We reported back in August that downtown wax-shack Revolver Records would be launching a vinyl imprint, Ammit Records, with a single from Eddy Detroit, set for release in October.Well, it’s…um…November? Holy crap. Where has the time gone? And more importantly, where the hell is that Eddy single? Delays are pretty…
“I don’t want to be hip. I don’t want to be cool. I think that shit [trends] is not hip or cool, so I don’t want to be that,” Mark Sultan, also known as BBQ, says over the phone from Austin. We’re discussing his new set of albums, Whatever I…
As we barrel toward the impending Arizona Centennial, we find ourselves contemplating a lot of things. Why would someone settle in this hot-as-bejeebus desert? Who serves the best burrito in the state? Most importantly — where are the faces in the Grand Canyon? The Presidents? We’ve been thinking a lot…
Okay, so let it be known that I’m a nerd — a supernerd, even — but I think the dudes of A Life of Science have me beat. The band’s label, Sundawg Records dropped two brand new exclusives on Up on the Sun, an animated video promoting the group’s strange,…
What were you doing at 17? Chances are it wasn’t half as rock ‘n’ roll as Nils Lofgren. At that tender age, he was playing on Neil Young’s seminal record, After the Gold Rush, plopped down at a piano, which he had never spent much time playing, but where his…
Mergence’s 11.11.11. Show at Crescent Ballroom The 11.11.11 show featuring Mergence, Kongos, The Technicolors, and Huckleberry was long anticipated. And you could feel that excitement all throughout the night at the Crescent Ballroom. Arriving around 9:45 pm, the patio was packed, the lounge was packed with diners and hipsters, and…
The past few years have been busy for prolific songwriter Loudon Wainwright III: he revisited his early records with Recovery, a full-band effort produced by Joe Henry; won a Grammy for his High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project , a tribute to the American banjo player; and released…
There’s seriously nothing I enjoy more than an hour or two killed in a good record store, but you know, this new-fangled interwebs-thing is pretty good for finding music, too. A couple weeks ago I read something interesting about a power pop artist named Carl Rusk (of The Nashville Ramblers,…
Sometimes you see a press photo of a band and laugh. Is one guy staring artfully away from the others? Are they pressed against a brick wall? Are they all making the goofy face? Phoenix-based metal band Howitzer isn’t having any of that. Seriously — look at these guys. They…
No Regrets: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir is the new book by legendary KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. Assisted by Joe Layden and John Ostrosky, Space Ace pretty much hits it all: his young years in a gang, his audition to be in KISS (there was a job application), the band’s…
It’s always awesome when our fair burg gets some national attention, and this month, Nylon Magazine profiled Phoenix’s music scene in its “America Issue.” Writer Madeline Giles centered the spot light on a couple of deserving Phoenix musical acts, and righteously described the scene’s sounds as defining “the post-millennial purr…
For the past few years, the McDowell Mountain Music Festival has hosted a mix of jam bands and indie rock fare in the parking lot of the Compound Grill.(Previous years have featured The Flaming Lips, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Matisyahu, and Michael Franti.) Now, before you ideas about…
Joel Marquard has a motto: “Life is messy. That’s how I like my music.” Messy is the right word. How else could you describe Marquard’s new side project, The Through & Through Gospel Review, which finds the songwriter stepping away from his popular indie-rock band Gospel Claws, to explore 12…
California Lite, the new album from Key Losers, starts off with a fakeout — 15 seconds of weird, rumbling noise — before segueing into “Limited Time,” a synth-washed gem that owes more than a little to the Laurel Canyon folk. The latest work from Arizona native Katy Davidson (you may…
Before being unfairly besmirched by the cast of Jersey Shore, the beaches of New Jersey used to conjure images of boardwalks, of gray skies over choppy blue water. The kind of places Bruce Springsteen sang about with mythical urgency on his early records, a place where prom queens sport busted-up…
It’s hard to think of a band more gloriously schizophrenic and prolific than Japanese band Boris. The group dropped two records in the United States on May 24, Attention Please and Heavy Rocks (which shares its title with a 2002 album from the group), and is scheduled to issue a…
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 did Hoodlums Music owner Steve Wiley have to say about owning a record store for…
This week’s issue bring you the story of Joel Marquard’s Through & Through Gospel Review, which finds the songwriter stepping away from the indie rock sound of his band Gospel Claws to explore gospel music. Marquard speaks about belief, his family ties to gospel music, and why everyone (mistakenly thinks)…
Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly feature, Sound Off, in which Jason P. Woodbury is joined by a different guest each week to listen to and discuss three tracks from local Phoenix artists. If you would like your songs to be considered for future Sound Off columns, please…
Odd Future hates me. Okay, so not me specifically (at least I don’t think), but what I do: write about music. The group’s relationship with the media has been complicated. They wound of up on the cover of Billboard, them promptly trashed the magazine at a SxSW showcase gig. Nearly…
While M83 was bringing “epic” sounds to Crescent Ballroom, a very different kind of epic was going down across town at The Rhythm Room. The Bo-Keys, seven pieces lead by Scott Bomar and featuring Stax/Hi Records players Archie “Hubby” Turner on keys, Howard Grimes on drums, and Ben Cauley (the…
Though she didn’t start playing music professionally until after she had moved away, Katy Davidson of Key Losers (formerly of Dear Nora) says that Phoenicians seem to be able to sense that she’s a native. “It’s a cool feeling,” she says over the phone from Fun Fun Fun Fest, where…
