Before the Corporatization of Mill Avenue, the Tempe party center was more about music and less about $3 Long Islands. But the Downtown Tempe Community is looking to bring the street back to its roots with Music on Mill, a weekly music series on Thursday nights that has been a…
So, I may not be the flag-waving American I should be, but hot damn, there’s just something about hearing the national anthem that gives me chills. Most of the attention in the build up for this weekend’s showdown has been placed on dueling quarterbacks Tom Brady and Eli Manning, million…
“All My Ex’s Live in Texas.” That’s true for me. What about you? The one and only “King of Country”, George Strait, will be in Phoenix performing live tomorrow night, Friday, February 3. Now maybe it’s just the fact that I am originally from Texas that makes me excited to…
It’s official, folks: Emo is cool again. Don’t believe me? Listen to “Fall In,” the third track on the highly buzzed about Attack On Memory from Cloud Nothings. The song is straight out of the late ’90s/early ‘aughts emo playbook: Strained vocals, frantic drums, and the kind of guitar tone…
The Lost Leaf in Downtown Phoenix is notoriously loud. Both on the crowd side and on the music side. Last summer, I saw Former Friends of Young Americans singer Toby Fatzinger and Marco Holt of The Tremulants perform solo sets there and they were literally drowned out by the bar-hopping…
What’s in a name? If you’re a DJ, hopefully it’s something clever, unique, or at least a nickname that sounds cool. For some DJs starting out in the business, it’s often a difficult choice to make. The handle has to be catchy, memorable, marketable, and look good on a flier…
Last year’s Super Bowl performance was absolutely awful. After listening to 10 minutes of shouting by the Black Eyed Peas, I wished I could have unseen their show (or used the time wiser, maybe to make another bowl of nachos or something).I’m not looking forward to this year’s halftime show…
Local rock band The Sunset Rider and the Skeleton Army are sparing no expense at their show at Tempe’s The Sail Inn this Friday, February 3. The band is hosting their 2nd Annual Rock n’ Roll Circus, complete with a packed line-up full of music plus sideshow performances by The…
With the passing of Soul Train’s Don Cornelius it seems only right that we should celebrate his life, with a little local funk. On Friday, February 3, Martini Ranch is a place to find some when Catfish Mustache take the stage. The East Valley band will be bringing their fusion…
Zola Jesus, Talk Normal Crescent Ballroom Wednesday, February 1, 2012 In my interview with Nika Danilova, the leader of Zola Jesus, she spoke of her reticence to embrace her childhood dream of pop stardom. While there’s little chance of her tearing up the Billboard charts, Danilova commanded the stage with…
Kanye West is currently scouting locations for a short film in the vein of “Runaway” that will be filmed somewhere in the Middle East in March. Government officials based out of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Doha are in the middle of a bidding war to get Yeezy’s contract, The New…
Philadelphia indie-rockers Dr. Dog are an interesting bunch. Able to appeal as much to granola crunching jam-banders and Urban Outiftted indie kids, the band’s new record Be The Void (due out on ANTI Records on Tuesday, February, 7) finds them returning to the freewheeling looseness of their early work, aided…
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 does James Fella of Gilgongo Records think of songs from Nathaniel Nichols, Seas Will Rise,…
A little editing sure goes a long way. Not long ago, the members of Phoenix-based dance-rockers Factories used to be in a band called Underwater Getdown, a group with great sounds as unfocused as they were chaotically beautiful. Inspired by the disparate sounds of improvisational jam bands and indie-rock acts,…
For the past two years, the artist-owned and -operated record label collective known as Black Cactus Records effectively has helped push Phoenix-based music to the masses. Comprising local bands the Necronauts, Tremulants, Former Friends of Young Americans, High Horse, and Midnight Vitals, the cooperative has helped facilitate a better creative…
The punk-goes-acoustic thing is fun, but let’s be honest: When you listen to a Chuck Regan solo folk LP, you’re secretly crossing your fingers that he’ll make a new Hot Water Music album. Such longing isn’t necessary with Frank Turner. After his post-hardcore band Million Dead called it quits, Turner…
It’s hard to make a comeback, but it helps if you went out on a high note. Ignoring a digital-only EP in 2005, The Jealous Sound’s last big blast of noise was Kill Them with Kindness (2003). And what a blast it was — the swaggering, confident sound of emo…
It’s ironic that Be the Void, the new album by Dr. Dog, begins with a song lamenting being “Lonesome.” Ironic considering the band’s steady rise: A couple of well-received albums on indie label Park the Van attracted fans and wooed critics throughout the 2000s, leading the band to a contract…
When Al Page and his friends started spending their Saturday nights at the Hidden House spinning up hip-hop and old-school cuts back in 2005, the DJ admits the operation was haphazard at first. “We used two CD players and my dad’s vinyl, and it was raggedy mixing,” he says. “Stopping…
Twin Cities hip-hop crew Doomtree has come a long way in the nearly four years since the collective’s 2008 self-titled debut, let alone the decade since it came together. The members have grown more comfortable not only in their own skins and talents, but with each other propelling them to…
We were sitting at the bar, my friend and I, talking about shows we’ve seen. Great shows. Tom Waits! M.I.A.! Prince! And, then, the less than great. And then, the most troubling of all, that weird and wobbly middle ground of the “inconsistent.” Notorious acts like Cat Power could sometimes…
Thursday 2 16th Street Bar & Grill: Kickback Thursdays with DJ Cedric Ceballos (hip-hop, classics, neo-soul, reggae, R&B, Top 40, old school) Afterlife: Beat the Scene Thursdays (electronica, dance, remixes) Bar Smith: Ladies Night with DJ Idenaty, DJ EC Rock, & DJ Oh-Jezus (various) Bobby Q’s: Capricorn B-Day Bash with…
