Email Author Jason Heller

2010 Stories by Jason Heller

• "Weird Al" Yankovic

  published July 29, 2010

  "Weird Al" Yankovic's zany parodies of hit songs like "Beat It" ("Eat It") and "Like a Virgin" ("Like a Surgeon") catapulted him to infamy in... More >>

• Born to Be Mild

  published July 29, 2010

  At one point in the not-so-distant past, riding a scooter was as much about tribalism as transportation. Affiliated with the mod and Brit-pop... More >>

• This Man Is Your Man

  published July 29, 2010

  Woody Guthrie's impact on American culture hasn't dimmed over the years – nor has his influence on popular music. In celebration of the... More >>

• Pretty Tough Guys

  published July 29, 2010

  Now that Leonardo DiCaprio has been tapped to play J. Edgar Hoover in an upcoming biopic, America will be hearing a lot more about the... More >>

• A Vampire Movie That Doesn't Suck

  published July 29, 2010

  Despite the tragic death earlier this year of star Corey Haim — not to mention a regrettable, never-should've-been-filmed sequel in 2008... More >>

• Silversun Pickups

  published July 22, 2010

  It only makes sense that Silversun Pickups hit it big at the end of the aughts. The Los Angeles band, after all, is a faceless, hollow rehash... More >>

• Bad Weather California

  published July 22, 2010

  Bad Weather California's three-day residency with Akron/Family at Quixote's in May is still panning out. Not only is the eminent avant-folk... More >>

• SISTER ACT

  published July 22, 2010

  From the Baldwins to the Phoenixes to the Gyllenhaals, the history of cinema is littered with sibling rivalries — even if those rivalries are... More >>

• FUNNY BUSINESS

  published July 22, 2010

  The Festivus Film Festival has been bringing serious independent cinema to Denver for the past three winters. But Festivus has a silly side, too,... More >>

• Adam Lambert

  published July 15, 2010

  Fans still feeling let down by the anemic, ho-hum ninth season of American Idol love to predict the show's demise, especially now that... More >>

• Platte River Killers

  published July 15, 2010

  It's fun to be miserable — and when that's translated into music, it can come out like Morrissey or it can come out like the Platte River... More >>

• Start Your Engines

  published July 15, 2010

  Despite high gas prices, oil spills and politics, America's love affair with the automobile isn't going anywhere. And when it comes to preserving... More >>

• Austin Lucas

  published July 8, 2010

  A road warrior who has crisscrossed continents in his quest for true troubadour-hood, Austin Lucas is the rare songwriter who seems buoyed by... More >>

• Heeler

  published July 8, 2010

  Somewhere in Denver there's a backyard barbecue pit full of steak drippings, cigarette butts, smashed beer bottles and a couple decades' worth... More >>

• The Apple of Carrie Vaughn’s Eye

  published July 8, 2010

  To fans of Carrie Vaughn's best-selling Kitty Norville series, her new stand-alone novel, Discord's Apple, may seem like a big... More >>

• A Novel Romance

  published July 8, 2010

  Lust-drunk vixens and bare-chested he-men still grace the occasional cover of a romance novel. But the genre has gotten much more savvy and... More >>

• Art at the Heart

  published July 8, 2010

  As a chart-topping group in the ’80s, Atlanta's SOS Band bridged funk's past and R&B's future. It's only fitting, then, that the act is... More >>

• Danielle Ate the Sandwich

  published July 1, 2010

  No amount of Westword cover stories, YouTube sensationalism or pole-vaulting to the head of the line can make Two Bedroom... More >>

• The Hold Steady

  published July 1, 2010

  The Hold Steady seems like a particularly apt name for the lauded New York band following the release of its fifth full-length, Heaven is... More >>

• Speaking in Tongue

  published July 1, 2010

  Semiotics, hermeneutics, phenomenology: These aren’t standard topics for pop lyrics, even if the songs are from the geeky dance-punk band... More >>

• Melvins

  published June 24, 2010

  Long tagged as the supreme warlords of sludge, the Melvins have crawled out of that primordial birthplace and undergone a weird yet compelling... More >>

• Weird Science

  published June 24, 2010

  Many attempts have been made over the years to popularize the inner workings of science — ways to make laymen able to grasp the essence of... More >>

• Sweet and Sour

  published June 24, 2010

  In a clever bit of self-reference, singer-songwriter and Denver native Jill Sobule opens the Jill and Julia Show with the story — in... More >>

• Sweet Mixers

  published June 17, 2010

  In the real world, alcohol and engineering aren't two things you want to mix. Tonight, though, it should be safe to make an exception when the... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  Catch Snake Rattle Rattle Snake and a hundred or so of the best local acts at the 16th Annual Westword Music Showcase this Saturday, June 19

  published June 17, 2010

  When we were in high school in Fort Collins, Hayley and I would play guitar for each other on the railroad tracks behind my house," remembers... More >>