Holy festival season, Batman. We’re two weeks away from the craziest confluence of big festivals I’ve ever seen. There’s Coachella (weekend one) in Indio, California, Country Thunder in Florence, Arizona, and McDowell Mountain Music Festival at the Compound Grill in Phoenix. Pretty much every spectrum of music is covered, but…
No Age, Radio Moscow, The Growlers, The Goat, Avon Ladies, Earthmen & Strangers, and More Yucca Tap Room Saturday, March 31, 2012 I’ve never been a skater, but back in high school, my skate-rat brother and I were locked in a nuclear arms race with my brother to discover cool…
Earlier this week we remarked on the longevity of Grand Ave art-space the Trunk Space, which is celebrating eight years of DIY operation next week. Well, here’s something to consider: This week, The George & Dragon pub, which has hosted many a punk rock show in its day, turns 17…
In this week’s issue of Phoenix New Times, we profiled Queens of Country, a new movie filmed on location in Cave Creek, Arizona, which debuts this weekend at the Phoenix Film Festival. In this episode UOTS: The Podcast, we speak with Ron Livingston (Office Space), who stars opposite of Lizzy…
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. What are our five favorite Jonathan Richman songs? Does heavy metal make you more sane? Follow…
It’s a Saturday night at the Buffalo Chip in Cave Creek, and things are hopping. The Pat James Band is onstage, tearing through a craggy, soulful rendition of Toby Keith’s “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action.” Boots hang from the ceiling of the bar, under which a…
Michelle Blades can’t sit still. Her latest solo record, Mariana, is still fresh off the press, but along with her bandmates in North Dakota (Emily Hobeheidar and Mo Neuharth), she’s ready to release yet another new record this week. Aside from Blades’ signature vocal flutters, North Dakota is an entirely…
See also: Pontiak Makes an Album About Driving from Phoenix to Texas The last time we blogged about the brothers Pontiak –Van, Lain, and Jennings Carney — we discussed their EP, Comecrudos, a concept record designed for a drive through the American Southwest. It garnered an interesting comment from one…
I’ll readily admit to being a Neil Young fan boy, and I’m crazy excited for his reunion with Crazy Horse and the band’s upcoming album of “old-timey Americana standards” despite the fact that I know full well I’ll probably listen to it a few times and toss it in the…
You’ve still got a couple of days to win tickets to 11th Annual Cowtown’s Phx AM After Party, scheduled to go down on Saturday, March 31 at Yucca Tap Room. The party features No Age, The Growlers, Radio Moscow, The Goat, The Father Figures, Scorpion Vs Tarantula, Earthmen & Strangers,…
See also: Andrew Jackson Jihad’s Sean Bonnette on Knife Man and Gawker In 2004, George “Dubya” Bush was president, we confirmed that there was water on Mars, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the production line, and the Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1918…
We were about 20 miles outside of a town called Wikieup, standing off the road, a motionless 1967 Karmann Ghia shaking like a leaf with each passing semi off the road. I get a text: “Jonathan Richman is coming to Crescent Ballroom!” Our stalled trip to Las Vegas suddenly barely…
See also: FoxVag III: Promoters Assures It Ain’t Another Breast-Fest I was out of town, but I’m willing to bet that Fox Vag Fest III, the three-day, two-venue dominating festival of female-fronted punk, rock, and indie acts was pretty crazy. In his feature about the festival, Serene Dominic jokingly compared…
Covering The Beatles is tough. Not only to you have to contend with tackling some of the greatest songs in the pop catalog, but you also have to deal with the fact that nearly every Beatles song has been covered to death. It helps to have effortless charm on your…
Welcome to Up on the Sun: The Podcast’s second episode. In this week’s installment, we speak with Phoenix-based metal band Landmine Marathon about being handpicked by Metallica to play the Orion Music and More Festival in New Jersey, and hear a brand new tune from the band’s upcoming EP “Bastard…
See also: Tugboat’s Phillip Hanna Talks About the Band’s Breakup, Final Shows, and What Happens Next After six years, Tempe based weirdo rockers (it’s a compliment) Tugboat are calling it quits. “The idea was up in the air,” Phillip Hanna told Up on the Sun’s Christina Caldwell. “Because we kept…
See also: KUKQ Returns to Phoenix (via the Internet) The new online station bearing the call letters of bygone Phoenix radio station KUKQ has launched, streaming online at kukq.com. As we reported last week, the site’s connection to the original radio station isn’t literal — though Facebook comments about the…
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. What were the worst moments of SXSW? How does local band The Madera Strand Sound Covering…
When the hip-hop duo of Kentrell “Krispy” Lindsey and Alvin “Joey” Lindsey, better known as The Knux, burst onto the scene with 2008’s Remind Me in Three Days, they were decked out in skinny jeans and leather jackets, with electric guitars strapped on and skateboards under their Chucks. In short,…
See also: Ace Frehley on KISS and His New Memoir, No Regrets You guys like guitars? How about makeup? Well, KISS and Mötley Crüe are coming to town. The “summer’s biggest, baddest rock tour” (their words, not ours) is headed to Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion (I feel like Gene Simmons…
Bummed out that Drake skipped Phoenix in favor of Tucson earlier this month? Well, be bummed no more: Everyone’s favorite former-Degrassi star/current sexy music maven is returning to Arizona, planning a stop at Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion on Thursday, May 10. Drake’s latest, Take Care, earned him four Grammy nominations…
See also: Metallica Curates Orion Music and More Festival: Who Picked Which Bands? Lucero’s Brian Venable on Metallica Being Dead to Him, ATO Records, and Women & Work When Metallica revealed the lineup for Orion Music and More, the two-day festival curated by the band members themselves, plenty of folks…
