When Peter Yarrow’s appearance at the Tattered Cover was announced a few weeks back, it seemed like it might be just another night of book-reading and -signing — assuming that hanging out with a music legend and bona fide cultural icon like Yarrow is a routine occurrence for you. But…
Although it’s labeled as a mere demo, this three-song, self-titled disc from Science Partner — formerly the Tyler Despres band — is far from a sketch or work in progress. Tightly controlled and clean as a whistle, it offers a quick dose of acoustic-based indie pop that, while sugary and…
Like a Brillo pad stuffed with a gooey cream filling, Nebraska’s Box Elders smuggle sweet and luscious pop songs inside a raw, scratchy-as-hell shell. It’s not a new recipe, but Box Elders know how to make it their own; brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre, along with drummer/organist Dave Goldberg, ooze…
Fuck. It’s satisfying just to say the word, isn’t it? Not only is “fuck” one of the most vivid and malleable profanities ever to get your face slapped or a kid’s mouth rinsed out with soap, but it possesses a certain phonetic integrity, a graceful yet utilitarian compactness, from opening…
Zombies are, by definition, comebacks — but don’t refer to the recent zombie renaissance as a “comeback” around Kris Hipps. “I’m not sure they ever really left us,” claims Hipps, director of the Bug Theatre’s stage production of George Romero’s 1968 zombie opus, Night of the Living Dead. “They were…
Before nerds took over the world, they weren’t so meek. Watch almost any ’80s nerd-centric movie, Revenge of the Nerds included: Some were mild-mannered, but just as many were horny, twisted and even downright aggressive. Denver’s nerdy Accordion Crimes — featuring former members of the defunct Hot IQs and the…
Like a jerkier, dirtier version of avant-rockers Clinic, California’s the Intelligence hijacks indie rock with an arsenal of skin-peeling distortion, jackhammer repetition and oxymoronic moronism. And that’s a good thing: On its latest full-length, this summer’s Fake Surfers, the group accordingly mutilates reverb-slathered surf riffs using post-punk nihilism, garage-rock rawness…
It’s important to take note of Boston’s the Dear Hunter, if for no other reason than to not confuse the group with Deerhunter, the Atlanta-based art-rock outfit. Fans of the latter’s jagged yet atmospheric awesomeness are likely to run screaming from the former’s pompous, overwrought, Danny Elfman-on-steroids spasms. Wielding emotive…
Making a list of David Cross’s enemies might be easier than making a list of his friends. Never afraid to ruffle feathers or start feuds, the notoriously ribald comic has lobbed bombs at everyone from Larry the Cable Guy to Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton, not to mention…
Regardless of your personal faith, music is food for the soul. That said, it isn’t just your soul that will get fed at the Comedy Works’ No Joke Gospel Brunch. As the name says, there isn’t anything funny about the monthly event, which gets resurrected Sunday at Comedy Works’ Landmark…
Like a hypodermic needle to the eyeball, the paintings of Barnaby Furnas are not meant for easy viewing. Nor are you intended to come away from them without a sting: At times amusing, anxious and apocalyptic, the New York-based artist specializes in a kinetic, frenetic expressionism that wields abstraction like…
To a certain cross-section of Coloradans, Aaron Hobbs’s scratchy, aching cry is the voice of a generation. As high-blown as that may sound, it’s true: While plenty of local bands have come and gone over the past decade and a half, Hobbs’s Small Dog Frenzy and Acrobat Down have stayed…
Blessed with a big thumbs-up from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and the membership of bassist Paz Lenchantin of A Perfect Circle and Zwan, the Entrance Band seems to have appeared fully formed and ready to take over the world. But the project — the brainchild of singer/guitarist Guy Blakeslee, formerly…
It’s natural for children to absorb musical talent from their parents. For St. Elias, though, music isn’t just an inherited proclivity; it’s also something that the band’s three members — two brothers and their cousin — have cultivated among themselves since they were kids growing up together in Houston. “We…
Formed by Harvard alums Thomas Lauderdale on piano and China Forbes on vocals, Pink Martini mixes up music with a distinct, pedigreed sophistication. And yet the group’s cheeky wit and smooth orchestral swing amounts to a kind of comfort food for the ear, eye and soul. Over the course of…
“My squeezebox was my mom’s IUD. I popped out wearing it,” claims veteran comic and accordionist Judy Tenuta. “Then I became the petite Aphrodite of the Accordion. I would lock myself in the closet to play “Lady of Spain” until Elvis appeared to me and said, “Hey, pretty mama, you…
Spoke Shaver’s description on its MySpace profile reads “Progressive/Post-Punk/Country.” But unlike many bands’ deliberately absurd mix of genre classifications, Spoke Shaver is mostly serious about its three choices. Not that it feels bound by them. Over the past few months, the Denver-based group — singer/keyboardist Kristin Garramone, guitarist Rich Haven,…
There are tons of local bands that claim indie rock, yet most don’t have a trace of the quirkiness and urgency that once made indie a haven for the lonely, the wimpy and the pissed off. But even among this city’s douchebags and fashion victims, there’s still a place for…
There’s no denying just how derivative and calculating the music of the Airborne Toxic event is. And while it would be easy to loathe the band out of hand — as Pitchfork did with its infamous 1.6/10 review of the act’s self-titled debut — the fact remains that The Airborne…
Post-grunge keyboard ballads don’t exactly fulfill the grunge-comeback prophecy whispered by music journalists over the past few years. And yet Chicago’s Oh My God is about the most viable revivalist of mid-’90s sturm und drang around today — due mostly to a vocal style that growls and thunders like a…
With the recent release of its sophomore EP, This is Character, Denver metalcore group the Skyline Surrender is starting to gain ground in the local scene–although it hasn’t been an easy victory. The original quintet of singer Josh Viles, bassist Jinji Thompson, drummer Ben Scarbro, and guitarists Justin Williams and…
Cute, quirky and unmistakably unique, Kirsten Schaal has a face you don’t forget. Of course, it also helps that the ubiquitous actor and comedian has appeared in dozens of TV shows, films and commercials—though she’s best known as the Senior Women’s Issues Commentator on The Daily Show and as Mel,…
