Despite the chill in the air, many of you have been champing at the bit to slip on a wifebeater, draw Xs on the back of your hands, and slam-dance to classic East Coast hardcore and old-school straight-edge thrash. When Boston’s Slapshot makes its first trip to the desert in…
Although 2014 has only just begun, it’s already been an epic year for local four-piece rock band KONGOS, and we mean that quite literally. The South African-born brothers have inked a deal with NYC-based Epic Records and will make an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, March 5. Oh,…
Local rapper Random (a.k.a. Mega Ran) is nothing if not prolific. In fact, he’s one of the more productive hip-hop/nerdcore artists out of Arizona, consistently delivering top-notch projects like “Black Materia” and “Forever Famicom” to the masses, as well as releasing close to a dozen different jams last year via…
Editor’s Note: Shea Serrano is an award-winning music writer and goofball whose recent exploits include Bun B’s Rap Coloring and Activity Book. In his column, he writes about his life and times. Among many other things, my twin six-year-olds sons think I am Manu Ginobili when the Spurs play basketball…
It’s been said that January is the worst month because of post-holiday depression, having to stick to all those pesky resolutions, or your ass getting dumped. But if anyone was feeling blue during the first month of 2014, they weren’t showing their frowny faces at any of the bars, music…
Frank Zappa needs no introduction . . . Or does he? Considered one the 20th century’s greatest modern composers, much of his music, while applauded by critics, wasn’t accessible for mainstream audiences. Songs like “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” and “Valley Girl,” a duet with daughter Moon Unit, broke through,…
It can be easy to miss unless you’re looking for it, but there are a lot of metal (heavy or otherwise) in and around Metro Phoenix, thanks to concerts and gigs by locals and touring acts alike. As such, Up on the Sun’s resident metal scribe Lauren Wise is always…
Midwestern indie juggernaut Evan Weiss is a man of many talents, having either played in or revitalized the Chicago emo brand to a huge degree. Weiss rolls into town on Tuesday with equivocally genre-appropriately named support acts The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to…
God forbid someone call me out on the things I said with the utmost seriousness in my early 20s, the things I drew the hardest of lines on: the person I’d never be, the things I’d never do, and so on. Who can live up to that? And, more to…
The last time I told people I was going to ‘Nam, I was actually heading off to backpack through Vietnam for a month with a stop off in Cambodia and Taiwan. And the general reply was, “Why the hell would you want to do that?” However, last week when I…
For all of those fortunate enough to catch the Keyboard Cat playing Bruno Mars during the halftime of the Puppy Bowl on Sunday, I envy you. That’s because I had to endure about 15 minutes of pure torture while watching the actual Bruno Mars performing with the Red Hot Chili…
Those who have come to know The Motet as an Afro-centric band should be happy with the band’s directional shift on its eponymous new album. While the African influences that gave the Boulder, Colorado, group its footing in the 1990s can still be heard, The Motet has morphed into a…
What did you wind up doing this past weekend? Yeah, we’re sure in all likelihood that y’all took time out to watch the big game (and that big, lopsided slaughter that went along with it) or attending one of the many parties being thrown in its honor. We got to…
Want to get in a show this week? There are plenty of concerts over the next five days around Metro Phoenix to choose from, as you can see for yourself by viewing our extensive online concert listings. And we’re fairly certain that there’s something for everyone, regardless of your particular…
TKLB? F-Bom Residency Long Wong’s 1/31/14 Kalen Lander, known to many in the local music scene as TKLB?, wrapped up his Friday “F-Bom” residency at Long Wong’s Tempe last night, and it was quite the epic finale. The Tempe indie rapper, who’s the brother of The Sugar Thieves’ Mikel Lander,…
Weezer Coors Light Birds Nest at Waste Management Phoenix Open 1/30/14 As the famous 20th Century Fox fanfare played and the lights dimmed inside the Coors Light Birds Nest at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Friday night, the crowd might have expected Weezer to greet them with all the…
Ryan Avery has put his stamp — and then some — on the downtown Phoenix scene. Over the past decade, the ultra-hyphenate has been a musician, comedian, singer, performance artist, mustachioed raconteur, conductor, and frontman for such bands as Fathers Day, Drunk and Horny, and Nightwolf. At any given time,…
In case you’ve been avoiding the Internet the past several days, thanks for coming back. Now let’s catch up: The Grammys went down on Sunday night (with all the schwag such an industry fete entails) and people are talking about it. While much of the post-Grammy discussion has centered on…
Jake Owen Coors Light Birds Nest at Waste Management Phoenix Open 1/30/14 Country music fans definitely know a thing or two about having a good time — and Thursday night’s concert by Jake Owen inside the Coors Light Birds Nest at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was no exception. Everyone…
Song associations are strange, because when I hear “Longview” by Green Day, I think of Rosemarie Sandoval’s hair. We were both sophomores, sharing a table in Mr. Nardinelli’s third-period art class. I think she was almost a year older, and if she wasn’t taller than me anyway, her bangs sure…
Hear that? It’s the clock counting down the hours until your weekend begins and it’s nearing the magic moment known as quitting time. To help the time pass more quickly, you might consider what it is you’ll actually be doing during the next couple days and nights of work-free bliss…
Captain Squeegee Crescent Ballroom 1/29/14 If David Gilmour and Jerry Garcia linked up in Phoenix and decided to begin playing jazz music, it’s a safe bet that said collaboration would sound something like Captain Squeegee. The local atomic jazz-fusion act, still riding high following the release of their sophomore album,…
