Ketchup and mustard. Guns N’ Roses. Sifl & Olly. Ham and burger. Some things were meant to be together. Then again, some pairs that seem inseparable do split up. For a decade, Greg Diehl (aka DJ Dealer) and Craig Christenson (aka DJ Craig C) burned up the house scene. The…
Kid Rock is a tool. But like a broken watch that’s right twice a day, every now and then he displays the wisdom of King Solomon. In one recent television interview, for example, the Kid revealed why he started rockin’ in the first place. “Chicks,” he said, cutting to the…
After months of stumping up and down the Front Range, it’s finally over. The fine folks of Mootown got out and rocked the vote — and despite some recent hostile and unfounded chatter on a local message board, Dubya once again emerged victorious. Relax, Michael Moore sympathizers and put the…
Most metal aficionados would agree that the Scorpions ceased to be relevant after the release of At First Sting in 1984. Each subsequent effort — with the exception of 1985’s World Wide Live, a disc that adeptly captured the shining moments in the first half of the outfit’s lengthy career…
Metallica’s latest mostly live disc, Some Kind of Monster, an eight-song EP which coincides with a just-released documentary by the same name, is the band’s weakest release to date. Considering that playing live helped the act earn its iconic status, Monster should have been a slam dunk, yet it falls…
Whitney Houston is a mess these days, a crack-addled, emaciated shell of her former self. The last time I caught her on TV, she was wading in the River Jordan, about to be baptized alongside her trouble-magnet other half, Bobby Brown. Seemed a little ill-conceived to me, but, whatever. Brown…
It’s no secret: Every Hot Topic sapling from Mootown to Motown knows emo’s been dead for years. What once was deemed so profound and, er, poetic is no more. Promise Ring: food for worms. Ditto Texas Is the Reason, Mineral, Christie Front Drive, Sunny Day Real Estate and every other…
Like the pre-Melo Nuggets, the Colorado Rockies are having a tough time putting asses in the seats these days. I mean, you can’t give those tickets away. You know it’s bad when folks would rather kick it in their cubicle farms, Joe Versus the Volcano style, than spend an afternoon…
You can plan it on your calendar. It happens every year at this time. It’s become as routine as Big Head Todd’s New Year’s Eve concert. As the sky starts exploding and everyone around you becomes a lawn-chair patriot, John Popper and his crew roll into Mootown to celebrate freedom…
It’s Saturday night, and the tenth annual Westword Music Showcase has just come to a close. I’m sitting on a ledge at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Street, downing Gatorade and thumbing through my notebook. An old Journey song keeps running through my mind. “Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever?”…
This time last year, on Westword Music Showcase weekend, I took the reins from Laura Bond and doled out my first Beatdown. And, my, how Mootown has changed since then. Hip-hop is finally getting some respect, with organic crews like the Break Mechanics and Dojo leading the way and clubs…
According to the calendar, New Year’s Eve is still six months away. But you’d never know it from the faces at Herman’s Hideaway on this steamy Friday night. The place is packed, with a line pouring out onto the sidewalk. Inhibitions are stacked at the door like so many unneeded…
Last Thursday night, I watched, speechless, as Jesus got clobbered by a burly, long-haired Demon from Mobile, Alabama. I couldn’t believe my eyes. One minute Jesus was rocking — um, make that spazzing — out to Nine Inch Nails, and the next he was writhing on the stage like an…
It’s a story as old as dirt and every bit as gritty: Rock band forms, shows promise, toils for years and years, fails to grab the brass ring and finally is written off as irrelevant. When faced with the fact that it will never make the bigtime, each act reacts…
Three weeks ago, I opined in this space on the American Music Auditions that had taken place at Avalon May 12-16. I received quite a few e-mails in response, most of them from members of bands that had been duped — er, I mean, had participated in the event. None…
A friend of mine refers to all electronic music as “techno.” Doesn’t matter what style of electronic music — drum-and-bass, jungle, house, down-tempo — to him, “it’s all fucking techno, man.” And with a little encouragement, he’ll launch into a rant that includes dead-on onomatopoeia of what techno sounds like:…
For hipper-than-thou subversive types who extol Tenacious D’s lampooning of the time-tested power ballad, metal’s appeal lies in its irony. But for the hardcore, metal is a religion — and they take the music on faith. Lately I’ve been a backslider; on most Saturday nights, you can find me in…
In electronic circles, Ali Shirazina, aka Dubfire (far right), and Sharam Tayebi are household names. These D.C.-based producers, known collectively as Deep Dish, are the remixers of choice for pop icons looking to reinvent themselves — and validate their forays into the dance world. They’ve already remixed material for Madonna,…
Listen up, all you would-be rap moguls: College is for suckers. Want to be a baller like Roc-A-Fella’s Damon Dash? Want to build an entertainment empire bigger than that of Russell Simmons? Then take heed: For a hip-hop education, the only relevant institution is the school of hard knocks. And…
Bob Dylan should be pissed. Forty years after he launched his iconic career, people still can’t get his name right. For example, producer Robert Metzgar’s bio refers to him as “Bob Dillon.” If you were a musician with nowhere near the track record of Dylan, would you take career advice…
Born in Southern Italy and raised in London, Ontario, DJ John Acquaviva is seen as a trailblazer not only by other DJs, but by software engineers, of all people. When Stanton Magnetics came up with the idea for Final Scratch, a cutting-edge digital interface that allows DJs to merge analog…
Jeff Suthers is checking his trunks for chunks. Seriously — listening to him talk, it sounds like my man needs to change his drawers. Rest assured, though, that Suthers isn’t suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, and I’m pretty sure nobody slipped a laxative into his Ho Hos. Actually, there’s a…
