Features

Song: Deerhunter, “Helicopter” (STAR SLINGER REMIX)Context: Deerhunter plays Clubhouse Music Venue on Wednesday. Deerhunter – Helicopter (STAR SLINGER REMIX) by Star Slinger…

Arizona Foothills magazine has blown The Arizona Republic away in the 2010 “Most Awesome Selection of Bands For a Reader’s Choice Contest” contest held by local news outlets.Check out this screenshot for their Best Of Our Valley contest. Have you heard of any of these bands, besides maybe Rock Lobster,…

Just like in any other country, people in the UK sure do like their money. That’s why they voted for John Lennon to appear on the Royal Mint’s commemorative £5 coin, according to Spinner. Over 27,000 people voted for Lennon, which was 92 percent of the vote. Lennon fans showed…

Last night’s Never Shout Never show made it clear who the Justin Bieber of indie pop is: Christofer Drew. The young front man for the band got tons of girls to scream at Marquee Theatre, and you know they were all over Twitter once he (and openers The Maine from…

Eminem has confirmed he’s recording with Dr. Dre again, according to MTV News.Marshall announced on Satellite Radio that he and Dre are brewing up something good, saying that he might rap over one of Dre’s new beats.After one more single gets released from his latest album, Recovery, Eminem plans on…

This news should make some sad kids a little happier at the start of Halloween Weekend: Kansas City’s emo legends The Get Up Kids will put out a new record in January 2011.There Are Rules will become the the band’s fifth full-length and is set to be self-released on an…

Song: Built To Spill, “Ripple” (Grateful Dead Cover) a bootleg from Tuesday’s show at Marquee Theatre. Context: The bootleg of BTS’s Tuesday show in Tempe (shared in the comments section of my review) on Tuesday is awesome. This was my favorite moment of the show, just because it was such…

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 do rock stars do that drives interviewers crazy?Did Sufjan Stevens play his banjo or just do…

Song: Small Black, “Search Party” Context: Brooklyn’s Small Black is playing Trunk Space on November 2. “Search Party” is the first single off the band’s record New Chain but you can actually stream the whole thing here for a limited time. I really dig their stuff — they sound like…

Is that venue in Mesa called Nile Theatre or Nile Theater?This is actually a confusing question. The venue’s URL is TheatRE. But the big logo on their homepage is TheatER. Most of the fliers for shows at the venue are TheatER. However, the listings on the site say TheatRE. The…

What publication in their right mind recruits Ozzy Osbourne to dish out advice to readers? Rolling Stone, that’s who. According to Beat Crave, the Prince of Darkness is getting a health advice column in RS.He has already written a response to Adam in Brooklyn, some schmuck who isn’t putting two…

​In a case of “why?” and “how did this even come about?,” (editors note: to sell energy drinks) once Phoenix-based indie rockers Miniature Tigers will face Philadelphia legends The Roots in a turn-based, Red Bull-sponsored rock battle November 20 in Scottsdale.The whole thing is going down at American Junkie, situated…

Robert Perez, singer in country band Junction 10, doesn’t fit the mold as far as the appearance of a typical country musician goes. But that doesn’t matter because he’s more talented than most local country musicians. Although he comes from a metal background, he was already opening for Shooter Jennings…

The story of Deerhunter is a fucked-up one. It’s the story of death, betrayal, genetic disorders, and really weird names. But it’s mostly a story of overcoming those things — especially the weird names. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear Deerhunter is the phrase “Eat a…

Hating Nickelback is reflexive for many of us. It’s become one of those comforting mass-culture validations, like praising the Dalai Lama or distrusting people with Hotmail accounts. This groupthink methodology has an obvious flaw: The conclusions, though potentially valid, are also quite empty. I’ve never actually listened to a Nickelback…

If you’ve been keeping up with the country music coming out of Nashville, stumbled upon one of the industry’s several televised awards shows, or even if you’ve just glanced at the cover of Country Weekly in the grocery store checkout line, you’ve noticed that most of today’s male country stars…

Artist: The 88Title: The 88 Release date: September 28 Label: Rocket ScienceWhat do you do if you’re a band like The 88? You’re top-flight songwriters and musicians, you get your songs placed in all kinds of big-name TV shows and high-profile TV commercials, you tour the country opening for famous bands and…

I’ll be honest with you: this week’s group has to be the most random assemblage of just announced shows I have seen. Leading this week’s pack is Los Gatos rockers Trapt, whose 2002 song “Headstrong,” it has been confirmed, will simply never go away. Trapt has released three albums –…

Song: Snake! Snake! Snakes!, “Thieves”Context: S!S!S! will be opening for Jimmy Eat World’s big Invented homecoming show this weekend where fans will get a download card for this track. Up On The Sun readers get it first. Thieves by Common Wall Media…

People couldn’t help but leave the Comerica Theatre last night with giant smiles on their faces. That’s because it’s pretty difficult not to have fun at a concert where the “band” is animated, and their antics are displayed on-stage above a live performing orchestra. Thank the Gorillaz for that. The…

A U.S. District Court judge has ordered LimeWire to be shut down, according to Consequence of Sound. Four years ago, 13 record companies sued Lime Wire LLC so that their company and their artists could properly be paid for their hard work.The LimeWire program is the only part of the…

Song: Built To Spill, “Pat”Context: BTS is scheduled to perform at Marquee Theatre tonight. Built to Spill – Pat…