Artist: Murder by DeathTitle: Good Morning, MagpieRelease date: April 6Label: VagrantWhat would you expect a band called Murder by Death to sound like? I figured these guys were gonna be among the new breed of “punk” bands in which one dude sort of croons while another screams his lungs out…
Names: Mike Dwyer & Jake Brennan AKA: Beat Mass Current club nights: Guest appearances at fauxShow at Club Sanctum and Ransom and Philthy Phil’s. Preferred genres: Electro, disco, funk and a dash of old school hip-hop. What is Beat Mass? It’s kind of like a going to a church service…
Over the past decade, TheShizz has gradually grown into one of the most popular local music websites in the Valley. This month, The Shizz is launching its own record label, starting with a 17-track compilation of songs from Arizona bands called The Shizz Presents: AM or PM? I Don’t Know…The…
Greg Taylor, an ace local photographer whose work we have featured here at PHXmusic.com, has an ambitious new venture. Taylor started the Music Matters Project in the hopes of collecting some great concert photography for a full-color soft- cover book made up of 50 to 60 pages on glossy stock…
Factory Made Future is reporting that What Laura Says will release a new album called Bloom Cheek on June 8.FMF also predicts it’ll be big: “While the band has already started to garner some national attention, I have a feeling this will be the album that helps them break out on…
If you’ve ever doubted Kanye West’s place in the music game consider this: The man is now scrapping with legendary Death Row Records founder Suge Knight. You know, Suge. The guy who broke up N.W.A, dangled Vanilla Ice off a hotel balcony and stole Dr. Dre’s long time lady.Though seemingly…
Artist: HarlemLabel: HippiesRelease date: April 6Label: MatadorWhatever happened to the 10-inch record? Do they still make those things? I always thought they were a great way to listen to music because they had no room for filler. I’ve got some killer 10-inches by Pavement, The Drags, Urge Overkill, Lazy Cowgirls,…
This judgment comes to us from no less an authority than Christian Lander, the Canadian humorist whose Stuff White People Like blog has become an Internet staple of the pigment-poor, diploma-rich, probably-votes-Democrat set. The blog’s appeal is quite simple: It shows those very same navel-gazing whiteys the folly (and, by…
My Elvis Costello phase started pretty much by accident. I found a cassette copy of Blood and Chocolate in a thrift store, marked at 50 cents, and bought it not knowing much about Costello or his work. I did, however, have the concrete sense that I was supposed to know…
I was at Eastside Records, maybe a year and a half ago, when I found myself eyeing an EP from Becky Lee and Drunkfoot. It was an eye-catching package: a heavy paper case decorated with glitter and black permanent marker. After briefly wondering what a “drunkfoot” was, I bought the…
Given the varied pop culture terrain liberally explored throughout Kevin Smith’s nine films — comic book legend Stan Lee doling out relationship advice in Mallrats, cracks about Con Air in Dogma, a wacky Scooby-Doo homage in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, ubiquitous Star Wars references sprinkled throughout his oeuvre…
This week, New Times ran a box 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. Why can’t Phoenix’s NPR station, KJZZ, be more like KCRW, and play some indie rock? What…
Welcome to Stripper Songs, a weekly feature that proves not all Phoenix strippers bump and grind to Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” of Flo Rida’s “Low.” Scan the Internet for the top stripper songs of all time, and chances are you’ll happen upon list after list filled with such rock and pop…
[jump] Big thanks to Gabe over at Videogum for pointing this out. Enjoy:Man, fuck talking to scientists! They are always up in my shit, pissing me off, too. It’s so nice to have someone finally articulate so passionately what I’ve been feeling!Let’s take a look at some of the more inspired lyrics, shall…
Artist: Slow ClubTitle: Yeah SoRelease date: March 30Label: Moshi MoshiBreaking up never sounded so fun as it does when sung by the angel-voiced Rebecca Taylor and her Slow Club bandmate Charles Watson. When they sing “I’ve gotta ruin tonight / Because there’s no good way to say I’m leaving you /…
Tickets for Lady Gaga’s July 31 show at US Airways Center go on sale this Saturday, April 10, at 10 a.m.If you want to see The Monster Ball tour you’d better be at www.LiveNation.com with a credit card in hand at 9:55 a.m. since 16 dates have already sold out.While…
Tempe Music Festival was supposed to be this weekend at Tempe Beach Park. That plan was scrapped back in February when organizers decided they needed to take a year off before mustering the resources to host another two-day event.What do we get instead? The finals of the festival’s Garage Band…
What the other critics are saying:…
Artist: Black FrancisTitle: NonStopErotikRelease date: April 6Label: Cooking VinylI wish I’d never seen The Pixies in concert back in the day. If I hadn’t, I might be a bigger fan and not one of those people who thinks “over-rated” when someone espouses his or her Pixies love.I distinctly remember buying Come…
Kinch has always been an ambitious band. Still, I was almost taken aback by the Phoenix piano-pop outfit’s latest project, a remix/b-sides collection called Ziptape.Not only is the music awesome — a live acoustic version of the rare track “Oh Boy” (one of my favorite songs the band has done)…
How Shakira can be considered in any way “rock n’ roll” is puzzling. Still, the warbling popster has teamed up with the Hard Rock Cafe to sling some glitzy fashionable pieces she designed herself, all while helping her Pies Descalzos Foundation.One T-shirt ($26), with an Ed Hardy-ish front, has an…
[jump] Emotion & Commotion is due out next Tuesday, 4/13, yet the album leaked 2 weeks ago — hardly a surprise for a big label (Rhino) release like this. Emotion is Beck’s first album since 2003’s appropriately-titled Jeff and features a guest vocal from Joss Stone, who also happens to…
