Email Author Michael Roberts

Awards

• 2009 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 11, 2008

  "The Rocky Mountain News is Going Down"

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2005 Stories by Michael Roberts

• Gwen Stefani

  published October 20, 2005

  Plenty of reviewers ripped on 2004's Love, Angel, Music, Baby, No Doubt-er Gwen Stefani's solo debut, because it was superficial. "An... More >>

• Zoning

  published October 13, 2005

  Appearances aside, many national news programs seen in these parts are less live than Memorex. Network morning shows and evening newscasts... More >>

• Worship H.I.M.

  published October 13, 2005

  This past summer, Ville Valo, the charismatic frontman for Finland's H.I.M., announced his engagement to gal pal Jonna Nygren, and he's got some... More >>

• Atmosphere

  published October 13, 2005

  At a time when hip-hop is mostly concerned with escapism, the song "That Night" is an enormous exception. It concerns Marissa Mathy-Zvaifler, a... More >>

• Valiomierda

  published October 13, 2005

  This four-piece is a genuine hybrid. Their lyrics vacillate between English, Spanish and Portuguese, while the music blends hard-core punk and... More >>

• Tortoise

  published October 13, 2005

  In the view of some Tortoise critics, slow and steady doesn't always win the race. It's All Around You, the latest Thrill Jockey Records... More >>

• We Are Wolves

  published October 13, 2005

  Canada's We Are Wolves epitomizes the evolution of the band's American label, Fat Possum Records. That Oxford, Mississippi-based firm first made... More >>

• Chris Elliott Rips a Yarn

  published October 13, 2005

  After contractually agreeing to pen his fiction debut, The Shroud of the Thwacker, actor/comic/ writer Chris Elliott felt momentary... More >>

• Unspoken

  published October 6, 2005

  Randy Miller, the president, publisher and editor of Boulder's Colorado Daily, has spoken to Westword on numerous occasions... More >>

• Mothers Day

  published October 6, 2005

  Kawabata Makoto, the high priest of Japan's Acid Mothers Temple & the Cosmic Inferno, conducts English-language interviews via e-mail with the... More >>

• Neil Young

  published October 6, 2005

  Given that Bob Dylan's 1997 disc, Time Out of Mind, took the best-album Grammy largely because he nearly died prior to its release, Neil... More >>

• Jon Swift

  published October 6, 2005

  Chronophonic rhymer Jon Swift specializes in a hip-hop/R&B hybrid that's not driven by samples. Instead, he leans on the talents of noteworthy... More >>

• Carl Cox

  published October 6, 2005

  The average pop-music fan doesn't know Carl Cox from Wally Cox, but he's been a DJ-culture celeb for almost two decades. A London native, Cox... More >>

• Czechmate

  published October 6, 2005

  SUN, 10/9 Taking cues from the legendary Earl Scruggs, the Czech Republic's Druhá Tráva (which means "Second... More >>

• Wanted

  published September 29, 2005

  Sergeant Rodney Shivers is a camouflaged blur as he bursts into the entryway of Pomona High School, an oversized attaché in his hand. After... More >>

• Down Is Up

  published September 29, 2005

  They used to call us nü-metal," System of a Down singer/guitarist Daron Malakian told the ecstatic crowd at his band's April 27 Ogden Theatre... More >>

• Franz Ferdinand

  published September 29, 2005

  The headline on the Franz Ferdinand feature in the July 30 NME reads: "Our New Album? It's Like Nothing You've Ever Heard!" Well, no. In... More >>

• Buddy Guy

  published September 29, 2005

  Attempts to revive veteran artists' careers via superstar duets are as predictable as claims that embattled bureaucrats resigned to spend more... More >>

• Real News

  published September 22, 2005

  Hurricane Katrina can't be said to have ushered in a new golden age of journalism, since the lethal weather system struck the Gulf Coast mere... More >>

• Family Plot

  published September 22, 2005

  If you think U.K.-based Funeral for a Friend must have been named for a song from Elton John's 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, you've... More >>

• Sigur Rós

  published September 22, 2005

  The opening section of "Glósóli," an emblematic effort by these idiosyncratic Icelanders, mates a deliberate tempo with vocal lines... More >>

• Kelli*Said

  published September 22, 2005

  Like, oh, my God! This disc is totally '80s! And not the '80s being resurrected by the Killers and Franz Ferdinand! No, these are... More >>

• The Visible Men

  published September 22, 2005

  As long as musicians are on the right side of popular trends, they're golden -- but when such fads run their course, performers need a Plan B.... More >>

• The Message

  published September 15, 2005

  The first woman is an anti-abortion protester who Rocky Mountain News columnist Bill Johnson says repeatedly threatened him over a... More >>

• Born Again

  published September 15, 2005

  Less than two years after the takeoff of Get Born, Jet's debut album, guitarist/vocalist Cameron Muncey is still flying high, and why not?... More >>