Some music has a setting, a place that feels woven into its sound. For The Beach Boys, one of rock ‘n’ pop’s most enduring groups, the setting always has been California. But the Golden State makes for remarkably varied terrain, and while early singles like “409,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” and…
Mayer Hawthorne is a terrible, terrible rapper. Should you decide to hear “Haircut” drop a quick 16, be forewarned. But the man has pipes. The sharp-suited crooner showed a deep knowledge of black music — especially Stax and Motown soul — on last year’s How Do You Do, walking the…
Calling the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival a mere concert is like calling the tour’s namesake beverage “kind of sticky.” The Mayhem Festival is more than just a selection of public performances by thrash titan favorites Slayer and Anthrax, legendary British speed-punks Motörhead, and Iowa’s heaviest export, Slipknot. It’s an…
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. How did Phoenix pop-rock band The Wiley One Celebrate UFO Day? What does heavy metal band…
We’ve all had dreams of growing up to be a spy at one point or another– whether we lived vicariously by playing GoldenEye 007 (for Nintendo 64, natch) or we wished Christopher Nolan really was directing the prequel to the James Bond series. Local surf/Americana rockers The Swamp Coolers cover…
Not that we’re opposed to reading, but once in a while we want a straightforward summary of why an album is worth a listen. We’re also interested in playlists with obscure artists we’ve never heard of. Plus, we appreciate some cool vinyl cover art when we see it. We do…
Every Monday morning 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…
Anyone who can put up with Axl Rose’s antics as long as Slash did is one hell of a guy in our eyes.In all seriousness, if you think you’ve seen performances by some good guitarists but you’ve never seen Slash live, you’ll soon be able to change that, and you’ll…
The news waits for no one — at least that’s what we read somewhere — so it’s perfectly understandable that our you the reader might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some…
See also: Valley Bands Sweat it Out on Warped Tour Stages See also: Vans Warped Tour 2012: The Good, the Bad, and the Auto-Tuned See also: Warped Tour 2012, Camelback Ranch Baseball Stadium, 6/28/12 Yesterday was my first Warped Tour in eight years. A lot has changed, though oddly enough,…
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads; just a synthesizer, eyeliner, and a touch of androgyny. Welcome to Flashback Friday. The pop-infested dance craze of the ’80s was so contagious that even staunch blues-rocker Mick Jagger tried jumping on the groove train. In 1985, he departed from his band’s rock…
Jen Deveroux The local party promoter invites you to Sharks and Minnows Saturday, June 30, at the Phoenix Place Hotel and Suites at 2 p.m. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? I don’t listen to the radio. What’s the…
After reading Lenni Rosenblum’s blog about Dave Matthews Band, I considered calling this “Fuck you, I Love The Spice Girls,” but the thing is, I don’t think I’m alone here. The Spice Girls got their share of critical jabs, I’m sure, for for a certain generation of girls (yeah, mostly…
See also: Swing for a Cause with Savoy Hop Cats The Valley’s favorite Lindy Hop dance group are back at it again with a new swing night; this time in the historical downtown district of Glendale. Savoy Hop Cats, the same group that bring you Savoy Night at Hotel San…
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. How did Against Me!’s first Arizona performance fronted by Laura Jean Grace go over? What should…
A decade ago, it wouldn’t have been difficult to imagine the Vans Warped Tour sputtering out long before the final year of the Mayan calendar. How could it even be possible to keep the freewheeling tour — uniting rock, punk, and everything-in-between bands — for 19 years? But it bears…
It’s a title match for the ages: dubstep versus bro-step. In one corner, we have dubstep, which draws its lineage from the various incarnations of dance music that squirreled around the U.K. (garage, two-step, drum ‘n’ bass) 10 or 15 years ago. Dubstep is accentuated by a creepy-crawling undercurrent. You…
Time marches on. And tours like Summerland — featuring ’90s pop heroes Everclear, Sugar Ray, Lit, Gin Blossoms, and Marcy Playground — are there to remind us that it’s doing so, to remind us that we’re getting older, to capitalize on our fading adolescent memories. I was born in 1987;…
See also: 10 Phoenix Bands You Need to Hear This Summer Electronic duo Being Cool Is Lonely get sex appeal. Their new single, “Bones and Boots,” is deliciously infectious and more than a little sinister. Along with the new song, the duo’s been updating their Soundcloud page with remixes by…
I know there’s a name for the keyboard sound that sounds like a cross between a dude belching and scat singing, but I can’t figure it out. No matter, I guess. The sound effect’s hardly the most notable thing about “Kanye,” the web-only exclusive MP3 advancing Phoenix duo Bogan Via’s…
It must be true that absence makes the heart grow fonder, at least it is in the case of Beachwood Sparks. The Los Angeles band’s perfect evocation of what the late, great Gram Parsons famously called “Cosmic American Music” — an inspired blend of country, soul, folk, blues and rock…
See also: Hoodlums Music Turns 13: Reflections From Owner Steve Wiley See also: Hoodlums to Host “Hoodstock” Festival to Benefit Tempe’s Broadmor Elementary Sad news out of Tempe today: Hoodlums Music and Movies is going into “hibernation” on Wednesday, August 15. It’s a curious term, hibernation, but according to the…
