Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson threw a rookie reliever, making his major-league debut, to the wolves on Wednesday night. As you might expect, it cost the D-Backs the game and a chance to gain ground in the standings after the first-place San Francisco Giants lost earlier in the day. Poor…
The Arizona Diamondbacks’ one legitimate superstar-in-the-making was rightfully named to the National League All-Star team as a reserve on Sunday, the same day his team salvaged a win against the Oakland Athletics in the D-Backs’ final interleague game of the season. The All-Star Game will be held Tuesday, July 12,…
The Black Lips are at a crossroads. After 2009’s 200 Million Thousand, the murky, messy bummer of a record that stalled their career, the longtime Atlanta psych-garage band suddenly appeared at risk of becoming a novelty act known more for their chemically fueled R-rated on- and offstage antics (which included,…
In advance of their untitled debut full-length, local garage-pop trio The Cosmeticators released to the world Tuesday a nice-looking music video for “Roboman,” which features women in tight dresses, a dude in a robot costume, and the timeless kids game Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. So, you’re probably gonna wanna…
Happy Easter, you degenerate rock ‘n’ roll fans. Most of you listeners of the devil’s music probably only know Easter as the one major holiday that does nothing to shorten the workweek. But, there actually is reason for the holy day. In case you didn’t know, Easter commemorates the day…
Welcome to Obscuro, a feature where Up on the Sun dives deep into the world of vinyl oddities: private press jobs, major label cast-offs, and general thrift shop clutter that’s thus far escaped anyone’s attention. These LPs have been hiding out, collecting dust, until we come along, investigate, probe and…
To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever correctly assigned blame for inspiring the squeaky-clean brand of second wave emo/pop-punk plied by bands like Fall Out Boy and Jimmy Eat World. I’ll start with FOB’s fellow Chicagoans The Smoking Popes. In the early ’90s, these lovesick suburbanites carried…
Hakeem Warrick and Vince Carter scored 32 points each Tuesday as the Phoenix Suns edged the Houston Rockets 113-110 at US Airways Center. It was a career night for Warrick, who was filling in for the injured Channing Frye, out two to three weeks after dislocating his shoulder in a game…
The Phoenix Suns launched a six-game road trip with games Friday and Sunday and came away winners in both, upping their record to three games over .500 for the first time this season. Regarding the Western Conference playoff race, even though the Suns are still outside looking in, they have…
Restored prints of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis are cool and all, but what really thrills me about FilmBar, downtown Phoenix’s brand-new boutique movie house/drinkery, is the programming coup like the one Steve Weiss and gang pulled off for Tuesday night. That’s when FilmBar will screen The Secret to a Happy Ending,…
Gortat the Great made another appearance Wednesday as the Phoenix Suns knocked off the Milwaukee Bucks at US Airways Arena 92-77. Marcin Gortat, the Polish import who came to the Suns in a December trade, continued his weeklong string of stellar play for the Suns, scoring 19 points and pulling…
The opening track of Lesson Number One, the debut album from non-ironically named Phoenix trio The Father Figures, announces to listeners that this band has no intention to “re-create the scene.” That’s a relief to those who’ve followed the exploits of the band’s members for the better part of two…
The Phoenix Suns committed 14 turnovers Saturday in Detroit as they let the Pistons outscore them 28-15 in the fourth quarter and eke out a 75-74 win. All that after notching their fifth win in a row Friday night against the Washington Wizards. With just over nine minutes left in…
The Phoenix Suns have let a lot of games slip away from them recently, but they refused to let that happen in Wednesday night’s home 118-109 win over the New Jersey Nets. Sure, it took an extra five minutes to nail this one down — only the Suns’ second win…
A rookie on the NBA’s worst team had the best game of his young career on Sunday night as the Sacramento Kings dumped the Phoenix Suns 94-89 in Sacramento. DaMarcus Cousins, who was the fifth overall draft pick in 2010 NBA Draft, finally showed the league what he is capable…
I listened to more than 3,000 songs in 2010, so I was asked to come up with a list of the best of the year. But you’ve probably heard “Swim” by Surfer Blood and “Boyfriend” by Best Coast and “Helicopter” by Deerhunter and “Hustle and Cuss” by the Dead Weather,…
Artist: Neil Young Title: Le Noise Release date: September 28 Label: Reprise Neil Young is a first-rate iconoclast and one of the few successful rock artists who has remained truly uncompromising throughout his long and storied career. Of course, uncompromising can result in inconsistency, something that has followed Young around…
Artist: Girl Talk Title: All Day Release date: November 15 Label: Illegal Art Whether sample-happy mash-up act Girl Talk is “good” or “not good” and whether you “like” or “dislike” Girl Talk are completely irrelevant to any discussion regarding Girl Talk. The only things I care about when it comes…
Artist: Tierra del Fuego Title: Queen of the Rendezvous Release date: December 11 Label: Scapular Winging Through pure happenstance, I witnessed this local band, Tierra del Fuego, on Saturday night play as they played to a small but appreciative crowd at Trunk Space. It just happened to be the band’s…
It’s amazing how much music is released in a year. I’ve listened to nearly 270 records in their entirety this year, yet I still have a huge stack of unlistened CDs on my desk, several unlistened digital downloads in my iTunes, and a lengthy list of high-profile stuff I never…
Artist: Mini Mansions Title: Mini Mansions Release date: November 2 Label: Ipecac One of the biggest musical curveballs of the year has to be the debut record by the Southern California trio Mini Mansions. I say it’s a curveball because I wouldn’t have guessed such a Beatles-esque display of psych…
The Phoenix Suns lost their second game in a row and fell back to the .500 mark after losing in overtime at home to the 9-14 Memphis Grizzlies. The Suns held a 92-89 lead with 2.8 seconds left in regulation but let Rudy Gay sink a three-pointer from the corner…
