This Sunday’s NFL conference championships will determine which two teams will be headed to Super Bowl XVLI in Indianapolis on Sunday, February 5. Until then, the league’s final four teams will be duking it out for a shot at football immortality when the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants…
Estefex, Craft, Travelah, Sub D UK Thursdays at School Of Rock Thursday, January 19 School Of Rock? More like “School Of Bass.” Last night, the Mill Avenue club hosted a special experimental version of UK Thursdays featuring four local Drum and Bass artists from the Valley area. The music didn’t…
We’re a music blog, sure, but damn, if we don’t love our pro wrasslin’. The four-band F. Bom Smack Down lineup includes Japhy’s Descent, St Ranger, Tugboat and Instructions. Prepare for a rock ’em sock ’em good time.There’s no better way to spend a Friday night than checking out a…
Ah, Record Store Day. Not only is it a time for audiophiles around the world to celebrate the music pushed by countless independently-owned record shops around the world, but it’s also a time of special vinyl and CD releases. This year, Zia Records will be commemorating the occasion with the…
Rich Berra Berra is one of the hosts 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? It sounds like a scam, but I listen to KISS to hear…
The Village Voice’s 39th annual Pazz and Jop critics’ poll is live. Drawing from some 700 ballots, tUnE-yArDs’ w h o k i l l topped the favorite albums list, and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” topped the singles list. Those looking for familiar New Times bylines in the individual…
One of the most fundamental rules of the internet is that everything is more entertaining with cats or kids (okay, not everything, perv). After seeing Jorge and Alexa Narvaez perform this adorable version of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ “Home,” we had high hopes for any kid singing outside…
In the midst our daily humdrum of going to work, eating, and sleeping, it can be very easy to overlook one of the most important things in life: Partying. Luckily we have someone like Andrew W.K., who has based his life and career on the concept of “partying,” expanding its…
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’s up with MY103.9’s format? • Why did Red Hot Chili Peppers cancel their tour?…
How is it that a band that hasn’t released a full-length album since 1996 continues to tour? “If we didn’t get new fans coming out, we’d probably would have quit awhile back because it would get really boring playing for just people our age because they’re not always as fun,”…
The music industry in particular would experience some interesting changes. Artists would have a harder time reaching a maximally wide audience to whom they distribute music, for free or otherwise, and the expansion of their fan base would become more limited as well. Fans wouldn’t be legally able to share…
Years and years of rock ‘n’ roll writers repeating it doesn’t make it untrue: Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 song “Born in the U.S.A.” might be one of the most misunderstood tunes in pop history. Though lyrically elegiac, the song’s pumping synths and typically ’80s snare hits (how they reverberate on forever)…
Since its opening in September, The Roxy Lounge in Scottsdale has lived up to the lofty expectations associated with the infamous rock parlor in Hollywood. The venue has so far held up its end of the bargain by providing a solid line up of local and national acts. Keeping up…
In this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, Melissa Fossum asks an important (well, important to us at least) question: What keeps old punks going? Who better to ask than The Adolescents and Youth Brigade, bands easing into middle age despite youthful names? The bands are hitting The Clubhouse on…
After making the acquaintance of a musician, there is not a single more uncomfortable question to ask than, “So, what’s your band sound like?” The player in question will surely stammer, throw out a few choice influences and hyphenated genre designations, and then probably backpedal with the assertion that “the…
My girlfriend and I took a drive up the 60 past Globe to the gorgeous Salt River Canyon. You should go! It’s scenic! Along the way is a weird little decrepit thing called Seneca, Arizona. It once was supposed to be a resort run by the San Carlos Apaches, but…
Go to an online search engine and enter Toasters. The first thing that comes up is “Toasters. Lowest prices on all home appliances.” Oh, well. Search a little harder, and The Toasters, America’s first ska band (though their leader is of English descent) finally appears halfway down the page, even…
“Punk’s not dead, but it deserves to die,” snarled Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra in the opening lines of “Chickenshit Conformist,” a commentary on the 1980s California punk scene. That decade marked the prime years for most of punk’s leading names: 7 Seconds, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Bad Religion, The Adolescents,…
At some point in the early 2000s, I downloaded a track by Alaskan singer/songwriter Matt Hopper called “This Is the Sound (Of My Heart Breaking).” It was a slight thing, just an acoustic guitar, a lone electric lead, and some harmonies, something Hopper wrote for some sort of 365-songs-in-365-days deal,…
‘Tis the season for counterfeit Coachella posters, as the three-day tastemaking mega-festival quickly approaches and music fans invent dream lineups or needle the event in snarky fashion. One of the funnier Fauxchella fliers on the Interwebs (other than the one with nothing but fictional bands) is a satirically ironic lineup…
How do you define a good “bummer jam?” It’s a tough call. Break down the term, and you’ve got two distinct goals: The song has to convey some serious sadness (the bummer) but it also has to jam (the, uh, jam). Many songs are bummers (see much of the Red…
“2011 was the best year of my life,” says Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, mere weeks before the second leg of Anthrax’s latest tour kicks off. “It feels like 30 years of hard work has finally culminated.” The New York-born-and-bred metal masters were one of the first thrash-metal bands to sign…
