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. What spooky songs are featured on the Holy Page Records Halloween compilation? What is Andrea Beesley-Brown…
In 1981, Phoenix punk band J.F.A. (a.k.a. Jodie Foster’s Army) released the Blatant Localism EP on Placebo Records. Remarkably brief — the entire record clocks in at six minutes, 34 seconds — the record defined the burgeoning skate punk scene. Though not Phoenix’s first punk band, JFA introduced, with Blatant…
The best kinds of music — power pop, Americana, garage rock, R ‘n’ B — are often defined more by what the bands playing that kind of music don’t do than by what they do. Garage rock, for example, requires very little in the way of a formula: steady backbeat,…
Today we published a list of ten great albums you may have missed in 2011, but one record Up on the Sun contributor M.T. Richards left off his list is one at the top of mine, The War on Drugs’ Slave Ambient. The album suggests the Nebraska Springsteen could have…
On the official Rock the Revolution site, presidential candidate Ron Paul says: “I always knew that if you were going to have a revolution, you needed two things. Young people, and music.” Well — looks like he has the music part locked down with Rock the Revolution Concert, scheduled to…
English rockers Bush, who have always had better luck in the US than in their own home country, are looking to further their success as they sweep through Phoenix in December.If you’ve been eagerly awaiting to hear grunge hits like “Glycerine” and yearning to enviously stare at Gavin Rossdale while…
All holidays have their plusses (even the ones with dubious — though not syphilitic, as it turns out — origins, like today, Columbus Day) but for my money, there’s no holiday quite as much fun as Halloween. Each year I try to scare up a special mix of spooky tunes…
Adrian Belew has an extensive résumé. The art-rocker has played with the avant-garde vanguard, clocking in time with King Crimson, Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, The Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Brian Eno, as well as playing straight up power pop with his band The Bears. Lately Belew has been touring…
Wacky local duo Andrew Jackson Jihad has a whole lot of awesomeness to offer on their Tumblr. AJJ is currently on tour with Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls and Into It. Over It.The band has just released their new album, Knife Man, about three weeks ago. It’s full of…
It’s been almost a month since Kinch made its latest record, The Incandenza, available to stream online. On Thursday, October 13, they’ll be celebrating the official album release with a performance at the Rhythm Room with Let Down Right and Yellow Minute. Andrew Junker took time from the highway to…
It’s been a really great week for Black Star fans — and I’m one of them. Black Star, the 1998 collaboration between Mos Def and Talib Kweli is one of my favorite hip-hop albums. The duo performed “Fix Up,” produced by the nearly always awesome Madlib, on The Colbert Report,…
Andrea Beesley-Brown Beesley-Brown is the owner/operator of The Royale Mesa’s newest independently owned microcinema. I’ve also done shows in the Valley for the past 5 years under the moniker of the Midnite Movie Mamacita. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would…
Don’t call it a solo album — that’s what Joel Marquard of Gospel Claws says about The Through and Through Gospel Review, a new record of 12 traditional style gospel songs he recorded mostly alone, save for a few contributions from members of Where Dead Voices Gather, Dear and the…
Whoever decided to do an outdoor show at Sail Inn on Friday night was certainly a brave person. Until around 10 p.m. the Fall Frenzy on Tempe Town Lake could clearly be heard. Fortunately, the lineup that night were poised perfectly to take on such a challenge and the background…
Get ready for our very own Coachella this weekend. Well — not really. As Christina Caldwell’s feature explains, Apache Lake Music Festival isn’t quite the same thing as that fest, but it does feature over 30 of Arizona’s best bands in a remote setting. We’ve also got shorter features on…
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. What records upcoming records are we most excited to hear? What will the debut record from…
There’s a rollicking charm to Blitzen Trapper’s blend of folk and classic rock that suggests a summer day. Perhaps it’s the bright, sunny ’60s melodies or the way guitars alternate between the crackle of country-fried distortion and jangling acoustics, vacillating between Neil Young and Jerry Garcia like a picnic featuring…
Each spring, thousands of music fans from all across North and South America load their cars with camping gear, illicit substances, and three days’ worth of clothes and head to Indio for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It’s a yearly ritual that involves little showering, more than 100…
He may be armed with a laptop and sample pad, but don’t confuse what Chico Mann — the stage name of Marcos J. Garcia — does on stage for DJing. “I get mistaken for a DJ, and it’s like, ‘Wow, no, this is not DJ,'” Mann says. As a member…
Disturbing Tha Peace/Def Jam recording artist Willy Northpole has been busy lately — dropping new tracks via his Twitter and Tumblr sites. Recent tracks include “George Kush” and “I’m Gucci,” and last week he released “Two Fresh Too Cool,” hinting at a seriously poppy direction. The track is a departure…
Are you the kind of Korn fan that’s bummed out that the band’s new single, “Get Up” features Skrillex (of “macho-izing dubstep” and “Girls That Look Like Skrillex” fame) and abandons the band’s nü-metal sound in favor of…well…a kind of dubsteppy nü-metal sound? Fear not — Brian “Head” Welch, the…
New York’s experimental rock band Gang Gang Dance hits up the Valley tonight, headlining the Crescent Lounge during its inaugural week. Jamming on the band’s latest album Eye Contact is a mind-warping experience, and between all the loopy sound-scapes, abstract synth structures and aural embellishments, we found our thoughts wandering…
