We pretty much crowned Sam Beam, the songwriter who leads Iron & Wine, “King of Octobeard” last week (okay, he came in behind Zakk Wylde, but still). I know a lot of people who thought that Iron & Wine’s last record, Kiss Each Other Clean, was too much of a…
Weiss is a fine art photographer with Candid Landscapes and executive director of No Festival Required Independent Cinema, a four-time Best Of Phoenix winner. Weiss will be doing film programming for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s new SMoCA Lounge in November.When you put your key in the ignition and turn…
In one of my favorite pieces he wrote at New Times, former music editor Martin Cizmar argued that Wilco, one of my favorite bands, was, for all intents and purposes, no different than Dave Matthew Band, a group I don’t like. (Anymore, at least. I was a pretty big fan…
What’s better than a rock show and a costume party together under one roof? How about an ’80s slasher costume party benefiting pets of the homeless with The Jack Rollers. AZ Retro Rescue is hosting the fright night at The Rogue Bar in Scottsdale this Saturday, October 22. TJR are…
I really think so. It’s been a busy year for Mesa’s leading reggae/punk export, Authority Zero. The band is in the midst of a national tour that includes a date at Marquee Theatre on November 5, which will be a hometown sendoff of sorts before the band heads to Japan…
This week’s print edition of Phoenix New Times features a little slice of Phoenix skate punk history, with key players in the early days of seminal band JFA discussing Phoenix, skating, and the punk scene of the early ’80s. All four original members of JFA play Hollywood Alley this Saturday…
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 spooky songs are featured on the Holy Page Records Halloween compilation? What is Andrea Beesley-Brown…
In 1981, Phoenix punk band J.F.A. (a.k.a. Jodie Foster’s Army) released the Blatant Localism EP on Placebo Records. Remarkably brief — the entire record clocks in at six minutes, 34 seconds — the record defined the burgeoning skate punk scene. Though not Phoenix’s first punk band, JFA introduced, with Blatant…
The best kinds of music — power pop, Americana, garage rock, R ‘n’ B — are often defined more by what the bands playing that kind of music don’t do than by what they do. Garage rock, for example, requires very little in the way of a formula: steady backbeat,…
Today we published a list of ten great albums you may have missed in 2011, but one record Up on the Sun contributor M.T. Richards left off his list is one at the top of mine, The War on Drugs’ Slave Ambient. The album suggests the Nebraska Springsteen could have…
On the official Rock the Revolution site, presidential candidate Ron Paul says: “I always knew that if you were going to have a revolution, you needed two things. Young people, and music.” Well — looks like he has the music part locked down with Rock the Revolution Concert, scheduled to…
English rockers Bush, who have always had better luck in the US than in their own home country, are looking to further their success as they sweep through Phoenix in December.If you’ve been eagerly awaiting to hear grunge hits like “Glycerine” and yearning to enviously stare at Gavin Rossdale while…
All holidays have their plusses (even the ones with dubious — though not syphilitic, as it turns out — origins, like today, Columbus Day) but for my money, there’s no holiday quite as much fun as Halloween. Each year I try to scare up a special mix of spooky tunes…
Adrian Belew has an extensive résumé. The art-rocker has played with the avant-garde vanguard, clocking in time with King Crimson, Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, The Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, Brian Eno, as well as playing straight up power pop with his band The Bears. Lately Belew has been touring…
Wacky local duo Andrew Jackson Jihad has a whole lot of awesomeness to offer on their Tumblr. AJJ is currently on tour with Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls and Into It. Over It.The band has just released their new album, Knife Man, about three weeks ago. It’s full of…
It’s been almost a month since Kinch made its latest record, The Incandenza, available to stream online. On Thursday, October 13, they’ll be celebrating the official album release with a performance at the Rhythm Room with Let Down Right and Yellow Minute. Andrew Junker took time from the highway to…
It’s been a really great week for Black Star fans — and I’m one of them. Black Star, the 1998 collaboration between Mos Def and Talib Kweli is one of my favorite hip-hop albums. The duo performed “Fix Up,” produced by the nearly always awesome Madlib, on The Colbert Report,…
Andrea Beesley-Brown Beesley-Brown is the owner/operator of The Royale Mesa’s newest independently owned microcinema. I’ve also done shows in the Valley for the past 5 years under the moniker of the Midnite Movie Mamacita. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would…
Don’t call it a solo album — that’s what Joel Marquard of Gospel Claws says about The Through and Through Gospel Review, a new record of 12 traditional style gospel songs he recorded mostly alone, save for a few contributions from members of Where Dead Voices Gather, Dear and the…
Whoever decided to do an outdoor show at Sail Inn on Friday night was certainly a brave person. Until around 10 p.m. the Fall Frenzy on Tempe Town Lake could clearly be heard. Fortunately, the lineup that night were poised perfectly to take on such a challenge and the background…
Get ready for our very own Coachella this weekend. Well — not really. As Christina Caldwell’s feature explains, Apache Lake Music Festival isn’t quite the same thing as that fest, but it does feature over 30 of Arizona’s best bands in a remote setting. We’ve also got shorter features on…
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 records upcoming records are we most excited to hear? What will the debut record from…
