Features

Song: Best Coast, “When I’m With You”Context: Today is officially the first day of summer. Maybe it’s cliche, but that makes Best Coast perfect music for the day. Best Coast – When I’m With You…

Artist: The Chemical BrothersTitle: FurtherRelease date: June 22Label: AstralwerksI knew it would happen sooner with this electronic music genre. I figured that if I listened to enough of it, I would find something that I liked (and I’m not counting LCD Soundsystem because that’s more a rock record than an…

While Americans don’t take to football (“soccer” in our land) the way the rest of the world does, there’s something special about the World Cup. Something so special, that even musicians can’t help put take part in all the excitement. While R. Kelly wrote an official theme for the global…

I’ll admit it, this one caught us off guard. If we had to pick a spot in Phoenix where Snoop Dogg was going to do a surprise show, Chandler wouldn’t be at the top of the list. Such will be the case when Tha Doggfather is scheduled to perform tonight…

Song: The Rolling Stones, “Tumbling Dice”Context: Remember, you can get your copy of Exile on Main Street signed by the artist who designed it at Hoodlums this weekend. 5. Tumbling Dice by wesdorris…

When news of Korn’s boycott of BP broke last week it sorta looked like a joke. I mean, at first, it was pretty much just marble-mouthed Jonathan David, his band and fellow 90s-refugees Backstreet Boys.Now, well, the lineup is not awesome or anything, but it’s getting better. One huge, relevant…

Everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief: Perez Hilton isn’t going anywhere. Or maybe you want to bash your head in a wall. Regardless, the pink-loving celebrity blogger got himself in quite the predicament this week after he posted a picture of the new Britney Spears, aka Miley Cyrus, on…

Artist: Eyes Set to KillTitle: Broken FramesRelease date: June 8Label: BreakSilenceYou learn something new every day, as they say. Today, I learned that the particularly comical genre of rock music in which one guy screams his brains out while another guy/gal croons some emotive, vaguely melodic line underneath/over the racket…

This week’s music feature is on the local hip-hop duo American Negro and their belief that good beats and socially conscious lyrics belong together, even though they claim a lot of people can only get a handle on one, and not both.Craig Outhier talks with Alex Ebert, frontman for Edward…

The CenPho.TV team is very popular with New Times, not only because of all the fun, positive stuff they say and do, but because they’re one of the few local blogger-type outlets that’ll let someone have it.So we have Dave Brookhouser’s list of local bands that don’t suck. Thus, it…

Song: Devo, “Freedom of Choice” (Josh Patrick Remix)Context: Jay Bennett’s review of the new Devo record has me excited to hear it. Devo – Freedom Of Choice (Josh Patrick Remix) by YAMAMA…

In rap music’s formative years of the 1980s and early ’90s, being a fan of hip-hop was often an all-or-nothing affair. Two decades ago, it wasn’t unusual for a rap fan to listen to gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A. or Ice-T one minute, then throw in a cassette by conscious rappers…

As the only 10-piece evangelical rock tribe in the history of the universe to publicly arouse the curiosity of Jay Z, Beyoncé Knowles, and the assorted occupants of the couple’s four-Escalade entourage, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes have some questions to answer. For starters: Who, or what, is Edward…

To the unfamiliar and/or lame, Iron Maiden may merely seem to be a nostalgia act, a once-great band holding on to the last scraps of fame, drugs, groupies and other rock ‘n’ roll clichés. Their audience consists solely of aging metalheads either unwilling or unable to move on with their…

Artist: DevoTitle: Something for EverybodyRelease date: June 15Label: Warner Bros.You may be asking yourself, “Why does Devo have a new record out?” Is it for the money? Doubtful, because how much money could they possibly make by releasing a major-label record in 2010? And, anyway, aren’t these guys still living…

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. Did Insane Clown Posse really cancel a show at Marquee Theatre when their shipment of Faygo…

Song: Anarbor, “Drug Store Diet”Context: I did not realize that these Phoenix pop-rockers mentioned Sheriff Joe in this song until reading next week’s music feature. Pretty funny. Drugstore Diet by Anarbor…

Artist: The Gaslight AnthemTitle: American SlangRelease date: June 15Label: Side One DummyOkay, I’m suddenly having a hard time keeping straight my Gaslight Anthems and my Hold Steadies and my Against Me!’s. All three acts are critical darlings who have released albums in the past six weeks. All three seem to be…

Bad news, Phoenix: It will be 104 degrees today. If the heat is already starting to bother you, it’s time to start planning weekend trips to the high country. July 10 is looking like a good day to drive up to Flagstaff for the Hullabaloo music festival. The name Hullabaloo…

What the critics are saying:…

Since Slovenia is the United States’ next opponent in that sporting event we’re all pretending to care about because we’re bored the very exciting 2010 World Cup in beautiful South Africa, I paid special attention to a press release I received this morning about Magnifico, purportedly the country’s “Hottest Star.”He…

Song: Ice Cube, “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It”Context: Hard to believe it, but Ice Cube is 41 today. Happy birthday, O’Shea. Ice Cube Gangsta rap made me do it…