This week’s main music feature is on singer-songwriter J.D. Stooks, who almost gave up music when the songs that’d always come easily to him stopped appearing.A tragedy — a friend’s suicide — shook him up enough to start writing again, and thus he has a new album called Shutterbug out.We’ve…
The Strokes’ experiences while recording their upcoming album Angles wasn’t so happy-go-lucky throughout the entire process, according to NME.There was plenty of resentment amongst the band members. Things got better after they moved to a new location to complete the recording process, but until then, frontman Julian Casablancas wasn’t consistently…
J.D. Stooks said goodbye to music. After playing with Phoenix punk band No Gimmick for seven years and then performing as a singer-songwriter, the soft-spoken 31-year-old was ready to retire from the game. He describes his songwriting process as piecing together random thoughts and weaving them into stories, and in…
The death of an era gave birth to a phase / Frantic crowds callin’ “nigga” ’til we surrendered the trade / Now “Who stole the soul?” became the phrase / When there’s only eight niggas at the show and six of ’em is on stage. — from “Skeletons” by Lifesavas…
Female indie musicians like Feist, Regina Spektor, Kate Nash, and Ingrid Michaelson have a beautiful, feminine innocence in their voices to go along with pop sensibilities. Yet their talent normally manifests itself in the form of background music in coffee shops. Seriously, almost every coffee shop in America plays Regina…
This week, New Times ran a list in our print publication highlighting some of the most interesting posts published at Up On The Sun over the past week. Here are links to those posts. Should indie rock fans be happy Arcade Fire won a Grammy or not?What did Justin Bieber’s…
Song: Ree Boado, “You Got Something”Context: This local singer-songwriter, who we featured in print this week, is probably the most radio-ready local act going right now. She reminds me a lot of Regina Spektor. Ree Boado – You Got Something by mmcizmar…
Nicki Minaj is dead to Lil’ Kim, according to Idolator.When will these chicks stop ripping each other off? Nicki Minaj’s whole character is partially modeled after and influenced by Lil’ Kim. If Lil’ Kim can’t be the bad chick on the block then someone had to replace her, and Nicki…
You see, The Dears were among the first bands to popularize what has become a viable Montreal indie rock sound. The released their first album, End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story, in 2000 — four years prior to Arcade Fire’s debut. Lead by the enigmatic vocals of Murray Lightburn, The…
Song: Hooves, “Freaker’s Ball” (Dr. Hook cover)Context: Here’s a new track from Hooves — a cover of a Dr. Hook song. Sort of a weird little song but it works very well. By the way, Hooves are engaged in an epic death match with fivespeed (“We’re not trying to lose to…
The interwebs is exploding today with news we’ve known for awhile: Frankie Muniz and his girlfriend Elycia Marie, are totally unstable.Phoenix New Times readers been privy to this information for almost a year (the whole sordid tale of Elycia and Frankie’s Twitter-based vendetta against me is here). But today, TMZ, Perez and…
Eminem, Arcade Fire, Widespread Panic, and The Black Keys will be headlining the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival for its 10th year, according to the Bonnaroo website.The good people who run Bonnaroo have put together a bomb-ass lineup. Other artists confirmed for the festival include My Morning Jacket, Lil Wayne,…
Fans of the Taylor Momsen’s band the Pretty Reckless seemed to really enjoy last night’s show at Martini Ranch.Apparently Momsen is a lot more awesome when she’s in a band than when she’s on Gossip Girl. Here’s what the audience had to say about the show, and read our review…
Click through to see the cartoon…
Someway, somehow you’ve probably heard over fifteen different Foreigner songs on the radio in your lifetime — it’s just a inevitable formality of life. Whether you love the band or hate them, you can’t knock them for having such a long and celebrated career. Sure, 2011’s Foreigner isn’t quite the…
Song: Calexico, “Ready To Start” (Arcade Fire cover) Context: In honor of this crazy “new” band Arcade Fire apparently no one’s every heard of (despite the fact that they had a #1 album on the Billboard chart last year) here’s Arizona’s own Calexico covering “Ready To Start” from an album…
Apparently Justin Bieber fans can be bitter and vicious, according to Billboard.After a loss for Bieber for Best New Artist award at the Grammy Awards last night, Beliebers took to the internet to express their anger with the intent to directly attack Esperanza Spalding, the talented jazz musician that took…
First, some sad news: 2 Tone Lizard Kings will not be playing this Saturday’s Strong Beer Festival at Steele Indian School Park. When organizers approached the Mesa ska band that’s been getting rave reviews at the festival for four years in a row, they were told the band was already…
Name: Blake Ludera AKA: DJ ill-legal? Genres spun: Glitch, dubstep, breakbeats, and hip-hop mostly. I also like to scratch and get into some turntablism stuff, and on rare occassion I’ll play house music or drum ‘n’ bass. I’m really all over the place when it comes to different genres. Current…
Getting wasted while watching a concert is pretty commonplace, and if you’re like me, then drinking makes even the most boring show a little more bearable.But, inevitably, I’d have to be productive the next day at work – -something a hangover doesn’t help.That’s why this past weekend’s Super Bowl (also,…
Song: The David Mayfield Parade, “Noreen”Context: The debuet album from The David Mayfield Parade has been one of my favorites of the young year. This song, “Noreen,” is particularly great but the entire record features great blues-meets-indie vocals and hard country chords and from the stand-up bass playing brother of…
The time has come for Lady Gaga to resume control over your radio. Ms. Gaga dropped her brand new single “Born This Way” this morning, according to SPIN.The song “Born This Way” is the first track to be released from her upcoming LP of the same title, which will be…
