The 11.11.11 show featuring Mergence, Kongos, The Technicolors, and Huckleberry was long anticipated. And you could feel that excitement all throughout the night at the Crescent Ballroom. Arriving around 9:45 pm, the patio was packed, the lounge was packed with diners and hipsters, and a small population of fans was…
It used to be that plays like Hair epitomized the marriage between rock and musical, but recent years have seen the combination pushed to new limits. You probably know Green Day’s American Idiot and U2’s constantly flailing Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, but have you heard of Serj Tankian’s musical…
Given the nature of the tribute band game, acts usually wow or disgust. There’s not much room for gray area. When it comes to the real legends and the emotional attachments fans have to their records, bands like Led Zeppelin, it’s go big or go home. For example, “Achilles Last…
The six musicians of Hollywood Undead blend an eclectic mix of musical tastes — old school hip hop, heavy metal and classic rock, to name a few. The band wears masks, updated this year based of inspiration from masks created by the fans. The band ha toured the world, helped…
In recent years, horror flicks and metal have enjoyed a loving relationship. Metalheads love horror, and the feeling is mutual. (Where did we put that copy of The Blair Witch 2 soundtrack?) Obviously many metal musicians truly enjoy sci-fi, monster and horror films (with guys like Rob Zombie, The Misfits,…
There’s a glimmer of hope that Up On The Sun’s DMX Rap Sheet will finally be put on the back burner as the hip-hop artist returns to the music world, determined, reportedly sober, and with new management headed up by Jason Fowler of J Mike Management & Entertainment, based in…
Shows at the Yucca Tap Room are nearly always free, but rarely are they this eclectic. Tonight hip-hop, indie rock, world music, and blues are scheduled to be featured on the Tempe hotspot’s stage. Tonight sees the release of MOE’Z ART’s The Beast. This hip-hop artist is Brooklyn-born, Paradise Valley-raised…
48 Hours Festival was insane. Picture this: more than 20 heavy-hitting rock bands, VIP pool cabanas in the middle of a Vegas parking lot, and lounges with such names as Debauchery and the Godfather, moonshine, strippers, and massages, all fenced in at the Luxor Festival Grounds in Las Vegas. After…
Could there be any better Halloween gift than to wander around in Alice Cooper’s brain for an evening, watching him teeter on the edge of sanity, just about to fall off? Proooobably not. That’s why this year, Halloween Horror Nights 2011 at Universal Studios Hollywood will veer from its traditional…
Sometimes help can come from the unlikeliest of places. You might not think of Ozzy Osbourne as a self-help guru, but you sure as hell can’t say the the dude doesn’t know how to survive. His years of hard living benefit his new book, Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy, out…
If you’re a Static-X enthusiast, then you’ll probably like Pighammer, the new album from Wayne Static. Actually, when Wayne Static founded Static-X, his original vision was the concept of Pighammer–more electronic and industrial, not based on live performance. Imagine plenty of the evil disco, compressed guitars and hazy vocals, smothered…
Since 1999, Huntington Beach’s Avenged Sevenfold has been on a tear. Emerging from the Southern California metalcore scene, the band firmly established itself as a force in mainstream metal, with an eclectic style that draws as much from hair metal theatrics as it does hardcore breakdowns. The band’s five studio…
Thrice has been a staple in the alternative rock world for more than a decade. But even to those paying close attention, the band’s extensive catalog is hard to keep up with. Their eighth album, Major/Minor, was released on September 20 and is –as usual– another stage in the band’s…
Today sees the release of Unto The Locust, the seventh album from California-based metal band Machinehead. The heavy follow-up to 2006’s The Blackening, which beat out Slayer and Lamb of God for “Album of the Year” at the Golden God Awards, Unto The Locust displays the band’s varied styles and…
You don’t know Yeshe Perl, but you know his alter ego, Mickey Avalon. He is the last of the MySpace stars, dripping with heartache and sexuality. His autobiographical lyrics of bisexual street hustling and narcotics seem written for, and inspired by, Hollywood’s young-money, drug-addled Paris Hilton-wanna-bes and pinner punks. Mickey…
The members of Slightly Stoopid have been making music together for more than a decade. Slightly Stoopid’s sound is varied. Its six members wield an array of instruments including congas, harp, trumpet, keyboard and saxophone. They’ve toured with such legends as the Dave Matthews Band, Sublime (Bradley Nowell helped bring…
Down Marquee Theatre Sunday, September 11 You have to feel bad for opening acts. Upon arriving at the Down concert last night, Ponykiller had just ended its set and In Solitude was in full force, playing their hearts out on the stage for a half-full Marquee Theater. A handful of…
If you’re one of the Steel Panther fans anxiously awaiting the band’s new record, Balls Out, well, you’re just going to have to wait a little longer. The band announced on its website yesterday that the record has been pushed from its original release date of October 18 to October…
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…
When Cactus Chainsaw’s singer said the band’s list of influences was possibly a higher number than his criminal record charges, I took it with a grain of salt (courtesy of a cheap tequila shot). But within the first 20 seconds of listening to their music, I could hear the band’s…
How can a self-respecting weirdo rock ‘n’ roll songwriter stand apart from the crowd? How does one manage to craft songs about typical tropes (love, freedom, and self-discovery) without sounding, well, typical? For Adam Bruce, the frontman of Tempe-based indie-blues quartet Mergence, the answer is simple and unexpected: Wrap those…
The holiday season may not be upon us just yet, but it’s never too early to start planning. When buying a gift for a metalhead, your gift better rock, otherwise you’re going to illicit a “mehhh” before a “fuck yeah!” Don’t sweat, heshers and moshers, we’ve got you covered. Metalheads…
