The Decemberists: The King Is Dead

​If you’re like The Decemberists lead singer Colin Meloy, then you enjoy folk-tinged albums rooted in verbosity and literary symbolism. Thank god, then, that for their sixth album, Meloy and his merry cohorts are staying true to what they do best. The King Is Dead lacks a concept — unlike…

The Underground’s First Birthday Party

Does it seem like a full year since The Underground opened in downtown Mesa?It’s hard to believe, right?The venue opened on February 12, 2010 but there’s apparently another show that day (not on the calender yet). Also, the venue is kind of small so they’re doing it upstairs at the…

Vayden, Warner Drive and Ronin Meyer at 910 Live Tonight

Get ready for a night of hard and heavy alternative rock music that’s definitely worth checking out.Vayden, Warner Drive, and Ronin Meyer will be performing a big all-ages rock show on the outdoor stage at 910 Live tonight. Tickets are $10.All three bands have put a more artistic spin on…

Meat Puppets Announce New Record, Lollipop, for April 12

Local legends The Meat Puppets will put out a new record, Lollipop, on April 12. The followup to 2009’s Sewn Together will come out on Megaforce Records. It was also recorded in Spoon’s HiFi Studios in Austin. Curt Kirwood produced the record himself — Curt lives in Austin and also…

The Flaming Lips Play Smartphone Jam in a Bath Tub

The Flaming Lips have done an interesting musical experiment with smartphones, according to Prefix.Wayne Coyne and Steve Drozd of the Flaming Lips recently recorded a jam sesh that took place in a bath tub.The guys played different parts of a song they wrote by playing the tracks of each instrument…

The Rage Music Festival and the Coming Evolution of Christian Rock

Every year at Castles-n-Coasters, 50 bands play on four stages in front of crowds that could be considered big by any reasonable Phoenix standard. Odds are, however, that unless you happen to follow Christian music, you will not have heard of the bands on the two-day Rage Festival bill. Thousand…

Air Supply and the Other Greatest Dude Duets of All Time

Though they flamed out faster than John Bobbitt’s adult-film career, Air Supply can always lay claim to early-’80s light-rock godhood. In a post-Carpenters world, they kept us going, man. The group’s founding duo — guitarist Graham Russell and singer-songwriter Russell Hitchcock — have another, less obvious claim to fame: They…

Madball Is Now Moving at a More Civilized Pace

Hardcore punk is one of those easily dismissed, oft-overlooked genres. Too frequently, people regard it as solely for teens — or irrelevant after the late ’80s. The reality is that good hardcore music does have a place in the music world, and bands like Madball are at the forefront of…

Roundup of Music-Related Gabrielle Giffords Stories

If you’re a loyal reader of all the New Times blogs you may have spotted a few familiar bylines over on our news blog, Valley Fever.All our coverage related to the tragic shooting in Tucson is there for convenience sake, but in case you missed some of the music-related (and…

From Print: Blogs Teased in Our 1/13 Issue

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.What sort of music did Jared Lee Loughner listen to?Why does Alice Cooper have a naked lady…

Amy Winehouse Slowed Down Becomes Male Soul Singer

[jump] Amy Winehouse – Valerie (Slow) by Pooh_BearPooh_Bear has slowed down some other songs, but I might point your attention to his sped up version of Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” There’s a hint of some Amy Winehouse in there, too. Who know either speeding up…

Even Kings of Leon Got Sick of Themselves

Kings of Leon actually got sick of hearing themselves all the time at one point, according to Spinner.”We were all sick of Kings of Leon!” the band’s guitarist Matthew Followill said. “We couldn’t go 10 minutes without hearing one of our songs…It definitely got annoying after a while.”I’d say that…