Timberlake-style audacity aside, it takes some serious stones to open an album with a six-minute-plus slow-burning anthem. But that’s what Erika Wennerstrom does with “Marathon,” the opening track of her Texas-via-Ohio band Heartless Bastards’ 2012 opus, Arrow. See also: -Questlove of The Roots Is So Much Better at Instagram Than…
Once again, it’s a sort of apprenticeship with Woody Guthrie that’s drawn Billy Bragg into a new realm. Thirty years since his debut, the seven-song Life’s a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, Bragg is back with a new album, Tooth & Nail, which came out Tuesday on Cooking Vinyl. Bragg…
Dave Andrea Andrea owns Brat Haus in Scottsdale. For more info, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Howard 100 on Sirius. What’s the first album you bought? Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy. What’s the…
Of all the stupid things we do with our phones, Instagram might be the worst. Not only has the app falsely convinced us all we’re professional photographers, but it’s done something even worse: It’s encouraged our worst vainglorious tendencies. No one is Amaro-toning his or her real life. There are…
Marco TorresSomebody somewhere really did not want us to see Smashing Pumpkins at SXSW.Security and Cops Gettin’ Wild: Look, I get it. Every drunken dickhead in town “knows someone” or thinks he has pull at the door, but that doesn’t mean the hammer goes down on everyone. I was stopped…
This year, Rocks Off and DC-9 at Night, the music blogs at our sister papers Houston Press and Dallas Observer, teamed up to bring you only the choicest moments from last week’s SXSW madness. Craig HlavatyJohn Fogerty: Creedence Clearwater Revival survivor John Fogerty gets overlooked as a riff-happy rocker, with…
Jacob KatelWelcome to RavetopiaBy Jacob Katel Society got the best of ya? Go to Ultra Music Festival and leave the normal world behind. Here, you can feel free to get half-naked, customize your brain, and put some neon in your life. Deep inside the endless well of bass, you just…
Flogging Molly @ Tempe Beach Park| 3/17/13I could hardly contain my excitement as I boarded the light rail last night. It wasn’t my first time or anything, but I remember how insane last year’s St. Patrick’s Day experience was: Coming home from Seamus McCaffrey’s and making a brief stop at…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See New Times’ print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
It’s Monday, and that means that the rotting corpse of the weekend has been trampled on and desecrated by another dadgum work week. But never fear — the resistance is growing. You can re-create the carefree feelings of the weekend every night this week by attending our Top Five Must-See…
Usually, people move from places like the middle of nowhere to big industry cities like New York and Los Angeles to find musical success, and stay there. Not the other way around. But for former Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven and his wife Heather Vincent-Niven, finding solace in Arizona’s…
We’re pretty sick of reporting it, but seriously, Morrissey’s upcoming Friday, April, 19, show at Marquee Theatre has been canceled. The past TWO TIMES he’s postponed his tour stop in Tempe, fans were told to hang on to their tickets, because the show would be rescheduled. Well, not anymore: The…
Dear readers, let’s get this out of the way: In nearly every possible way, being the music editor of Phoenix New Times/Up on the Sun has been my dream job. No joke: I’ve chatted with Brian Wilson (it was a terrible conversation, and my chat with Al Jardine was much…
Photo by Liz TracyBy Liz Tracy They danced. They rolled. They yelled: Glitter! Yes, these are ten talkative fashionistas of Ultra Music Festival 2013. Certainly, there were some better dressed, and others more sensibly garbed. But the following folks found during night one of 2013’s three-day shit fest — they…
Photos by Marco TorresSwag is rampant again at SXSW this year.For every insightful conversation I have heard or had at SXSW over the years, whether it was talking to Matt Pinfield while walking the streets of Austin talking about David Bowie, or telling The Clash’s Mick Jones that he was…
By Victor Gonzalez We found Molly. And if we’re ever at an electronic dance music festival in Brazil, we’ll know to keep an eye out for balas. Similarly, next time we’re in Ecuador and someone offers us pepas, we’ll know they’re taking about MDMA, at least according to Ultra Music…
Photo by George Martinez What’s the most epic come-on in the history of Scandinavian EDM? Duh. “We’re gonna fuck this party in the pussy!,” as uttered by Swedish House Mafia, when Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello, and Axwell were still young, up-and-coming electronic dance music studs. Today, though, the SHM dudes…
On Monday night, Kevin Pate — a valued member of the Phoenix music community — was fighting for his life in a hospital in Yuma, where he was serving a four-year jail sentence for DUI and violating parole. Misinformation was spreading across online social networks that he’d passed on, but…
Besides the likes of Pete “SuperMix” Salaz, Z-Trip, and Robbie Rob, few cats in the Valley epitomize old-school DJ culture than Peabody Scott. For more than 16 years, the performer known as Mr. P-Body has worked turntables at practically every major club — both past and present — in metro…
It’s the weekend. Oh, yesh. We’re pumped to bring your our Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix this Weekend. See also: -Eight Must-See Concerts Over St. Patrick’s Weekend in Metro Phoenix…
Hoon is an anchor of FOX 10 Arizona Morning. He’ll be serving as emcee for the 2013 Phoenix Heart Walk on Saturday, March 23 at 8 a.m. at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in Phoenix. Hoon was game to play a round of “What Are You Listening To?” with Up…
Friends of Thom Gabaldon, the esteemed local DJ and musician who passed away last week after succumbing to cancer, have announced details for a memorial concert next weekend. And true to the 44-year-old’s penchant for dark, moody, and harsh music, especially electronic tunes, the show will overflow with industrial, Gothic,…
