The Velvet Underground

Killing Them Softly Makes a Killing in Obama's America

Tripping with the Brian Jonestown Massacre

Frankie Rose and Chandails at Rhythm Room, 04/16/12

Frankie Rose and Chandails Rhythm Room Monday, April 16 To all aspiring indie rock mavens: no matter how many blog accolades you acquire (even, yes, the three-pronged hydra of "Best New Music") or how many spine-crushingly cool side-projects bolster your C.V., at some point you will play Phoenix, A ... More >>

2012 RPM Challenge: Five Valley Artists (And Yours Truly) Attempt to Record an Album in One Month

The 2012 RPM Challenge - who will finish and who will fold? Five Valley artists (and yours truly) pledge to record an entire album in the month of February​Some musicians get into the game for the instant gratification of sex, drugs, and money. The RPM Challenge is clearly not for those kind o ... More >>

Songs Glee's New Season Should Feature

Oh, Rachel, you obnoxious overachiever.​Gleeks will rejoice on Tuesday, September 20 as Finn, Rachel, and the gang return for the third season of Glee. After two years of hype, I decided to check the show out for myself. I couldn't get past the first season. The show could be decent if it w ... More >>

This Week in Music History: June 20 through 26

Wikimedia CommonsHappy birthday, Brian Wilson​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 was a doozy: Columbia Records ... More >>

Sister Lovers: Paula Stop Pretending (1993)

Sister Lovers, "Paula Stop Pretending" ​ Welcome to Obscuro, a weekly feature where Up on the Sun dives deep into the world of vinyl oddities: private press jobs, major label cast-offs, and general thrift shop clutter that's thus far escaped anyone's attention. These LPs have been hiding out, coll ... More >>

Orange Juice Box Set Offers Complete Serving of Edwyn Collins' Seminal Indie Pop Group

The original Orange Juice line-up with frontman and chief songwriter Edwyn Collins, second from left.​What is rock 'n' roll if not the sound of youthful exuberance? In that context, Orange Juice might just be the greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time. Led by a young Edwyn Collins, he of th ... More >>

Glass Heroes, Sole and the Skyrider Band, Kurt Vile, Cris Kirkwood, and Other Weekend Events

Glass Heroes are scheduled to perform at the George & Dragon on Saturday.​We're kicking it old school with our latest edition of "10 Things Under $10" by pimping a few unique shows by a handful of the Valley's more legendary musicians. Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets is holding a special g ... More >>

Nothing Not New: We All Suffer from "Aesthetic Atrophy," But at Least I'm Getting Help

"If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it . . ." -- Wm. Shakespeare ​ I recently received some bad news regarding a diagnosis. It's never easy to hear someone (especially an expert in his field) tell you that you have a serious problem, and it certainly wasn't easy this t ... More >>

Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and a Bunch 'o' Buddhists in Chandler

Charles GabreanLaurie Anderson's backing guitarist. Lou something."Have you ever been given meditation instructions at a concert before?" the emcee asked as the crowd sat down at Chandler Center for the Arts to witness a benefit concert by Velvet Underground legend Lou Reed, his wife, performance ar ... More >>

Skinny Puppy Founder Ogre Brings His Conceptual Demons to Tempe

Music and conceptual artist Kevin Ogilvie's been known by a couple names since forming industrial band Skinny Puppy in 1982. As a member of Skinny Puppy, he took the stage name "Nivek Ogre," but these days he's known just as "Ogre," and he's making solo music that deviates from Skinny Puppy's machin ... More >>

Flo Rida Comes to Venue of Scottsdale on Nov. 1

Magnetic Fields mines several black musical genres to create its latest: white noise

Hella

Have to kiss a lot of prog

Brian Jonestown Massacre

Fine, not Dandy

Dumb Luck

They're wild, man . . . WIIIIIILD!!!

Trippin' Out

The revolution continues on the road

The Strokes

Out of the garage and into the Valley

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Oasis

21 Singles (Rhino), Heathen Chemistry (Epic)

Under the Influence

Documentary outlines spiritual survival

Are They It?

Believe the hype, because The Strokes are as good as advertised

Timeless Flight

L.A.'s twangy, trippy Beachwood Sparks ascend with a white-soul masterpiece

Stay Precious

The band formerly known as Slaves returns with a new moniker and an addictive platter of glam and gloom

Ass Ponys

Lohio (Checkered Past)

Little Fish, Big Pond

...and guppies eat their young is the Valley's most prolific, and unjustly obscure, band

Under Ogre

Shrek offers an amusing, if empty, fractured fairy tale

Birth of the Cool: Beat, BeBop and the American Avant-Garde

By Lewis MacAdams (Simon & Schuster Free Press)

Be Here Now

The And/Ors don't need a past as long as they have a future

The Warlocks

The Warlocks (Bomp)

John Cale

Vintage Violence (Sony/Legacy)

The Go-Betweens

The Friends of Rachel Worth
(Jetset)

Kids' Play

The Moss Brothers are a novelty act -- until you hear them

Turning Time Around

Lou Reed is an old man in rock years, but he continues to be born again

True Believer

From punk to rock to country, Alejandro Escovedo has weathered the push and pull of family and music

Murky Waters

Bardo Pond makes psychedelic drug music for the uninitiated

Molten Wax

Night & Day

June 24 - 30, 1999

Dolls House

Sylvain Sylvain pays tribute to three fallen former bandmates on his new album

World Domination

Jimmy Eat World heads out on tour as its new album creates a radio stir

Recordings

Punk Monk

Recordings

Copy Cats

In the tired realm of tribute albums, imitation is the sincerest form of flatulence

Recordings

Love and Marriage

Yo La Tengo exposes indie rock to the emotional bonds of matrimony

Exile on Central Avenue

Phoenix Art Museum wants to take ya higher, boom, shockalocka, boom

Recordings

Peppers and Brimstone

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL IT DOPE?

HIP-HOP IS GOING TO POT. LITERALLY.