Carla Morrison
Musical Instruments Museum Music Theater

Before belting into "Compartir," Carla Morrison addressed the crowd: "I never thought this was gonna happen. I'm so happy to be playing here tonight. I didn't grow up here, but I lived here for six years, and I consider this place my hometown too."

After that, she moved into "Tu Orgullo" and moved across the stage doing her own version of the moonwalk: the high-heel-wearing type. Accompanied by a versatile four-piece band--a bassist, a drummer, and two multi-instrumentalists who covered ukeleles, guitars, keyboards, samplers, trumpets, and background vocals--Carla Morrison skirted across the stage dancing and singing, swiftly, but never without missing a beat; sometimes the spotlight wasn't able to catch up with her as she danced her way from one side to the other.

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JP Manzan

Firemen are the real heroes. Or maybe teachers--I can never remember. In any case, there will be lots of superheroes in town this weekend for Phoenix Comicon. Some of them will even be local musicians.

But if you're looking for a break from the convention--or just another place to wear your super accurate Doctor Who costume--try any one of these five Phoenix shows to see this weekend.

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I told myself that it wouldn't matter much, when Tuesday rolled around and I could finally purchase Daft Punk's Random Access Memories from the record store, that I'd already been streaming the album for a week on iTunes.

I think I was wrong.

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Dawn Laureen

The International Swingers: Clem Burke, Gary Twinn, James Stevenson, and Glen Matlock.

Last night, the International Swingers rolled into 910 Live in Tempe and blasted out some big hits from rock 'n' roll lore, which is apropos, considering the punk supergroup's stature and history. Sex Pistols/Iggy Pop alumni and bassist Glen Matlock, guitarist/vocalist Gary Twinn of Supernaut fame, and onetime Generation X/Gene Loves Jezebel member James Stevenson took the crowd on a time warp into rock yesteryear on Wednesday night with covers of their former bands' hits, including "God Save the Queen" and "No Fun."

They also performed a number of International Swingers originals, like the politically motivated "Gun Control," perfectly illustrating how the band goes betwixt polemic and entertainment, pop overtones and punk rancor. The bandmates discussed whether the music they'd created with their most famous bands was about politics and protest or just plain old rock 'n' roll during a sitdown interview with Up on the Sun at English pub George and Dragon on Tuesday, the night before their concert. Matlock, for instance, told us, "It depends on how serious you take [the music]," since "at the end of the day, I'm an entertainer."

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by Rick Giordano

Death has always been one of the most predominant themes in heavy metal music, taking a backseat maybe only to Satanism. Death, disease, murder and chaos have accompanied heavy riffs since Sabbath first began playing them back in '68. This dark subject matter is part of what has always made metal controversial -- revolting to some, but appealing to those musicians interested in facing the things we all fear. But there's often a strange irony that comes into play when we have to realize that these musicians are also human beings, capable of falling victim to the very horrors they seem to embrace.

Disclaimer: In no way do I intend to make light of these deaths. Many of these musicians were heroes of mine and died far too early. Also, one that might seem like an obvious choice, Dimebag Darrell's death, will not be included here. Getting shot and killed for no reason is a hip-hop way to die, not a metal one.

Read More:
- RIP Jeff Hanneman: Does this mean the end of Slayer?
- Nine Metallers Dead Before Their Time

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Oliver Scherillo

The cheapest way to sleep at Coachella.

Let's face it: Arizona isn't exactly prime real estate for music festivals. Yes, we have the party-hard atmosphere of Country Thunder and the locally beloved McDowell Mountain Music Fest, the EDM-drenched Soundwave and some killer jazz fests. But our fair desert doesn't yet have the appeal or pull of such festivals as Lollapalooza, Orion, Coachella, South by Southwest, Austin City Limits, Electric Daisy, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands--the list goes on.

For the avid music fan on a tight budget and unforgiving economy, deciding which festivals (if any) to travel to can be a frustrating experience. I myself encountered this same conundrum for 2013. Which music festivals was I going to budget for? How many days would I forgo the grocery store and live off canned soup and well whiskey? And sometimes, even if you do budget well for a festival, it's difficult to take into account unforeseen costs once you are already there: Cabs and rental cars, food, drinks, even water on-site.

Take SXSW, for example. The difficult-to-book flights to Austin, hundreds of dollars a night hotel rooms (even for the dinky ones), and days' worth of food and drinks. Ditto for Coachella and Lollapalooza. Thus I decided to compile some tips and tricks to survive festivals on a budget for all you other awesome music lovers out there--so read on and then book away.

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Sounds with Einstein

When it comes to music, do kids today have it better or worse than the generations before them?

I decided to do some research into the matter. By "research" I mean I asked my teenagers some questions, and then compared their answers to my opinions. Around here, we call that science. (What do you expect? I'm a blogger, not a reporter.)

Here are the results of my research: Kids today have it totally made in the shade.

But not in every way. The beyond-teenage generations (yeah, that's you already) still had it better in some ways.

Read More:
- Steve Wiley: A Record Store Geek Invades Up on The Sun.
- Parent Hood: A Profanity Lesson with Grandma and Frank Zappa

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The Lonely Island is a lot like one of those cans that's filled with spring-loaded snakes -- most of their humor comes from how long it takes for the joke to reveal itself, and how surprising it still is when it finally does. Their current string of #WACKWEDNESDAY releases -- "Semicolon," featuring Solange and probably not T-Pain, is today's special -- has, among other things, served to remind me that I've been laughing at the same can-with-snakes-in-it for like eight years now, which is hard to explain.

So what is it that makes the trick work, even after I know that those slick club guys are premature ejaculators, and that pissed-off rap is about Narnia, and the thing in that box is his penis?

Using "Semicolon" as my guide and "Dick in a Box" as my format, I tried to figure out The Lonely Island's system for making me snicker like an idiot at work. I've cut it down to these three steps:

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Dawn Laureen

The International Swingers (from left): Glen Matlock, Gary Twinn, James Stevenson, and Clem Burke.

Four punk legends walked into a bar. That's not the setup to some lame knee-slapper, but rather a precise description of what transpired Tuesday night in downtown Phoenix. The bar in question is renowned English pub the George and Dragon, and the aforementioned punk icons are exponentially more famous, having been a part of some of the more influential bands in rock 'n' roll history, like the Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Eurythmics, and Generation X.

They're Glen Matlock, Clem Burke, James Stevenson, and Gary Twinn, and right now they're more interested in talking about their current band, The International Swingers, that's brought them to Phoenix (in a van) for a show tonight at 910 Live in Tempe. "We're not on a big tour," one of them says. "We're on a little big tour." Up on the Sun was granted an audience with these members of rock royalty last night at the G&D. In the first of a two-part interview, they spoke about what it is they have left to prove, what punk means to them, and Matlock's previous gig as a guest DJ at a William Fucking Reed dance night.

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JP Manzan

There can never be enough local music fan art in the world.

Let's face it: We're always going to be the red-headed step-artform at comic book conventions. Superheroes have dominated movies for years, and videogames hit the comic-culture demographic pretty naturally, but music -- Jonathan Coulton and J-Pop and all the filkers on Livejournal aside -- has been (naturally) resistant to adopt the uncool-is-the-new-cool pose that made Star Trek into an uncomplicated mainstream blockbuster.

Phoenix Comicon, which bows this weekend, isn't going to turn that tide on its own, but if you're the kind of person for which the words "Adventure Time Rave" carry a strange weight, there's still plenty for you to enjoy.

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