Now more than ever, there is lot of metal — from comedy to thrash to black to grindcore — getting slung in and around Metro Phoenix, thanks to concerts and gigs by locals and touring acts alike. As such, Up on the Sun’s resident metal scribe, Lauren Wise, is on…
Following her critically acclaimed sophomore album Whokill, it seems tUnE-yArDs’ brainchild Merrill Garbus was crippled with self-doubt, perhaps gripped by a feeling known as the Imposter Syndrome. As she chirps in her song “My Country,” “The worst thing about living a lie / Is just wondering when they’ll find out.”…
It’s time to grab your passport and head down to Mexico to kick off your summer. Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers are continuing the annual tradition of Circus Mexicus in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. The group is coming off a small U.S. tour and will head south of the Arizona border…
The sold-out audience talked back to sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg in Swedish accents, which caused the siblings, better known collectively as First Aid Kit, to blush and laugh. The duo, who are in their early 20s, stepped onto the stage of the Crescent Ballroom to a crowd that knew…
There are two words sum up the greatest concert going on this weekend in Phoenix. They are “Billy” and “Joel.” But if you can’t score a ticket or just can’t afford one, there are still plenty of other options this weekend, from noise-punk (Perfect Pussy) to stoner rock (Fu Manchu)…
You won’t believe some of the things we saw while out at the clubs this past month. Besides gawking at all the usual nightlife shenanigans, we happened to spy such weird and wild things as life-sized anthropomorphic animals costumes, dudes firing up laser beams, and a few religious types leading…
The beautiful excited girls dancing on the TV screen were the ones who caused Lewis Ray Cammarata to go into music. That was when he was watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. Cammarata remembers it likes it happened yesterday because his dad was wincing with disgust, but his…
We’ve been reporting on the “Linkin Nark” fiasco, and the latest salvo has come from Sublime With Rome’s manager, who named Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson as the man responsible for getting Sublime’s weed seized by police. Sublime With Rome manager Mike “Cheeze” Brown — yes, that’s his preferred moniker…
If you had never laid eyes on singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons, you’d never think that his wispy delicate voice came from the body that walked on stage. When he entered. his large tattooed arms carried his guitar while his worn-looking boots stomped across the Crescent Ballroom. He glanced at the audience…
Editor’s note: Check out a Q-and-A with the band here. “Stoner rock” has yet to gain entry in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, so for the definition of the phrase, look no further than Fu Manchu. Yet, like so many genres, the name hardly fits the sound. Pink Floyd is stoner rock,…
Perfect Pussy has just left Boise, Idaho, and is a few hours into the seven-hour trek to its next show when New Times reaches the band’s singer, Meredith Graves. She sounds tired. Not standard-issue, stayed-out-until-3 a.m. tired. You get the feeling that maybe the whole experience of being thrown into…
History owes as much to accident as it does to ambition. Take the story of how Washington, D.C.-rooted (mostly) instrumental rock trio Trans Am became a pioneering name in a hot new genre because of someone else’s negligence. “We did have a singer — a friend of ours — and…
Ahead of the forthcoming LP Stay Gold, Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit is bringing its shimmering Americana-tinged folk pop back to the States. There’s no trace of international influence with the Söderberg sisters, however — their writing is firmly in the dream pop vein, with all the steel guitar…
Though nowadays they sport hairdos much shorter and significantly less teased than when they rose to fame in their respective bands back in the ’80s, the members of this rock ‘n’ roll supergroup obviously remain committed to delivering big, guitar-driven, drum solo-y arena rock tunes that pay as much tribute…
The Yawpers, born in Boulder and residing in Denver, are the country’s greatest acoustic guitar rock band this side of Tenacious D. Aided by a carefully thought-out selection of pedals and amps, singer-guitarist Nate Cook and lead guitarist Jesse Parmet (in front of drummer Noah Shomberg) manage to coax a…
John Dixon is an absolute guru of vintage and obscure vinyl, a wizened historian of Arizona music, and one helluva esteemed disc jockey. The 60-something record hound, who goes by DJ Johnny D. when he’s spinning, boasts a meticulously compiled and catalogued platter collection (which numbers into the tens of…
Thursday 29 AZ/88: Black Out Thursdays with Josh 1 (soulful house, lounge) Baja Joe’s: Latin Live Thursdays with DJ Chop (Top 40, Latin) Bar Smith: Ladies Night with DJ AL3, & DJ Fantastico (hip-hop, EDM, trap, Latin) Bobby Q’s: All Star Thursdays with DJ Freshmaker, DJ Phlava, DJ Dark Vader,…
Lindsey Stirling leaped and danced across the stage at The Marquee last night in Tempe. Stirling is known for her unique blend of classical and modern electronic music styles. She plays violin over original dubstep tracks and other remixes. Her live shows are a complete production, equipped with many costume…
With Phoenix Comicon right around the corner, it’s a good time to highlight nerdcore, and with Nerdzerker’s album release party less than a week away, the nerdy punk three-piece is one that should be mentioned. Their music is punk enough to stand up next to just about any punk act…
“Stoner rock” has yet to gain entry in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but few bands define the genre better than Fu Manchu. Yet, like so many genres, the name hardly fits the sound. Pink Floyd is stoner rock, while Fu Manchu storms in all heavy, sludgy, psychedelic and fuzzy with plenty…
I love Billy Joel. I can get pretentious about the music I like, but at the end of the day, I always go back to the Piano Man. He could be soft or edgy. Songs like “Pressure” were futuristic and others like “Uptown Girl” could wax nostalgic. He was the…
By now you may have heard about the story of how Sublime With Rome singer Rome Ramirez alleged on his Twitter account that Linkin Park had snitched on the band for smoking weed, prompting “cops” (Rome’s words) to seize the band’s drugs. Read a detailed play-by-play of the “Linkin Nark”…
