It’s a secret go-to cliché of publicists everywhere: If a band’s biography says its music “defies categorization,” it usually can be pegged in four words or fewer. In other words, it’s code for “I’m not into this band enough to sit back and contemplate what this music really is.” PAWL…
Jeez, who do you have to screw to be nicknamed “The Devil”? I mean, Jerry Lee Lewis married his teenage cuz and got booted out of Bible school for playing a boogie-woogie version of “My God Is Real,” and the best he could come away with was “The Killer.” Jesse…
Okay, so we’re going to come clean. When we saw that Phoenix-based electro/indie/hip-hop dude YUS had a tune called “Hunger Strike” on his SoundCloud page, we thought we were in for a Temple of the Dog remix. Clearly, we’ve been spending too much time reading grunge 20th-anniversary coverage. YUS’ “Hunger…
The Diplomats were once New York’s most subversive hip-hop crew. With members including the gleefully antisocial Cam’ron, the group brandished pink fur coats and rhymed about drinking sake on Osaka Bay. Their brittle, desolate tracks were full of psychedelic pomp and gauche non sequiturs. But since hitting their commercial peak…
Danny Torgersen and Trevor Denton are two very different guys. We’re huddled around a table at Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe on a busy Tuesday night. Torgersen is firing off rapid-fire statements, punctuated by a unique laugh, akin to a cackle, one that half endears you to him and half…
The mind of Bryce “Decade” Tieman would be a trippy place to visit. Based on the otherworldly electronica audioscapes he’s uploaded to SoundCloud, it’s likely that the head of the local EDM aficionado is filled with a fantastic and fanciful array of colors, lights, and sounds. You’ll probably witness a…
With new album w h o k i l l, Merrill Garbus — the fearless, ferociously talented woman behind beatnik pop outfit tUnE-yArDs — aims for the history books. “I always want to be at the forefront of progressive pop, like Deerhoof or the Dirty Projectors,” Garbus says. “They’re changing…
A year ago, Odd Future were the hottest shit in the rap game. They were crude, smart, and original. Fans and critics caught on, excited by the obnoxious rhymes and lyrical violence. But now that Tyler the Creator’s album Goblin has dropped to lackluster sales, critics are re-evaluating. Maybe Odd…
Thursday 3 27th Avenue Bar: DJ Manage (Top 40) Afterlife: Thumpin’ Thursdays (various) AZ 88: Josh One (various) Bar Smith: Ladies Night with DJ iDenaty, DJ EC Rock, & DJ Oh-Jezus (various) Blue Martini: Rewind Thursday with DJ Mendez (hip-hop, dance, Top 40) Bobby Q’s: DJ Deuce (hip-hop) Capitol Sports…
Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly feature, Sound Off, in which Jason P. Woodbury is joined by a different guest each week to listen to and discuss three tracks from local Phoenix artists. If you would like your songs to be considered for future Sound Off columns, please…
Halloween weekend showed no signs of slowing down at The All Hallow’s Day (Night) Costume Ball at The Crescent Ballroom. Live entertainment included a costume contest (congrats E.T.), Flamenco Por La Vida, and DJs Sean Watson, William Reed, Don Ricardo, Benni Beatnik, and many more. Most of the costumes were…
The ’80s. Pretty much since they ended, there has been mini-to-full-scale ’80s revivals every few years, with New Wave, dance punk, vintage hip-hop and other sounds of the cocaine-decade repurposed by young musicians. But some of 2011’s most buzzed-about records share a common bond, utilizing elements from ’80s soft rock…
Das Racist Crescent Ballroom Tuesday, November 1, 2011 From the outside, last night’s Das Racist show seemed like a typical hip-hop show. The trappings were the same: a bunch of MCs on stage, a hypeman/woman, and a DJ — but on closer inspection, there was something unusually eccentric about Das…
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears are back with more of the same garage soul that they do so well. Their loud personality and groovy James Brown-style outshine those of other bands in the genre. Frontman Joe Lewis spoke to Up On The Sun about why the group loves playing…
Move over Mara Salvatrucha.Watch your backs Bloods and Crips. The rabidly loyal Insane Clown Posse fanbase otherwise known as Juggalos have earned the title of “hybrid gang” in the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment. The report states that, “many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity…
Bob Marley once said that “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Reggae music, especially, has a way of making you forget your problems. Maybe because the kinds of people who listen to it are the usually same kind of people who enjoy getting…
People like to dedicate the month of November to specific tasks. Say, growing a mustache (Movember) or writing a novel (National Novel Writing Month). One dude who clearly knows how to do both is Nick Cave. His books, And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989) and The Death of Bunny…
Last weekend was full of fun Halloween parties, and Bar Smith exceeded expectations with this week’s edition of Sticky Fingers. Don Bolles of The Germs headlined this hipster dance party full of movie stars, sexy costumes, and people dressed as tacos on Friday, October 28. Check out all of Melissa…
It’s been a long time since the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson first began orchestrating one of rock’s most anticipated albums. Finally, after nearly four and a half decades of half-releases and bootlegs, Capitol Records is issuing the official release of the Beach Boys’ long lost album Smile. Wilson reconstructed his…
Otoacoustic Emissions at St. Augustine’s Church in Tempe Monday, October 31, 2011 According to the Billboard Contemporary Christian Music charts, “Courageous,” by the Georgia-based band Casting Crowns, is the most popular Christian song in America. The song is a lot of things: vaguely arena rock, pitched somewhere between Coldplay and…
Now you and your kids can dance to social activist music as performed by 99% of the bands in the Phoenix area. Not really, but the music roster at The 99% Unityfest on November 5 is looking pretty full, packed with talent from rock, hip-hop, funk, indie, folk outfits and more…
The last time Roger Waters pulled a big marketing stunt, it made a lot of people really mad — so I’m not at all surprised that the piggy bank that showed up yesterday at the New Times building proves that Waters isn’t into desecrating sad-indie kid memorials every time he…
