Music

Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tome Morello has been added to the Tempe Music Festival lineup. He joins 3 Doors Down, The All American Rejects, Mutemath and Shiny Toy Guns on Saturday, April 4. Kid Rock, Cowboy Mouth, Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers and The Outlaws hold down the…

Before today I really had nothing against Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Sure, his insistence on saying he plays “Appalachian post-punk solipsist” when he’s clearly a fairly run-of-the-mill folkie is a little pompous, and I’ve always been a little skeptical of failed actors trying their hand at music, but William Oldham’s always…

When The Format suddenly broke up last year, it left a lot of people in Phoenix surprised, because they’d been one of the most influential bands to come out of this town in years.Now Nate Ruess from The Format has a new band simply called Fun. Well this video of…

The two things that get us talking here on Up on the Sun are music and sex, and if you can combine the two then it is something that is going to get written about on this blog. Well, NME is reporting a new survey in the U.K. of young people…

My good friend Albert Ching at our sister paper in Orange County penned a real gem this week: “Seven Unsexy Songs About Sex.” From Bruce Springsteen talking about anal sex with a hooker to the Liz Phair song that’s more lewd than “Flower” these songs are guaranteed to kill any…

Tempe Music Festival has bolstered their lineup with three acts that give the beachfront festival — headlined by Kid Rock and Three Doors Down — some indie cred. The Outlaws, Mutemath and Shiny Toy Guns pad a lineup that also includes Cowboy Mouth, Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers and The…

One of the things I enjoy most about reading the other music, arts and culture blogs in the Village Voice chain is seeing how they reflect their respective scenes. Take, for example, today’s porn-related posts here in Phoenix and at our sister paper in San Francisco.Last night, Niki D’Andrea covered a…

After having a humongous 2008 — and sure to be large 2009 — Santogold has chosen to change her name to “Santigold.” This comes as very little surprise; the original “Santo Gold” has been all over her ass, harassing her and threatening legal action if the singer didn’t change her name…

Most-often-heard gripe in the digital age? That there’s no regionalism in music anymore, that once upon a time, you heard a record and could tell in a second if it was from Philly or Detroit or New Orleans. Often, a record label could even reproduce a map indicating the exact…

In his bedroom, Mike Roberts has a mural comprising old gig fliers, posters, and ads in which someone has egregiously misspelled Smoky Mountain Skullbusters’ name incorrectly. “This was the flier to our first show, December 9, 2001,” he says. “And Smoky is spelled wrong. And look at this — ‘Rocky…

Joshua Radin never intended to become a musician, at least not outside of the confines of his personal life where he always quested for new ways to artistically express himself. Painting and screenwriting had largely occupied him — until 2004, when friend and singer-songwriter Cary Brothers prodded him into recording…