Welsh imports Bullet for My Valentine aim for metal’s sweet spot: shred-tastic enough for headbangers and poppy enough to please the girlfriends with power ballads. They deliver plenty of clean vocals over chugging percussion with galloping riffage and soaring hypersonic solos that rip a page from Iron Maiden and Metallica…
Ray Manzarek, co-founder of The Doors, and critically acclaimed slide/blues guitarist Roy Rogers, best known for his collaboration with John Lee Hooker, are performing at The Compound. Rogers recently told a California newspaper that the two men realize they’ve formed an odd musical coupling. “It’s an interesting combination, seemingly incongruous…
It’s probably a safe bet that you’ve never encountered a turntablist as flamboyant as DJ Keoki. Just look at the dude’s ultra-colorful past: A veteran of NYC’s infamous “Club Kids” scene of the early ’90s (which inspired the 2003 film Party Monster), the self-described “superstar” rose to fame working such…
There was a time when Merle Haggard defined defiantly prideful pro-Americanism better than anyone. During the dark days of the Vietnam War, the gruff California country singer penned two songs, “Okie From Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” that answered Bob Dylan and Joan Baez about as well as…
With that all said, LP4 picks up right where Ratatat’s previous album LP3 left off — and damn is it good…
Artist: Broken Social SceneTitle: Forgiveness Rock RecordRelease date: May 4Label: Arts & CraftsWe just entered our fifth month here at “Nothing Not New” — just under eight months to go on this yearlong new-music journey. I’m a couple of days late on this, but I have to give you my…
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. Is M.I.A.’s controversial “Born Free” video an allegory about Arizona? Who is headlining Arizona’s 2010 Fall…
So apparently, Scarlett Johansson, who, in case you forgot, collaborated with Pete Yorn on a record last year, is a fan of Courtney Love.According to NME, ScarJo likes Love so much she would find the notion of playing her in a forthcoming Kurt Cobain biopic “interesting and intriguing.”Don’t get too…
Once upon a time — in a time we’ll call The Good Old Days — so-called “college survival kits” included notebooks and detergent and shit like that. That was before kids were all stupid little losers, though. Now, they apparently need help figuring out all the fancy ass pop culture…
Tempe kiddie-poppers The Maine have announced the release date for their new record, Black & White, the major-label followup to Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. Sire will drop the record, produced by Howard Benson (Papa Roach, Creed, Hawthorne Heights), on July 13. In the least surprising news of the week, the…
Last night on American Idol, it was Frank Sinatra night, and you know what that means–break out the suits and black dress! This was the classiest night of the season so far, as the contestants took on the legend.Harry Connick, Jr., the guest mentor of the night, was called a…
Hoodstock is scheduled for this weekend in Tempe.This weekend’s event is (CORRECTION) not the same event called Hoodstock in Tempe which has its own wikipedia entry. It’s also not the Oakland Dance party of the same name or the Miami rap showcase of the same name. Whew. This is the…
Song: Crystal Castles’ “Vietnam” (Lightsoverla Remix)Context: It’s been 40 years and one day since the Kent State shootings. …
Here’s a look at what’s selling this week at local record stores.MGMT’s Congratulations holds steady with several number one spots, Record Store Day exclusives manage to still be selling well, especially at Revolver Records, even several weeks after Record Store Day, and comedian Brian Posehn makes an appearance on Zia’s…
Okay, folks, we’ve been doing Club Candids for almost three years now (yes, that’s a lot of hangovers) so we’d like to think that we know a good club night when we see one (here, check the slideshow).Such was the case on Friday, April 30, at the inaugural night of…
Song: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s “Thuggish Ruggish Bone”Inspiration: A delightfully sub-quality “bootleg” of the group’s show at Celebrity Theatre Sunday. Damn, I should have gone…
So it seems that our president may have a slightly outdated sense of humor. Sound of the City reports that Obama had a carefully planned out comedy routine, using Biggie as the punchline. Apparently he referred to the head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, as the “Notorious G.O.P.””Why?”…
Remember that Surfer Blood show at Trunk Space that got canceled? Yeah, well, that was the closest the band will come to playing here. Ever.Yup, that’s a fact. How do we know? Umm, well, we just got a press release which says the band will never, ever play the Grand…
Artist: The New PornographersTitle: TogetherRelease date: May 4Label: MatadorFor me, the equation’s always been real simple when it comes to the indie-pop group The New Pornographers: songs with Neko Case taking the vocal reins = yes; songs with the wanna-be British dude singing = maybe. Well, maybe it’s not that simple,…
So much has been said about SB 1070 since Gov. Brewer signed the bill into law on April 23. The latest? Al Sharpton weighs in.The law makes it a crime to not carry proper immigration documents and gives the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the…
Due to a guest list snafu, we were unable to attend last night’s Coheed & Cambria concert. Here’s how we imagine the show might have gone, had we actually seen it: Coheed & Cambria put on the show of a lifetime last night at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe. The…
Let’s cut the bullshit: May is going to be a huge month for new music. People are rightly circling the entire month on their calendars, frothing at the mouth in expectation of all of the quality releases due in the next 30 or so days.Los Angeles’ DJ/producer/electronic music impresario Steven…
