By Dan Moore Psy’s Gangnam Style is now the most-viewed YouTube video ever, and as we go to press Monday morning that means it’s been watched coming up on 830 million times. That means that the single biggest pop culture event of 2012–the video you’re most likely to talk about…
David Bazan was a pretty cool Christian in 2002. His band, Pedro the Lion (of which Bazan was the sole consistent member) had a string of impressive releases to its name, including 1998’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend and 2000’s Winners Never Quit, plus a couple of singles and…
John Reis’ musical résumé includes at least four defunct bands that people would pay lots of money to see today. One is Hot Snakes, a San Diego-based quartet that blends the simplicity of three-chord garage rock (à la the Wipers) with the downstrummed aural assault championed by Johnny Ramone. But…
“Fayuca” is Spanish slang for the contraband markets that spring up in Mexico. These are places where any assortment of illicit goods can be found and purchased, from televisions to leather jackets, prosthetic limbs to staple foods. And it is where that Phoenix’s reggae-punk-Latin rock band gets its name. “We’re…
Each Monday, Up on the Sun starts its week with a missive from cartoonist Brad Dwyer. Dwyer earned attention with his self-published collections, Epic Tales of the Mundane, and his Record Heat series for UOTS parallels the themes of Epic Tales…: melancholy, punk rock, geekery, and a bruised-and-battered optimism, all…
What is Bon Jovi up to these days? The New Jersey-based band is about to partake in the 12-12-12 fundraiser benefit show to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy alongside Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Eddie Vedder, and Dave Grohl. Jon himself worked…
By Alex Jarson Okay, we know you just love the Velvet Underground–you’re sporting the latest fall calendar Urban Outfitters top, your mom took you to get the Warhol Banana tattooed on your bicep, and you think they’re the greatest, most provocative band to have ever graced this earth. You even…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
My original aim in this blog was to document what kind of non-Rush shirts were worn by Rush fans at the band’s concert Sunday night. However, the results were fundamentally uninteresting. Kiss, Iron Maiden on the old guard, and on younger fans, modern proggy acts like Primus and Tool. There…
Once a week Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
As a whole, DJs have a tendency to be rather boisterous, rowdy and blowhardy lot, particularly when it comes to self-promotion. Not so with local DJ Rob Kwik. Truth be told, he’s a fairly laidback and chill cat who rather Zen and tends to let his music do the talking…
Garrit Ross The DJ invites you to the Electric Playlist Launch Party on Saturday, November 24 from 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. at the 5th Street Bar on Mill Avenue. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station…
Center stage, her honey-brown hair falling in her face, Lauren Farrah crouches over her acoustic guitar. Her voice rises and falls in short bursts, echoing in the Icehouse in downtown Phoenix.The Roaring Twenties-era venue screams cool, post-apocalyptic chic with its stark, open-air rooms with towering concrete walls. She’s performing on…
When Canadian rock trio Rush’s self-titled debut was released in 1974, liking the band as a teenager was a risky proposition. On one level, there’s nothing about the band’s essential makeup that should render them off limits to the cool kids. Rush was a progressive, hard-rocking band influenced by Cream…
“It’s funny how money changes situations” rapped former Fugees singer Lauryn Hill in the opening line of her multi-platinum solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It’s a “no shit, Sherlock” moment, but its prominent placement seems indicative of the old showbiz saw that you can make anyone a success,…
“All I want for Christmas is Clay Aiken tickets,”…said no music lover ever. But hey, if paradoxical pop icons who owe their celebrity to American Idol is your thing, you’re in luck. Aiken will be bringing his brand of…whatever it is he’s a part of these days to Ovations Live!…
There’s no way to put it lightly: The men of Gospel Claws have been through the wringer. Lineup changes. A cancer scare. Most tragically, the suicide of guitarist Mark Erikson. It’s been a weird couple of years since the band’s last record, 2010’s excellent C-L-A-W-S. Given the strife, it’s easy…
“Wine makes everyone hopeful.” These are the inspirational words that appear on a sign that our friend Topper’s mother bought for our tasting room. The sign showed up on “one of those days,” and I promptly displayed it. This subject came up this past weekend while celebrating a respectable showing…
Titanic, Batman, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Castaway, The Sandlot, The Bourne Supremacy, Hook, Across the Universe, and 70 other movies with underwater scenes were cut and spliced for Flock of Dimes’ single “(This is Why) I Can’t Wear White.” Drowning, screaming, punching sharks in the gut, heavy make-out sessions, deep-sea…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
Let’s step backward, folks. It’s 1996, and a hotshot young music writer, Laurie Notaro, is writing about some hotshot young Tempe guitar pop band, The Chimeras, for Phoenix New Times. “The unofficial bio for The Chimeras has all the stereotypical ingredients of a rock ‘n’ roll miniseries: alcoholism, drug addiction…
We get it, Ben. We know that you’re an artist whose hands have helped shaped the foundation of indie pop over the past fifteen years. We know you married and divorced the harbinger of quirky alt-girl songstresses. We know that you front one of the biggest bands to ever grace…
