Hey, you know how the Valley’s audiophiles have long been boasting that we do, in fact, have a music scene if you just look around a bit? The big wigs in Los Angeles have finally taken notice, and are transplanting a little of their Sunset Strip lifestyle right here in…
Well, Lil Wayne canceled his Phoenix show. And all the talk of skateboarding accidents and makeup dates cannot make up for that simple fact–at least to Weezy’s fans. They spent days and months looking forward to that special date, August 24, only to have their hopes dashed.
Well, guess what. August 24 happens to be my birthday and my name happens to be Wayne.
In honor of that coincidence and to give the Lil Wayne-loving public something to mull over in their free time I came up with a somewhat-contrived and very abstract idea that kind of involves the rap artist.
Arizona rock quintet, Man Made Machine have thrown their name in the mix of local bands making waves on the national music scene. Earlier this week, the band debuted the official music video for their first single, “Victim” Revolver Magazine’s website. The exclusive premier on “the world’s loudest rock magazine”…
In this week’s issue, we featured a story about Mergence, a Phoenix band that knows a thing or two about “weird.” We knew the group was out there — just check out singer Adam Bruce’s explanation of “Me and My Family Vs. The Robots” — but when guitarist Yod Paul…
Local funk band JUNKtheband wanted to positively impact the community when they wrote their song, “Protect Your Joy,” since the track was inspired by news of young people committing suicide as a result of bullying. “I was a small kid and bullied quite a bit growing up,” says singer/guitarist Marten…
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. Why is College Dropouts returning to the same location where it closed only months ago? What…
Just a few weeks ago, Beef Vegan of KWSS 106.7’s The Morning Infidelity asked New Times music editor Jason Woodbury when the Black Bottom Lighters should expect a write-up in our humble alt-weekly. While the band was sitting in the studio. Not that we’re feeling the pressure — the Glendale…
Jean Grae comes across as the kind of lyricist you don’t want to mess with. “You Don’t Like It (So What),” from her forthcoming album, Cake or Death, states it plainly: “I’m like Judy Bloom with uzis.” You wouldn’t expect DJ LES735 (a.k.a. Luis Sias), who will be spinning at…
Patrick Stump didn’t just lose three of his bandmates when he started his solo career. The former Fall Out Boy frontman also tossed out those signature hats and shed a bunch of weight, too, recasting himself as a svelte and sexy singer with a personal style that favors bow ties…
Even though Prince’s control-freak tendencies made him itch to play every instrument himself in his first band, Grand Central Corporation, friend and guitarist Morris Day swung his swanky balls around enough to earn a place in the little guy’s future collaborative royalty. Day’s song “Partyup” ended up on Prince’s genre-ravaging…
Of all the Rock and Roll Hall’s glaring omissions, it’s hard to beat the institution’s blind eye toward the “Wizard of Osmond” himself. When The Osmonds abandoned their barbershop quartet revival campaign and recorded “One Bad Apple,” a song that Motown had rejected for the Jackson 5, it ended the…
There’s a killer song by ’80s doom-metalheads Saint Vitus called “Born Too Late,” and the song’s subject fits Tempe-based roots-rock band The Smith Family Band well. The music of Derek and Ryan Smith doesn’t have anything to do with the sludgy guitars and crawling tempos of Saint Vitus, owing its…
How can a self-respecting weirdo rock ‘n’ roll songwriter stand apart from the crowd? How does one manage to craft songs about typical tropes (love, freedom, and self-discovery) without sounding, well, typical? For Adam Bruce, the frontman of Tempe-based indie-blues quartet Mergence, the answer is simple and unexpected: Wrap those…
BIG FREEDIA IS SHAKING BOOTIES AND TAKING NAMES. The evolution of “bounce music” in New Orleans has been a strange one. For more than two decades, New Orleans DJs have been using the same two hip-hop samples to get parties moving — the Showboys’ “Drag Rap (Triggerman)” and Cameron Paul’s…
Atmosphere, the duo of Sean Daley (a.k.a. Slug) and Anthony Davis (a.k.a. Ant) has been a commanding force in indie hip-hop since the group formed in 1989. Not only did the two help found Minneapolis-based Rhymesayers Entertainment, but their 2003 release, Seven’s Travels, co-released by punk-minded label Epitaph, helped expose…
Thursday 25 27th Avenue Bar: DJ Manage (Top 40) AZ 88: Josh One (various) Blue Martini: DJ Mendez (hip-hop, dance, Top 40) Bobby Q’s: DJ Deuce (hip-hop) Capitol Sports Lounge: DJ JS3 (various) Cream Stereo Lounge: Blush Thursdays (various) Hanny’s: Mark 5 (hip-hop, electro) Karamba Nightclub: Tejano Thursdays with DJ…
Maxine Johnson is something of an RnB legend in Phoenix, and she’s got the resume to prove it, having worked with everyone from Wayne Newton and Diana Ross to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Johnson is known for her big voice, which can regularly be heard at juke joints around…
With so many girls wearing bikini tops to raves, a lingerie-themed party was bound to happen. Jackson’s on 3rd hosted the fifth annual Lingerieve on Saturday, August 20 and did not disappoint. There were plenty of corsets, fishnet stockings, and glow sticks to go around. Check it out in this…
The last time I was invited to a Black and White Party, a buddy of mine convinced me it would be a great idea to cram into his Scion tC with a third dude, drive across the border around the time shit started getting sticky, and hit up this crazy…
To the surprise of an awful lot of people, it turns out that no illegal substances were found in Amy Winehouse’s body. Furthermore, a drug overdose was not the cause of Winehouse’s unexpected death. However, reports mentioned that alcohol was present in her system, but it is still unclear whether…
The concert gods giveth and the concert gods taketh away. Phoenix has been getting a whole lot on the giveth side lately. (Is this punishment for the whole Bon Iver-Fleet Foxes thing?!) The taketh part came with an announcement yesterday afternoon that Lil Wayne postponed his Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion…
