Jill Bryan, What Are You Listening To?

Jill Bryan The comedian hosts Stand-Up Live’s Comedy Gold showcase and radio’s “What A Mouth.” Check out www.jillbryancomedy.com for upcoming shows and events! When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? KMLE Country, 107.9-FM. I’m a big fan of…

Why Operation Ivy Will Always Be Better Than Rancid

See also: Throwback Thursday: Green Day’s Dookie Ronald Reagan’s wars, both on drugs and against the “evil empire,” made the ’80s a prime time to be a punk band. The scene was ripe in California, notably in the Bay Area, as 924 Gilman Street opened and crossover genres exploded in…

Thee Gentlemen Ether Release Debut EP

When Benjamin Walker was enduring months of chemotherapy and other treatments last year to eradicate the softball-sized tumor growing on his aorta, a few things helped keep the renowned local emcee going: The desire to perform at least one more show with his new hip-hop act Thee Gentlemen Ether and…

Shearwater Steps Into the Now with Animal Joy

A truck is on fire in the desert, black smoke billowing in the sky. Two years ago, on tour through the desert west of Phoenix, Shearwater’s van came upon a tractor-trailer on fire in the middle of the road. . The band members saw the smoke long before its source. The…

Songwriter Simon Joyner Chases Ghosts on His Latest Album

If Simon Joyner weren’t already living the life of a world-weary singer/songwriter, he could probably find success as a fiction writer. Armed with a dozen releases and a dedicated cult following, Joyner’s songs flow like well-developed novellas, yet each is but a few minutes long. There’s a focused clarity found…

Take Cover: A Technicolor Yawn Covers Sonic Youth

See also: The Swamp Coolers Cover “Secret Agent Man” Local noise/rock duo A Technicolor Yawn shares a noisy aesthetic with Sonic Youth, so it was only natural for them to decide to do an all Sonic Youth set for Cover the Crescent. “When you think of the Venn diagram of…

Sound Wave Music Festival 2012 Announced for September 29

The last weekend of September is turning into a major logjam of blockbuster concerts, to say the least. Yesterday, we dished all the details about KUPD’s two-day hard rock rager Desert Uprising, which kicks off on Friday, September 28, out at Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavillion. Over on the opposite side…

Record Heat: Sludge by Brad Dwyer

Every Monday morning 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. In this week’s Record Heat, Brad Dwyer investigates a case of mistaken…

Derrick Hall, What Are You Listening To?

Derrick Hall Hall is the president and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks. When you put your key in the ignition and turn on the radio, what station would play right now? Arizona Sports 620, KNIX or KMLE. What’s the first album you bought? Kiss, Love Gun. What’s the first concert…

The Beach Boys on 50 Years of West Coast Mythology

Some music has a setting, a place that feels woven into its sound. For The Beach Boys, one of rock ‘n’ pop’s most enduring groups, the setting always has been California. But the Golden State makes for remarkably varied terrain, and while early singles like “409,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” and…