Features

​Name: J.Alan EhrhardtAKA: DJ J. AlanCurrent club nights: Thursday at Suede, Friday at Axis/Radius, Saturday at Suede, one Sunday per month at Martini Ranch.Genres spun: Hip-hop, house, electro, and Top 40How did you get started as a DJ: Rob Wegner was DJing at Club 411 at the time. He and…

Are you planning to see Norah Jones’ show at the Dodge Theatre Sunday, April 25, 2010? If you’re into jazz you should, since, as Steve Jansen argues in this week’s print issue, she’s the rare bird who sings as good as she looks. If so, get there early to see…

Artist: CaribouTitle: SwimRelease date: April 20Label: MergeSometimes you just have to throw your hands up and declare, “I don’t get it.” And I’m not talking about matters of taste, because people like what they like, and that’s totally cool. The older I get as a music fan, I try to…

It’s never surprising when Lady Gaga makes headlines, and given that Cyndi Lauper has been laying down the law on Celebrity Apprentice, it should come as no surprise that she’s making headlines with her own ventures outside of the show. According to feministing, Lauper and Gaga teamed up with the…

This week’s music feature gives you the skinny on Phoenix’s new Musical Instrument Museum, which opens this weekend. You know you’re curious about how instruments from all 195 countries were obtained. And why they’re in Phoenix of all places…We take a look at the old-school, Americana, “grassroots success story” the…

As the debate about bringing indie rock to Phoenix’s NPR station, KJZZ, continues to bubble, you’ll see some mentions of internet-only Radio Phoenix as a possible solution to the problem.Personally, I think web radio is a pretty poor substitute for the over-the-air kind, but you have to respect what Radio…

So it seems that even though Vampire Weekend’s critically acclaimed, (by nearly all music critics except our very own Jay Bennett,) Contra came out just this January, the plan is that they’ll have another recording out before the year’s end, according to TwentyFourBit.Their frontman, Ezra Koenig said that they band…

This week, New Times ran a box 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 was the scene like at Coachella? Why does Glenn Danzig need to watch his back…

Shock-rocker Alice Cooper’s downtown bar and grill, Cooperstown, has been named one of the nation’s top 10 celeb-owned eateries by TripAdviser.Cooper joins athletes (Michael Jordan), actors (Robert DeNiro) and fellow musicians (Justin Timberlake and Gladys Knight) on the list, which was compiled based on the travel site’s user reviews. Here’s…

At one point in their career, the North Carolina trio The Avett Brothers (brothers Scott and Seth Avett, along with Bob Crawford), were better suited to perform at an old fashioned hootenanny than at a classy place like Mesa Arts Center. But though the band started out playing old-timey bluegrass,…

The great “could have been” story is a tired tale in the music business. Anyone with more than a casual relationship with popular music can remember a band that should have been huge, likely an act similar to another act that did hit it big. Mine: Christian pop geniuses, the…

Two types of jazz singing inspired this piece. First, the good: Norah Jones at Tempe’s Red River Opry (now the Marquee Theatre) in July 2002. At the time of this show, Come Away With Me, Jones’ jazz-ish debut, had yet to hit suburbia stereos en masse. However, after blow-me-away interpretations…

The Musical Instrument Museum — which debuts to the public this weekend and will showcase instruments from every single country in the world — is, honest to goodness, to die for. Seriously. Somebody perished in the act of instrument procuring. As you can imagine, stocking and displaying multiple instruments from…

Artist: The Apples in StereoTitle: Travellers in Space and TimeRelease date: April 20Label: SimianI’d remembered seeing The Apples in Stereo open for Luna at Chicago’s Metro in 1997 and was looking forward to hearing the band’s new record, Travellers in Space and Time. At that show, they played guitar-based, mid-tempo,…

According to NME, Adam Ant has publicly stated that he’s made his first album in 15 years, and that you’ll be able to hear an ex-Oasis member on it.If you’re anything like me, and you were totally and completely devastated when you found out that Noel Gallagher had finally had…

Just when you thought it was safe, we have three more Coachella 2010 slides shows courtesy of LA Weekly for you to take a gander at. Long live the ‘Chella. Top 25 Coachella Tattoos The 40 Most Memorable People at Coachella Coachella: Hippies or Hipsters?…

With Swim, Snaith has found his stride rather brilliantly, combining radio-friendly beats (“Odessa”) with funky, subdued jams (“Kaili,” “Leave House”). The resulting product is one of the year’s best albums — one that will be difficult to top for its ambitious and experimental nature.What the critics are saying:  …

Artist: Jakob DylanTitle: Women + CountryRelease date: April 6Label: Columbia”That ain’t country in their voice / They ain’t no local boys,” Jakob Dylan sings in “We Don’t Live Here Anymore.” He could very easily being singing about himself on his new Women + Country record. Dylan’s a pop star by…

Forget the same old music you’ve always gotten high to this 4/20 holiday. Why don’t you consider Anarbor, a Phoenix-based band who’s releasing their debut full-length album, The Words You Don’t Swallow, today. It’s no coincidence the group, signed to Hopeless Records, decided to drop the album today. In fact,…