The All-American Rejects held a super secret show Friday in a warehouse on the northeast corner of McClintock and Broadway. OK, it wasn’t a show as much as a jam session in preparation of Saturday’s Tempe Music Fest but it was pretty damn cool nonetheless. The jam session was so…
It looks like Chez Nous’ closing is going to be pretty permanent. In my blog post from Wednesday, I mentioned how the renowned retro lounge and soul music venue has been closed for several weeks, with no sign of re-opening anytime soon. (And as you can see above, some vandals…
Yes, that’s right, we’ve got another Sun Session for you today! What, you didn’t think we’d just do one this week? This is probably the biggest music weekend of the year in Phoenix!The Sun Session, in case you missed yesterday’s post (featuring Jim Bachmann and Tony Martinez playing Alan Jackson’s…
This week we had the chance to take an up close look at two new art exhibits on display at Perihelion Arts and SMoCA “Aside and Besides” by Mark Maas Mike Maas’ unique blend of vector design with layered, wooden pieces that seem to jump out at you made for…
The Blunt Club boys will offer their first 18-and-older night Thursday, April 2 at Tempe’s Club Red. The Valley’s longstanding hip-hop night, hosted by Bionic Jive’s Emerg McVay, will feature live art, freestyle rhymes and DJ-spun hip-hop jams during the 3rd Annual All-Star Jam which will pit the east against…
As already revealed by Martin Cizmar, this weekend holds a bevy of entertainment for the Valley. Tempe has it’s annual Music Fest and Florence will cast some Country Thunder down upon the masses. If neither of those spark your fancy and you want a fun (and cheap) way to enjoy…
Oh Megan “Joy” Corkery. We hardly knew ye. Wait, scratch that–we actually knew ye really well, and that was the problem. A crazy-ass, cawing milk-it-for-all-it’s-worth single mom whose voice went from interesting to nails on chalkboard within a matter of weeks. Even you, with the exaggerated faces of disappointment you…
A few weeks back, we had a little idea for Up on the Sun: inspired by The Black Cab Sessions and The Peel Sessions we thought it’d be cool to do something similar with Phoenix bands here on Up n the Sun. The Train Tracks, a very cool local site,…
If you’re the type who bitches how nothing ever goes on in Phoenix, please feel free to grab a nice steaming cup of STFU. We’ve been referencing all week long on this very blog about how huge this weekend’s concert line-up is going to be, but “huge” doesn’t even begin…
This weekend is probably the biggest three days of music I can remember in my time in the Valley, with two multi-day festivals (Country Thunder and Tempe Music Fest) along with Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Fall Out Boy, Leonard Cohen, Bonnie Prince Billy and Calexico all coming to town.Think you’ll…
Reached by phone on a recent afternoon in his native Tucson, where he’s enjoying a bit of downtime before his band Calexico heads back out on the road, singer-guitarist Joey Burns is taking a walk with one of his best friends in the world, one he doesn’t get to hang…
“This is the year of the Rejects,” The All-American Rejects lead singer Tyson Ritter declares. “We’re going to conquer the world and this is the record we’re going to do it with.” Ritter is referencing the band’s third album, When the World Comes Down, which was released last year. And…
Fall Out Boy have a few ties to Phoenix that you may not be aware of. The band released Live in Phoenix, a DVD it recorded last year at Cricket Pavilion. Kyle, the band’s soundman, is from Phoenix. And the guys used to chill with Valley promoter Will Anderson years…
One of the reasons we love Leonard Cohen is because we don’t know him. That’s not to suggest he’s hiding sinister skeletons in his closet, but his 40-year-plus career has been significant precisely because of its air of eternal mystery. It’s even more amazing given he emerged in the late…
One of the things I love best about Bright Eyes (yes, I unapologetically love Bright Eyes) is the way the band mingles so many rootsy sounds in songs that end up sounding contemporary. It’s for that reason, and not just Matthew Reveles’ vulnerable, emotive vocals, that I compare the Tempe…
THURSDAY 2 Bomberos: DJ Rani “g,” dk.strickler, & guests (house, global soul) Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: Scandalous Thursday with DJ Juan Rocha (house, electronica) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Pickster Uno, DJ Element, more (hip-hop) Copper State Tavern: The Copper Club with DJ Kavi, & guests (hip-hop)…
Ever since Kurt Cobain, Seattle’s seminal grunge hero, shot himself in the head, slews of would-be successors to Nirvana’s sonic throne have come and gone. Because April 5 marks the 15th anniversary of Cobain’s death, we’re taking a look at some of the bands that have been hailed as “the…
Bruce Springsteen is an icon who’s divided music fans like few other artists have. There’s a sizable faction of fans that worshipfully buys every album, attends every concert, and generally believes that “The Boss” can do no wrong. Nothing written here is going to persuade them not to go to…
It’s perfectly normal to admit you enjoy a small dose of the Grateful Dead. One need not be a hippie or a ponytail enthusiast in his 60s to enjoy the Dead, as the popular — and painfully accurate — stereotype dictates. For example, I enjoy putting on American Beauty and…
If your first assumption was that Phoenix alt-rockers Mondegreen came up with their name as some sort of quasi-artsy way of saying “green world,” you wouldn’t be alone, but you’d be wrong. Despite its vaguely Frenglish vibe, the word “mondegreen” was actually coined by American writer Sylvia Wright in 1954…
Respecting a band for being out there and doing its thing in front of strangers night after night is something we take for granted in this evolving music culture. We (myself included) are too quick to judge a band after hearing only one or two songs. We dismiss it as…
It’s that time of year again, when Valley country fans by the thousands kick up dust in the trampled alfalfa fields at the Canyon Moon Ranch outside Florence, where the annual Country Thunder music festival trots out four days of the biggest names in contemporary country music. After a lackluster…
