Saturday nights are always a big night for Sidney Slaughter. That’s when the 25-year-old local DJ, who performs as Angel Toxin gets to don some sort of geeky or freaky fetishistic costume and spin up some industrial and synthpop sounds along with her beau DJ Apollynon at their weekly City…
The Internet is a perfectly efficient outrage generator. People need things to be super-pissed about so that they can express their social positions to their friends; they burn through that outrage in an orgy of vague, well-intentioned social media protest; they look for something else to be super-pissed about, having…
As I announced a couple of weeks ago, I’m stepping down from the music editor position here at New Times, but it’s with great pleasure that I announce that a more than capable gentleman by the name of Dan Moore will be stepping into the role…
It took three whole years for Stellacutta to finish its self-titled debut album, which finally saw the sweet monitor glow of the group’s Bandcamp page in January. The record is a pristine showcase of the Tempe outfit’s bombastic, jazz-inflected indie rock. The melodic heights reached within the songs show that…
Singer/songwriter Angel Olsen skipped out on SXSW 2013. Though she’s hardly strident or indignant about it, the industry showcase just doesn’t speak to the sensibilities displayed on Olsen’s gorgeous noir-folk LP Half Way Home, released by Bathetic Records in 2012. Those songs, like the wounded but sensual “Lonely Universe” and…
Following the success of last year’s Bloom, an album that landed on many year-end lists, you could say that Baltimore’s Beach House has outdone itself. Unlike many contemporary artists, vocalist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally have avoided many genre tropes and firmly remained true to their dreamy, poppy sound. In essence,…
Well, give Fall Out Boy the award for most appropriately titled new single, “The Phoenix.” Four years after they broke hearts around the world by announcing an indefinite hiatus, the pop-rock group is back with a new album, Save Rock and Roll, due for release April 16. This isn’t the…
Singer/songwriter Angel Olsen skipped out on SXSW 2013. Though she’s hardly indignant about it, the industry showcase just doesn’t speak to the sensibilities displayed on Olsen’s gorgeous noir-folk Half Way Home, released by Bathetic Records in 2012. Those songs, like the wounded but sensual “Lonely Universe” and the earthy “Tiniest…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See New Times’ print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
By Reyan Ali Realistically, a young Thao Nguyen was going to play guitar wherever she could, so why not do it at a laundromat? Growing up in “deathly suburban” northern Virginia, Nguyen was about 12 when she started learning pop covers (“Everybody Hurts” and Brown Eyed Girl” were her first),…
After beefing it up last summer, Tempe meme rap ace Glass Popcorn (a.k.a. 16-year-old Will Neibergall) goes hard for Google+ in his new video for the slow-mo syrup haze of “My Circle.” But don’t hold your breath for the “My Top 8” MySpace remix: The track may well be Glass’…
http://www.voiceplaces.com/bar-smith-phoenix-2563616-l/
Alas, after three years of asking Valley dwellers about their musical tastes, What Are You Listening To? is coming to an end. Today, Up on the Sun has been gracious enough to feature my own tastes as the farewell blog, and after week after week of putting this blog together,…
Proud adult/indie rock musician John Roderick managed to puff down some hefty straw men in his March 6 rant for Seattle Weekly titled “Punk Rock Is Bullshit”: “It’s time we stopped hating ourselves, our ambition, and our sincerity, guarding our integrity credentials in fear of interrogation by the secret punk…
So, Jeff Mangum’s playing a show here this week. What just a few years ago seemed like an impossibility (or at least an extreme improbability) is becoming a more common thing — less “Hey, didja read that new Salinger story?” and more “So there’s a new Terrence Malick movie coming…
Max Cavalera of Soulfly is a mellow speaker. His Brazilian accent is thick, and there’s a lilting quality to the way he punctuates his sentences with phrases like “You know?” or “It’s killer, man.” He’s buzzing about a lake house in unincorporated Phoenix, a second home to go along with…
Last week, Swedish experimental pop duo The Knife released a deeply flummoxing and obfuscated (confusing) manifesto to promote their upcoming album, Shaking the Habitual. Now, someone cool* has uploaded the whole thing to RapGenius, a website that originally was meant for deciphering hip-hop lyrics but now is used for practically…
It’s been three short months since Keith Walker and Brett Davis came together to form the brooding, synthesizer-inflected sounds of The Holy Coast, but in that time they’ve released two singles and have become a trio. Dead Wildlife’s Braden McCall has officially joined the team. The boys initially planned on…
She’s a multimillion-selling crop (country-pop) artist, a perfumer, and a maneater. Head over to your local Albertsons and take a gander at the greeting cards section and you’ll discover Taylor Swift is also adept at slapping pictures of cute puppies onto cardstock and writing gems such as “Wow. Just Wow,”…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See New Times’ print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
Lately, we’ve had to report on far too many deaths in the Arizona music scene. But alas, it’s our terrible duty to report that Rick Martinez, better known as DJ Essential, passed away on Thursday, March 21, around 2 p.m. due to complications from cellulitis. Martinez was 43 years old,…
Doug Hopkins Hopkins is the star of the Discovery Channel show, Property Wars. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Definitely Howard Stern. If I am not listening to Stern, I’m usually listening…
