Features

Song: Neutral Milk Hotel, “Holland, 1945″Context: One of my favorite songs from an Elephant 6 act, in honor of tomorrow’s Holiday Surprise Tour at The Duce. Holland, 1945…

The Refreshments are playing South By Southwest.   No, not those Refreshments. The famous Tempe act from the 90’s is still very much broken up. Not that you’d know it from a hilarious listing on a SXSW site which names a band called the Refreshments from Tempe, Arizona. The site shows the cover…

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. Why did Kanye West’s new video get temporarily pulled from YouTube? What is Yoko One going to…

Phoenix New Times annual Big Brains contest is back.The contest is designed to reward and nurture up-and-coming talent in the Valley by giving ground-floor movers and/or shakers a grand.Straight cash, homie.There are categories for design/fashion, visual art, performing art, film/video, culinary art and a wild card so if you know…

The 20-year-old outdoor amphitheater on the west side of Phoenix which switched its name from Desert Sky Pavilion to Cricket Wireless Pavilion a few years ago is now back to square one.This is no victory over corporate America. The low-cost cell provider’s naming rights recently expired and concert promoter Live Nation, which…

No song better defines Jarreau’s long and multifaceted career than his 1983 hit “Trouble In Paradise.” While not his most famous song, “Trouble In Paradise” best sums up how Jarreau’s music has appeal across the Jazz, Pop and R&B charts. Oh, I almost forgot — the man has won Grammys…

Long Wong’s Firehouse in Tempe has made the world’s largest flier for their one-year anniversary show.The shows will be March 18 and 19 at the bar and venue on Apache Boulevard. Underground Cities, Future Loves Past, Kirkwood Dellinger and The Pubes headline the big bills.The flier, meanwhile is a 24…

Song: ROAR, “I Can’t Handle Change”Context: This is the title track from ROAR’s record which you can download for free here. ROAR – I Cant Handle Change…

delivered a killer performance at the US Airways Center last night.Linkin Park fans couldn’t seem to get enough of the local show, which was part of the A Thousand Suns World Tour. They also tweeted about openers Circa Survive and Paper Tongues quite a bit as well.Read on to see…

Check out what fans had to say about the show as they sounded off on Twitter.@codieearly: Streetlight Manifesto has such a crazy crowd right now.@lolmel: Streetlight Manifesto kicked major ass, btw. I love ska concerts so much. #ska #ska #ska…

Thanks to 107.7 The End posting clips on SoundCloud, you can now sample all 10 tracks on the Strokes’ upcoming album Angles in 30-second snippets, according to Consequence of Sound.The album hasn’t leaked yet, but the Strokes made “You’re So Right” available yesterday, making it the second song they’ve released…

In this week’s Noise Complaint comic, Up On The Sun cartoonist Robbie Pfeffer bemoans the fate of one of his favorite Scottsdale spots. The Chop and Wok in Scottsdale, which is a really cool place, recently had a devastating fire. The bar is still open, though, so do your part…

There’s still the trademark Lykke Li pain and anguish felt in certain songs — “Love Out Of Lust” and “Sadness Is A Blessing,” to name a few — yet songs like “I Follow Rivers” and “Get Some” show a darker, more stark path for Lykke Li’s music. It’s that tenuous…

Wu-Tang Clan, Fishbone and Yelawolf will headline the annual Village Voice SXSW party, this year produced in tandem with with Frank 151.If that’s not enough to grab your attention, it’s worth mentioning that Erykah Badu will DJ the party on Thursday, March 17 at the Austin Music Hall.The event runs…

Song: Linkin Park, “The Catalyst” (Kannamix ‘Bday’ Remix)Context: Linkin Park comes to US Airways Center tonight. Should be an interesting show given their new sound which some fans might not totally appreciate. While they still sound a little too much like the old Linkin Park for my taste, this remix…

Daytrotter, the taste-making blog featuring performances by up-and-coming acts, is offering a leg up to another Phoenix act.ROAR, the new project by Asleep in the Sea singer Owen Evans, did four tracks for the site, scoring one of their signature portraits and a pleasantly verbose write-up largely concerned with the…

The Love Me Nots have a new album, The Demon and The Devotee, coming out tomorrow. Over the weekend, they put out a “Thringle” — a digital three song single — with some of the tracks.The new stuff is a little dirtier and harder than band’s other recent work. It’s…

An organization called Epilepsy Action got YouTube to take down Kanye West’s new music video for his song “All of the Lights,” according to Stereogum.After receiving numerous calls about people being affected by epilepsy after watching Kanye’s video, Epilepsy Action took a stand and made some phone calls themselves. It is…

Looking for something to spice up an otherwise boring Monday? The folks down at The Rogue Bar in Scottsdale will be throwing a special shindig both today and tonight that will raise money for one of their own and feature an impressive array of local musical talent. The raucous rockers…

Song: Canibus, “Patriots” (Feat. Free & Pras)Context: Queens-bred rapper Canibus will be at Tempe’s Club Red tomorrow night. He’s an interesting dude — a guy who joined the military after scoring a gold record and who is probably best known for his feuds with other rappers — but it’s hard for anyone…

Name: Adrian John Flanagan AKA: DJ FLNGN Current schedule: This weekend I have private gigs, but next weekend I am playing Axis/Radius on Thursday, Afterlife on Friday and School of Rock in Tempe on Saturday. My schedule constantly rotates. Genres spun: I mostly spin electronica and techno. Those are my…

San Francisco’s symphony famously backed Metallica for a two-disc epic called S&M, redefining how many people look at metal in the process. The Phoenix Symphony will back Canadian Christian singer Jim Witter, who has made his living doing knockoffs of popular tours like the Elton John/Billy Joel piano duel in…