It’s been a good year for Memphis instrumental soul. Not only did original groover Booker T. release a great album (The Road From Memphis), but The Bo-Keys, featuring Stax, Hi Records, and American Studios pros Floyd Newman, Floyd Newman, Archie “Hubby” Turner, Archie “Hubby” Turner, a cast of younger Memphis…
St. Vincent Crescent Ballroom Thursday, October 20 On the lightrail ride home, the words of a friend: “Do you think she was wearing that ring to ward off potential stalkers or is there something she isn’t telling us?” Sounds like a funny question, but it isn’t all that unreasonable. St…
This week, New Times ran a list in our print publication highlighting some of the most interesting posts published at Up On The Sun over the past week. Here are links to those posts. What ten songs did we pick to soundtrack the Occupy protests? What legendary country stars are…
In this week’s issue, Benjamin Leatherman takes a peak into the life of George Lindell, the motormouth Phoenix-based drummer who achieved internet stardom after a car accident yielded him a viral hit, “Reality Hits You Hard Bro.” Lindell could used some fortune to go along with that fame, he informed…
It’s hard not to wonder where super-villains like The Joker and The Penguin picked up their henchmen thugs. They never seemed that good at what they did, always standing around and second-guessing their evil-genius bosses. To make matters worse, they didn’t even seem to be that tough; Batman and Robin…
As we gear up for another election season, it’s easy to start thinking about all the things America gets wrong. But even though our politics may be screwed up, our music often gets it right. Jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop. They were born here, and if you really want…
There’s no other way to put it: Jon Rauhouse is a badass. When the dude shows up to play on your record or add a little of his pedal steel to your live show, it is going to sound good. Really good. There’s a reason why Los Angeles-based music blog…
Nearly every piece I’ve read about Pearl Jam’s 1991 release Ten turning 20 has been some variation on the “this makes me feel old riff.” And it makes sense. I didn’t buy Ten when it first came out, but I wound up with a copy of it a few years…
Tipped off from a friend over at Waved Rumor, we were alerted today that prominent music blog Brooklyn Vegan featured Phoenix’s own Landmine Marathon as part of the blog’s CMJ coverage. Well, kinda. Landmine didn’t play as part of the official CMJ Music Marathon, but that didn’t stop Brooklyn Vegan…
Mike Viola is one of those guys you’ve heard a hundred times and not realized it. He’s the vocalist singing “That Thing You Do” (from the 1996 film of the same name); his ’90s band The Candy Butchers scored serious buzz along side his friends Fountains of Wayne; he’s written…
Talk about tying things together. We recently blogged about former-Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch dropping a new single and about Alice Cooper’s twisted maze in Hollywood. But now we can blog about The Coop and Head at the same time. That’s because Welch is scheduled to perform Saturday, December 17,…
When I was young, my family attended a church in Chandler where we would have a “Harvest Fest” on October 31, an alternative to the perceived Satantic nastiness of Halloween. I still got to dress as Superman; I still got to eat piles of sugary candy; and I still got…
Local success story Digital Summer has a lot of fans around the Valley and nationwide after touring with hard rock draws like Sevendust, Saliva, and Drowning Pool. I’m not one of those fans; the band plays the kind of crunchy, nu-metal drives me up a wall. But like I said,…
Okay, so Crescent Ballroom has been open two full weeks, which is long enough for us to review five shows there, eat one of Chris Bianco’s burritos, and listen as all the “cool kids” started calling the place “Crescent.”Stateside and Crescent owner Charlie Levy has enjoyed the past two weeks,…
Released back in May, Celebration, Florida, by New York band The Felice Brothers, is a confusing record. Take the first track, “Fire at the Pageant,” with its chorus of screaming children, stomping cadence, and menacing, howling vocals. It’s the sound of Americana set loose in the record store overnight, munching…
Two of classic country’s baddest bad-boys, Merle “Hag” Haggard and Kris “That Dude From the First Blade Movie” Kristofferson, are headed to Phoenix this week, and they are not performing at a typically “country” place like Toby Keith’s I Love this Bar & Grill. No, the digs will be classier,…
Greyhound SoulIt’s big music weekend here in Phoenix. We’ve already mentioned the JFA/Father Figures/Asses of Evil/Anarchy Taco party at Hollywood Alley; the chilled-out sounds of Washed Out, Tour de Fat, and Foo Fighters, but each weekend we bring five shows that may have slipped through the cracks, shows you probably…
Over the past couple weeks I interviewed key members of the early ’80s Phoenix skate punk scene. The results, printed in this week’s issue, coincide with this weekend’s JFA 30th Anniversary show at Hollywood Alley. Everyone I spoke to was funny, insightful, and a genuine lifer; people doing it because…
We pretty much crowned Sam Beam, the songwriter who leads Iron & Wine, “King of Octobeard” last week (okay, he came in behind Zakk Wylde, but still). I know a lot of people who thought that Iron & Wine’s last record, Kiss Each Other Clean, was too much of a…
In one of my favorite pieces he wrote at New Times, former music editor Martin Cizmar argued that Wilco, one of my favorite bands, was, for all intents and purposes, no different than Dave Matthew Band, a group I don’t like. (Anymore, at least. I was a pretty big fan…
Linsdey Buckingham Celebrity Theatre Wednesday, October 12 “The small machine.” That’s how Lindsey Buckingham described his solo work, comparing it to the “big machine” that is Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham was about halfway through a kind of extended monologue about the differences between his massive, stadium-touring collaboration with Stevie Nicks, Mick…
This week’s print edition of Phoenix New Times features a little slice of Phoenix skate punk history, with key players in the early days of seminal band JFA discussing Phoenix, skating, and the punk scene of the early ’80s. All four original members of JFA play Hollywood Alley this Saturday…
