You might not be ready to let go of the weekend on Sunday, so go ahead and squeeze every last moment of good times and freedom out of the weekend by heading to R Bar for the very fun and very free "Everyday Is Like Sunday" DJ night.

This week, DJ Badcop and DJ AlixP will be spinning under the theme "Rock 'n' Roll Rubber Room" on Sunday, Jan 18. However, since each week has different guest DJs playing under a different musical motif, if that doesn't float your boat, maybe one of these upcoming events will:

Jan. 25: "I Love the '90s" with DJ DanH and BEDLAM
Feb. 1: "Modern Kicks Club" with DJs Tender Meat and Castle Freak
Feb. 8: "Future Sounds" with ALTRICE
Feb. 15: "Lonely Hearts Club/Valentine's Hangover" with DJs ChaviBooBoo and Wi$ely
Feb. 22: "Dad Rockathon" with Old Paint Records and Mike Dixon

All "Everyday Is Like Sunday" events are free to attend, begin at 9 p.m., and are for the 21 and over folks. R Bar is located at 350 E. Congress St. # 110.

Local musicians Frederick Huang and Kyle Gutierrez were robbed of about $7,500 of equipment on the night of Dec. 15. Luckily, that's not the end of the story: Texas Justice, Gabriel Sullivan, Billy Sedlmayr, and Shudder Kong will be playing at Club Congress on Friday night to help raise some money so they can recoup some of what they lost that night.

According to a message from Huang on the crowdfunding website Rocket Hub, the following items were stolen from the two men:

Kyle's 1972 Fender Jazz Bass, the one he's had for over a decade, was stolen. His 1966 Fender Duo Sonic was taken. My custom made Jazzmaster, the one I slowly put together over the course of months, was stolen. The jerks also took Kyle's Epiphone Sheraton, brand new Macbook Pro, and wallet, as well as my Danelectro Bass VI and a set of keys (I then had to spend an extra couple hundred dollars re-keying my home and car). Our friend, Dave, had a Peavy guitar at my house that Kyle and I were working on and that was stolen too. All together, we lost about $7500 worth of stuff — that's a conservative estimate. And the insurance company didn't give us any money.

You can support Huang and Gutierrez by donating to that Rocket Hub campaign or you can donate in a much more fun way by going to Club Congress on Friday, Jan. 16. There's a $5 suggested donation and the show starts at 9 p.m. It's a 21 and over event.

Bill Walton, whose commentary during Wildcat basketball games has become the stuff of legends, is making an appearance at downtown's Rialto Theatre this Friday, Jan. 16.

Walton will sit down with former UA assistant basketball coach Jim Rosborough to talk about "music, basketball and life," according to a Rialto bulletin announcing the fundraiser for the non-profit theater.

Walton will also sit in on a Grateful Dead tribute with Top Dead Center and we'll see, "of course, plenty of Pop-A-Shot."

The intimate evening starts with hors d'oevres at 6:30 p.m. at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St. Tickets are $50, but you can also pay $110 and get a ticket the Rialto's upcoming annual Gin Joint Jubilee gala—which promises to be a great time—on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Find the scoop on Walton's appearance here.

If you're looking to get a little bit country this Sunday, you're in luck. Tyler Farr is bringing his Nashville twang to the Rialto Theatre on Jan. 18 and we have a pair of tickets to give away gratis.

We know what you're thinking right now, "Oh god—what do I have to do to get these tickets? Debase myself in public?" No, silly. We aren't a bunch of shock jock radio DJs. We just want you to have a fun time and go to a concert for free.

Well, actually we also want you to download our nifty app, which guides you to all of Tucson's coolest happenings. You can do that and enter for Tyler Farr tickets all at once by texting TUCSON to 77948 to download our Best of TW app for Apple and Android phones. Once you're signed into the app, just tap the "Our New Giveaway" banner and follow the prompts to enter. The winners will be chosen and notified via e-mail on Friday, Jan. 16, meaning you have a couple days to get the app and enter.


If you don't win, you can always buy tickets for $25 for Farr's performance with special guest Drew Cooper by visiting the Rialto Theatre website.

