A great week for show announcements, as we’ve got indie faves The Black Lips, Cursive, Gaslight Anthem, and The Little Ones coming.Oh, and Fall Out Boy. You know, for kids.The Black Lips (above) have a druggy, melodic sound they call “psych-punk,” which strikes me as something like The Stooges playing…
So you’ve read this week’s music feature on Back Ted N-Ted’s Ryan Breen and you’re asking yourself, “where can I see more of these guys?” We’ve got two words for you: slide show. That’s right, if you haven’t seen it already, peep these shots from Back Ted N-Ted’s show at The…
Car collectors with discerning eyes and deep wallets cruised the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction in Scottsdale. Their prey: hundreds of glistening vehicles waiting to go home with the highest bidder. And we mean high. Consider this slide show of car porn NSFW (not safe for wallets)…
Does a show featuring Bad Religion, The Used, and Slightly Stoopid scream St. Patrick’s Day to you? Yeah, us neither. Tempe Beach Park will have the three bands perform as part of its annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration, which fittingly featured the Irish punk-rock band Flogging Molly in years past…
Remember when the big fat Mother Superior in The Sound of Music told Sister Maria that every time the Lord closes a door somewhere, He opens a window? Well, Ryan Breen’s career trajectory has been something like that, except, perhaps, without the divine intervention part. No matter how benevolent a…
As one of contemporary R&B’s brightest stars, John Legend possesses Grammys and hits galore. But could he be any blander? His twinkling tunes about love and relationships are serviceable and inoffensive, nothing more. And lyrically he treads the same ground as a hundred others. Sure, he’s not annoying — we’re…
I Set My Friends on Fire are coming to Phoenix next month, and we can’t help wondering how these sociopaths aren’t incarcerated yet. They’re murderous arsonists, for crying out loud. Of course, the name isn’t serious (or at least we hope it isn’t), but it is demonstrative of an inexplicable…
It’s been a while since a local band graced the cover of a popular music magazine, but East Valley pop-punksters The Maine will do just that in March. The guys, who are making tween and teen girls’ hearts throb all over the U.S., will have their mugs plastered on the…
What do you get when you combine the talents of Samuel L. Jackson, Lucy Liu, manga artist Takashi Okazaki, and hip-hop guru The RZA?
We’re betting on one of the most amazing television experiences of 2009.
It seems like everyone is becoming enamored of local indie rock outfit Miniature Tigers and their catchy songs these days, including Ben Folds. The Sony power pop pianist is reportedly a fan of the band and decided to tap them as an opening act for an upcoming tour of of…
Local pretty boy rockers Anarbor will be hitting the road with Cute is What We Aim For for the Take Action! Tour starting Feb 11.The tour is put together by Anarbor’s emo-pop-rock label, Hopeless Records, through their non profit organization, Sub City, and also features Meg & Dia, Breathe Carolina,…
Pitchfork isn’t always wrong. They may be horribly opinionated with a healthy self-image (read: full of themselves), but they manage to get things right every once in a blue moon. Case in point: Lemonade. The trio from Brooklyn and San Francisco fall into the “experimental” category, sometimes an inescapable kiss…
Jim Jones has canceled his show scheduled for the Marquee Theatre on Friday, Jan. 16. No reason was given and we haven’t even seen a press release yet, but we caught it on Lucky Man’s site. Also, Jones doesn’t have concert dates on his MySpace or the DipSet site, so…
The first batch of bands for the hottest music festival around, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, has been leaked. Confirmed Artists: the Killers, the Airborne Toxic Event, the Bug, Buraka Som Sistema, Crystal Castles, Drop The Lime, Fleet Foxes, Flying Lotus, Girl Talk, the Hold Steady, the Killers,…
One of the funny little things that came out of World War II is the way the Conquered Peoples of Germany and Japan joyously adopted American popular music from the time, and continue to do so. Japan, of course, has a thriving jazz scene and Germany, apparently is still in…
Amazon just announced their list of the Bestselling Albums of 2008 on their MP3 digital service. At first glance you might not think much of the list: Coldplay, Death Cab For Cutie, 3 Doors Down, Beck, and Radiohead are all near the top of the list. What is remarkable and…
It’s a safe bet the music aficionados reading this post or new contributor Michael Lopez’s posts on Fleet Foxes and Animal Collective are not going to care much about this news, but here on Up on the Sun, we cater to all musical tastes, so it’s imperative we share this…
Greetings, Up on the Sun readers! My name is Stephen Chilton and I am the newest addition to the Up on the Sun writing crew. Some of you may know me by the moniker under which I’ve promoted Valley concerts since 2000, Psyko Steve. I want to fill you in…
We’re going to be overhauling the links to other music and culture blogs on the right hand side of the page (the “blogroll,” as the kids call it) and we thought we’d solicit your suggestions. We’re looking for critics, labels, promoters and fans but not band blogs. We’re most interested…
It’s almost quittin’ time Friday which means it’s time we brought you this week’s concert announcements. Nothing too big this week, just a little Dokken, some AP Tour and confirmation of the Dave Matthews Band show we told you about a month or so ago.There’s also “Shaq & Cedric the…
Darren Robinson, now a (temporary) member of Miniature TigersIf you happen to be attending the Miniature Tigers performance tonight at Modified Arts (which we wholeheartedly recommend), you’ll probably notice there’s been a small change to the indie trio’s line-up. Namely, the addition of a new guitarist into the mix. Darren…
It’s probably an oddity that Columbus, Ohio had a reputation for producing quality country music for so long, but that’s what spawning Dwight Yoakam does for you. But whatever country cred the giant-Applebee’s-of-a-city had through Yoakam was quickly squandered in 2004 when Rascal Flatts’ “Mayberry” undid it all as quickly…
