It speaks of Lev Grossman’s savvy as a journalist, as well as an author, that his new book, The Magicians, stands on the shoulders of J.K. Rowling. After all, writing a novel that’s being billed as a grown-up Harry Potter guarantees a certain level of media attention – not that…
For someone who made his name playing in a rigidly defined, almost cartoonishly simple band, Jack White sure knows how to branch out. While his main gig, the White Stripes, doesn’t appear to be going anywhere — the duo is currently at work on its seventh album — White has…
In the world of heavy metal, lead singers are as indispensable as riffs and distortion — that is, except for when they get used up and thrown away like yesterday’s drumsticks. While frontmen are the face and voice of many bands, they seem particularly prone to quitting, dying or getting…
Four songs into Glass Delirium’s debut, Thanks to a Monster’s Many Heads (which will be released Friday, August 14, at the Bluebird), the band seems like a darkly melodic, progressive metal group in the vein of Lacuna Coil or Evanescence. Then things get weird. Track five, “Glass Delirium,” is a…
Green Day’s longevity and penchant for reinvention shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, the band had almost an entire career as long-haired, DIY pop-punkers in the late ’80s and early ’90s, releasing two albums on the indie Lookout Records and inspiring hordes of imitators before leaping into pop-culture consciousness…
Plenty of metal bands coast on sheer heaviness. But for Sunn O))), being heavy is more than just a journey; it’s the destination. For the past decade, the core duo of bassist Greg Anderson and guitarist Stephen O’Malley have taken the considerable metal cred of their membership in groups like…
When Denver-based comics artist Amy Reeder Hadley started her manga series Fool’s Gold in 2006, her hip, fresh take on romance, action and magic brought her to the attention of Vertigo — the DC Comics imprint that launched Neil Gaiman’s career. Vertigo paired Hadley with veteran comics creator Matt Wagner,…
Few rock compilations anymore come with mission statements. But Fivecore Records’ Mile High Low Life isn’t afraid to wear its puke on its collar: The disc full of Denver punk was recorded in ten-hour bursts by engineer Bart McCrorey at his Motaland Productions and includes a few paragraphs outlining the…
Leather, lawsuits, on-stage motorcycle accidents, the infamous Heavy Metal Parking Lot documentary and frontman Rob Halford’s homosexuality have often overshadowed the music of Judas Priest. But since releasing its 1974 debut, Rocka Rolla, the group has proven to be among the most innovative and influential bunch of dudes to ever…
Syd Barrett and Carly Simon never had much in common — that is, until last month, when Trashcan Sinatras released their fifth full-length, In the Music. On the disc, the veteran Scottish indie-rock group included the single “Oranges and Apples,” a tenderly strummed tribute to the late Pink Floyd founder,…
Denver singer-songwriter Rachael Pollard has (thankfully) had more than her allotted fifteen minutes of fame around town over the past few years. But what the heck, here’s another fifteen seconds: In a report that aired yesterday on CBS4 News concerning the city’s proposed trash-collection fee, Pollard — identified by the…
Colorado might not necessarily need another supergroup, but it’s hard to argue with a lineup like that of Joy Subtraction. The new trio comprises singer/guitarist Abe Brennan (formerly of Wretch Like Me and The Things They Carry), bassist Matt Regan (formerly of Matson Jones) and drummer Brian Polk (formerly of…
AOL’s music blog, Spinner.com, posted a list late last week titled “Revenge of the Rock Nerds: The 10 Biggest Geeks in Music.” Between such dorky songsmiths as Talking Heads’ David Byrne (#10) and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo (#1) lies former Dead Kennedys frontman and longtime Bay Area fixture Jello Biafra (#8),…
On its blog last night, Denver’s oneiric, majestic A Shoreline Dream began offering a free download of its song “Departure.” Co-written with Berlin-based electronica producer Ulrich Schnauss, the song is a lush wash of shoegazing gorgeousness that first appeared on the band’s full-length Recollections of Memory, released earlier this year…
It’s been a couple months since its release, but the double-disc Rocky Mountain Low compilation–an exhaustive overview of the Front Range punk scene of the late ’70s, including a rare pre-Dead Kennedys track by a young Jello Biafra, back when he was a long-haired Boulder kid named Eric Boucher–is getting…
Although its members are pushing sixty, AC/DC is still going strong. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a bunch of younger musicians coming along and paying tribute to the Australian hard-rock masters. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a city on earth that didn’t have at least one AC/DC…
Over the past few years, Denver has seen a huge upswing in the sheer volume of touring bands coming through town. It’s been great. But a weird phenomenon has been popping up: touring bands that play Denver almost as often as local bands do. What’s even weirder about this phenomenon…
Even the lowliest of local bands are used to getting a little groupie action now and then. But it turns out Denver-area musicians don’t need to sift through their adoring audiences for a shot at romance; sometimes it’s right there onstage. Emily Carter, bassist of Lakewood electro-rock outfit Discount Cinema,…
A rarity among surviving punk bands of the ’70s, 999 actually sports three-fourths of its original lineup — and the missing fourth is filled by Arturo Bassick, a founding member of fellow British sneer pioneers the Lurkers. Then again, 999 never achieved the kind of fame or velocity that tore…
For a CD titled A Farewell to Echoes, there sure are a lot of, well, echoes. Fell recorded this during the delay of its upcoming Incoherent Lullabies. Sure enough, there’s a raw, rushed aura here despite its ethereal layering and exquisite eruptions of distortion. “Low at Dusk, Distance at Dawn”…
Scrappy, dark, comedic synth-punk isn’t exactly a formula for surefire success. And on They Clean Up Nice, Take the Mickey isn’t able to pull those elements into something compelling — or even mildly enjoyable. Then again, the EP’s creation was plagued by misfortune: A hard-drive crash prior to a CD-release…
Post-punk is supposed to have a sharp, concise edge to it — but I Sank Molly Brown ushers the genre down meandering byways littered with warbling vocals, wobbly rhythms and weird cul-de-sacs of dissonance and dynamics. And then, of course, there’s the humor; named after one of Denver’s most hallowed…
