Kim Shattuck on How Getting Fired by the Pixies Named Her Album

The Muffs (Kim Shattuck, Ronnie Barnett and Roy McDonald) have been writing and performing spirited, clever and fierce pop-punk tunes since they formed in the very early 1990s. Their first full-length release in 10 years, Whoop Dee Doo, hit the streets this week and both fans and critics are eating…

Tuba in Tow, The Hooten Hallers Hit the Road

In explaining the Hooten Hallers, it’s best to begin with what this three-piece is not. The band, despite frequent media references to the contrary, is not a hillbilly band. It is from Missouri, not Appalachia. “You know, I don’t know,” says drummer Andy Rehm by phone from a roadside pullout…

5 Reasons I Don’t Review New Music

Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and wacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. Generally when I tell people that I write about music, they assume I write reviews…

Q&A: Boris’ Noise a Map to the Band’s Sound

Nailing down Boris is no easy task. The Japanese band has released 19 albums in its 22-year career, all with varying material that shifts from doom metal, to prog rock, screamo to power pop, space to thrash–sometimes on the same album. That’s part of the band’s appeal, however, as the…

The Evolution of a Hard Rock Stage Show

No genre has combined these elements better than hard rock and heavy metal. From Kiss to Cannibal Corpse, lyrical subject matter alone often pushes the envelope, but when bands add elements of anti-authoritarianism and eroticism to their killer guitar solos, it’s hard for fans to look away. Influenced by everything…

Music Feature: Ice-T and Body Count

Ice-T admitted to “mailing it in” for his band Body Count’s 2006 album Murder 4 Hire. The rapper was knee-deep in being a full-time actor at the time and didn’t have the time or energy to give it his all, especially in the wake of the death of founding member…

World Cup Playlist: The Quarterfinalists of Brazilian Music

Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and whacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. Have you been watching the World Cup? Me too. I’m a huge sports fan, but…

Jack White’s Lazaretto Is All Gimmick, No Bite

The story goes, Mr. Picasso is sitting in a posh Paris café when he is approached by a young woman. She instantly recognizes the famous painter and begs him to draw for her. He snorts, until the lady offers to pay him. So Pablo whips out his pen, doodles something…

This Week’s Music Feature: Remembering the Sail Inn

In March, Gina Lombardi announced that longstanding Tempe rock venue Sail Inn had been purchased by a local developer and would be demolished to make way for a new location of The Lodge, a restaurant in Scottsdale. The announcement bummed out the club’s loyal regulars and the local musicians who’ve…

6 Songs That Evoke Movie Scenes

Steve Wiley is Up on the Sun’s resident Record Store Geek. Biweekly, he shares stories of great music and whacky characters from his continuing 27 years in Valley record stores and the always-zany music biz. When you are a music geek like I am, you are constantly aware of the…

Numb Bats: Don’t Call Them a “Girl Group”

Walking through Mo Neuharth’s Phoenix home, you don’t get the sense that you’re in the house of a 23-year-old artist and part-time server. She has roommates, but the place is immaculate — like a catalog for redux vintage design. She and her bandmates, Emily Hobeheidar and Sophie Opich, shuffle around…

10 Unearth Songs You Need to Hear

Many metal heads will know Massachusetts as the birthplace for many vital modern bands. There must be something in the chowder. Artists like All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and specifically, Unearth, all hail from the Bay State. Unearth is currently on tour with Texas In July, Cruel Hand,…

Belle & Sebastian to Play Civic Space Park

UPDATE, October 7, 2014, at 11:41 a.m.: Ain’t life grand? Due to expected rainfall, the Belle & Sebastian concert has been moved to Orpheum Theatre. How Civic Space Park functions as a concert venue is a question for another day. Indie critical darlings Belle & Sebastian are playing their first-ever…