This Weekend: Breaking Dawn, Discount Assassin and Pret-a-Porter

By Jonathan McNamara Friday August 1: Breaking Dawn midnight release party at Changing Hands Bookstore Twilight Series fans are too busy scanning the internet for details about the upcoming book in the series. Harry Potter anyone? If you don’t know about Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Series, get your head out from…

Can’t Miss Show: The Octopus Project

By Steve Jansen The Octopus Project: What dreams are made of I had a strange dream last night. Possibly because I knew I was writing about The Octopus Project today, or I am truly super jacked up to see the Austin-based noise/rock ensemble. Either way, the dream went something like…

This Weekend’s Top Picks: Minibosses, The Dark Knight

By Jonathan McNamara Friday July 18: Minibosses at The Ruby Room If you’ve been perusing Up on the Sun’s podcast entries you already know that the bossest of video game music-based bands will be hitting the Ruby Room tonight. See you there? Saturday July 19: The Dark Knight Has Heath…

Summer of Sound headliner B-Side Players diss locals

By Steve Jansen The B-Side Players apparently aren’t digging some of our local jazz acts. The other night, I ran into Ted Sistrunk, who played bass for two of the four local bands on the New Times Summer of Sound: Jazz bill on Friday, July 11. (I was at The…

Unlimited Enthusiasm 2008 at Modified Arts

By Sarah Ventre Better Than: Any other rainy Sunday afternoon with about 100 underage kids. Ah, summertime! It is a time for remembering one’s youth from endless days of swimming to eating ice-cold watermelon and who can forget summer camp? Certainly not the good folks at Unlimited Enthusiasm, a summer…

Little Pieces at Modified Arts

By Joseph Golfen Better than: a sauna, but not by much. The little, wooden stage at the Modified Arts was sweltering. The air was still and thick with the type of humidity that rolls in with the monsoons every summer. “I know you guys probably get tired of bands coming…

Kirkwood Dellinger EP Release at Yucca Tap Room

By Sarah Ventre Better Than: A release party for a four song EP. The legendary Yucca Tap Room is perhaps best known as a training ground where local bands come up before they hit it big. Many Phoenix stars has graced the stage with the neon beer light situated just…

Alien Ant Farm at Tempe Marketplace for Third Thursday

By Jonathan McNamara Better Than: All the other bands that peaked while I was in high school. See more of Alien Ant Farm bassist Tye Zamora in our slide show: Alien Ant Farm at Tempe Marketplace for Third Thursday Make no mistake that the majority of the crowd out for…

The RZA as Bobby Digital at The Brickhouse, Wednesday, June 18

By Adriane Goetz Better Than: Getting attacked by Killa Beez Wu Tang Clan master, The RZA, i.e. Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah, is known by many names (The Abbott, Prince Rakeem, Rzarector, and Bobby Steels, just to name a few) but his most notorious alias is the incorrigible Bobby Digital. Enamored with…

Tom Waits slays ’em on opening night in Phoenix

By Paul Rubin The best shows are the ones where you go through some unexpected things in your head as you’re watching and listening. It’s really about the magic — the sound and sights of surprise — that transcendent music and performance can be. It happened to me last night…

The Old Mill: Los Guys, and Tramps & Thieves at Last Exit on Friday, June 13th

Surely Tempe-based Americana/rock bands get tired of the Gin Blossoms comparisons. But that’s the best measuring stick we can come up with for many of the bands making music off Mill Avenue now – including Los Guys and Tramps & Thieves. The music harks back to the days when Mill Avenue was a rock club strip, and heartfelt confessions made their way through lyrics draped over solid Americana strumming and time-tested rock rhythms. The sound always reminded me of Heartland Rock, lost in the desert and trying to find its way back.