Name: Steven Chung AKA: DJ Tranzit Current nights: Giant Wednesdays at Cream Stereo Lounge. Genres spun: Electro-house, progressive house, tech house, minimal. How did you get started as a DJ? Same ol’ typical cliche DJ story. Got sick of hearing someone else’s CDs at a house party so ended up…
Christina Aguilera is all about reinvention, so she says, and on Bionic, she’s moved on from the 1920’s-inspired artist she was on Back to Basics and has reverted back to the naughty girl everyone remembers from her “Dirrty” days and juxtaposed it with a sweet and innocent motherly figure. It’s…
Here’s reason number 7,082 why Amanda Palmer is awesome: The Dresden Dolls frontwoman is celebrating her victory over Roadrunner Records with an EP of Radiohead covers played on ukulele.The songs were recorded in Australia after she learned how to play the mini-guitar “as a joke” to do a memorable cover…
Song: T.I. featuring Rihanna, “Live Your Life”Context: So Rihanna isn’t coming to Phoenix… this is still some serious real talk from T.I.P…
Formed in 1994, Authority Zero have become the de facto torchbearers of the Valley punk rock scene over the past 16 years. The band’s new album, Stories of Survival, is set for a June 22 release, but Valley fans can get a sneak preview this coming Thursday night, when the…
Artist: Gemma RayTitle: It’s a Shame About Gemma RayRelease date: June 1Label: BronzeratThe best part of writing “Nothing Not New” is hearing an artist that, under nearly any other circumstance, would probably escape my attention. Back in the day, when I was more attuned to new music, I probably would’ve…
Weird: The Backstreet Boys have announced a boycott of BP because of the massive oil spill.Weirder: Korn instigated this.Actually, maybe not so weird: These band will forever be linked in the realm of “shitty music that should have failed to exist in any form after the big ball dropped on…
Apparently someone forgot to tell Mesa rockers Authority Zero just what goes on at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill. The band has a free show lined up a week from today at the restaurant, where I am sure there are going to be a lot of pissed…
This week’s music feature is an explanation of the strange series of events that made Elycia Marie, the girlfriend of Malcolm in the Middle child star Frankie Muniz, who plays drums for a Phoenix band, the Twitter nemesis of music editor Martin Cizmar.While this may sound like an odd twist…
So Much Silence is about to turn five years old. Five years. That makes it practically older than Pitchfork and actually older than Up On The Sun.Everyone here in the Phoenix New Times music section heartily congratulates Kevin “Murph” Murphy on that feat. It’s been a joy to read his…
Song: You Hang Up, “Closer”Context: Why not, right? Closer by YouHangUp…
When you write an album review every single weekday — as I have done at New Times’ music blog, Up On The Sun, since January 1 — you become sensitive to the ebb and flow of new releases. For whatever reason, when it comes to shit worth listening to, sometimes…
Don’t mess with a “Twitter tour de force.”
Artist: Ariel Pink’s Haunted GraffitiTitle: Before TodayRelease date: June 8Label: 4ADWith an audacious mouthful of a name like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, how could this band’s debut record be anything but entertaining and occasionally thrilling yet also showy, confounding, and just plain weird?Apparently, Ariel Pink is a cult favorite who’s…
This week, New Times ran a box 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 should Arizonans boycott the band Stars? What’s up with whipped cream wrestling at Cream Stereo…
If there are two people in the entertainment world who know how to get folks talking, it’s Jack White and Conan O’Brien. Both are kings of the lost art of the whisper campaign, getting word of mouth buzzing both in real life and virtually whenever they make even the slightest…
Rihanna’s July 22 stop at Phoenix’s Cricket Wireless Pavilion has been moved to Tucson, reports media down south.Before you get your panties in a bunch about SB 1070 boycotts remember that Tucson is actually still part of Arizona (it’s convenient to forget sometimes, I know) and that the venue she’s…
Maybe I’m biased since Up On The Sun is helping book The Train Tracks this year, but I think the first video from season two, of local rapper Random, who was selected to showcase at SxSW in March, is the best episode ever.Love that freestyle flow and love the backing…
Song: Band of Horses, “Compliments”Context: Nearly a month after Band Of Horses was last Today’s Soundtrack Infinite Arms is still getting some spins in my car. What a great record. Compliments by bandofhorses…
“What the fuck is chillwave?????” Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast tweeted back in April, when MTVU blogger Lindsay Hood described her band as “chillwave,” after dismissing genres like “lo-fi,” “glo-fi” and “Gorillavsbearcore” in her blurb advancing the video for the band’s single “When I’m With You.” To be fair to…
Insane Clown Posse’s Tuesday show at Marquee Theatre was axed at the last minute, leaving many sad-faced kids in clown makeup wandering the streets of Tempe.Why? The Detroit rap duo reportedly pulled the plug because they didn’t have any Faygo to spray on the loyal Juggalos in the crowd.A statement…
Artist: Against Me!Title: White CrossesRelease date: June 8Label: SireAs a longtime fan of punk music (I made the leap from Styx and ELO to Buzzcocks, The Dictators, and The Sex Pistols in 1982, when I was 13), I’m usually curious about what punk bands the kids are being force-fed by…
