Polyphonic Spree Crescent Ballroom Thursday, March 29, 2012 At 10 last night, a long red sheet covered the stage of the Crescent Ballroom. The crowd was getting drunk, and when the lights were dimmed, the theme song from The Little Rascals played over the speakers. For some strange reason, it…
Puddle of Mudd Arizona Bike Week at WestWorld of Scottsdale Thursday, March 29, 2012 Bikes on bikes on bikes. Arizona Bike Week is all about hogs, big, roaring machines, and the big, tough looking dudes that ride them. After awhile it all seems to blur together, but the loud grunge…
Celebrities tend to have a knack for influencing everything from dressing styles, speech patterns and attitudes to spending habits. I mean, just imagine where the plastic augmentation industry would be if it weren’t for them. Musicians in particular have always captivated us with their general sense of cool. Just last…
In this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, we profiled Queens of Country, a new movie filmed on location in Cave Creek, Arizona, which debuts this weekend at the Phoenix Film Festival. In this episode UOTS: The Podcast, we speak with Ron Livingston (Office Space), who stars opposite of Lizzy…
Vektor is leaving their Tempe home for Philadelphia, but they’re not about to bid us adieu with happy-go-lucky feelings… are they? The self-described “progressive sci-fi thrash metal” band is known for painting brutal landscapes with their lyrics and dark, doom-and-gloom emotions with their music. As they put it, they “portray the…
While $3 isn’t enough to buy you a gallon of gas these days, it is enough to buy you the sixth installment of Zia Record’s local music compilation, You Heard Us Back When. The double-disc album is scheduled for release on next month’s Record Store Day, April 21, and features…
It wasn’t so long ago that the ill-fated Yellow Canary Dance Hall closed its doors, but come April 28 the warehouse will be bumping live music once again. Avondale rapper Faces will be on hand to lend his lyrical mastery, along with percussionist/beat dropper Yawning Boy, at the site being…
Walk into Long Wong’s at the Firehouse on any given Wednesday night and you’ll most likely hear Page Davis singing about Jan Brewer and teenage plastic surgery. Davis performs under the Page the Village Idiot moniker and is easy to spot thanks to his handlebar mustache and fanny pack. He…
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, where we revisit the overplayed, over (and under)rated, and the one-hit and multi-hit wonders of yesteryear. I have a bone to pick with Sixpence None the Richer for giving me unrealistic expectations about dating. When “Kiss Me” came out, it made me think that once I…
BY BENJAMIN HOROWITZ Hot Snakes Crescent Ballroom Wednesday, March 28 When I heard about the Hot Snakes reunion tour, my first thought was, “that doesn’t make sense.” The band just didn’t seem like the reuniting type. They called it quits in 2005. They certainly didn’t have the commercial clout of…
Weird Is the New Cool, profiled in this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, has always been known for its fun and upbeat songs, with song titles such as “Beer Pong” and not one, but two, band mascots that appear on stage with the guys at their shows.But for their…
You may not be familiar with the name “Wynter Gordon,” but you’ve heard her work. Wynter’s first success came when she wrote a hit for for Mary J Blige at only 19-years-old. Shes’s since collaborated with EDM artists like Steve Aoki, Laidback Luke, and David Guetta, and hip-hop artists like…
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 are our five favorite Jonathan Richman songs? Does heavy metal make you more sane? Follow…
Michelle Blades can’t sit still. Her latest solo record, Mariana, is still fresh off the press, but along with her bandmates in North Dakota (Emily Hobeheidar and Mo Neuharth), she’s ready to release yet another new record this week. Aside from Blades’ signature vocal flutters, North Dakota is an entirely…
Arizona’s wacky political landscape is prime fodder for any comedian, but local one-man band Page the Village Idiot manages to make his subversion both funny and catchy. His hilarious commentary on Joe Arpaio’s policies (“Thank You Joe Arpaio”) may have been topped in his so-called love letter to Jan Brewer…
Singer/songwriter Marcos Martins hails from São Paulo, Brazil, and his four backing musicians have the unwieldy task of encompassing the music of one of the world’s largest and most diverse nations. Though Brazil blends cultures and traditions, there’s an easiness to the sounds that provides a cohesive feel. Bossa nova…
If you’ve seen the recent documentary Re:Generation, you’re probably aware of the current trend of reconfiguring rock, pop, and other music forms by spicing ’em up with various electronica elements. But as any chef will tell you, sometimes the whole doesn’t wind up tastier than the sum of its ingredients…
To paraphrase the common axiom: In show business, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you. Phoenix-based hip-hop crew Weird Is the New Cool counts Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash, radio DJs Johnjay and Rich, and MTV favorite Gym Class Heroes among its admirers, achieving recognition for its…
Over the past few years, Blake Ludera (a.k.a. Ill-legal?), Mary Mahan, and the other bassheads behind the scenes at UK Thursdays have worked their collective asses off to make the dance night famous among EDM fans as the best place in the Valley to hear dubstep. Thing is, the weekly…
You probably knew a kid like Randy Randall in high school — a skateboarder and crate-digger with his own sense of fashion, generally seen plugged into a Walkman. (These were pre-iPod days.) One day, a girl at school asked him what he was jamming out to, and Rogers answered, “Scratch…
To clear her mind after a lengthy stretch of touring, songwriter Erika Wennerstrom hit the road again, this time alone, finding both solace and inspiration in the wide-open spaces of West Texas rangeland. What came from Wennerstrom’s peaceful isolation is the Heartless Bastards’ fourth and best album, Arrow, a stout…
Thursday 29 16th Street Bar & Grill: Kickback Thursdays with DJ Cedric Ceballos (hip-hop, classics, neo-soul, reggae, R&B, Top 40, old school) Afterlife: Beat the Scene Thursdays (electronica, dance, remixes) Bar Smith: Double Vision Thursday with DJ Kyko, DJ Idenaty, & DJ Dario (Latin, hip-hop) Bobby Q’s: DJ Phlava, MC…
