When Andy Milne began thinking about material for his latest solo album, Dreams and False Alarms, he mined the folk music of his childhood in search of songs with a meaningful, strong melodic anatomy. The Brooklyn-based jazz pianist delved into introspective renderings of tunes by Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni…
Most folks familiar with “Darling Clementine” never get to the verse where Clem meets her watery demise. The Cave Singers explore that morbid side of the folk tradition, with a healthy fascination for snake-handling congregations. Well before the breakup of Seattle darlings Pretty Girls Make Graves, bassist Derek Fudesco was…
“Did you bring your rattlesnakes?” KC asks with a giggle as she deals the first hand of the night. She’s been dealing for the Denver Poker Tour since she left Amateur Poker Tour after the company failed to pay her, and she relishes the gossip. Having met Herb Beck, she…
Chills. I don’t usually do chills, but the opening pedal-steel notes of the Last Town Chorus’s version of “Modern Love” signaled the impending possibility, and when Megan Hickey’s lonesome, plaintive voice came soaring into the mix, there they were, in full force. The songs on Wire Waltz, the act’s latest…
There’s something endearing about speaking with Maria Taylor on the phone. After she’s told you in her slight Southern drawl about how she was doing laundry and cleaning her room before heading to Alabama to practice for her next tour, you feel like maybe you’ve met her in a coffee…
To be a successful critic is to be a contrarian. When you’re handed a story line by a publicist or manager, you’re skeptical, and you immediately look for weaknesses in the story you’re being sold. So it was with the massively hyped September 11 releases of Kanye West’s Graduation and…
Singer-songwriter/keyboardist Steve Bays and the rest of his mates in Canada’s Hot Hot Heat worked for month upon month and spent an unprecedented sum (for them) to make their latest offering, Happiness Ltd. And what did they get as a reward for their efforts? The recording was released on September…
Blue States, First Steps Into (Memphis Industries). Blue States has a three-record discography primarily composed of chillout room wallpaper, the kind of music made for boutiques and club-drug comedowns. This return takes a page from M83 and Caribou, working with heavier drums and icy feedback to create something less absent…
There’s a very specific strain of English humor — a sort of hyper-literate silliness — that stems from a love of nonsense as a genre. Think Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, and now think Spamalot, a musical loosely based on the legendary 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail,…
I’d forgotten just how much I liked Isle of Singapore. It had been years since I’d been there, years since I’d given the place much more than a passing thought. And yet, stepping back inside after a long absence, Laura and I immediately recalled every detail of our meals there…
Call it smooth, intricate, complex, jazz-influenced, even masterful, but do not call the drum-and-bass of LTJ Bukem “intelligent.” Bukem has rejected the label on the grounds that it implies that other artists aren’t intelligent, which is eminently decent of the guy. The thing is, it is intelligent. Layered and deep,…
It’s been said that being in a band is a lot like being married. In reality, though, interacting in a group dynamic is often like being in the most volatile romantic relationship imaginable — times a thousand. While the intense closeness forged between bandmates can inspire meaningful art, that same…
The Kingdom is the first film from Peter Berg since the actor-turned-director’s Friday Night Lights, which spawned an acclaimed, if struggling, franchise for NBC. There will be no small-screen spin-off of The Kingdom — there are too many corpses lying around to populate a sequel, much less a series. Besides,…
Director Robert Benton, best known for his zeitgeist-y divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer, has tapped into more than a few current trends in Feast of Love. There are the interlocking mini-stories, à la Crash; the different color filters for different scenes (happy moments in yellow, sad ones in blue), à…
Since 1932, the Micky Manor had been a landmark on Federal Boulevard, a local watering hole that first drew the Italian community that had its stronghold in northwest Denver, then the Mexican families that moved into the neighborhood, and finally, the gentrifiers who’ve been transforming the area. Over the years,…
Most political websites cater to distinct ideological biases. Perhaps the only philosophy shared by contributors to The Corner, from the right-wing National Review, and the left-listing Daily Kos is a disinclination to give the other side equal time. In contrast, former Denver Post business editor Stephen Keating aimed for evenhandedness…
Fuel is pumping again at the Denver Biodiesel Cooperative after six members pooled their money in an effort to save the organization, which runs one of only two biodiesel stations in the city. And while the co-op doesn’t plan to turn a profit, it’s paying the rent. A mural even…
Sometimes the simplest music is the most affecting. And so it goes with PJ Harvey’s new studio album, White Chalk. Absent are the scorched-earth guitars and feral vocals of previous releases; Chalk finds solace and strength in ascetic arrangements. This is largely a piano-and-voice album. Icicles drip from the ivories…
Retro soul’s got to be damn fine to justify its existence, since the stuff it’s modeled on is readily available for listening pleasure and embarrassing comparisons. Fortunately, the latest from Sharon Jones and Bettye LaVette qualify thanks to vocal authenticity and musical settings that offer inventive takes on the old…
If the first thing a movie-goer mentions about a film is the cinematography, it’s an indication that the flick’s story and characters aren’t especially compelling. For CDs, the same concept applies to arrangements. Noticing them before the tunes register is a seldom a good sign, as Don’t Worry About Me…
Readers of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle will never forget the final image of Bokonon thumbing his nose at God while the terminal freeze of ice-nine overcomes him. That unapologetic spirit of defiance against authority and tradition is summoned throughout this entire album. Oh, sure, a lot of the guitar work…
Denver always looked like a safe haven to 36-year-old Alimata, and now it officially is one. On Monday, the Ivory Coast native was awarded political asylum by a federal judge. A member of the Dioula underclass, Alimata had lost her job as a high-school philosophy teacher during a 2003 coup…
