Singer, harmonica player, songwriter, and frontman — Rick Estrin wears plenty of hats leading Rick Estrin & The Nightcats down the ever-bumpier blues road. Estrin, who inherited the Nightcats when former band namesake Little Charlie Baty retired in 2008 after 30 years and nine albums, has breathed new life into…
If Robert Fripp had discovered mandolin and bluegrass instead of guitar and classical symphonies, he might have formed a band like The Punch Brothers instead of King Crimson. The honor of actually founding the Punch Brothers goes to former Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile. The MacArthur Fellow kick-started the…
Minneapolis breeds a certain kind of musician, one that’s tough and able to thrive through biting, bitter winters. Fiery five-piece Off with Their Heads hails from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but don’t expect them to recall the band’s alt-punk heritage like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. “I never really…
Karl Wallinger has been conspicuously absent from the music scene the over the past decade — but with good reason. The former Waterboy and World Party founder suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2001 that left him unable to walk and talk, let alone sing or play any of the…
Call it an occupational hazard: Almost every DJ or producer in the world has a tendency toward swagger and bragging. In fact, self-aggrandizement is as much a part of the job as remixing and learning how use Ableton Live or ProTools. So we didn’t bat an eyelash when Jakarta-born beatsmith…
David Bazan was a pretty cool Christian in 2002. His band, Pedro the Lion (of which Bazan was the sole consistent member) had a string of impressive releases to its name, including 1998’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend and 2000’s Winners Never Quit, plus a couple of singles and…
It’s a good time to be a member of Beat Circuit. After all, the local EDM duo, which consists of siblings Miles and Demian Porter, produced a hot dance song (“Bring the Night”) that’s charted fairly well on the popular site Digital DJ Pool in recent weeks, they’ve finished their…
John Reis’ musical résumé includes at least four defunct bands that people would pay lots of money to see today. One is Hot Snakes, a San Diego-based quartet that blends the simplicity of three-chord garage rock (à la the Wipers) with the downstrummed aural assault championed by Johnny Ramone. But…
“Fayuca” is Spanish slang for the contraband markets that spring up in Mexico. These are places where any assortment of illicit goods can be found and purchased, from televisions to leather jackets, prosthetic limbs to staple foods. And it is where that Phoenix’s reggae-punk-Latin rock band gets its name. “We’re…
Thursday 29 Afterlife: Touch Thursdays (Top 40, dance) AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Bar Smith: International Thursdays with DJ EC, DJ StarMarz, & DJ Clavo El Parientito (hip-hop, Latin) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays with DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader, & DJ Skoolboi (hip-hop, reggae, R&B,…
Whitehorse @ Crescent Ballroom|11/27/12I don’t know any Whitehorse songs, but then again, I don’t know any Whitehorse songs. Allow me to explain. Over the summer, my editor assigned me to cover a sludge metal band from Melbourne, Australia called Whitehorse. As the band name isn’t very creative, it is shared…
Getting drunk with Santa Claus would be pretty awesome when you think about it. St. Nick is already pretty generous with gifts if you’ve been nice, but just imagine what he would get you when you’ve been nice and kept the IPAs flowing? We can’t guarantee you that World of…
Each Monday, Up on the Sun starts its week with a missive from cartoonist Brad Dwyer. Dwyer earned attention with his self-published collections, Epic Tales of the Mundane, and his Record Heat series for UOTS parallels the themes of Epic Tales…: melancholy, punk rock, geekery, and a bruised-and-battered optimism, all…
What is Bon Jovi up to these days? The New Jersey-based band is about to partake in the 12-12-12 fundraiser benefit show to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy alongside Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Eddie Vedder, and Dave Grohl. Jon himself worked…
Karl Wallinger has been conspicuously absent from the music scene over the past decade — and with good reason. The former Waterboy and World Party founder suffered a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2001 that left him unable to walk and talk, let alone sing and play any of the many…
By Alex Jarson Okay, we know you just love the Velvet Underground–you’re sporting the latest fall calendar Urban Outfitters top, your mom took you to get the Warhol Banana tattooed on your bicep, and you think they’re the greatest, most provocative band to have ever graced this earth. You even…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
Phoenix-by-way-of-Tucson rapper Jaron Ikner is really over the whole, “me first mentality” in hip-hop culture. Long gone are the days of quality congregations of rappers like that of 90’s supercrew Wu-Tang Clan, but it’s something the Black One wants to change. Starting first with his latest record, The Rise, which…
Short-circuited spazz pop screamers Math the Band have been grinding out and streaking across the country for nearly a decade, spreading a tapestry of peaked soundboard levels and extreme sincerity. Guitarist, singer, and composer Kevin Steinhauser teamed up with his girlfriend Justine Mainville in 2007 to solidify the current line-up,…
Melodic Minnesota punks Off With Their Heads are a busy bunch. The band is currently making the rounds in Canada and down the U.S. west coast after some border crossing issues. “I used to love the marathon touring,” says singer and guitarist Ryan Young, “but I’m a little more into…
Roger Gearhart has plenty of memories of many of the country music greats who performed at the renowned local country joint Graham Central Station over the decades. “George Straight performed at Graham’s once, so did Johnny Cash, Hank Jr., and also Willie Nelson,” says Gearhart, the president of Graham Brothers…
My original aim in this blog was to document what kind of non-Rush shirts were worn by Rush fans at the band’s concert Sunday night. However, the results were fundamentally uninteresting. Kiss, Iron Maiden on the old guard, and on younger fans, modern proggy acts like Primus and Tool. There…