If you're looking to snag a deal on a new guitar, parts, or cases, Doc Hudson Guitars is moving locations soon, but before they do, they're trying to offload as much inventory as possible.

Here's what Doc Hudson said about the move and sale via Facebook:

Due to a number of factors, we are moving to a new location. We'd rather sell what is in The Shop at considerable savings to the client than have to move it to the new location, so, Tomorrow [Saturday, Jan. 10] Sunday [Jan. 9], and all the following week we are having a relocation/sidewalk sale. Great Deals to be had on a variety of items including Guitars, cases, leatherwork, fixtures, storage cabinets, parts, instruments, accessories, etc. 

Doc Hudson's current location is at 509A South Fourth Avenue. Happy hunting, gear heads.

You know when you go to a show and all of the planets seem to align. The band is having fun, the sound is dialed in, and the crowd actually cares. That shouldn't be as much of a rarity as it is, but, hey, as long as it still happens sometimes, I'm happy.

Anyways, last night's King Tuff show at Flycatcher was one such instance. The Sub Pop/Burger Records act is known for a seemingly contradictory blend of garage rock with a heavy dose of pop viability that caused Tuff to get some attention with the 2014 release of "Black Moon Spell." Lyrically, King Tuff music isn't concerned with complexity or depth—it's all about cheap hooks and having fun (in a good way).

Knowing that, it was actually really exciting to see frontman Kyle Thomas perform and subsequently blow away everything I thought the show would be. While I expected some solid head bobbing, butt shaking good times, Thomas' ability to bang out complicated licks between those catchy hooks took the show to another level. 

The set list prominently featured songs off the new album like "Headbanger," "Beautiful Thing," and "Black Moon Spell." While a small group in front of the stage seemed to know the words to every song, the rest of the crowd still danced along unprovoked. 


Several times throughout the set, bassist Magic Jake remarked on the crowd's participation, and it was pretty obvious the band was feeding off the energy in the room set in motion by The Rat and local opener Katterwaul. Not to worry if you missed last night's show though because the band has played the venue before when it was Plush and with response like that I have a feeling they'll be back again.

Local music lovers and barflys alike will be sad to hear that, as of Saturday, Jan. 31, the District Tavern will be closed for business—at least as its known now.

The District’s owner Noel Chester says the battle to keep her bar open in its current location actually began three and a half years ago when her landlord—downtown developer Scott Stiteler—sent Chester a memo saying her property had doubled in value.

Since then, according to Chester, the two have been going back and forth on numbers—raising her rent price from around $15 per square foot to $30 per square foot.

“He told me that if I couldn’t talk to him about that number, then we didn’t have anything to talk about,” Chester says.

Despite trying to negotiate, Chester says Stiteler informed her the 30-day negotiation period for her lease was up and she’d have to leave. After her attorney’s proposal that she stay in her current location on a month-to-month basis until Stiteler found a new tenant was denied on Dec. 17, Chester assumed the District was doomed to shutter.

“As far as I was concerned, it was finished,” she says.

However, this is, according to her, where things start to get pretty messy between them. On Christmas Eve, Chester says she received an email on behalf of Stiteler with a new deal. According to her, he would allow her to stay in her current location until March 23. However, under this agreement, she says he demanded that she leave her bartop in the building after she vacated, sign over the District’s business name and branding to Stiteler, and agree to a gag order so she would not speak to the press about the agreement.

“At best, I thought it was unethical to send that on Christmas Eve,” she says. “At worst, it was unspeakable.”

UPDATE: Upon reading the email mentioned, it was actually sent on Dec. 22. It also required a disparagement clause, not a gag order as previously reported— the key difference between the two being that a disparagement clause is a contract-specific term that prohibits speaking publicly in a negative manner.

Chester says she feels that Stiteler’s plan was to keep the District running—just without her.

“What they really want is my name, my bar top, and— I don’t know, come to your own conclusions, but it seems they want my business without me here,” she says. “I can’t say for sure, but I do know how it makes me feel.”

