If you read this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, be sure to check out the music feature on Arrowheart, a local girl group with a country pop flair. You’ll learn the ladies are relentless self-marketers and have a great grasp on social media, including making homemade videos for YouTube…
Yesterday, R.E.M. announced the band’s breakup on their official website, and they did it in just about the classiest way possible. After 31 years, the Georgia rockers bowed out amicably, without “lawyers squaring off” or “disharmony,” they said. But we have a feeling there’s more to the story than the band feeling…
Manu Chao The Lot Across From El Portal Restaurant Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Last night’s Manu Chao appearance ended up being more than just a free concert on an empty parking lot across the street from a Mexican restaurant. I mean, those were definitely the basic logistics, but this wasn’t…
In this week’s issue, Nicki Escudero brings us the tale of Arrowheart — a young combo of country-pop singers that have their eyes set on the big time with the guidance the hit-maker who co-wrote Madonna’s “Open Your Heart.” We’ve also got mini-features from M.T. Richards on Colour Revolt (don’t…
This week, New Times ran a list in our print publication highlighting some of the most interesting posts published at Up On The Sun over the past week. Here are links to those posts. How did Valley hip-hop artist Intrinzik wind up in a band with his father? Want to…
The ladies of Arrowheart look ready to shoot a video, or a magazine cover, or to film the pilot for a reality show. Their makeup is perfect, their hair looks perfectly ironed and curled, and their outfits include sparkly cowgirl boots and feathered earrings. The group’s Western wear fits its…
Remember that glorious scene in Ghost World where Steve Buscemi’s date takes him to an awful sports bar and declares “If you like authentic blues, you really gotta check out Blues Hammer?” immediately before some angry-looking white dudes start shredding and spitting out lyrics about how they been behind the…
Hardcore isn’t just about dudes in camo shorts with X’s on their hands. Take H20, for example, a band that typifies the “positive mental attitude” movement but never gets preachy about it. “Any kind of preaching we’d do would be pretty hypocritical,” bassist Adam Blake says. “We have vegans in…
Are we allowed to be nostalgic about the ’90s yet? Every 20 years, it seems we’re allowed to look back and reminisce about the good ol’ days — back when times were simpler and graduates got jobs straight out of college. And, hey, do you remember the whole unbuckling-one-side-of-your-overalls thing?…
It’s hard to imagine the guys running the experimental electronic label Warp Records sitting around the label’s offices in Sheffield in ’95, smoking spliffs and listening to art-damaged singles by Aphex Twin or Autechre saying, “You know, this fucked-up electronic shit is cool, but when are we going to release…
L.A. rapper Murs has been through some changes since he rolled into Phoenix in March to present Fornever, last year’s collaboration with DJ 9th Wonder: He’s completed a new album called Love & Rockets with East Coast beatmaster Ski Beatz (of Jay-Z’s “Dead Presidents” fame). Murs has been spending time…
Back in the day, Eric Bowler, otherwise known as DJ Evil One, was strictly all about hip-hop. But years of spinning will open your mind quickly, and the Portlander-gone-global knows it. “I’ve always been a total music nerd, so being able to spin records was a dream of mine as…
You don’t know Yeshe Perl, but you know his alter ego, Mickey Avalon. He is the last of the MySpace stars, dripping with heartache and sexuality. His autobiographical lyrics of bisexual street hustling and narcotics seem written for, and inspired by, Hollywood’s young-money, drug-addled Paris Hilton-wanna-bes and pinner punks. Mickey…
Taken at face value, Colour Revolt look like prototypical Southern rockers. Yet this Mississippi group has a subversive streak that is miles wide. Colour Revolt’s emotionally conflicted tunes draw largely from their experience growing up in the South, where right-wing evangelical Christians are thick on the ground. Frontman Jesse Coppenbarger,…
Thursday 22 27th Avenue Bar: DJ Manage (Top 40) Afterlife: Thumpin’ Thursdays (various) AZ 88: Josh One (various) Blue Martini: Rewind Thursday with DJ Mendez (hip-hop, dance, Top 40) Bobby Q’s: DJ Deuce (hip-hop) BS West: Intravenous Thursdays (goth, industrial, electronic, ’80s) Capitol Sports Lounge: DJ JS3 (various) Carly’s Bistro:…
One of the first suggestions on The Crystal Dreams Wild Fire Tour–The World’s Wildest Paint Party flier is “wear all white.” With guests spraying paint in the air at every turn, this was a more of a requirement than a recommendation. Things got messy. The party went down Saturday, September…
Blondie guitarist Chris Stein sounds slightly surprised by my call. “Hello,” he asks, with a strange kind of hesitance. But it just takes a second for him to start going, rattling off details about the new Blondie record, Panic of Girls. The record is not without flaws — considerable ones…
Math rock, post rock, prog rock. Whatever you want to call it, it usually doesn’t sound very fun. Gloss Drop, the latest record from Battles, defies that notion. The album, featuring guest vocals from Gary Numan, Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, and Yamantaka Eye of the Boredoms in the wake…
According to the Facebook event page the bands created, this show is a few months behind, comparing it to, “a baseball rain delay game.” In that case, game on! Mergence and Quick Henry will be rockin’ Teakwoods at Phoenix this Friday, September 23. Lauded for their live performances and groovy…
Within These Walls has a pretty impressive line-up of hardcore acts. H2O is headlining and making their first Arizona appearance since playing with Bane three years ago. We spoke to bassist Adam Blake, who insists that Arizona has not intentionally been skipped. The band likes to play in as many…
This calls for an extended summer all the way through October 20, when Jimmy parades his cheery ass through Phoenix for an evening full of tropical-themed sing-alongs and awful Hawaiian button down shirts.Joining Jimmy Buffett with shows of their own are The Game, Trampled By Turtles, Joe Walsh and Wiz…
KeshaSeptember 20, 2011Comerica TheatreAfter Kesha’s strong show last summer at Marquee Theatre, it was exciting to see what the young singer would bring to a bigger venue and how she would change up the set. Her past performance had been so impressive, surely the larger space would give her even more to work with. For…
