If you tune into KDKB right now — 93.3 on your FM dial — you’ll hear something a bit different from the classic/hard rock station’s usual offerings of Ozzy, Metallica, Judas Priest, or AC/DC. At this exact moment, the local radio institution is broadcasting nothing but wall-to-wall Richard Cheese, including…
For as long as the folk songs of hillbillies and Appalachian wailers have been called “country songs,” the genre has been the province of those tip-toeing between grace and damnation — Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, the Louvin Brothers, and others for whom the pursuit of holiness often…
Dancing, as famed poet Robert Frost once wrote, is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire. In other words, when some couples take to the dance floor at your average club night, it’s not only from a desire to show off some sweet steps and fancy moves. More carnal intentions…
So few concerts come through downtown Phoenix’s majestic Orpheum Theatre that when one cancels, it’s always a shame. Unfortunately, that’s the case for October 5 Neon Trees show. The Provo, Utah, mega-poppers announced that they had to cancel several upcoming tour dates due to health reasons. Here’s the statement: “Neon…
The artist formerly known as John Cougar announced dates for his latest tour yesterday, and John Mellencamp will stop in Phoenix at Comerica Theatre on July 29. The tour is in support of his upcoming album Plain Spoken, which will be released September 23. The album is the Rock and…
She might share the title with Iggy Azalea, but Ariana Grande’s “Problem” is almost undoubtedly the song of the summer. The Florida prep school grad’s collaboration with Iggy has been on every club’s playlist since it dropped earlier this year, and unlike seemingly every other tour featuring artists that are…
Has it really been 20 years since the Breeders pushed aside grunge with Last Splash, powered by the fuzz-fueled late-summer charmer “Cannonball”? Actually, it’s 21 years now, as the band spent most of the anniversary year on tour playing the album in its entirety. With all that behind them, the…
On an afternoon in late August, Owen Pallett is on his way to the beach. He’s meeting “some of the guys from Arcade Fire” there. After scoring several films, including Her, which got him an Oscar nomination, and orchestrating the string arrangements for bands like Beirut, The Mountain Goats, and…
If you’re a diehard music fan in Arizona, you know that one of our state’s crown jewels is Jimmy Eat World. Active for over two decades now, and regarded as a forerunner of the mid-’00s pop-punk movement, Jimmy Eat World invokes as much, if not more, pride as references to…
Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. He shares stories of great music and wacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always zany music biz. At the end of July, I wrote about Five Reasons I Don’t Write About New…
For several hours this week, I’ve been listening to The Oasis 95.1 FM, a radio station that underwent a format change two weeks ago. Branded as ‘Lite & Refreshing,’ it goes down exactly like a diet Sprite — zero calories, a vague hint of flavor, leaving an empty, fizzy feeling…
Even if it still looks a little greasy to some, Grand Avenue near downtown just keeps getting better and better, what with the addition of Grand Avenue Pizza and the recently renovated ThirdSpace restaurant and bar. Soon to join the many quirky galleries and mechanic shops is Allred Guitars &…
When Mayra Sias got into the DJ game about five years ago, she probably couldn’t have asked for a better instructor — namely, her husband Les, who’s renowned around the Valley hip-hop scene as turntablism guru LES735. Getting schooled on the ones and twos by her better half, who placed…
Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and wacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. I was hanging out at Revolver Records the other day, and Andy (friend, former hoodlum,…
Remember that old chestnut from your Psych 101 days about how the whole being greater than the sum of its parts? Well, it happens to be totally true, and not when it comes to gestalt psychology. Its also can be easily applied to the music world, whether we’re talking about…
Dr. John’s August 8 concert at Talking Stick Resort has been postponed until further notice, the casino announced yesterday. “”Due to illness, Dr. John is forced to postpone his performance this Friday at the Talking Stick Resort Showroom, and looks forward to making it up to his fans in the…
At 72, Paul McCartney has had a long, illustrious career — most of it post-Beatles, though all too many forget that the Beatles lasted a mere 10 years. Still, Sir Paul’s history starts with the Quarrymen, which morphed into the Beatles, the most popular rock band, and one of the…
Galleries aren’t for every artist. For NXOEED, better known as James B. Hunt, he’d prefer to reveal his art out in the open by hiding his deranged paintings where anyone can stumble upon them. Hopefully, it’s you. He posts clues on his website of the alleys, ditches, trash cans, sewers…
The Muffs (Kim Shattuck, Ronnie Barnett and Roy McDonald) have been writing and performing spirited, clever and fierce pop-punk tunes since they formed in the very early 1990s. Their first full-length release in 10 years, Whoop Dee Doo, hit the streets this week and both fans and critics are eating…
In explaining the Hooten Hallers, it’s best to begin with what this three-piece is not. The band, despite frequent media references to the contrary, is not a hillbilly band. It is from Missouri, not Appalachia. “You know, I don’t know,” says drummer Andy Rehm by phone from a roadside pullout…
Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and wacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. Generally when I tell people that I write about music, they assume I write reviews…
Heads up, music lovers: If you happen to spy someone trying to hock a few gold records at a local pawn shop — particularly one for the 1977 Player hit “Baby Come Back” — better call the Phoenix Police Department, STAT. That’s because John Friesen, the former drummer for the…
