Ryan Leslie is a smooth operator. The rap/hip-hop artist’s rhymes melt like butter on toast — actually, given Leslie’s penchant for upscale video shoots in Paris and other exotic locales (“People ask me my address and I say global,” he raps on “Swiss Francs”), make that butter on a baguette…
Heavy, aggressive, and sludgy, local boulder-crushing band Destruction Unit tears through some steady-rocking Germanic grooves. Ryan Rousseau (guitar, vocals, synths) heads up the gang; his bassist brother Rusty, guitarists J.S. Aurelius and Nick Nappa, and drummer Justin Keefer round out the five-piece. Freshly back from SXSW, including a well-received set…
John Smith is the secret love child of Elvis Presley. And he has, he swears, the DNA evidence to prove it. No, really. Smith, a sometime country singer and songwriter who lives in Scottsdale, says he’s coming clean this month in a new book detailing his hush-hush life as the…
Local urban artist Jules Demetrius has never seemed to want when it comes to the friend department. Amongst his multitude of acquaintances and comrades, the 43-year-old painter and graphic designer are a horde of local creative types from both the music and art world, as well as some famous names…
Lindsey BestAndrew Youssef [Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Heard Mentality, the music blog of our sister paper OC Weekly. Longtime concert photographer Andrew Youssef found out almost two years ago that he had Stage IV Colon Cancer. In that time, he has continued to shoot tons of music…
Well, give Fall Out Boy the award for most appropriately titled new single, “The Phoenix.” Four years after they broke hearts around the world by announcing an indefinite hiatus, the pop-rock group is back with a new album, Save Rock and Roll, due for release April 16. This isn’t the…
Singer/songwriter Angel Olsen skipped out on SXSW 2013. Though she’s hardly indignant about it, the industry showcase just doesn’t speak to the sensibilities displayed on Olsen’s gorgeous noir-folk Half Way Home, released by Bathetic Records in 2012. Those songs, like the wounded but sensual “Lonely Universe” and the earthy “Tiniest…
There’s nothing stately about Mariah DeRaet. She’s an unassuming character offstage, a 25-year-old barista with a warm demeanor that could belong to any college-aged girl next door. Yet when she straps on a parlor-sized Martin acoustic as the vocalist of Tempe’s Avery, she and her band (drummer Eric Estrada, guitarist…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See New Times’ print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
Gangbangin’ doesn’t excite Brotha Lynch Hung anymore, nor does the topic of his cult following, one that’s grown exponentially throughout his 27-year career. At 42, the seminal Californian rapper lights up when talking about his upcoming barbecue cookbook or the screenplays he’s working on. But make no mistake — Lynch,…
By Reyan Ali Realistically, a young Thao Nguyen was going to play guitar wherever she could, so why not do it at a laundromat? Growing up in “deathly suburban” northern Virginia, Nguyen was about 12 when she started learning pop covers (“Everybody Hurts” and Brown Eyed Girl” were her first),…
After beefing it up last summer, Tempe meme rap ace Glass Popcorn (a.k.a. 16-year-old Will Neibergall) goes hard for Google+ in his new video for the slow-mo syrup haze of “My Circle.” But don’t hold your breath for the “My Top 8” MySpace remix: The track may well be Glass’…
It’s become a tradition around here. Every week, on Monday — the worst of all days — we bring you our Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix this week. You know, to help make it all bearable. Dig in, kiddos…
For as long as metal has been around, people have associated the sound with “The Devil” and “Satanism.” Locally, it’s slim pickins’ finding an actual Satanic metal band to chat with. I’m not talking “dressed in black” here; I’m talking blood-guzzling, church-burning, javelina-murdering dudes donning corpse paint with greasy long…
Now that Ultra Music Festival has passed, the next stop festival-wise is Electric Daisy Carnival. There’s nothing like the sights: people in neon green, yellow, pink, and orange tutus running around; spirit hoods that look like animal heads, beaded bracelets that cover forearms, sparkling bras, fuzzy boots, goofy glasses, and…
Mindless Self Indulgence @ Marquee Theatre|3/29/13Mindless Self Indulgence is truly an enigma, an exception to the rule, or “ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.” The band’s so original that you can’t place a tag on them or put them in a genre. The band paid a…
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Jeff Mangum @ Crescent Ballroom|3/28/13Okay, so it’s announced that Jeff Mangum is coming to town and he has two shows the same night. That means I have to choose. Which one? Which one! Will he play the same songs twice? If so, the second half is bound to suck, right,…
Hey ya, the weekend is here. So get off the couch and get to some shows, Phoenix. Maybe these shows: Our Top Five Must-See Shows in Phoenix This Weekend…
There are an estimated 300 Grateful Dead tribute bands (by one website’s account), including the Tempe-based Xtra Ticket. But of all those bands, only Dark Star Orchestra actually play the Dead. Let us be a little clearer. DSO picks a Grateful Dead show from a list of thousands spanning the…
Are you still sleeping off the hangover you picked up at the 10th annual McDowell Mountain Music Festival? In case you somehow missed it, MMMF 2013 brought some great acts to Phoenix. We’re still tapping our feet every time we hear a song by The Roots or The Shins, and…
Alas, after three years of asking Valley dwellers about their musical tastes, What Are You Listening To? is coming to an end. Today, Up on the Sun has been gracious enough to feature my own tastes as the farewell blog, and after week after week of putting this blog together,…
