You should know that this post is totally NSFW. Prepare for a serious case of the willies. Before I get started, here’s a little backstory behind all the weird you are about to stumble into. Yesterday, I was inputting concerts into New Times calendar database. I came across a show taking…
Editor’s Note: We here at Up on the Sun are sad to announce that we are losing Michael Lopez as a staff blogger. Lopez is moving back to his hometown, Portland, Oregon. Over the past three years, M.Lo has been a distinct voice on this blog and in print. You…
The Bled are breaking up, but you’ve got to give it up for the band. 10 years is a mighty long time to play the kind of music the band plays and to put on the kind of show it put on (check out our recent review of the band…
Numbers is an Arizona hip-hop duo, comprised of producer Izzy and rapper I.P.. The duo’s recent EP, Nerds Getting Paper: Attack of the Robots, released in May, indeed finds the group “getting paper,” but the “nerds” part seems a bit self-deprecating. The album features guest spots from Mr. Miranda and…
This weekend, 93.3 KDKB, the “Sixth Longest-Running FM Rock Station in Nation,” enters into its fourth decade of existence with a Saturday, August 13 celebratory performance by The Tubes at Foundry on First, one of the countless bands that got its first big radio boost on the heritage rock station…
London is burning. Storefronts are busted. Looting is rampant. And rioters are reducing many of the city’s buildings to piles of timber.
But what is it all for?
This Friday night, the heart of downtown Scottsdale will be alive and well with the sound of heavy metal. In its purest form, heavy metal is quite laconic–straight, to the point, and crisp. So it’s only fitting that the name of the band that will be rocking Old Town Friday…
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 “Kingly” possessions are on display at MIM’s new Elvis Presley exhibit? What’s the deal with…
In March 2009, Portland folk-rockers The Decemberists released a rock opera called The Hazards of Love. Inspired by an EP of the same name by English folk singer Anne Briggs, the album tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a shape-shifting forest dweller. It was an…
Some bands ride a rollercoaster of popularity, with a steep climb quickly followed by a period when — absent a radio hit — the bottom drops out. Death Cab for Cutie’s enjoyed a more modest incline. It has experienced a steady growth in stature over the past 14 years —…
For dance-driven electro acts, there’s no grander feat than managing to stay “big in Brooklyn” while inching toward the mainstream. Melbourne-bred quartet Cut Copy has got the trick down, parlaying its steady buzz into one of the ultimate status symbols for a band, a headlining slot at the Coachella music…
Phoenix-based stoner-metal band Twingiant doesn’t screw around when it comes to material. “Songs about being accidentally shot out into space on a giant garbage barge because y’all was sleeping in a pile of garbage when the tractor beam picked y’all up by mistake,” reads the bio on the group’s (hilarious)…
When the name of your band comes off like a warning, you can be sure no one is going to mistake you for a straightforward pop band. Sure enough, Chandler hardcore band Keep Your Distance makes aggressive music, but songs like “For I Am the Sky” may surprise listeners expecting…
The naysayers doubted, but The Summer Set has proved they’re more than a one-hit wonder and they have a future beyond dating Disney Channel stars. Yeah, the audiences still consist mostly of rabid, screaming teenage girls, but Everything’s Fine, the band’s solid sophomore album, balances a knack for writing catchy…
We’re going to play nice. Days of the New singer Travis Meeks has had it rough over the years. A kidney stone in 1999 led to an addiction to painkillers, which led to cocaine and, finally, meth. He even appeared in 2005 on A&E’s Intervention to document the whole thing…
It might not pack the same mental hot flash as having Tom Jones ask you “What’s New Pussycat?” or Chubby Checker requesting your help twisting something, but having Fee Waybill, lead singer of The Tubes, tell you in so many words he may have to “Talk to Ya Later” comes…
Following a 16-year career and four-year album-making process, Los Angeles-based DJ Jaybird’s first full-length record was finally released in March, and it’s all him — sort of. At least that’s the title. It’s All Me features a collection of DJ Jaybird originals and dubstep-ified remixes of high-profile tunes like Cee-Lo…
THURSDAY 11 27th Avenue Bar: DJ Manage, & DJ Android (Top 40, dance) Afterlife: Thumpin Thurzdays (various) AZ/88: Josh One (rare groove, urban funk) Bar Smith: Splash Thursday (reggae, dancehall, Top 40, house) Bikini Lounge: DJ Shane Kennedy (jazz, blues, country, R&B, rarities, vintage) Blue Martini: Rewind Thursday with DJ…
Mill Avenue is loud, and Vintage is no exception, perched on the corner of 4th Street and Mill blasting dance music to passerbys. It’s loud for a reason, Vintage has a huge dance floor full of Tempe’s finest. We captured the mischief in this week’s Club Candids slideshow…
Getting boozy for cheap usually amounts to staying at home and looking at the bottom of a 40 of Steel Reserve, but a new Phoenix-based online business, TipsyDevil, is out to change that.The Groupon-like discounted gift certificate website is focusing its efforts mainly on Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tempe nightlife and…
It’s not unusual to be an 18-year-old kid in a rock ‘n’ roll band, playing all-ages shows and house parties while still learning exactly what to do with that stringed thing in your hands. It’s less common to be an 18-year-old in a band that’s huge in Europe, and get…
While I’ve chosen this Tumblr that’s run by an LA Times writer so I can share it with other writers, I’ve also chosen it so everyone else can enjoy it as well. I sure do enjoy your writing, Todd Martens, so here’s to you. This week’s Tumblr of the Week pick is You…
