A few years ago, when rage was all the rage, Mary Timony, singer and guitarist for the Boston-based band Helium, spread breathy layers of female angst over slabs of guitar sludge. But things have changed. While other artists formerly known as angry young women are either donning Versace or becoming…

Many of the pop sounds that crowd the airwaves are not so much the spawn of earlier eras as they are slightly embellished clones of their forebears. Make no mistake–the many genres that are competing in this fin de siecle revue are valid, with rich histories. But all too often,…

In the middle of a late August afternoon, members of Denver’s Elephant 6 collective mill sleepily about the duplex shared by Robert Schneider and Hilarie Sidney, both members of the Apples. The musicians, including Athens, Georgia-based singer-songwriter Jeff Mangum and horn-player Scott Spillane of the critically acclaimed group Neutral Milk…

Denver musicians frequently complain about the local scene. But in the minds of the musicians in Venus Diablo, Colorado’s capitol is a virtual mecca compared with their home base of Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to bassist Johnny Cassidy, a onetime member of the M80s, a trashy, Sixties-style garage act signed…

With electronica spreading at the speed of a super-virus, adhering itself to every known genre of music and producing new hybrid strains faster than anyone can affix names to them, it would be convenient to accuse London-based singer-songwriter Beth Orton of being a dabbler in trip-hop. After all, her debut…

“We’re all very much into cars,” announces Margaret Doll Rod, singer, songwriter and ringleader for the Demolition Doll Rods. “In fact, for this tour coming up, we were like, ‘Oh, jeez, I don’t know. Are we gonna miss the derby? When’s the derby coming? James Brown is coming and the…

Not long after Tim Foljahn, guitarist, vocalist and principal creative force for the woeful, noirish outfit known as Two Dollar Guitar, relocated to Hoboken, New Jersey, much of his personal history went up in flames. “I had this storage space when I moved here because I had way too much…

The cover of Baltimore Pearl Crescent White Admiral Sister Meadow Painted God Will Visit You, the latest CD from the Lords of Howling, is cut from old vinyl records, the obsidian sheen sanded and imprinted with intricate designs. Moreover, the rest of the package is literally crafted from trash–but it’s…

The song that introduced Carol van Dijk, vocalist and guitarist for Bettie Serveert, to the pop-music audience as a whole was 1992’s “Tomboy.” The tune’s title is an appropriate one; on it, the singer’s voice exudes a friendly, genderless, Huck Finn quality. Dust Bunnies, her band’s latest album, indicates a…

“There are questions I’ve tried really hard not to ask myself about my own music–what lifestyle does it reinforce, what niche does it fit into,” claims accordionist David Willey, the creative force behind Denver’s Hamster Theatre. “Because I’m operating, under the guise at least, that I’m following my heart.” If…

The members of Boulder’s Cabaret Diosa rarely refer to themselves as a band. Rather, they see the aggregation as a place, like a Latin Brigadoon or Shangri-La that exists as if by magic for a night and then is gone again: a luxuriant, recurrent dream. “I’m totally in love with…

From the looks of Agniezska Rybska, Melora Creager and Julia Kent, the three cellists who make up New York’s Rasputina, it would be easy to assume that they would be happiest at home, clad in corsets and tatted organdy in dim drawing rooms like the women of delicacy and refinement…

Patrons of suburban multiplexes know Crispin Glover for his roles as Michael J. Fox’s nerdy dad in Back to the Future and as Arlo, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt’s lazy-eyed apprentice, in The People vs. Larry Flynt. The average art-house moviegoer would recognize him from appearances in Dead Man, Wild at…

It goes something like this: The follower places her hands lightly in her partner’s palms, like a trick poodle begging for treats. The pair then counts together as they execute the fundamental moves that constitute the East Coast swing–step left, step right, step back. Once these basics are mastered, the…

During “On Fire,” the opening cut of Sebadoh’s latest CD, Harmacy, Lou Barlow sings a couplet that typifies both his dilemma and his gift: “My opinion could change today/But I’m responsible anyway.” Confessions of emotional turmoil have defined Barlow’s music and persona ever since J Mascis booted him from Dinosaur…

Maranda Gaylord, the grande dame of the Commerce City Rollers, has never wanted for moxie. Barely one year after she first strapped on a bass, she tried out for Denver’s ’57 Lesbian in the hopes of filling the slot vacated by Spell’s Chanin Floyd. Her audition, she admits frankly, was…

But for the quality of their music, the Czars, a band that’s emerged as one of Denver’s most hypnotic live acts, would not exist. And therein lies a tale. Founding Czars John Grant and Chris Pearson met at a local nightclub in the spring of 1994, shortly after Grant had…

A few years ago the members of New York City’s Railroad Jerk found themselves at Niagara Falls, milling among families of fat Midwesterners, honeymooners and suicidal loners. “It was a nice day, and we were on tour and had a day off there,” elaborates Marcellus Hall, the group’s guitarist and…

“I’m in Boston, in bed with a fucked knee, drinking cold coffee,” laments Warren Ellis, violinist extraordinaire for Australia’s Dirty Three. But in describing how he earned his wound, a hint of pride seeps through the cloud-cover of his exasperation: “Last night we played a show and I did a…

During his interview with Westword, New Bomb Turks vocalist Eric Davidson interrupts his frenetic monologues only long enough to take quick slurps from what must be his twentieth cup of joe that day. But caffeine isn’t the only explanation for the frantic pace of Davidson’s music. He and his cohorts…

Early this decade, feminism birthed the riot grrrl, a bastard child whose foster home was the punk-rock stage. This new generation of women fought not only to reintegrate sugar-and-spice girlishness into music, but to give expression to the dirty side of being female, as well–the shrill, pissed-off, bawdy side. These…

Kelley Deal and her twin sister, ex-Pixie-turned-head-Breeder Kim Deal, are anomalies among alternative-rock royalty: They enjoyed popularity in high school and positive relationships with their parents. So why would the lesser-known of the sisters be the focus of one of the past year’s more publicized descents into drug abuse–a slide…