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…
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…
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…
Rush @ US Airways Center|11/25/12″We’ve got 6,000 songs to do, so let’s get with it.” Rush bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee might have been joking, but something about his hyperbolic statement, made early in last night’s nearly three-hour set by the legendary prog rock band rang completely true. Most 44-year-old bands are…
Rock bands like Korn and Muse may be all about dubstep now, but even before emo rocker-gone-EDM-DJ Skrillex arena-rockified the genre, John Dadzie, better known as 12th Planet, was spreading the bass-heavy word. Let down by the drum ‘n’ bass genre’s refusal to change, the DJ started exploring the emerging…
Look, you can keep the emotive rants and daddy-issue screeds, because at its best, metal’s always about doomsday. This is the year the Mayan calendar ends, making the title of Massachusetts metal band Shadows Fall’s seventh record, Fire from the Sky, seem not so coincidental. “These days, the world seems…
We’re taking the day off to do the Thanksgiving thing: give thanks, eat too much, and pass out watching football. Hope you enjoy your day. We’ll be back tomorrow, but in the meantime, turn up this funky Thanksgiving cut from Vince Guaraldi’s 1973 soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. If…
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…
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…
Rush does its own thing. Resolutely, absolutely, completely. The “Holy Triumvirate’s” fierce individualism can be viewed as a tribute to one of its heroes, Ayn Rand, but it’s okay if you’re not into the Objectivist thing; you can appreciate Rush for exactly what it is: a power trio that’s enjoyed…
He’s being awful polite about it, but Lawrence Zubia has places to go. It’s Halloween evening, and he’s sitting at a table at Casey Moore’s in Tempe. He looks every inch the rock star. He’s sporting a black vest and drain-pipe black Levis, a red bandanna around his neck, and…
Second best isn’t that bad, right? To call horrorcore rappers Twiztid — Jamie Madrox and Monoxide Child — the second most popular Juggalo act (after Insane Clown Posse) doesn’t seem all that fair. ICP are the originators, of course, making Madrox and Child something like apostles to Shaggy 2 Dope…
The quickly expanding lineup of McDowell Mountain Music Festival 2013 has added two more big names to the roster: The Shins and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes. The 2013 installment of the festival is looking to have the most impressive lineup in MMMF history, as The Shins and Sharpe…
Tempe-based dream pop band Bogan Via has been picking up steam. Just last month the duo released its anticipated EP, Wait Up, and now they’ve added a sleek black-and-white video for one of the album’s standout cuts, the Lee and Nancy-styled “Afternoon Wonderland.” See also: Indie Pop Duo Bogan Via…
You know, we’re not sure we can trust this Grouplove band. Just say it out loud. “Grouplove.” Sounds pretty hippie-ish, right? Might as well be named “Communelove,” or “Socialistlove,” right? Anyway, beyond that, the Los Angeles-based outfit named its debut LP Never Trust a Happy Song, and it’s got songs…
I imagine there are some casual Morrissey fans out there, but most of the Moz fans I know are the diehard sort, the kind of folks who’ll stick by the singer no matter what grumpy things he says and does. So while I’m sure someone was just kinda bummed about…
Jens Lekman @ Crescent Ballroom|11/9/12Jens Lekman calls his songs “stories.” Introducing “I Know What Love Isn’t,” the title track from his 2012 LP, Lekman described driving around in a friend’s crappy old car, listening to classic rock radio, and talking about “life, love, and things that that.” He’d become interested…
You know who had a whole boatload of hits? Brooklyn singer/songwriter Eddie Money had a whole boatload of hits. Throughout the ’80s the cop-turned-rockstar was unstoppable: “Baby Hold On,” “Two Tickets to Paradise,” “Take Me Home Tonight,” “Shaking,” and more. He had the New Wave thing down, putting him square…
Taalib Johnson, better known as Musiq Soulchild, or sometimes just Musiq, released his debut album, Aijuswanaseing, in 2000, at the apex of the neo-soul movement. The term, coined by then-Motown president Kedar Massenburg, described a particular streak of black American music. As with any name given to a diverse and…
Right now, some kid is listening to Enter the Night, the 2012 release from Drop the Lime (NYC-based producer/DJ/pop artist Luca Venezia), and it’s blowing their dubstep-addled mind. They’re pressing play on his cover of Bruce Springsteen’s stark 1982 classic “State Trooper” and thinking, “Oh, my God, this is brilliant…
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…
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…
