It’s hard for me to find things that I don’t like about Phoenix rockers Snow Songs. Starting with singer Yolanda Bejarano’s lovely vox to the band’s bright arrangements and pop consciousness, there’s so much to fall in love with here. One of my favorite things about them is that they…
See also: KISS and Motley Crue Are Coming to Phoenix (Together!)Don’t make lip-syncing a habit at concerts, or outspoken KISS-man Gene Simmons will have something to say about it.”We’re sick and tired of girls getting up there with dancers and karaoke tapes in back of them,” Simmons said at a…
Welcome to Up on the Sun: The Podcast’s second episode. In this week’s installment, we speak with Phoenix-based metal band Landmine Marathon about being handpicked by Metallica to play the Orion Music and More Festival in New Jersey, and hear a brand new tune from the band’s upcoming EP “Bastard…
Our local music acts make one helluva trip come SxSW time. Aside from the drive to Austin itself, many of the musicians take the opportunity to spread their sounds along the southwest with various gigs along the way. Then of course there’s the actual music festival. Although March 18 marks…
Johnjay Van EsVan Es is the host of the Johnjay and Rich radio show heard on 104.7 KISS-FM here in Phoenix. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play? 104.7 KISS-FM. No other station is programmed on my radio dial –…
See also: Tugboat’s Phillip Hanna Talks About the Band’s Breakup, Final Shows, and What Happens Next After six years, Tempe based weirdo rockers (it’s a compliment) Tugboat are calling it quits. “The idea was up in the air,” Phillip Hanna told Up on the Sun’s Christina Caldwell. “Because we kept…
See Also: Clubhouse Music Venue Closes Down See Also: Last Night’s Town Hall Meeting on Clubhouse Music Venue Shooting Filled With Anger, Accusations, and RhetoricThere’s currently an online petition going that hopes to motivate Tempe city officials to reopen the Clubhouse Music Venue, which closed its doors last week. So far,…
See also: KUKQ Returns to Phoenix (via the Internet) The new online station bearing the call letters of bygone Phoenix radio station KUKQ has launched, streaming online at kukq.com. As we reported last week, the site’s connection to the original radio station isn’t literal — though Facebook comments about the…
Friday, March 16, 9:00 a.m. I wake up to the above photo. This tour feels more than three days old. Outside, the morning is overcast but refreshing. While my bandmates sleep, I do push-ups and yoga in the backyard; Treasure MammaL teaches you not to give a fuck in public…
After three years, a music feature, and a bunch of gorgeous music videos, Boys & Frogs has decided to call it quits. But it’s not so much an ending as beginning, according to songwriter Michael Alexander. “I just think it was time for me, personally, to move on. I’ve been…
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, where we revisit the overplayed, over (and under)rated, and the one-hit and multi-hit wonders of yesteryear. Today’s tidbit of information that will make you feel old: Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” is 15-years-old. Even if the title doesn’t ring a bell, its chorus is probably still rattling…
I’m throwing myself under the bus here, but I’m going to do this anyway. These are my Chuck Taylor All Star tennis shoes. As of yesterday, my retired Chucks. They used to be black and white, but now they’ve got this brown hue — and holes to boot. I don’t…
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 were the worst moments of SXSW? How does local band The Madera Strand Sound Covering…
Despite their tongue-in-cheek moniker, there’s nothing truly controversial about Good Old War. It would be tough to argue the negative sides of singable indie folk, after all. The Philadelphia-based trio makes pretty music. It’s accessible. They’re not looking to be the next hipster fad, but to have approachable melodies that…
Nü Sensae vocalist/bassist Andrea Lukic and drummer Daniel Pitout recently added guitarist Brody McKnight to their lineup, expanding the violent melodies that underpin Lukic’s frenzied, venomous vocals. On the Canadian band’s new three-track seven-inch, Tea Swamp Park, the heavy, theatrical group decelerates, if only slightly, conjuring thoughts of Sonic Youth’s…
God bless YouTube for preserving moments of true human passion. Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson divorced in 1980, but not before appearing on English variety show The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1971, singing “Help Me Make It Through the Night” together. As they huddle close around a single microphone,…
It’s tough to be a fan of the portmanteau. Blending words is an art mastered by few keen wordsmiths, like Liz Lemon on 30 Rock with the word “snart.” But for every “snart,” there are dozens of “turduckens” and “Blaxploitations.” Apparently, it’s the nature of idiots and geniuses alike to…
When the hip-hop duo of Kentrell “Krispy” Lindsey and Alvin “Joey” Lindsey, better known as The Knux, burst onto the scene with 2008’s Remind Me in Three Days, they were decked out in skinny jeans and leather jackets, with electric guitars strapped on and skateboards under their Chucks. In short,…
While costumed DJ twosomes are as much a fixture in the world of electronic dance music these days as pirated copies of Ableton Live, there are a few ultra-talented tandems who rise above the rest. Besides the groovy Gauls in Daft Punk, the Italian dance-punks of the Bloody Beetroots, or…
Although it’s admittedly kinda fun putting Lilith Fair and FoxVag Fest in the same sentence, the two music expos couldn’t be more dissimilar once you remove the female-heavy rosters. Lilith Fair was started in 1997 by Canadian adult-alternative chanteuse Sarah McLachlan as a response to the commercial radio dial —…
Reggae originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s — an integration of numerous musical styles dating back to 1930s swing bands. Over the years, new beats regularly had infiltrated the Jamaican music scene and been altered and adapted to prevalent styles. The R&B music drifting over the radio from Miami,…
Making things obvious has just never been Hot Snakes’ style. “Hi-Lites,” from 2004’s Audit in Progress, provides a great example of this MO in action. The song begins with a shivering, impetuous guitar line that sounds like it’s desperate to break out of a confined space and go skyward. When…
