With previous addresses in California and North Carolina (and a current one in Kansas), this emo/post-rock quintet has lived like hipster Gypsies — settling here, resettling there, uprooting always. Not coincidentally, The Appleseed Cast sounds like a little of everything. On “Steps and Numbers,” from their 2001 album Low Level…
Sharon Van Etten’s 2010 release, Epic, was a welcome change from her first self-released album, which had some great songs but suffered from being a starkly acoustic album from a singer-songwriter who obsessed over an unknown “you.” Epic is a fuller record from an artist whose growing confidence is also…
Hardcore punk bands started using the double kick drum breakdown nearly 20 years ago. It became one of the defining characteristics of the metalcore movement, which draws elements from death metal, post-hardcore, and emo. Over the years, metalcore has taken a more melodic approach, as vocal and guitar stylings have…
No other band on Earth presents music to their fans quite like Umphrey’s McGee. The progressive jam band recently announced its second annual UM Bowl in Chicago. The event is a one-of-a-kind concert in which fans, via live text-messaging, call the shots on song choices and special collaborations in four…
It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and for Celtic punk bands like L.A.’s Flogging Molly and local boyos Keltic Cowboys, today is the biggest day of the year. Each March 17, mobs of frat boys, sorority girls, punkers, and 9- to 5-ers get the Irish itch, tossing on as much emerald as…
If it seems as though it was only a week ago that Stateside Presents held the first day of their South by Stateside showcase, that’s because it was. Here we are a week later, and eight new bands take The Sail Inn’s stage for yet another top-notch showcase. Two separate…
To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever correctly assigned blame for inspiring the squeaky-clean brand of second wave emo/pop-punk plied by bands like Fall Out Boy and Jimmy Eat World. I’ll start with FOB’s fellow Chicagoans The Smoking Popes. In the early ’90s, these lovesick suburbanites carried…
Let’s face it: Monday nights are downright dull. Not only are there four grueling days of work still ahead of, there’s also never anything good on the tube to help dull the pain. Thank heavens, then, for Tricky T, who’s helping turn Monday into a fun day again with his…
THURSDAY 17 27th Avenue Bar: DJ Manage, & DJ Android (Top 40) 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) Blue Martini: Rewind Thursday with DJ Mendez (retro) Bobby Q’s: All-Star Thursdays (hip-hop,…
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… How does the newly named Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion stack up against the worst venue names in…
Song: Broken Bells, “The High Road” Context: This song from the duo of Danger Mouse and Shins singer James Mercer goes with this week’s cover story about local low-power station KWSS 106.7 FM. Broken Bells – The High Road by pcagx…
Christopher O’Riley is a classical musician who creates piano arrangements of modern rock songs. He has released tributes to Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, and two Radiohead albums. His latest album, Out of my Hands, features the versions of songs by Nirvana, Portishead, Tears for Fears, The Smiths, and many more…
New bar Tempe Tavern is set to open in a few weeks in the historic White Dairy Barn building, formerly the home off Murphy’s Pub, on the Northeast corner of Apache and McClintock.According to the city of Tempe’s historical properties website, the building is the only known river cobble building…
Each week on their blog, the folks over at Light in the Attic pick one brick and mortar record store to honor as their pick of the week. Downtown Phoenix store Revolver Records is featured this week. The label, known for reissues by The Monks, Serge Gainbourg, Karen Dalton, The…
Title: Hard To Be HumanBasics: Billed as “the new project featuring members of Big Vinny and the Cattle Thieves, Digital Leather, Andrew Jackson Jihad, and The Half Empties,” The Plainfield Butchers have some impressive experience among their four members. Their debut record Hard To Be Human is a tight tour…
That includes upscale spot Primebar, which is where Club Candids visited this past weekend. Check out the pics from the experience in this week’s slideshow…
Song: Delta Spirit, “911”Context: What a great song from this Long Beach band. TOMS :: Delta Spirit :: 911…
We’ve written a lot about local metal band Hemoptysis. Mostly because they’re really, really good. But their backstory makes for interesting copy, too. The band is fronted by a guy named Masaki Murashita, a Japanese immigrant who once told us, candidly: “I would move back. That’s my honest opinion,” he…
Would you correctly identify Blessthefall as a Christian band? To me, it seems sorta obvious that the local post-hardcore band on Fearless Records with “bless” in the name is pro-religion.Yet this is the band that gave Noise Complaint cartoonist Robbie Pfeffer his “Freddie Mercury Moment.” Read on for the (hilarious and) sorted…
Bad news for people with working ears: Limp Bizkit, the rap-rock outfit that stained an entire generation by instigating a meathead riot at Woodstock 1999, is reassembling.Or so says singer/rapper/douchenozzle Fred Durst, who NME reports says his band is working on two new albums. Apparently he has some free time…
There has been a palpable lead up to release of The Big Roar — the band’s 2009 A Balloon Called Moaning EP set the blogoshpere ablaze with the band’s unique brand of rock music, lead by Bryan’s soaring vocals. The Joy Formidable have dates set for this year’s Coachella and SXSW music…
Local rock outfit Kinch got a lot attention from their three January residencies in LA, San Diego and Scottsdale. Now the newish Long Wong’s at the Firehouse in Tempe is running with the idea.Technically, the promo is called by the more modest-sounding title, “Featured Band of the Month,” but it’s…
