It seems that Riff Raff can’t be broken. The Houston born-and-bred rapper is the epitome of ADD-ready Tumblr rap; the man is a meme unto himself that seems to alternate between authenticity and erraticism. Now based in Hollywood, Riff Raff has taken on a British alter ego under the self-appointed…
We’ve spent the last year in the laboratory putting Phoenix under the microscope to reveal hundreds of specimens of the best culture, outdoor adventures, shopping, dining, and nightlife the city has to offer. And we’re finally ready to publish our results. Nerd alert! Now presenting Scientific Phoenix. There’s no better…
Stereogum, you’ve got it all wrong. The new Die Antwoord video, “Fatty Boom Boom” isn’t blackface. Sure, Yo-Landi Vi$$er is covered head to toe in some black grease get-up, but I seriously doubt she’s doing it to poke fun at darker -skinned folks. She looks kind of like a panther…
Sarah Ghasedi spent her summer interning at KWSS’ TMI morning program, learning the ins-and-outs of local music. This past weekend, she headed to the Apache Lake Music Festival, where over 50 Arizona bands showed of their stuff. Here are her findings. By Sarah Ghasedi The stretch of washboard road leading…
Lauryn Hill may be making headlines as a tax evader, but forget all that for a second and focus on one thing: her voice. She’s nothing if not accomplished. She won Grammy Awards back-to-back, for her solo debut and as the co-producer of Carlos Santana’s Supernatural. She acted as 1/3…
Madonna @ US Airways Center| 10/16/12With a long history of being a proven provocateur, it makes sense that Madonna has managed to piss a lot of people off since kicking off her MDNA tour. There was that nip slip in Istanbul, and a reference to our current president as a…
It’s bad enough the city has run amok with dastardly brown people crawling up and down the streets. So what’s ol’ Joe gonna do when El Caballero de la Noche swoops into town this weekend? The conservative pricks that run the proverbial show in Arizona have been targeting the Valley’s…
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…
Everyone’s trying to get more bang for their buck these days. That’s even true for the thriftier members of the young and beautiful party crowd, who usually show up early at nightspot hotspots in order to score early bird drink specials before the rest of the population crowd the place…
Mesa reggae/punk outfitAuthority Zero has come a long way in the past decade. 2002 marked the release of the band’s first full-length album, A Passage in Time, and the start of a relentless tour schedule. The band went from playing free, intimate shows at Zia Records to a few years…
Maybe west side rapper FACES chose his moniker because that’s the place he’s most comfortable: in the faces of listeners. Along with his partner in grime, producer/percussionist YAWNING BOY, recently dropped a new record that continues to showcase an abrasive style and staccato deliver. With an aggressive flow and slow,…
When I called and spoke with Dan Deacon earlier this month, he was in the middle of his tour and didn’t know where he was (he guessed somewhere between Georgia and North Carolina). Deacon, who is known for many weird side projects and his bizarre, experimental music, has become a…
Leon Russell is the definition of the term “session man.” He’s played with Bob Dylan, Elton John, Ray Charles, Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, The Beach Boys, George Harrison, and more. He’s a “musician’s musician,” admired by the guys you admire, and his solo albums have found him exploring the sounds…
The only thing scarier this Halloween than a Joe Arapio or Jan Brewer mask is Oculus Infernum: A Halloween Tale, a dark album of Halloween music devised by Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider. Anyone who has ever watched a horror film or felt the fear of walking alone at night…
Ten bucks if you can read this back to usBy Alee Karim Once upon a time, extreme metal bands opted to contort their logos into the most stylized mutations possible as a way to visually represent their music, and as a proud testament to the obscurity of their appeal. But…
By now you’ve probably grown accustomed to starting every other week with a dispatch from “Chicken Little” himself, Maynard James Keenan. Up on the Sun is proud to feature Keenan’s column twice a month, and you folks have responded in a big way to the the winemaker/multimedia artist/musician/actor’s musings. As…
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…
In the past I have definitely bitched about how the Southwest gets skipped over by a lot of metal festivals. But here’s some good news: our fair state is finally putting on one of its own. This weekend the Southwest Terror Fest goes down in Tucson, serving as a crazy-ass…
Yeah, yeah, yeah…we get it. Mondays suck (we’ve read Garfield). But it means the start of a new week, which means a bunch of killer shows in and around Phoenix. And here are a few of the coolest — our top five must-see shows this week…
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…
Professional wrestler Jeff Hardy is a bit of a freak. Even the 35-year-old Total Nonstop Action superstar admits it. He’s also a pretty creative dude. Besides designing his own face paint and ring attire, the punky and funky grappler also recorded his own theme music with his band Peroxwhy?gen. Whenever…
Sam Dorko is pretty adept with a set of turntables, a laptop, and a few dozen tracks. Catch the 25-year-old when he performs either as DJ T.A.I. (shorthand for his mixmaster identity “The Asian Invasion”) or with his longtime partner Andrew Hood their local EDM band Pastries With Teeth, and…
