Atención, long-lost singer/songwriter types: If you’re looking to make a big comeback, having a mythical backstory, two stone-cold classic LPs in the can, and a blockbuster documentary goes a long way. Such is the case with Sixto Rodriguez, whose rise from dusty-fingered crate digger obscurity to a star has been…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
New Times’ Carnaval Eléctrico at Crescent Ballroom has locked in its lineup: DJ Seduce, Sir Sly, and singer/songwriter Sareena Dominguez will join national headliners Cold War Kids, Hanni El Khatib, In the Valley Below, and locals Mergence, Wooden Indian, Diners, and Stan Devereaux & The Funky Suns on Friday, March…
Underground dance parties are kinda like a second home to Tempe resident David Sankey. Or, more specifically, his beat-juggling alter ego CIK. Pick up one of those typically cartoonish four-color fliers for the next big off-the-radar affair or desert party and its almost guaranteed you’ll see the 36-year-old’s moniker listed…
Ricky Brindley Brindley performs with sketch comedy troupe Bully Mammoth tonight at the Tempe Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? The station that plays my…
Phoenix brought it hard in 2012. The year saw a flurry of excellent records and downloads come from the Valley’s hardcore, metal, and punk underbelly. Leading the charge was Sorrower, whose split 7-inch with Portland’s Violence of Humanity ended up on New Times’ music blog Up on the Sun’s year-end…
Maybe “two turntables and a microphone” used to be where it was at. But that was in 1996, when Beck released his iconic “Where It’s At,” with a chorus calling out the basic DJ setup. These days, thanks in no small part to people like Steve Aoki, DJs have become…
Think one-man band: cymbals on the elbows, drum on the back, horns under the arms, and tambourines on the knees creating a cacophony of sound designed to annoy passersby. Now, try to envision That 1 Guy, a.k.a. Mike Silverman, as he takes the one-man band concept to a whole new…
Among the many accomplishments baroque folk songwriter Michelle Blades achieved while she was in Phoenix was fronting the exuberant glee-punk trio North Dakota, which placed her normally taut voice in a virulent garage rock context facilitated by bandmates Mo Neuharth and Emily Hobeheidar…
Have you had you’re eyes glued to the psychedelic prog-rock message boards? If not, maybe you missed the news that The Mars Volta broke up, due in large part to lead guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s focus on his other band, Bosnian Rainbows. But you probably didn’t miss the news, because The…
For the excitable Generation Y character in all of us 20-somethings: Fall Out Boy has returned. With their 2005 mega-album From Under the Cork Tree, the Chicago-based four-piece put a poetically self-aware spin on the theme of pop-punk. They laced the album with ironic and lengthy song titles, true pop…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
The Benefit Dinner Concert for Pueblo Band combines two goods — music and charity. Pueblo del Sol School will host performances by Field Tripp, Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Catfish Mustache, and A Life of Science so that the eighth-grade class can raise money to perform in a music showcase in Anaheim,…
Hey, Morrissey fans, you weren’t, like, really looking forward to the legendarily dour British indie icon performing on Sunday, February 10, at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, were you? Because we’re bummed to report that Moz has rescheduled his date AGAIN, following a postponement in November 2012…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
If you haven’t seen Ben Andersen out at any Valley clubs lately, it isn’t because the house and nu-disco DJ/producer known as Swookie Monster is hiding out at home or anything. In fact, he isn’t even in the Valley at all. Although his two-man collaborative project TABS with Tempe’s Eric…
Amber Harrold Harrold is the owner of CamelBackpackers: A Phoenix Hostel. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? NPR or 106.7 KWSS-FM. What’s the first album you bought? Salt-n-Pepa, Very Necessary. I remember…
Zia Records’ “You Heard Us Back When” compilation has a solid history. The comp has been going strong since 2008, giving a bevy of local acts from Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas a chance to shine. The likes of Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Kinch, Courtney Marie Andrews, Scorpion vs. Tarantula, Dry…
It’s a whirlwind few years that have landed Los Angeles rapper Murs in Tucson. A prolific artist and collaborator, the 34-year-old rapper spent a dozen years grinding before scoring a major label deal for 2008’s Murs for President. Since then, he’s been dropped by Warner Bros., gotten married and adopted…
Despite cultivating an audience that includes both folk lovers and metalheads, the gorgeously downcast songwriting of Chelsea Wolfe has been mistakenly typecast: The stark cover of Wolfe’s feral, cacophonous 2011 album, Apokalypsis, showed a portrait of the California native with whited-out eyes, an image she has said was intended to…
Looking on the surface is often deceiving. A simple glance at local band Element a440’s press photos might lead you to believe it’s a typical industrial/goth outfit. At first listen, you may compare the band’s sound to Marilyn Manson, ’80s punkers Big Black, or Stabbing Westward. But Element a440 doesn’t…
