Click through to see the cartoon…

​Song: Calexico, “Ready To Start” (Arcade Fire cover) Context: In honor of this crazy “new” band Arcade Fire apparently no one’s every heard of (despite the fact that they had a #1 album on the Billboard chart last year) here’s Arizona’s own Calexico covering “Ready To Start” from an album…

First, some sad news: 2 Tone Lizard Kings will not be playing this Saturday’s Strong Beer Festival at Steele Indian School Park. When organizers approached the Mesa ska band that’s been getting rave reviews at the festival for four years in a row, they were told the band was already…

Song: The David Mayfield Parade, “Noreen”Context: The debuet album from The David Mayfield Parade has been one of my favorites of the young year. This song, “Noreen,” is particularly great but the entire record features great blues-meets-indie vocals and hard country chords and from the stand-up bass playing brother of…

Song: Miranda Cosgrove, “Dancing Crazy”Context: This is a weird one: Actress/teenie pop singer Miranda Cosgrove’s publicist has announced that her February 23 show at Tempe’s Marquee Theatre will be free. Yes, tickets has been priced at $27.50 but the show is now totally free. Weird, right? Guess Cosgrove is not…

In this week’s music feature newly-promoted Assistant Night and Day Editor Benjamin Leatherman talks with Oren J of Silver Medallion about the group’s just-released album No One Ever Really Dies, which Oren finished after the tragic death of his partner Carnegie last fall. The Silver Medallion story is a touching…

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 was really behind the White Stripes breakup and where does Meg White go from here?…

Song: Smith Westerns, “Smile”Context: Smith Westerns will be at Rhythm Room tomorrow night with Yuck. Should be an interesting show from a pair of buzzing bands. This song is from the new Smith Westerns’ album Dye It Blonde. Smith Westerns – ‘Smile’ by SpunkRecords…

Phoenix New Times has a lot to tell you about the making of Silver Medallion’s record No One Ever Really Dies in a feature story that’ll be online tomorrow. In the meantime, however, we broke the news about the allegedly drunk teenage driver who killed Carnegie, half of the glammy…

Song: The Strokes, “Under Cover Of Darkness”Context: Today’s pick was actually chosen on account of how annoying it is. Why would The Strokes choose to release a stupid 30-second snippet of a single they’re going to “give away” for two days next week? I guess they really want to up…

Hey there,Today Up On The Sun is stoked (YES, “STOKED” IS THE RIGHT WORD) to debut a new music-related comic by local artist/musician/venue operator Robbie Pfeffer.It’s called Noise Complaint and is awesome.That’s really all the introduction this new feature needs. Come back for more weekly.You can view the entire comic…

Song: Tennis, “Take Me Somewhere”Context: This buzzing Denver band comes to Rhythm Room tomorrow night. Tennis – Take Me Somewhere by forcefieldpr…

Song: Authority Zero, “Movement”Context: Authority Zero plays Club Red tomorrow night for New Times Soundcheck — a festival which features a bunch of local bands. Authority Zero – Movement by renanvec…

In this week’s big feature, Nicki Escudero looks at the burgeoning career of North Scottsdale crooner Dawn Jameson — examining whether she’s just another no-talent slutwave star along the lines of Ke$ha or if she’s got talent to match her looks. Whether you agree she’s got the goods or not…

Song: Calexico, “Crystal Frontier” (Live in Nuremberg)Context: When I spoke with Calexico frontman Joey Burns in the wake of the Giffords tragedy we discussed this song, which he suggested as a wake-up tune aboard the space shuttle for the astronaut husband of a famous fan of his band, Gabby Giffords…

Playing for a room full of record store geeks sounds like a nightmare assignment for most bands — imagine Christian Bale being forced to reenact scenes from The Dark Knight in a room full of Comic Book Guys. That’s exactly what Calexico is up against at this weekend in Laveen,…