After five years of fun and memorable shows, The Whisperlights are calling it quits. Like many in long-distance relationships, the band members tried to make it work by getting together once a year or so. With members living on both coasts, it’s difficult to get the full eight-piece band together…
For anyone who has ever made the claim that Phoenix has no music scene, I direct you to Robbie Pfeffer, Gage Olesen, and Rubber Brother Records. Since June, the partners have been running their successful cassette tape label and providing Phoenix with some of the most eclectic, community-based, do-it-yourself shows…
By Jeremiah Toller Once upon a time in the late 90’s or early 2000s, I paid 35-plus bucks for a ticket, drove with friends for hours for hours and hours to Wisconsin to see DJ Swamp perform at a huge rave with probably a couple thousand people. No, wait, for…
Welcome to the holiday season nexus. Please turn in your seasonally appropriate pop songs. Please return to the city where you work. Please await further instructions. Do not think about New Year’s Eve. It’s not here yet and kind of a disappointment anyway. (View our complete concert calendar here.)…
Musical hotspots seem to circulate around the country. Hair metal was birthed along the Sunset Strip in late-1980s Los Angeles, but before those boys started teasing their hair and wearing makeup there was a counter-culture movement (mostly make-up free) that happened decades earlier and just a few miles further west…
By Nathan Smith These days, swing revivalists seem to have comfortably settled into their own niche in the music industry. Brian Setzer has cornered the market in playing swingin’ Christmas carols to grown folks; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, out on its own Christmas tour all month, will play a post-Christmas…
December 28, even when it isn’t a Saturday, is the least essential day of the year. You’re still stuck firmly in the middle of the holidays, but the holiday that’s the reason for the euphemistic season is already past, leaving the red and green decorations around town looking a little…
According to Sister Lip drummer Ariel Monet, the “Lippians” have been playing Long Wongs at the Firehouse every Monday for the past seven months. But even playing the venue once a week and competing with the day before Christmas Eve couldn’t stop Sister Lip from packing the room December 23…
There’s a big, two-day hole cut into our concert schedule this week, on account of Jesus’ birthday (observed), but I’ll be damned if this weekly Phoenix-concert-listings feature goes dark on my (and Jesus’) watch. We may or may not get to five shows, but let’s give it a shot…
On some weekends, it’s a toss-up as to what’s the best show in town. The weekend of December 20 was not one of those weekends. Black Carl and Dry River Yacht Club playing their final sets of 2013 was obviously the place to be for Phoenix music aficionados Friday night,…
A second round of performers at the 2014 Country Thunder was announced on Saturday, adding to the already packed line-up. Joining headlining artists Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, and the Band Perry will be Thompson Square, Cassadee Pope, Tyler Farr, Easton Corbin and LoCash Cowboys. The four day festival kicks off…
This set of concert recommendations won’t apply to everyone, because we don’t have one that takes place in an airport on your way back to your parents’ house. But if you’re sticking around, like me, you’ve got some options. Like Up on the Sun on Facebook or follow us on…
Last night Willie Nelson & Family played to a sold-out crowd at Celebrity Theatre–and it was quite the family affair. Not just because Nelson had about half of his own immediate family members on stage, but because the intimate setting embraced a crowd that was as comfortable with other Willie…
Country music legend, activist, author, poet, actor–Willie Nelson fits into any one of these categories. He helped shape outlaw country towards the end of the 1960s, by bringing country artists who felt restricted by the Nashville sound together with “hippie” rock musicians, and his classic, low-key voice, timeless melodies, and…
It happened. Whatever else you can say about this year’s inaugural True Music Festival in Scottsdale, the ambitious one-day festival went off mostly hitch-free, bringing The Flaming Lips, Wiz Khalifa, and Bassnectar, among others, to town for a very appreciative audience. This is that audience–sweatshirted, in large groups, and, if…
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the venues, most people weren’t really doing all that much. But they were doing something, and here are five shows that will give you something to do whether you’re in the spirit or not. (View our complete concert calendar here.)…
It’s a big weekend for shows, to say the least. Or, to rephrase, a weekend that’s filled with big shows. You’ve got the nu-metal gods of Korn headlining KUPD’s holiday show tonight while Snoop Lion Snoop Dogg Nemo Hoes Snoopadelic doing his DJ thing in Scottsdale on Saturday. And, of…
When opportunity knocks, local rock and rollers The Black Moods are usually the first ones to answer. On Saturday, December 14, at the True Music Festival, the Black Moods will be part of a group of artists ranging from the psychedelic sound of the Flaming Lips all the way to…
It’s probably a good idea to avoid people who quote Doors lyrics in everyday conversation — unless, of course, it’s John Densmore, timekeeper for the legendary group. He earned that right, having to live with those words and Jim Morrison’s predilection for acting them out onstage and in real life…
The psychedelic and theatrical harmony of The Flaming Lips has stood the test of time. Since forming in Oklahoma City 30 years ago the band has bridged the generations by appealing to everyone from the counterculture of the past to the rave-heavy subculture of today. It seems fitting then, that…
Yeezus. Yeezy. Kanye. Ye. Call him what you will, but if last night is any indication Yeezus will go down as one of the best tours of all time, with or without Grammy nominations. Kanye West made sure to mention that his latest record only received two nominations for a…
Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra really packed the people in to the partitioned Crescent Ballroom on Sunday night having easily more than 200 people arrive ready to dance for their fifth show ever, and their first since June. The group, which describes itself as a “musical collective,” consists of 14 musicians–and among…
