Dear readers, we here at Up on the Sun love you all and think you are all beautiful people. So believe us when we tell you that this heads-up about The Biggest Loser auditions being in the Valley this weekend has nothing to do with our personal feelings toward you…
The Alternative Press magazine cover featuring Tempe pretty boy “indie” rockers The Maine is now on stands. Looking good, fellas. The story, by the way, is here. Our you can check out our feature from last month…
So if you picked up this week’s New Times you may have seen my column “10 Emo Songs That Don’t Suck.” Because I love the interweb soooo much I’ve prepared a special web version with the videos for nine songs on the list — sadly, no video is available for…
The indie blogs and main stream ones are loving the story today that Miley Cyrus told to morning zoo radio hosts Johnjay and Rich about her being insulted by Radiohead at the Grammys. The Teen Queen wanted to meet the band in private backstage. Turns out her manager was told…
“Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity holds a special place in my heart as I’m sure it does with the countless other kids who bought it in 1999 of which it became the soundtrack to all of their high school break-ups and inadequacies. It wasn’t just kid stuff though because I found…
I’ve been in my fair share of mosh pits, but I’m pretty thankful that I wasn’t in any of the three or four that raged on all through Slipknot’s show at Jobing.com Arena on Thursday night. Swirling like tornadoes full of teen angst and shirtless fat dudes, the pits dominated…
For those of you who have been keeping tabs on the Arizona Brewer’s Guild recent run of beer festivals, you know, full well, that the 21st Annual Great Arizona Beer Festival is this Saturday and Sunday at Tempe Beach Park from 2-6 PM. Hoping to piggyback on the success of…
[jump] THURSDAY, MARCH 5: Asylum Street Spankers[folk/jazz/roots/world]8 p.m., $14 (visit www.rhythmroom.com)Rhythm Room, 1019 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix, 602-265-4842. Margarita Escarpa[Latin/Spanish guitar]7:30 p.m., $7-$18 (visit music.asu.edu)Katzin Concert Hall, 40 E. Gammage Pkwy. (ASU School of Music Building), Tempe, 480-965-3371. Dominick Farinacci[jazz]8:30 & 10 p.m., $10 (visit www.voceristoranteandlounge.com)Voce Ristorante & Lounge,…
So we know who from Arizona is officially showcasing, and we know who’s part of the Unofficial Official Arizona showcase, I Heart AZ, which New Times is co-sponsoring, but it seems like every day I’m hearing rumblings about other local bands headed to Austin in two weeks… like when I…
We’ve certainly had plenty of posters with fancier design than this named Flier of the Week, but this week’s selection wins sheerly for readability and forthright presentation. Want to know when The Love Me Nots are gonna go on? It’s right there! Hell, there’s even a phone number! What better…
“The truth is, I probably don’t know Jimmy Eat World’s emerald lionized gem, Clarity like the rest of them out there. However, I must impart that the fact that it resonates with everyone from hard rock gurus to the disjunctive hipster DJ and Dance crowd is certainly characteristic of something…
There was never really too much doubt that Scottsdale’s Scott MacIntyre would make the Idol Top 12, but last night “America” (as Seadouche condescendingly refers to the tiny percentage of the American population that actually watches the show) made it official. Scotty the Body (as Seadouche condescendingly refers to Scott)…
Authority Zero lead singer Jason DeVore will celebrate the debut CD release of The Bollox, his Irish punk-rock side project, with two St. Patrick’s Day performances on Tuesday, March 17. The band will play two sets – at 2:30 p.m. and at 4 p.m. – at Mesa’s The Tilted Kilt…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a better-preserved 57-year-old rock star than Chrissie Hynde. Onstage at Dodge Theatre Wednesday night, the Pretenders frontwoman looked incredible and sounded exactly as she did 30 years ago, when the band recorded their eponymous debut. Really. Her distinctive voice — a raspy coo that’s been…
It’s just barely March and I already have a solid pick for my favorite album of the year. Animal Collective gave us Merriweather Post Pavilion and I fawned over it. It’s a solid offering, scaling back the Baltimore act’s weirdness to produce some very catchy tunes. But I got a…
Considering the hyperbole that usually precedes any discussion regarding the merits of an album tagged as “emotional punk rock” (or “emo”), I should have an amazing anecdote about Jimmy Eat World’s 1999 magnum opus Clarity. Something about how the song “Ten” got me through my parents’ divorce, or how “For…
As much as I prefer music that bears the stamp of the town that birthed it, there’s something to be said for a band that becomes so obsessed with another region’s music that it transforms itself to the point that it plays the music perfectly. The Love Me Nots, regarded…
THURSDAY 5 Bunkhouse: DJ Doom (dance) Cherry Lounge: Scandalous Thursday with DJ Juan Rocha (house, electronica) Club Red: The Blunt Club with Tricky T, Pickster Uno, DJ Element, more (hip-hop) Copper State Tavern: DJ Kavi, & guests (hip-hop) Cream Stereo Lounge: Blush Thursdays (Top 40, hip-hop, mash-ups) Homme: So Paid!!!…
Superficially, Asylum Street Spankers appear to be two things they are not: neo-/retro- pre-rock ‘n’ roll pop/swing/whatever (remember that Lounge Nation rag from the ’90s?) and a zany band that does “jokey songs” (remember the Dead Milkmen and Weird Al Yankowhasis?). Wrong. While these Texans perform ancient tunes and originals…
In the past few decades, there’s been an overlap in Los Angeles between the somewhat more academic avant-garde scene and punk rock. The Minutemen wove minimalism, jazz, funk, and rebel politics into a punk aesthetic (or was it the other way around?), and in the ’70s, très avant collective Los…
When I listen to pop music, I like to have a good time enjoying its light, airy guitars and super-sweet vocals. I’d like to think that pop music and I came together on our own terms, happy to be in each other’s company. Those forces behind the International Pop Overthrow…
Why is it that we crave controversy from our pop singers? Might it be because we love to look at their lives through a microscope? Are our culture and our lives that dull and boring that we are forced to react to every little thing someone like Jessica Simpson does?…
