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…
This Saturday Rubber Brother Records is putting on a different type of show — a Round Robin. Rather than have a typical show where each band plays for 25 minutes, followed by the rest, a Round Robin puts five bands in the same room all set up at the same…
Nailing down Boris is no easy task. The Japanese band has released 19 albums in its 22-year career, all with varying material that shifts from doom metal, to prog rock, screamo to power pop, space to thrash–sometimes on the same album. That’s part of the band’s appeal, however, as the…
It’s almost that time of year to enjoy funnel cakes and ferris wheels again, as the Arizona State Fair approaches. The event is known for its games and attractions, but don’t look past the musical entertainment. The festival has started by releasing a few names that will be coming to…
No genre has combined these elements better than hard rock and heavy metal. From Kiss to Cannibal Corpse, lyrical subject matter alone often pushes the envelope, but when bands add elements of anti-authoritarianism and eroticism to their killer guitar solos, it’s hard for fans to look away. Influenced by everything…
Ice-T admitted to “mailing it in” for his band Body Count’s 2006 album Murder 4 Hire. The rapper was knee-deep in being a full-time actor at the time and didn’t have the time or energy to give it his all, especially in the wake of the death of founding member…
