Email Author Michael Roberts

Awards

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

  "The Rocky Mountain News is Going Down"

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2009 Stories by Michael Roberts

• Hey Monday

  published June 18, 2009

  As far as we know, a starmaker/Svengali didn't have anything to do with the formation of Hey Monday, currently touring with Stereo Skyline, the... More >>

• Bachelorette

  published June 18, 2009

  Unlike the series of interchangeable reality-show heroines of the same name, this particular Bachelorette — New Zealander Annabell Alpers... More >>

• Eric Sanders

  published June 18, 2009

  "They say it gets better with time," Eric Sanders sings on "They Say All Kinds of Things," It Ain't All About You's fourth cut —... More >>

• For Built to Spill's Doug Martsch, music is a different kind of hoop dream

  published June 11, 2009

  At first blush, professional men's basketballers and guys in rock bands don't have a lot in common. Those who fall into the first category are... More >>

• Flick Pick

  published June 11, 2009

  Like Hancock, the Will Smith flick from last year, 2007’s Big Man Japan tweaks the superhero myth by focusing on a shaggy,... More >>

• Super Seed

  published June 4, 2009

  The latest project by Lazyface vets Aaron Rocha and Andy Anderson doesn't qualify as an enormous departure. Planted, the subject of a... More >>

• Standards of Ethical Conduct at the Bug Theatre

  published June 4, 2009

  Standards of Ethical Conduct, premiering on Saturday, June 6, is the sort of local production worth rooting for, despite its many... More >>

• Etta James and The Roots Band

  published June 4, 2009

  Last year's Cadillac Records didn't catch on with cinema lovers as did recent biopics of Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, etc., in part because... More >>

• Flick Pick

  published June 4, 2009

  Standards of Ethical Conduct, premiering on Saturday, June 6, is the sort of local production worth rooting for, despite its many... More >>

• Various Artists

  published May 28, 2009

  All backward-gazing compilations are exercises in nostalgia to some degree — but the best of the breed eschew sentimentality in favor of... More >>

• Neko Case

  published May 28, 2009

  The studio work by rootsy singer-songwriters who are lucky enough to have long recording careers tends to grow more urbane as time goes... More >>

• Murs

  published May 28, 2009

  The gulf between mainstream rap and indie hip-hop can be breached with ease. Indeed, there are plenty of tracks on Murs' latest recording,... More >>

• Three Monkeys at Starz

  published May 28, 2009

  Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the auteur behind Three Monkeys, didn't win the best-director bauble at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival for his... More >>

• Flick Pick

  published May 28, 2009

  Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the auteur behind Three Monkeys, didn’t win the best-director bauble at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival for... More >>

• For Kevin Devine, the message is the medium

  published May 21, 2009

  On the 2002 album Circle Meets the Square, Kevin Devine included a song titled "Protest Singer," and the tag has stuck to him ever... More >>

• Rumba at Starz

  published May 21, 2009

  Rumba, which begins its run on Friday, May 22, following a Wednesday-evening preview, is a loopy slab of filmic absurdism that has more... More >>

• Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails

  published May 21, 2009

  The NIN/JA tour isn't supposed to be an exercise in nostalgia, despite the presence of two '90s icons (joined by Street Sweeper Social Club,... More >>

• Doves

  published May 21, 2009

  "We've never wanted to go out and blow our own trumpet, really," Doves drummer/vocalist Andy Williams told Westword back in 2002. "We... More >>

• Glyphic

  published May 21, 2009

  Does saying that an album sounds as slick and professional as major-label fare constitute faint praise or the real kind? In the case of... More >>

• Paramore's Hayley Williams finds fame a little freaky

  published May 21, 2009

  Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams needn't wonder if she's having an impact on her audience. Odds are good that every time she looks into the... More >>

• Run Lola Run at the Esquire

  published May 14, 2009

  The late Pauline Kael named her 1968 collection of film reviews Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in celebration of movies at their most visceral... More >>

• Cloud Cult

  published May 14, 2009

  Director John Paul Burgess's No One Said It Would Be Easy is more than a simple documentary about Cloud Cult, a Minnesota group that... More >>

• Horse Feathers

  published May 14, 2009

  House With No Home, the latest album by Horse Feathers, is a positively gorgeous bummer. The Portland, Oregon-based combo (currently... More >>

• Delby L

  published May 14, 2009

  Producer Steve Albini is typically thought of as a noise-master — a guy capable of taking a rough sound and turning it into something... More >>

• Flick Pick

  published May 14, 2009

  The late Pauline Kael named her 1968 collection of film reviews Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in celebration of movies at their most visceral –... More >>