Features

Song: Authority Zero, “Movement”Context: Authority Zero plays Club Red tomorrow night for New Times Soundcheck — a festival which features a bunch of local bands. Authority Zero – Movement by renanvec…

Lil Wayne will be rooting for the Green Bay Packers in this year’s Super Bowl, according to SPIN.Weezy’s all about reppin’ the green and yellow, stating in his newly released Wiz Khalifa rip-off “Green and Yellow,” “I’m a cheesehead/Y’all n****s cheese whiz.” He posted the song on his blog Weezy…

​Welcome to What Are You Listening To?, a new weekly feature on Up on the Sun where notable locals talk about their favorite music. Damon BraschBrasch is the owner and chef of Green restaurant in Tempe with a new location coming soon to Phoenix. He is also the guitar player…

Eleven countries, and possibly more to come, have already restricted any airplay on television. Even BBC 1 radio refuses to play Rihanna’s song during most hours of the day since the lyrics aren’t too clean. Meanwhile, YouTube users are required to confirm that they are at least 18 years old.Rihanna’s…

In this week’s big feature, Nicki Escudero looks at the burgeoning career of North Scottsdale crooner Dawn Jameson — examining whether she’s just another no-talent slutwave star along the lines of Ke$ha or if she’s got talent to match her looks. Whether you agree she’s got the goods or not…

Song: Calexico, “Crystal Frontier” (Live in Nuremberg)Context: When I spoke with Calexico frontman Joey Burns in the wake of the Giffords tragedy we discussed this song, which he suggested as a wake-up tune aboard the space shuttle for the astronaut husband of a famous fan of his band, Gabby Giffords…

Playing for a room full of record store geeks sounds like a nightmare assignment for most bands — imagine Christian Bale being forced to reenact scenes from The Dark Knight in a room full of Comic Book Guys. That’s exactly what Calexico is up against at this weekend in Laveen,…

It’s a cliché, but there’s a reason people say that being in a band is a lot like being in a relationship. In fact, a lot of times, being bandmates can be even more straining than being husband or wife. At least when you’re married to someone, you (probably) have…

Questing for female pop stardom? It’s not so hard, really. First, make sure you can sing decently well. Don’t sweat it too much — though it’s now mostly thought of by the masses as a gimmick, Auto-Tune is actually a useful tool for fixing anything Randy might describe as “pitchy.”…

Although they’ve been good friends for many years, Elton John has finally revealed that he’s sick of Billy Joel’s light stints in rehab, according to People.John told Rolling Stone in this week’s cover story that he has recently been upset about Billy Joel’s unstable lifestyle. He said that they’ve had…

In this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, we profile local pop singer Dawn Jameson (read the story here.) Since we last talked to the singer, Jameson has partnered with Lost Angels Foundation of Hope, a charity that raises awareness about child prostitution. She wrote a track for the foundation…

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. Why did Coachella sell out so fast? Why does Keller Williams love Yo Gabba Gabba! so…

It’s not often that a Brooklyn-based band takes up an interest in Arizona. In fact, it’s usually the other way around. But for punk rockers Outernational, our desert home is of particular fascination. Their members see Arizona as both a real and symbolic frontier, representing most of the political unrest…

The White Stripes have officially broken up, according to Pitchfork.This is bad — but not unexpected — news. Jack seemingly starts a new project every year or two and the Stripes simple, punky songs have seemed increasingly at odds with the Zeppelinesque arena rock of The Dead Weather and, to…

Song: Zoë Keating, “Escape Artist”Context: The Compound Grill in north Phoenix just announced a show featuring former Rasputina cellist Zoë Keating, who has also played with DJ Shadow and Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer. Apparently she now tours solo, using “a foot-controlled laptop to turn herself into one-woman orchestra.” Sounds pretty…

Would you like to see fewer (possible no) concerts played in the state of Arizona until SB 1070 has been repealed by a state legislature more interested in getting a gun into the hands of every man woman and child and making Obama hop through hoops to get his name…

Ticketless Coachella-type music fans in Phoenix, worry not: a good number of bands playing the festival are coming through the Valley before and after Coachella.At the top of this list has to be French dance/electro/pop trio Yelle. Once they wrap things up at Coachella, Yelle will embark on a small…

Need the album now but can’t wait another agonizing week?…

Phoenix metal band Hemoptysis is getting a lot of love for their soon-to-be-released album Misanthropic Slaughter.The band, which Phoenix New Times sponsored at South by Southwest and featured in print last March, put the album up for pre-order yesterday on their web site.Misanthropic is technically the band’s debut — Who…

An internal Jive Records memo that contains information about Britney Spears’ upcoming album has been leaked, according to Rolling Stone.The memo stated that Britney’s album will be released on March 15. It also revealed collaborations with Dr. Luke and Max Martin.The majority of the information in the memo was in…

Song: Abe Vigoda, “Throwing Shade” Context: Abe Vigoda plays Rhythm Room Wednesday night. This song is off their much darker and far less tropi-punky 2010 record Crush. Throwing Shade by Abe Vigoda…

The Go Team’s sound is difficult to describe. For starters, there are six members in the band — one of which, Ninja, combines a mixture of rapping, chanting and singing in her lead singer duties. Hell, the band was strictly a studio effort until Ninja came along to give them…