Ten years ago, writer Tom Reardon had a front-row seat to see the punch heard ’round the punk world. Reardon was playing bass for Phoenix punk act North Side Kings, which was in Tuba City, Arizona, to open for Danzig, the metal band fronted by former Misfits singer and punk…
Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and whacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. Have you been watching the World Cup? Me too. I’m a huge sports fan, but…
The story goes, Mr. Picasso is sitting in a posh Paris café when he is approached by a young woman. She instantly recognizes the famous painter and begs him to draw for her. He snorts, until the lady offers to pay him. So Pablo whips out his pen, doodles something…
In March, Gina Lombardi announced that longstanding Tempe rock venue Sail Inn had been purchased by a local developer and would be demolished to make way for a new location of The Lodge, a restaurant in Scottsdale. The announcement bummed out the club’s loyal regulars and the local musicians who’ve…
The Arctic Monkeys will play a concert at Comerica Theatre on Oct. 25. The band released its latest album, AM, in September. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 27, at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster, Comerica Theatre’s website, or the box office…
Despite all it’s nihilistic, anarchistic, and pugilistic leanings, Fight Club is actually a tale of hope and redemption. No, really. Strip away all the brutality, bedlam, and bathing products, and the overall message of both Chuck Palahniuk’s original novel and David Fincher’s flick is that one can attain salvation, albeit…
Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and whacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. When you are a music geek like I am, you are constantly aware of the…
Normally, we don’t care much for cover bands or tribute acts. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with a group of musicians choosing to forgo creating original music in lieu of capitalizing on the artistic works of others; it’s just that nine times out of 10, there’s nothing worth writing…
Walking through Mo Neuharth’s Phoenix home, you don’t get the sense that you’re in the house of a 23-year-old artist and part-time server. She has roommates, but the place is immaculate — like a catalog for redux vintage design. She and her bandmates, Emily Hobeheidar and Sophie Opich, shuffle around…
Many metal heads will know Massachusetts as the birthplace for many vital modern bands. There must be something in the chowder. Artists like All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and specifically, Unearth, all hail from the Bay State. Unearth is currently on tour with Texas In July, Cruel Hand,…
Mississippi songwriter Jimbo Mathus sounds as though he was ripped from the pages of Jack Kerouac or Mark Twain, like a blues allegory or some half-remembered hillbilly hero from lore. The former leader of vaudeville act Squirrel Nut Zippers, a band that crested to fame on the wave of the…
UPDATE, October 7, 2014, at 11:41 a.m.: Ain’t life grand? Due to expected rainfall, the Belle & Sebastian concert has been moved to Orpheum Theatre. How Civic Space Park functions as a concert venue is a question for another day. Indie critical darlings Belle & Sebastian are playing their first-ever…
The Vans Warped Tour offers an overwhelming selection of bands each year for its annual summer tour. The problem with the all-day event is that you have to know going in to the event which artists to see. Because of the huge list of performances, it’s impossible to watch them…
Country singer and pianist Ronnie Milsap canceled his June 12 show at Celebrity Theatre due to unspecified health reasons…
Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and whacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. When I was a young music fan, I just liked what I liked. I didn’t…
After the dust settled at Burning Man 2012 and attendees went home, the team at Walter Productions — specifically, founder and Valley resident Kirk Strawn — began thinking of what to take to the event in 2013. “We wanted to take fire, and a next-generation sound system,” Strawn says. Burning…
If there’s one thing that can be said about Jared Mullins, singer/songwriter/guitarist for San Diego rock/soul trio Heavy Glow is that he’s single minded about the duality he wants to express. “I’ve always been drawn to heavily guitar based rock and roll mixed with soul,” he says. “Guitar riffs based…
History owes as much to accident as it does to ambition. Take the story of how Washington, D.C.-rooted (mostly) instrumental rock trio Trans Am became a pioneering name in a hot new genre because of someone else’s negligence. “We did have a singer — a friend of ours — and…
I love Billy Joel. I can get pretentious about the music I like, but at the end of the day, I always go back to the Piano Man. He could be soft or edgy. Songs like “Pressure” were futuristic and others like “Uptown Girl” could wax nostalgic. He was the…
Will the real Pink Floyd please stand up? Actually, the real one has decided to sit it out for the foreseeable future, but in its place stands the live spectacle known as Brit Floyd, perhaps the closest thing to the real McCoy. With a syncopated psychedelic light show complete with…
Performing, writing, or even living, Greg Brown is at his best when he can settle into a groove. With 25 studio albums, the 64-year-old Brown has carved out a distinct path among folk singer-songwriters. His rich baritone, with a rounded, cozy Midwestern drawl, delivers songs with wry humor, existentially yearning…
The past several years have been quite the whirlwind for Lindsey Stirling. Since reaching the quarterfinals of America’s Got Talent in 2010 by fusing classical and dubstep music together, the world-renowned violinist has released an EP (2010’s Lindsey Stomp), a self-titled full-length album, and created more than a dozen YouTube…