After that, Chester overheard that an employee at Good Oak Bar was saying that Stiteler would hire her to take Chester's place as future manager of the District. Chester says she then went into Good Oak and approached the employee.

"I told them that they will burn in hell before they get the District," she says. "It was a metaphor not a threat ... bad people go to hell."

Despite that, Chester hasn't had any resolution for her soon-to-close bar. She says when she opened her bar over a decade ago, Stiteler wasn’t her landlord and the entire feel of downtown was different then. As someone whose resume includes bartending at local spots like Hotel Congress since the ‘80s, she says she’s seen the city change.

“I know a little bit about downtown and what’s always been so extraordinary to me is that it’s so diverse,” Chester says. “To gentrify it and then say you’re making it better by pushing out diversity is worse than sad.”

Although Chester admits business has been slower for her in recent years, she doesn’t see the redevelopment of downtown as a main reason for that. She does, however, see the growing centralization of the city’s dining nightlife into one area as a bain for businesses on Fourth Avenue and beyond.

“There hasn’t been this population boom they thought there would be,” Chester says. “They’re draining clientele from one area to another now. What is that going to do? Who is that helping?”

After several attempts to reach Stiteler for comment, he did not return our calls. However, we hope we to talk with him in the future about his plans for The District space. As far as Chester, she says her plan now is to find a new job because she currently doesn’t have anywhere to move her bar.

Editor's Note: This post was changed from its original format to include new information.

Huppenthal's parting shot at TUSD's Culturally Relevant Curriculum made Rolling Stone, not because of its attack on the ethnic studies courses, but because Hupp mentioned a Rage Against The Machine song and KRS-One's discussion of the nature of hip-hop. None of that is news to Tucsonans — it's been all over the media — but this comment at the end of the article could be an important bit of information.

Sally Stewart, the spokeswoman for the state's Department of Education, said that Huppenthal's replacement, Diane Douglas, would "keep the ball rolling" and follow up on her predecessor's notice. Douglas' chief of staff did not reply to requests for comment from the Republic on Friday.

I have my doubts that Douglas will want to jump into Hupp's (and Horne's) battle this early in her tenure, but if it's in the Rolling Stone, I guess it's gotta be true. But then again, the information comes from a Dept. of Ed. spokesperson, not Douglas' new Chief of Staff, Michael Bradley, a longtime political operative whose job seems to be to temper the Douglas we saw on the campaign trail — to the extent we saw the invisible candidate, anyway. Until the word comes from Douglas or Bradley, it's not official.

I listened to the Rage Against The Machine song Hupp referenced, "Take The Power Back." Strong, thoughtful lyrics. There's plenty of substance in the in-your-face words, well worth study and analysis in a high school class, both for their historical/political context and their musical/literary quality. Here's part of the song Huppenthal didn't mention, which can be read as a justification for the courses Hupp and his friends condemn.

While many local music lovers will likely be at The Great Cover-Up this Saturday, it's certainly not the only option for live music that night. In fact, Courtney Robbins is playing a solo set at The Flycatcher too or you can head over to Che's Lounge for a free set courtesy of Saint Maybe.

The show itself is certainly a good Saturday night option, especially since there's no cover, but the poster that Pop Narkotic made for the event is noteworthy in itself. If the looks of that doesn't draw you in, here's some more auditory inspiration.


The local band will take the Che's stage located at 350 N. Fourth Avenue beginning at 10 p.m. The event is 21 and over. 

VICE's Noisey music section asked a handful of musicians, including The Killers' Ronnie Vannucci and Interpol's Daniel Kessler, to share some year-end highlights. Included in the round-up was Tucson's own Prom Body.



According to the article, Prom Body listed the following as their picks for the top albums of 2014:

1. FF - Lord

2. Lenguas Largas - Come On In

3. Flying Lotus - You're Dead!

4. White Wards - Cigarette Burns



The guys from Prom Body are quickly becoming Noisey regulars with a handy dandy Prom Body guide to Tucson and a call to declare the band your new favorite already running on the site. Nice to see some steady Tucson love on a national level.