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life. Non-documentary or concert films are tough to pull off (those are, too) but when a movie ... More >>

15 Favorite National Songs: Jason P. Woodbury

Michael Kiwanuka​Welcome to another installment of Up on the Sun's 2011 Review. Over the next week, we'll be counting down our favorite songs, shows, national and local releases of 2011. Enjoy! I'm already regretting this one. I left so much off this list it hurts, deserving songs from the li ... More >>

Zola Jesus: "I Have This Fantasy . . . of Being a Pop Star."

​When she was young, Nika Danilova trained to sing opera but often lost her voice due to performance anxiety. When Danilova began performing as Zola Jesus in Madison, Wisconsin, her harrowing voice slowly grew confident among thickets of tape hiss and ambient synths. On her latest full-length, ... More >>