Earlier this year, I pissed off a whole bunch of Aaron Lewis/Staind fans when I claimed that Lewis’ song “Country Boy” was a “gone country” cash-in. Let me tell ‘ya — Lewis’ fans are a feisty bunch. One even tweeted at me, insulting the jacket I was wearing in my…
Devin Fleenor of Mr. Meeble is a busy guy. Talking over the phone, he explains to me that, somehow, he’s got to finish mixing a few songs, line them up on disc, and then burn a 100 or so copies before waking up early and catching a flight to Europe…
Labor Day weekend is shaping up to be a good one for local music. KWSS 106.7 announced plans to today to play nothing but local music starting Friday at midnight, and continuing on till Monday, when the TMI Morning Show’s Beef Vegan, Shorty, and Buddah will count down their 20…
Up On The Sun is putting a local twist on Tumblr of the Week by shedding light on some blogs that are closer to home. So this week, we’re brining you The Season Premiere. More on what’s awesome about this week’s Tumblr of the Week after the jump… …
Banana Gun is a busy band. On average, this local blues/rock group performs twice a week, often playing free shows at Long Wong’s Firehouse and Yucca Tap Room. Drummer Ian Breslin describes “Sometimes,” a rhythmic guitar-driven song from the band’s debut EP, as a fan favorite. “‘Sometimes’ is a song…
Way back in April, we spoke with cartoonist/musician Stephen Steinbrink about his plans for Yellow Canary Dance Hall, which he described then as “a community center, movie theater, punk basement, print shop, art gallery, lecture hall, and a place to play board games at three in the morning.” The space…
She made the announcement about expecting her and Jay-Z’s first child together when she walked onto the red carpet and showed off a small baby bump at the MTV Video Music Awards. A representative for Beyonce Knowles has confirmed her pregnancy.”I always said I would have a baby at 30,”…
Yesterday Up on the Sun reported that DMX was arrested for speeding on Wednesday night. I noted that, sadly, the event was hardly surprising, given X’s history of arrests in Arizona. Today, things got a little less routine. In a statement made to The Source earlier today, Domenick Nati, DMX’s…
Luis Sias, otherwise known as DJ Les735, is one busy dude. He’s made himself at home at pretty much every DJ-focused venue in town, from Chasers to The Clubhouse, setting down temporarily tonight at Club Red. And he’s only looking to take on more. The hip-hop turntablist and producer spends his days…
Wait, what? Katy Perry is being considered too sexy for China? And Lady Gaga is too controversial, you say? That’s unheard of! Well, not if you have any say in Chinese cultural authority.Katy Perry’s hit “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” as well as six songs by Lady Gaga have been blacklisted…
Jessica Cuff Cuff is the owner of The Coffee Shop and has appeared on Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? 103.9-FM. I’m not hella into a ton of super mainstream bands, but I’d…
No doubt you read our awesome Q&A with Atmosphere’s Slug from the other day — but even if you didn’t, you probably want to go see the group on Saturday at Mesa Amphitheater. After all, the group’s latest record, The Family Sign, is loaded with taut rhymes and minimal beats…
Well, here’s one for the “nobody is surprised” bin: Rapper Earl Simmons, better known as DMX, was arrested Wednesday night. The arrest took place just before 9 p.m. after being pulled over for doing 102 miles per hour while driving westbound on U.S. 60 near the Power Road exit in…
In this week’s issue, we featured a story about Mergence, a Phoenix band that knows a thing or two about “weird.” We knew the group was out there — just check out singer Adam Bruce’s explanation of “Me and My Family Vs. The Robots” — but when guitarist Yod Paul…
Local funk band JUNKtheband wanted to positively impact the community when they wrote their song, “Protect Your Joy,” since the track was inspired by news of young people committing suicide as a result of bullying. “I was a small kid and bullied quite a bit growing up,” says singer/guitarist Marten…
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. Why is College Dropouts returning to the same location where it closed only months ago? What…
How can a self-respecting weirdo rock ‘n’ roll songwriter stand apart from the crowd? How does one manage to craft songs about typical tropes (love, freedom, and self-discovery) without sounding, well, typical? For Adam Bruce, the frontman of Tempe-based indie-blues quartet Mergence, the answer is simple and unexpected: Wrap those…
BIG FREEDIA IS SHAKING BOOTIES AND TAKING NAMES. The evolution of “bounce music” in New Orleans has been a strange one. For more than two decades, New Orleans DJs have been using the same two hip-hop samples to get parties moving — the Showboys’ “Drag Rap (Triggerman)” and Cameron Paul’s…
Atmosphere, the duo of Sean Daley (a.k.a. Slug) and Anthony Davis (a.k.a. Ant) has been a commanding force in indie hip-hop since the group formed in 1989. Not only did the two help found Minneapolis-based Rhymesayers Entertainment, but their 2003 release, Seven’s Travels, co-released by punk-minded label Epitaph, helped expose…
To the surprise of an awful lot of people, it turns out that no illegal substances were found in Amy Winehouse’s body. Furthermore, a drug overdose was not the cause of Winehouse’s unexpected death. However, reports mentioned that alcohol was present in her system, but it is still unclear whether…
The concert gods giveth and the concert gods taketh away. Phoenix has been getting a whole lot on the giveth side lately. (Is this punishment for the whole Bon Iver-Fleet Foxes thing?!) The taketh part came with an announcement yesterday afternoon that Lil Wayne postponed his Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion…
Good news for lovers of gravelly-voiced eccentric songwriters: There’s a new Tom Waits album coming down the pipe. It’s called Bad As Me and drops on October 25, courtesy Anti- Records, Waits’ home for the past decade. The title track hit both iTunes and Amazon for download today, and it’s perfectly…
