Santa Claus and I have had a tenuous musical history. There have been some good years, for sure, especially in 1986, when he brought me Christian Death’s Only Theatre of Pain on vinyl. I’m sure Kris Kringle, viewing from his magic snow globe, loved seeing my sheer delight as I…
A second round of performers at the 2014 Country Thunder was announced on Saturday, adding to the already packed line-up. Joining headlining artists Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, and the Band Perry will be Thompson Square, Cassadee Pope, Tyler Farr, Easton Corbin and LoCash Cowboys. The four day festival kicks off…
This set of concert recommendations won’t apply to everyone, because we don’t have one that takes place in an airport on your way back to your parents’ house. But if you’re sticking around, like me, you’ve got some options. Like Up on the Sun on Facebook or follow us on…
As the legend goes, in 1974 the commercially successful jazz and soul symphony band Tower of Power played a studio session in Long Island on the radio station WLIR. This might have been just one of countless performances in the history of a band that’s conquered the ups and downs…
Last night Willie Nelson & Family played to a sold-out crowd at Celebrity Theatre–and it was quite the family affair. Not just because Nelson had about half of his own immediate family members on stage, but because the intimate setting embraced a crowd that was as comfortable with other Willie…
Deep inside Spotify headquarters, at this very moment, some poor marketing team is tasked with the idea of making Spotify gift accounts sound like a good idea for a Christmas present. I know this because I am too cheap to pay to make the Spotify ads go away. So far…
Bill Tarsha and the Rocket 88s led the 18th annual blues harmonica blowout last week at the Rhythm Room. More than 35 blues harmonica players performed. Tarsha and his band opened with a couple tunes. The blues harmonica players put their names in a hat and after each performance they…
James D’Agostino has never slipped the surly bonds of gravity and traveled into outer space. Nor has he visited Oa, taken possession of a fabled Power Ring, battled the dastardly Sinestro, or bombed around with the other members of the JLA. Despite all these facts, the 38-year-old is known throughout…
Thursday 19 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bar Smith: Ladies Night with DJ AL3 (hip-hop, Latin) Bobby Q’s: All Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, Top 40, reggae) Crescent Ballroom: DJ Dealing (various) Dos Gringos (Scottsdale): DJ…
Look, I should probably start with myself. The only Christmas music I listen to every year comes on Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, featuring the Andrews Sisters and Carol Richards. From that an FBI profiler would be able to judge that I’m a white male, late 20s/early 30s, with a large…
Just a couple of days removed from Scottsdale’s first True Music Festival, Phoenix’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival has announced the lineup for its latest go-around. Headliners include Gramatik, Slightly Stoopid, and–on Sunday–Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite and Dwight Yoakam. The festivities will begin March 28 at Hance Park downtown. (The…
Dogbreth plays fun pop-punk music–or desert power-punk, some may say; that is, unless you ask Tristan Jemsek, or Erin Caldwell, who consider Dogbreth to be power-kindness, or sentimental power-pop. Jemsek says he never intended for Dogbreth to be a pop-punk band, not back when it was just a solo project,…
Screeches cycle through the drone and reverberate off the cratered concrete walls of [venue name redacted] as Fake Snake frantically claws through their set. We’re out among the dilapidated shitholes of Phoenix’s industrial parks, inside this warehouse shed doubling as crashpad and venue for several underground acts. Here, the Phoenix…
All illustrations by me. I’m Shea. [Editor’s Note: In his column Serrano Time, award-winning writer and goofball Shea Serrano writes about his life and times.] This game is very simple: Look at the pictures and guess what Kanye West song each one represents. Boom. That’s it. That’s all. You’re done…
Country music legend, activist, author, poet, actor–Willie Nelson fits into any one of these categories. He helped shape outlaw country towards the end of the 1960s, by bringing country artists who felt restricted by the Nashville sound together with “hippie” rock musicians, and his classic, low-key voice, timeless melodies, and…
It happened. Whatever else you can say about this year’s inaugural True Music Festival in Scottsdale, the ambitious one-day festival went off mostly hitch-free, bringing The Flaming Lips, Wiz Khalifa, and Bassnectar, among others, to town for a very appreciative audience. This is that audience–sweatshirted, in large groups, and, if…
The are many sides to Andrew W.K. Omni-present is the bloody nose image that adorns his major label debut I Get Wet. There’s also his well known propensity to party hard, a lifestyle he’s constantly promoting. These two ideas for the basis for a musician who’s found an angle that…
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the venues, most people weren’t really doing all that much. But they were doing something, and here are five shows that will give you something to do whether you’re in the spirit or not. (View our complete concert calendar here.)…
From Movimiento Alterado’s “Sanguinarios del M1″BuKnas de Culiacán singer doing what he does best–vamping!By Gustavo Arellano America’s liberal class and MSMers are abuzz right now over Narco Cultura, a documentary about Mexico’s horrific drug war and the musical movement that has risen around it. These libs (and more than a…
Whenever my brothers and I are together, it’s pretty difficult for anyone to understand our conversation unless they have a strong knowledge of Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura, or Anchorman quotes. And when I heard there was going to be an Anchorman: The Legend Continues film, I had my hopes…
It’s a big weekend for shows, to say the least. Or, to rephrase, a weekend that’s filled with big shows. You’ve got the nu-metal gods of Korn headlining KUPD’s holiday show tonight while Snoop Lion Snoop Dogg Nemo Hoes Snoopadelic doing his DJ thing in Scottsdale on Saturday. And, of…
When opportunity knocks, local rock and rollers The Black Moods are usually the first ones to answer. On Saturday, December 14, at the True Music Festival, the Black Moods will be part of a group of artists ranging from the psychedelic sound of the Flaming Lips all the way to…
