It’s been a week of sad news: The auto world lost Carroll Shelby, Vidal Sassoon’s passing shook up the fashion realm, and Mary Kennedy is once again stirring up rumors of the Kennedy curse. Today, the world of music has lost another great voice. Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco…
We’ve taken a look at the bands that dominated the ’90s with chart topping singles and one hit wonders, but this week, we’re doing something different. The term “orgcore” may have you scratching your head more than a cultural institution like Green Day, but it’s always been my favorite subgenre…
You don’t need us to remind you that temperatures are rising fast in the Valley, but lucky for us, local musicians like Arizona rapper Savant, have responded with some hotness that is actually music to our ears. (Soak up the cheese, people, I’m here all week.) In all seriousness, though,…
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. Ever wonder what’s acceptable in a mosh pit? We discuss. How did Chilean MC Ana Tijoux…
In 2008, NBC tried to reboot the legendary ’80s program Knight Rider, casting Justin Bruening as the son of David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight, and casting Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT, a hyper-intelligent car. Ty Patterson — the Phoenix-based MC who raps as Trap — was not onboard with…
“Legendary” might be a diluted description for a band these days, but there’s no other way to label Mexican rockers El Tri and their frontman Alex Lora. The dude is — how do we put this? — kind of a big deal. The names may not ring immediate bells, but…
Jason Pierce doesn’t really remember where he was while piecing together his band’s newest psychedelic wonder, Sweet Heart Sweet Light. The Spiritualized leader knows the album took three years in three different cities to complete; it’s just that the medication he was ingesting for liver disease left him in an…
See also: KUKQ Returns to Phoenix (Via the Internet) See also: KUKQ Phoenix Launches Online; We Speak With Nancy Stevens, Craven Moorehead, and Jonathan L KUKQ Phoenix — the Internet radio station bearing the classic call letters of a bygone Phoenix institution — launched in March, but as station director…
See also: A Hot Ghetto Mess of Hip-Hop, Art, and B-Boys – The 10-Year Journey of The Blunt Club This is proving to be a great time for the Valley’s hip-hop circuit. Mouse Powell’s music video for his Arizona anthem “Holding Home” dropped only a week ago, and already the…
Before Ryan Adams was winning (and breaking) hearts with albums like Heartbreaker and last year’s strong Ashes & Fire, he was a member of the seminal alt-country act Whiskeytown. Whiskeytown had a good six-year run and helped define the genre’s sound and influenced a number of bands. “A lot of…
See also: Six Against Me! Songs We Can’t Wait to Hear Tom Gabel Sing as a Woman In an election year, it’s normal for the national conversation to get heated. “War on Women,” “War on Marriage,” “War on Healthcare” — you get the idea. Last week, Tom Gabel of Against…
In the early 2000s, Sean Paul’s dutty rock dominated the airwaves and party playlists all over the world. Sean Paul is making somewhat of a comeback with a new album that nobody knew was released this year. We’ll see if the tracks on Tomahawk Technique are good enough to still…
Turns out local concert promoter Jeremiah Gratza has more on his plate than just putting on shows, passing out flyers, helping run Crescent Ballroom, and hanging out at hip dance nights. The 29-year-old, who’s a promoter with Stateside Presents, occasionally has performed as DJ President Gator over the past four…
Mr. ORNGMr. ORNG is the official Phoenix Suns Fan Ambassador — and an avid Suns fan. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Ha-ha — no key, keyless start. But to your point, 98.3 FM or 101.1 FM The…
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads; just a synthesizer, eyeliner, and a touch of androgyny. Welcome to Flashback Friday. Los Angeles-based rockers Ozomatli reminded me of a cold hard fact at last month’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival; if you’re a Latino, particularly a Chicano like myself, you have an…
I’m glad I grew up in the ’90s. I had strong, independent, beautiful women as musical role models, and they ruled the airwaves. The Spice Girls preached girl power, Lilith Fair paraded feminine gusto across the country, and No Doubt , fronted by Gwen Stefani, assured us that being treated…
Mother’s Day is all about celebrating moms, motherhood, and maternal bonds (to quote Wikipedia), but why do we stop there? What about celebrating all women? That’s what the National Day Labor Organizing Network and human rights movement Puente Arizona is planning to do on Sunday, May 13, with the event…
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. What is Devo doing with instrument-maker Corey Busboom’s creations in their new video? Why are we…
How to measure loyalty, commitment, devotion? In the case of David Jensen, of Sunset Alliance Records and guiding light behind Before Braille, Art for Starters, and now Loyal Wife, his dedication to music can be physically measured in the form of actual compact disc inventory, shrink-wrapped and stacked up, in…
With Arizona politics an ever-increasing mix of insanity and idiocy, it’s nice to know that some folks are still out there fighting the good fight. Alicia Porter, 24, is busy enough with her full-time job as outreach specialist at the Arizona Science Center and pursuing her master’s in museum studies…
Since the emergence of the term, “emo rap” has been a pejorative shunned by any artist to whom the tag was applied. But it’s a useful label nonetheless, aptly encompassing a particular brand of emotive, borderline-sensitive hip-hop that emerged full-force after Kanye West’s flawed but important 808s and Heartbreaks. Canadian…
Florida punk-rockers Against Me! have always made honesty a policy, discussing scene politics, social politics, and issues of justice and hypocrisy with an insight and power. But who saw this one coming: After a long battle with gender dysphoria, Tom Gabel of Against Me! has decided to start living his…
