Local boys St. Ranger were featured today on My Old Kentucky Blog, a national indie-blog that is part of the Blog Radio program on Sirius Radio’s XMU channel. The blog focused on their jam “Ohnowoe,” comparing the band to Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective, though I hear the former a…
Country music legend Willie Nelson, whose marijuana use is also legendary, has endorsed Republican candidate Gary Johnson for president in 2012.Nelson, founder of the newly formed Teapot Party, met with Johnson (a former governor of New Mexico) after a Nelson concert in Texas. In a statement on the Teapot Party blog,…
, according to MySpace Music News.The intimate performance was for bar mitzvah boy Andrew Zucker, son of former NBC/Universal president and CEO, Jeff Zucker.The newly bar mitzvahed 13-year-old was glad to have Drake, his second choice performer, on board to be part of his special day.Drake himself was raised in…
Officials and investigators from the Phoenix Police Department are looking into the death of a teenage raver at an all-night dance party at the Madison Events Center this past weekend. Melyssa Gastellum, an 18-year-old high school student from the West Valley, died on Saturday night after collapsing outside of…
At the start of this year, Martin Cizmar wrote an excellent piece about local folk-punks Andrew Jackson Jihad. Though the band is known for lyrically dense, poignant songs, they also have a reputation as being damn funny guys. The duo, comprised of guitarist/singer Sean Bonnette and bassist Ben Gallaty, released…
Valley indie rock band The Maine has been one of the city’s success stories. The quintet toured with bands like Good Charlotte and Boys Like Girls before being signed to Warner Brothers Records in 2009, and their debut for the label, 2010’s Black & White, debuted at #16 on the…
Seminal British post-punk band Killing Joke, who were scheduled to play at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale on May 31, have canceled their entire North American tour. Aside from showing the cancellations, the band has not posted any additional information on its website, but the scrapped tour is reportedly “due to…
Lil Wayne’s new video, “John,” premieres today. Weezy’s latest visual opus finds the rapper in an abandoned warehouse, outside on a dock, on top of a mountain of car tires, and surrounded by bats, while guest rapper Rick Ross rolls around in a wheelchair with flashy spinners. Bizarre? A bit,…
Rapper M-Bone, part of hip-hop group Cali Swag District, died last night after an apparent drive-by shooting in his hometown of Inglewood, California. Cali Swag District’s biggest hit was 2010’s “Teach Me How to Dougie.” The group’s debut studio album, The Kickback, was scheduled for release this year. The title…
However, no one Odd Future member is as intriguing as Earl Sweatshirt, né Thebe Kgositsile. Sweatshirt, who has been absent from the Odd Future limelight for some time, was recently found to be at a boarding school in Samoa. The New Yorker recently reached out to Sweatshirt — and his…
Legendary jazz and R&B singer Etta James has been hospitalized in Riverside, California with a blood infection. James, 73, is perhaps best known for her song “At Last,” though she’s also sang backup vocals for Chuck Berry, toured with Little Richard, and garnered four Grammy Awards since her recording career…
And like a strong woman should, she stood her ground and refused to give her ex-boyfriend a portion of her royalties when he came crawling back to her, according to Spinner.Her ex has broken the silence between the former couple and is asking for a cut of the money she made…
AKA: One-half of 2ToneDisco Current gigs: Every Friday you can catch us at Bar Smith for Sticky Fingers. What genres do you specialize in? Mainly hard electro, house, and fidget (which is a genre with tons of those wobbles that dubstep has, except you can dance to it). We tend…
If you’re looking for an example of the old platitude that “attitude is everything,” you could do a lot worse than Love Me Nots vocalist/organist Nicole Laurenne. Less than a year removed from a breast cancer scare that forced the band into a five-month hiatus, Laurenne is back onstage and…
Manny & Lindsay Tripodis The co-owners of The Rogue Bar want you to come to the Prague CD release party this Saturday, May 14, with additional performances by Snake! Snake! Snakes!, Ladylike and Blue Skies. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station…
It’s with great sadness that we report that Dennis Chiesa, owner of Tracks in Wax Records, passed away May 1 of complications involving his battle against cancer. Chiesa was 67. The Irish Cultural Center ran this obituary, expressing sincere sadness and extending condolences to his wife, Julie O’Mahar Chiesa, who…
Sometimes, when art imitates life, you get a bunch of glorified karaoke videos dressed as talent competition shows. In this week’s “Noise Complaint” comic, Robbie Pfeffer explores the vacuous realm of music and celebrity judges on “reality” TV…
To a music fan, there’s nothing like having a unique piece of memorabilia from their favorite artist — for example, an autographed guitar, or maybe the mandolin that Ministry used on three world tours, or Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis’ MTV Europe Award. To a music fan and…
Local metal band Rising Pain recently released a new EP, War of Souls, at a raucous show late last month at Chaser’s in south Scottsdale. Frequent Up on the Sun readers might recall that the band was involved in an unfortunate incident last summer when band members and several concertgoers…
Get your illicit substances and Syd Barrett bootlegs in order: Austin psych band The Black Angels are bringing their droney rock ‘n’ roll sound to the Rhythm Room this Wednesday, May 18. The band’s latest album, 2010’s Phosphene Dream, comes courtesy of Blue Horizon Records, legendary for its mid-’60s blues…
On the last Friday in April, New Times met local DJs Melo and Pickster at Bar Smith to talk about a new sound they’re helping pioneer in the Valley. It was loud in the downtown Phoenix club, which was gearing up for Sticky Fingers’ first anniversary party, so we found…
Following a decade of relative obscurity operating in the poppier corner of the indiesphere, of Montreal enjoyed a mid-Aughts breakout with the albums Satanic Panic in the Attic and The Sunlandic Twins, as bandleader Kevin Barnes developed a more idiosyncratic stage presence and songwriting and recording processes. Concurrently, of Montreal’s…
