This weekend marks a big occasion for fans of outdoor music festivals and jam-ish bands: the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. The lineup boasts The Flaming Lips, Matisyahu and Michael Franti — a pretty solid lineup for such a festival (and I didn’t even include Hot Tuna). Those artists all lend…
What’s there to do this weekend? A lot. Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere (or haven’t been reading Up on the Sun much lately), you probably aware that fearless freak Wayne Coyne and the rest of the Flaming Lips are performing on Saturday at the massive multi-day McDowell…
Since my day at Coachella I’ve been asked by a lot of people if I discovered any cool new bands. Actually, I did: The Aggrolites. I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical about the band, who took the stage after local boys Dear and the Headlights, when I first…
Best of Coachella 2009 The festival’s tenth anniversary took place again this past weekend in the Indio desert with Paul McCartney, M.I.A., Leonard Cohen, My Bloody Valentine. Food and Fights: Highlights of the 2009 Scottsdale Culinary Festival Everyone who’s anyone in the Phoenix metro culinary scene, from local foodies to…
I know it’s probably unfair to compare a crowd at the Marquee to a crowd at Coachella — where the music-obsessed kids even greeted the white reggae band who came on after local boys Dear and the Headlights like The Beatles at Shea Stadium — but since Franz Ferdinand and I were both…
Believe it or not, record stores still function in this digital day and age. On top of that, this Saturday is Record Store Day, or “Time to Give a Shit About Record Stores.” While record stores are a debatable topic, a day that celebrates music in an orderly fashion is…
[jump] THURSDAY, APRIL 16: The Brian Jonestown Massacre [rock/pop/indie] With Flavor Crystals 8 p.m., $15 The Clubhouse Music Venue, 1320 E. Broadway Rd., Tempe, 480-968-3238. Grayskul With The Insects, Crusher Sound System, DJ Element, Pickster One, Emerg McVay, & more [hip-hop] 9 p.m., $10 Club Red, 2155 E. University Dr.,…
Comparing Conor Oberst to Bob Dylan is somewhat old hat. It’s easy enough to make a case for grouping the two Midwestern singer-songwriters known for folky instrumentation and unique styles of story-telling, and people have been since Oberst’s days as a child prodigy in Omaha. But what really strikes me…
Well the long wait is over: those in power at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (Goldenvoice) have released the set times for this weekend’s affair. An initial glance at things shows a pretty smooth flow for the weekend, with minimal conflict for fans of the same genres. Picking…
Zombie Ball: Undead Dancers and One Freaky Side Show I was halfway to the drug store when I remembered what I was wearing: a suit coat stained with blood and ripped to as though it had been run over. My face was paled like parafin and my eyes were sunken…
This Saturday marks the 2009 installment of Arizona’s own Horns and Halos’ Zombie Ball. Knowing what Horns and Halos is capable of, this Saturday will be an epic event, sure to bring out the most devoted zombie fans and other fans of fetish/adult oriented entertainment. It’s remarkable to try and…
Does anyone have any concert-going energy left (or any money, for that matter) after last week’s ginormous orgy of music events? We definitely do, which is why our asses will be out and about this weekend. Since Easter is on Sunday, the schedule is somewhat lighter than normal, but there’s…
Wait! Before you check out all the content from our weekend coverage, grab a big cup of coffee and relax. It was a big weekend and as such, there’s a lot here. Take it in and enjoy it. Tempe Music Fest 2009 This weekend Tempe Music Fest 2009 united us…
There are few artists in the same league as Leonard Cohen. Even Lou Reed has placed the poet and songwriter in the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters.” There are few as respected as revered Cohen and yet he has been able to maintain an air of distance and…
“Have you ever been given meditation instructions at a concert before?” the emcee asked as the crowd sat down at Chandler Center for the Arts to witness a benefit concert by Velvet Underground legend Lou Reed, his wife, performance artist Laurie Anderson.We had not, but that quickly changed. It was…
This weekend Tempe Music Fest 2009 united us once again from scattered Valley citizenry to one cohesive force bent on rocking the hell out. This year Fergy and My Chemical Romance got traded in for straight ahead rock-‘n’-rollers Kid Rock and 3 Doors Down with a couple of All-American Rejects…
There’s one word that describes the Calexico concert at Heritage Square last night: Classy. From the tastefully-appointed stage, to the home-made tamales and high-end beer (Tecate and Four Peaks products only; no Bud) to the gorgeous textures of the band’s unique blend of Western and Tejano music and indie rock,…
Celebrity sightings, beautiful weather, an on-site Circle K and a stellar music roster were part of the fun Saturday for the Tempe Music Festival. Our annual fest brought out names such as Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in the Middle, who held hands with his girlfriend most of the afternoon backstage,…
The annual Country Thunder festival at the dusty Canyon Moon Ranch just outside of Florence is country music’s version of a cattle drive, where over four days some of the bigger names in country music are herded on stage to bleat their biggest hits, then lassoed off to make way…
I’ve spent the last year telling everyone who’ll listen that Country Thunder is the premier music festival in Arizona. Whether you like country music or not, you should recognize that compared with any other festival in the state Country Thunder’s acts are bigger, the crowd crazier, the part wilder. So…
I’ve never seen Modified Arts as packed as it was last night during Will Oldham’s performance as Bonnie Prince Billy. And it’s no surprise why. More than 60 people jammed into the downtown Phoenix music venue to watch the iconic and enigmatic indie folk hero’s long, powerful concert that lasted…
Maybe it was the bouncing beach balls that reminded me of my first concert experiences (seeing the Kokomo-era Beach Boys) or maybe it was the inclusion of a relatively obscure song by glam-punks D Generation (the band who headlined my first-ever club concert) in the before-set house music, but something about Bruce Springsteen’s show at Jobing.com Arena…
