The Used has been in survival mode its entire career — a trait that’s come in handy in the ever-shifting, ever-volatile music industry. Long before the band’s brand of shouty screamo fell out of grace as the de rigueur music genre of disenfranchised (but still MTV) youth, frontman Bert McCracken…
Attention, local concert commandos: Keep the third weekend of September open on your social calendar and set aside enough gas money to get you to and from Florence. That’s because, per recent reports that have surfaced online, there’s supposedly gonna be some sort a “Coachella-like multigenre music festival” taking place…
Each spring, right before it gets just ridiculous hot in the Valley, local modern rock station KUPD hosts UFest, a gigantic rock/nu-metal/modern rock outdoor festival. Past lineups have featured Three Days Grace, Helmet, Godsmack, and more, setting the bar high for fans of crunchy, shouty rock. Well, the station has…
Conspiracy theories are my comfort food. After all, all a conspiracy is “the action of plotting or conspiring,” and not just about tin-foil hats and Reptillians. When Reagan’s cronies illegally sold weapons to Iran in the Iran-Contra Scandal, that was a conspiracy. When the CIA sold crack to kids in…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
Phoenix New Times and KUKQ have partnered to resurrect a Phoenix festival tradition, That Damn Show. On Saturday, April 20, at Mesa Ampitheatre, Bad Religion, AWOLNATION, Against Me! (Editor’s Note: After this blog was published, Against Me! canceled its upcoming performance at That Damn Show), The Faint, Face to Face,…
Valentine’s Day might be fun for cutesy couples hellbent on Instagramming their every “ahhh”-inducing move, but for those flying solo, the Hallmark-marketed holiday can get real annoying, real quick. For those who’ve recently been dumped, it can get downright depressing. The hard electro sounds DJ Self.Destrukt will be spinning along…
Larry Ortega Ortega is the owner of Obliq Art, which is participating in Arizona Center’s Art Detour Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? It would…
The Warped Tour lineup was released yesterday afternoon, and while we were (foolishly) hoping that Kevin Lyman would have a change of heart and model the long-running festival after something like Punk Rock Bowling or The Fest, the lineup, unsurprisingly, still caters to Hot Topic tweens. There are two noticeable…
Sir Richard Bishop met John Fahey only once, despite the fact that Fahey’s Revenant Records — the blues, jazz, and folk label founded by the guitarist/independent label pioneer — released Bishop’s proper solo debut, Salvador Kali, in 1998. “[It was] shortly after the record came out,” Bishop says. “He was…
The critical narrative says that pelvic-thrusting rock stars are clueless actors. Even the kingliest of rock gods, people who understand better than most how to tickle an audience, tend to be noobishly ungraceful onscreen — can we get an “amen” from anyone who’s seen The Wiz or KISS Meets the…
The word “keytar” isn’t often paired with “seductive,” but don’t tell that to Phoenix-based electro-rock trio Access Zero. The band’s music is hot-blooded and aggressive, not the brittle, dweeby synth-pop typically associated with the instrument. When the band performed live at Fetish Ball a couple of years ago at The…
Atención, long-lost singer/songwriter types: If you’re looking to make a big comeback, having a mythical backstory, two stone-cold classic LPs in the can, and a blockbuster documentary goes a long way. Such is the case with Sixto Rodriguez, whose rise from dusty-fingered crate digger obscurity to a star has been…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you stop…
Once a week, Up on the Sun features a new comic strip from punk rocker, cartoonist, and full-time dad Brad Dwyer. See the New Times print edition to check out the strip in glorious, inky newsprint each Thursday…
New Times’ Carnaval Eléctrico at Crescent Ballroom has locked in its lineup: DJ Seduce, Sir Sly, and singer/songwriter Sareena Dominguez will join national headliners Cold War Kids, Hanni El Khatib, In the Valley Below, and locals Mergence, Wooden Indian, Diners, and Stan Devereaux & The Funky Suns on Friday, March…
Underground dance parties are kinda like a second home to Tempe resident David Sankey. Or, more specifically, his beat-juggling alter ego CIK. Pick up one of those typically cartoonish four-color fliers for the next big off-the-radar affair or desert party and its almost guaranteed you’ll see the 36-year-old’s moniker listed…
Ricky Brindley Brindley performs with sketch comedy troupe Bully Mammoth tonight at the Tempe Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. For more information, go here. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? The station that plays my…
Phoenix brought it hard in 2012. The year saw a flurry of excellent records and downloads come from the Valley’s hardcore, metal, and punk underbelly. Leading the charge was Sorrower, whose split 7-inch with Portland’s Violence of Humanity ended up on New Times’ music blog Up on the Sun’s year-end…
Maybe “two turntables and a microphone” used to be where it was at. But that was in 1996, when Beck released his iconic “Where It’s At,” with a chorus calling out the basic DJ setup. These days, thanks in no small part to people like Steve Aoki, DJs have become…
Think one-man band: cymbals on the elbows, drum on the back, horns under the arms, and tambourines on the knees creating a cacophony of sound designed to annoy passersby. Now, try to envision That 1 Guy, a.k.a. Mike Silverman, as he takes the one-man band concept to a whole new…
