Florida rockers Anberlin have been together for just over a decade, and what a ride it’s been. After starting out small with Tooth & Nail Records and experiencing great success with Blueprints for the Black Market and Never Take Friendship Personal, they soon were playing on the Warped Tour and…
It’s a major feat to create art that facilitates an entire spectrum of fandom. Take, for example, the newest Disney acquisition and the very first hugely popular sci-fi event: the Star Wars franchise. Some elect to dress as Stormtroopers in their wedding photos, but most fans simply have a pedestrian…
The xx @ Rialto Theatre|2/17/13The rivalry between Phoenix and Tucson is well-documented, but I’m not about to talk crap: The Old Pueblo’s Rialto Theatre is a gorgeous, well-organized venue, and it was a perfect place to watch as The xx closed out its current tour. Last night’s show sold out…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
It took local singer-songwriter Dylan Pratt two years to pen his new album, Beg For Fire, but on the cusp of his record release show, he can look back at that time fondly. Tonight, Pratt will celebrate with a showcase at Crescent Ballroom along with Jon Rauhouse, Some Magical Animal,…
“The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn’t know how other people would take it.” –B.B. King “Metal confronts what we’d rather ignore. It celebrates…
The weekend is over, and it’s back to the grind. You sit there despondent at your desk, visions of a wild weekend replaying your head, scenes from A Good Day to Die Hard — which you caught a sick matinee showing of — bouncing around your cranium. How can you…
Phoenix New Times and KUKQ have partnered to resurrect a Phoenix festival tradition, That Damn Show. On Saturday, April 20, at Mesa Ampitheatre, Bad Religion, AWOLNATION, Against Me! (Editor’s Note: After this blog was published, Against Me! canceled its upcoming performance at That Damn Show), The Faint, Face to Face,…
When Swedish hard rock Norrsken disbanded in 2000, its principles both embarked on their own doom rock journeys: Guitarist Magnus Pelander formed Witchcraft, while vocalist Joakim Nilsson formed Graveyard. Both outfits maintained Norrsken’s dedication to Sabbath-indebted doom metal, but as time has gone on, both bands — especially Graveyard –…
No doubt the landscape of modern music has become considerably beardier over the last few years. When it comes to indie and rock these days, if you don’t have a beard, you’re not authentic. (Lumineers, it’s the only thing standing in your way!) When you’re cultivating your own face mitten…
Valentine’s Day might be fun for cutesy couples hellbent on Instagramming their every “ahhh”-inducing move, but for those flying solo, the Hallmark-marketed holiday can get real annoying, real quick. For those who’ve recently been dumped, it can get downright depressing. The hard electro sounds DJ Self.Destrukt will be spinning along…
Larry Ortega Ortega is the owner of Obliq Art, which is participating in Arizona Center’s Art Detour Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? It would…
Awesome ‘ish alert: Drake and Riff Raff are collaborating. Yeah, totally. Along the same lines: It’s the weekend, and all sorts of great shows are scheduled for Phoenix. We’ve gone ahead and rounded ’em up for you, including a broken-hearted industrial party at the Rogue, a night of experimental music…
While Mother Nature continues to wreak havoc on our thermostats, most people are bundling up and keeping indoors during the chilly season. Everyone except California-based reggae rockers Rebelution that is. The Santa Barbara-natives are ditching the warm embrace of their sandy sunny digs to embark on another wintertime road trip…
Pink @ US Airways Center|1/23/13 Oh, what fun it is to be the opening city for a two-month-long tour. Pink got to work out the kinks of her The Truth About Love Tour when she played in Phoenix last night to kick-off her love-themed show. “I’m so glad we got…
The Warped Tour lineup was released yesterday afternoon, and while we were (foolishly) hoping that Kevin Lyman would have a change of heart and model the long-running festival after something like Punk Rock Bowling or The Fest, the lineup, unsurprisingly, still caters to Hot Topic tweens. There are two noticeable…
Jackson Browne @ The Orpheum Theatre|2/13/13Back in 1975 Olivia Newton John lyrically asked the question “Have you ever been mellow?” Such a question would never be posed to Jackson Browne. The singer/songwriter has to be the mellowest rock star on the planet…
In this week’s issue, we speak with guitarist Sir Richard Bishop, whose path from Phoenix and his days in the Sun City Girls has found him at the forefront of guitar experimentation from his home base in Seattle and around the world. Deftly blending and/or shifting between Middle Eastern ragas,…
A successful long-term musical career is a rarity in any genre, but what does it take to be truly acknowledged as an elder statesman in heavy metal? In most rock circles, any popular musician over 40 is usually handed some token of longevity for remaining relevant (meaning young people are…
PDP is not the newest designer drug or texting acronym. No, it’s the hip way to name-drop Poi Dog Pondering, the cross-cultural band that flirted briefly with mainstream success in the 1990s and has managed to stick around without it. Why? Because there are never enough party bands on tour…
Twenty-three-year-old songwriter Winston Yellen didn’t attempt to “pull a Bon Iver” when he rented a pre-Civil War home — formerly occupied by Johnny Cash and June Carter — in the woods outside Nashville and recorded his debut LP, Country Sleep. It just sort of happened. “I wasn’t really conscious of…
Kanye West may be today’s “lyrical mastermind genius,” but he was still learning his way around a book report when legendary lyricist Rakim and DJ Eric B began writing hip-hop history. The East Coast rap duo dropped their debut single, “Eric B. Is President,” way back in 1986 and set…
