Sera Cahoone is hilarious. Don’t believe it? Ask. “I am a pretty hilarious person,” the singer/songwriter laughs, discussing “Rumpshaker,” one of 12 excellent country rock songs on her latest record, Deer Creek Canyon. But “Rumpshaker” isn’t exactly a joke. Lyrically, it’s far from it. “I know you, at the time…
There’s no better illustration of the fine line between brilliance and madness than Daniel Johnston. Indeed, the childlike simplicity and directness of his lyrics suggests the two are inseparable at times. A talented cult fave who spent years and years listening to and dissecting the Beatles, Johnston has a gift…
“Don’t rock the boat, sink it!” commands the anonymous scribe behind I Hate Indie Rock, a fiery Twitter account that has been launching crust-punk-tinged salvos at publicists, nostalgia and vapidity in the indie rock realm. The account has been around only since October, and at this point, the feed has…
Do you hear that? Off in the distance? It’s the sound of a bass guitar being slapped. Furiously slapped. That’s kinda what Les Claypool (Primus, Oysterhead, Frog Brigade) does, and I’m betting that’s what he’ll be doing with his Duo de Twang (Claypol plus MIRV) on Sunday, March 24. The…
The Blasters will be hitting The Rhythm Room on Saturday, December 15th. They’ll no doubt be pushing their latest album, Fun on Saturday Night, a 12-track joyride through rockabilly and blues territory. The album also includes a June Carter Cash cover of “Jackson” with X’s Exene Cervenka. After thirty years…
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…
The journey known as “Vintage 2012” is almost complete. Not finished, but it’s most certainly arriving at a fairly calm station. No more 2 a.m. panic-related insomnia attacks, where I stare at the ceiling going over and over the logistics of a tiny workspace. I’m not about to kid myself;…
Following the disintegration of electroclash hardcore hip-hop outfit Death Grip’s relationship with their label, Epic Records, has been as drama-filled as a reality TV show. It seems to have started when Epic pushed back the due date for a follow-up to their debut, The Money Store, so Death Grips leaked…
Starfucker’s highly danceable beats put the band in league with Neon Indian and Passion Pit, but frontman Joshua Hodges brings enough lyrical insight to the table to have you thinking and boogieing. Hodges has something of a fetish for The Grim Reaper’s handiwork, even searching out the original copy of…
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…
The news waits for no one — at least that’s what we read somewhere — so it’s perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of…
Indiia Wilmott Wilmott is the owner of Yes to the Arts, a T-shirt vendor that donates profits to arts programming to Arizona schools. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? 95.5-FM. It’s an…
Tyler Sherman has been privy to more than a few major ragers, despite the embryonic nature of his DJ career. As his alter ego DJ Munition, the ASU student, who’s currently pursing a bachelors degree in chemical engineering, has only been in the track-dropping biz for a mere four years,…
Chances are some of you slackers are sleeping off a wicked hangover caused no doubt by an overkill of sweetened Halloween libations and tiny boxes of Nerds candy. If I’m striking a chord, some of you are going to be looking for a remedy to cure your dehydrated bodies. Instead…
Oh, foolish, foolish record industry! You could’ve saved yourself once — maybe twice over — if only you had you listened to forward-thinkers like Otto D’Agnolo. In 2005, the producer/owner of Chaton Recording Studios wrote a slim volume, The Music Business Is Burning Down, Thank God, in which he foreshadowed…
Mike Watt doesn’t waste time. Picking up the phone in San Pedro, the town he’s called home since his childhood, he answers with a distinct, direct bark: “Watt!” He plays music the same way he greets interviewers, with no time for introductions and pleasantries. We’ll recap anyway: He was one-third…
Nirvana or Pearl Jam? It’s the Beatles-or-Stones query of the flannel era, a sort of musical litmus test, almost a line in the sand. Nirvana, of course, has the tragedy going for it (like The Beatles), and the successful followup projects (Foo Fighters is Nirvana’s Wings, and Eyes Adrift is,…
Officials from the Tempe Police Department recently arrested a second suspect in connection with the now-infamous shootings that took place outside of the Clubhouse Music Venue earlier this year. According to documents from Maricopa County Superior Court obtained by Up on the Sun, Tempe cops apprehended Bryston Zavion Ware a…
There’s nothing more annoying than when your boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend just can’t move on — especially when it involves her posting adorable animal pictures on his Facebook page. It’s that kind of ex-girlfriend misbehavior that inspired local musician Haley Grigaitis, aka Ruca, to write the bluesy song, “Hands Off.” “‘Hands Off’…
Our man about town, Alice Cooper is a busy guy. In addition to all that rocking and rolling, he’s currently holding down the Halloween guest editor spot over at Village Voice’s Sound of the City blog. And of course, he’s ironing out the details of his annual Christmas Pudding event…
When The Compound Grill closed in April, 2012, it set the future of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival, which had taken place there since 2010, in uncertain light. See also: Compound Grill Closes See also: All New Times McDowell Mountain Music Festival Coverage Of course, the festival (winner of our…
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…
