Editor’s Note: It’s with heavy hearts that Up on the Sun reports that Mark Erickson, local songwriter and musician known for his roles in Colorstore, Gospel Claws, Sweetbleeders, and Roar, has passed away. Longtime Phoenix New Times music writer Serene Dominic brings us this note of remembrance. Our condolences are…
Tedeshi Trucks Band, B.B. King, Robert Cray @ Comerica Theatre| 9/1/12See also: Derek Trucks Talks Family Life on the Road See also: The full B.B. King SlideshowLet’s get something straight: last night’s show at Comerica Theatre was not a B.B. King show. It was a Tedeschi Trucks Band concert. B.B…
The Tallest Man on Earth @ Crescent Ballroom| 9/1/12It’s not hard to find a folk singer strumming a guitar in public. Stumble into a coffee shop or look out on the street corner and you’re bound to find someone doing it. Finding someone in one these spots who also happens…
Purity Ring @ Crescent Ballroom|8/31/12 Lesson of the day: don’t overestimate the obscurity of a band. Or, at least check ticket sales. I went to Purity Ring confident that standing room would be still available for me and my girlfriend, but I was the only one able to get in…
See also: Download: The World Record’s Sublime Guitar Rock Hit “She’s Not a Liar” See also: Take Cover: Bogan Via Covers Department of EaglesWishful thinking often leads to wishful drinking. The results are usually disastrous, but in Source Victoria’s case, it resulted in a great Built to Spill cover. “We…
Rehab @ Rhythm Room| 8/30/12Not since bearded-era Jim Morrison have rotund drunks been celebrated with such crazed enthusiasm. Not that I could ever compare last night’s Rehab show at The Rhythm Room to even the most spaced-out of Morrison’s career and consider it fair. But I did learn a few…
See also: Five Artists ESPN Should NOT Tag to Replace Hank Williams Jr.Hear that buzz in the air? No, not the whirring noise coming from your trees. I’m talking about the electricity caused by the click-clack of cleats; the smell of freshly cut grass and iron-tinged blood. Ah, yes –…
As August comes to a close, I had the challenge of picking a fifth and final topic for Drug Month. There were plenty of options–alcohol, tobacco, Quaaludes, club drugs, bath salts, and so on, but I decided to go in a different direction this week. How about anti-drug songs? They’re…
As anyone who’s seen the Leo DiCaprio flick Catch Me If You Can is likely to attest, being a commercial pilot is a certainly a pimp experience. Sky captains certainly command plenty of respect (unless they’re unlucky enough to get caught on tape spewing vulgarities), which is one of the…
Ryan Gaumont Gaumont is a member of local sketch comedy troupe Bully Mammoth and is a stand-up comedian. See him perform at Stand Up Scottsdale! in Scottsdale this Friday, August 31 at 9 p.m. For more details, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on…
Curious about what’s going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions where to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don’t fret: These are our Five Shows to See This Weekend…
Seminal politically-charged Swedish hardcore band, Refused, made music well ahead of its time. No debate – these guys were the real deal. “We wanted something more than what was on offer and we gave it our best shot. It didn’t pan out, we went out and played it and people…
Like a lot of bands looking to scrounge up some funds, Los Angeles guitar-pop combo The World Record turned to Kickstarter. The campaign was a success (with funds going to help their label, Squid vs. Whale, issue their double LP Freeway Special), but now requires the band to drive to…
Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys @ Rhythm Room| 8/29/12Sometimes, different is good. After a long, steady musical diet of mostly rock, jazz, blues and Cuban music, I let my country side out for an evening with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Though, in all honesty, it was pretty…
There are many distinct “walls of sound,” though it might be easy to generalize their impactful effect on ones cranium and aural canal. There’s the Phil Spector recording technique which huddled a number of musicians across an equally scattered array of microphones, resulting in a panoramic, ensconced dynamic warmth. There’s…
See also: Chasers Sold to New Owners and Becomes Pub Rock, A Music Venue With an In-House Radio Broadcasting StudioIf you don’t have any plans for Labor Day Weekend, then you obviously live under a rock…or are one of those agoraphobics or shut-ins. There’s no shortage of concerts and club…
See also: Don Bolles Keeps His Nose Clean See also: Arizona Republic Reporter Don Bolles Was Blown to Pieces 33 Years Ago Today See also: Rebel Yell @ Rouge Bar (Slideshow)Punk rocker Don Bolles shares a name with a particularly legendary AZ Republic reporter in Arizona lore (the dude got…
Mystery is a hard thing to come by in the Internet age, when musicians’ Twitter updates are examined by blogs the way TMZ keeps its lenses pointed at Lohan (just a matter of time). So, electronic indie act Purity Ring’s emergence in 2011 was refreshingly sneaky: Other than buzzing tracks…
Dillon Francis gets down. Earlier this month, he “leaked” a fake tour rider, featuring the kind of items necessary for his kind of party: a blow-up doll, a stuffed piñata, a framed photo of any action star from 1985 to 2005. That’s some goofy shit, but par for the course…
After meeting at hoity-toity Providence art school RISD in 1994, Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson wasted no time paving the way for future noise bands to follow in their scrambled footsteps. The bass-and-drum duo has become known for their unconventional live sets almost as much as for their…
Former Phoenicians Christopher Rutledge and William Fees may have left for Seattle in 2010, but they’ve hardly been laying low in the ancestral homeland of grunge. Instead of wrapping up in flannels and mainlining coffee, the stoner metal duo (guitar and drums, natch) has been on the road. A lot…
One doesn’t simply listen to Angerfist. In fact, hearing the filthy hardcore house produced by the hockey mask-clad Dutchman is more akin to a gory auditory assault on your ears, where relentless waves of murky distortion and high-pitched sirens and atonal sounds pound the cochlea in excess of 300 BPM…
