Kanye West is back to doing what he does best: shocking the world. According to Pitchfork, Kanye isn’t pleased about his racy album cover being banned in the U.S. though.The album artwork, which is the work of artist George Condo, features a nude pair, one with a drink in hand…
Artist: Sufjan Stevens Title: The Age of Adz Release date: October 21 Label: Asthmatic Kitty The new record by indie-music deity Sufjan Stevens is an hour-and-12-minute endurance test, one who’s raison d’etre is revealed in the closing seconds of the record’s final song, “Impossible Soul.” As that 25-minute suite comes…
Benefit shows can be a dime a dozen. And, due to their ubiquity, that can be about as much as they raise sometimes. Rhode Island band Deer Tick’s taking another route, auctioning off a tour bus to raise funds for OxFam International to aid victims of the recent Pakistan floods.The…
Song: Holy Fuck, “Stay Lit”Context: Just a reminder that the Holy Fuck/Indian Jewelry show at Rhythm Room Monday night is free. Used the savings to stay lit, like the songs says. Holy Fuck – Stay Lit by alexman9…
Never Say Never is the title for Justin Bieber’s upcoming 3-D movie, according to Idolator. The movie poster was released today as well. That makes for one more Bieber poster we can all hang up in our bedrooms! Yes!Film director Jon Chu posted pieces of the poster on his Twitter…
Mike WestAs expected a great show last night. Ended on a totally unplugged version of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks that came off really well.The National proved why they’re veterans in the music business last night at their show at Marquee Theatre. The band didn’t even need a microphone for their final…
Those with an obsessive wealth of useless, trivial knowledge (read: me) know that Rooney is lead by Robert Schwartzman, younger brother of former Phantom Planet drummer Jason and romantic interest in the 2001 coming-of-age Disney movie The Princess Diaries. Frankly, I’m surprised Rooney is still kicking around — I haven’t given the…
Local music duo Gomi is among the first artists to participate in America’s grunge revival. In fact, they’re loosening the genre’s boundaries by playing shows with alternative artists in addition to other grunge bands. They’re even experimenting with a post-punk indie rock sound on their next album. It remains to…
Song: Sufjan Stevens, “I Want To Be Well”Context: I’m finally getting around to hearing the new Sufjan Stevens record while editing a feature on him for next week’s paper. Am I the only one that noticed you could slip an of Montreal song in the middle of The Age Of…
Artist: The Corin Tucker BandTitle: 1,000 YearsRelease date: October 5Label: Kill Rock Stars Who else loves Sleater-Kinney and was disappointed to hear they’d gone on indefinite hiatus after the release of one of their best records, The Woods, in 2006? In my opinion, we’re one of the finer bands of…
Remember when Henry Rollins was the best punk rock apologist ever? His spoken word shows were funny, intimate, and inspiring. His stories and jokes were still new to you. That was a great era, indeed, but now he’s a sickly-looking old hypocrite with terrible tattoos.So now there’s a new guy…
Free show? Video with cats playing instruments? What’s not to love? The video for “Red Lights” is after the jump…
Milwaukee singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey has an odd gimmick: He rides his bike on tour. Like, across state lines and stuff. He’s apparently biked around to about 120 shows over the last three years and will be cycling into Cave Creek on Saturday, October 30 for a show at the new…
The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne made a poster using his own blood as ink, according to Consequence of Sound.Wayne poured four vials of blood that he had drawn in early September into a cup, spilled his hemoglobin onto a screen print, and went to town on an Austin City…
Is the world ready for a grunge revival? At first blush, that might appear to be a ridiculous question. For Gen Xers, it seems it wasn’t even that long ago that Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains were the toast of MTV and modern rock radio. Then there are bands…
“Who says we can’t go to Africa?” Those immortal words are uttered by Nas’ character, Sincere, in the gripping (if narratively challenged) 1998 film Belly. They’re words of hope, a desire to return to something original, a home you’ve never seen. Belly is a modern camp classic unmatched in its…
Do you remember the rousing, anthemic song you heard sound-tracking key moments in Barack Obama’s presidential bid? This was long ago, in the halcyon days of late 2008, when the feeling was one of indefinable rush, belief that maybe the process could work and we could make history simply by…
Pop-folker Courtney Marie Andrews, a former New Times covergirl, isn’t releasing her new record, For One I Knew, until January but her label is already streaming it.Hear the album in its entirety below or you can go to to her bandcamp page.It’s obviously no great departure — CMA’s powerful, occasionally…
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’s up with the Dodge Theatre’s new name?Is Kanye West the busiest mofo in America?How were concerts…
Artist: The MoondoggiesTitle: TidelandsRelease date: October 12Label: Hardly ArtWell, well, well, whaddaya know? There is something called the “rock canon,” and it’s right here in one handy bound volume. There’s also this less-formal version, which is mostly the favorites of the white old guard. But we’ll get back to that…
How much you enjoy Tucson’s Mostly Bears depends on how high your tolerance for shirtless press photos, warbling falsetto vocals and anthemic indie-prog is. If the idea of Muse barn-storming with The Mars Volta sounds like something you could get down to, by all means, catch the band when…
Song: David’s Lyre, “Heartbeats”Context: This artist’s name, combined with the opening of this song, made me sincerely worry we had a male Joanna Newsom on our hands. Whatever your feelings on Ms. Newsom (mine? “Over-Rated! clap, clap, clapclapclap”) you can probably agree the last thing on earth we need is…
