Rock dudes who make minimalist electronic music on the side ought to be lined up, bent over and savagely molested with a twelve-disc Philip Glass boxed set until they bawl like Michael Jackson’s paperboy. Thankfully, Omaha’s indie-dance outfit the Faint isn’t exactly a rock band, and the group’s bassist, Joel…
I’m watching some fucking commercial on television where there are multiple David Bowies running around,” exclaims singer Bobby Harlow. He and his bandmates in the Go just rolled into Los Angeles; they’re now licking their wounds and counting their losses after a bout with debauchery in Las Vegas the night…
WED, 5/5 Suavecito’s owner Craig Peña is a flirt. His wife knows it. Everyone knows it. Not that Peña acts on his overtures; he’s just a romantic at heart. A romantic with a long streak of smartass. So when he met Holly Kylberg, Denver’s reigning society “It” girl (see “The…
Black berets, bongo drums, Maynard G. Krebs… These are a few images that come to mind when someone utters the word “beatnik.” But the term will be reclaimed this weekend when three eminent African-American cultural figures — Oscar Brown Jr., Amiri Baraka and Melvin Van Peebles — converge on Auraria’s…
A recent Denver performance by Portland’s The Planet The brought heckles of “pretentious asshole” that were aimed at singer/guitarist Charles Salas-Humara as he pouted, pranced and robot danced his way through a brief set of utterly brain-fucking rock. The Planet The knows how to polarize a crowd; the trio doesn’t…
“Are you ready? Are you ready?!?” howls Valentine, vocalist of Portland’s The Get Hustle, as spidery piano and slinky percussion shudder like a death knell all around her. The thing is, it’s too late: You’re already three songs and two changes of underwear into Dream Eagle 1, the trio’s 2002…
Love hurts, but rock and roll can put you in the hospital. Take, for instance, Roger Miller of Boston’s praised-to-high-hell Mission of Burma. Being one of the loudest bands of the original post-punk era was enough to blow out his eardrums, and the resulting tinnitus was a major factor in…
Tacoma is weird. It’s like Seattle’s dirty little brother,” declares Ben Verellen, singer/guitarist of Roy. “Back about a hundred years ago, there was this Tacoma versus Seattle thing, but when Seattle got the railroad terminal, it kind of took over and became this big city while Tacoma took a plunge…
WED, 4/28 The best-selling novel Getting Mother’s Body, by Suzan-Lori Parks, holds a chorus of voices from cover to cover. Indeed, the replication of voice — from simple syntax to each character’s unique inner psychology — is the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright’s forte, regardless of which medium she’s dabbling in. And…
Artist Scott McCloud has long been a champion of comics. The comic book is a medium that the acclaimed storyteller feels is as legitimate and accessible as literature or film, not just fodder for big-budget blockbusters and the covers of kids’ lunchboxes. To heighten awareness of the expressive capabilities of…
Tons of bands shine on CD but lack luster (not to mention lust) when thrown on a stage. With Curious Yellow, it’s the opposite: The group’s 2003 debut EP, 1-2-3 Go Go Go, in no way preps you for the piercing incandescence of its live show. The disc’s five songs…
Any seven-year-old will tell you: Lying is easy. Screw all that “What a tangled web we weave” crap. All you have to do is keep up that poker face, look people dead in the eye and — most important — believe your own bullshit. Of course, the biggest rule of…
I just want to share my sadness with the world,” sighs Shane Montgomery Ewegen, singer and guitarist of Denver’s Fifth Utility. There’s a problem with talking to the guys in the Fifth Utility: They’re dead fucking serious. Even more serious, in fact, than their music might lead you to believe…
Denver fashionistas no longer have to make a run for the coasts to deck themselves out in red-hot designer duds. Now they can simply strut down to Skye, a newly opened LoDo boutique. “I really think it’s time to put Denver on the fashion map,” says owner Skye Forrest. “The…
Ever seen a fat, balding, bearded guy crowd-surfing on a queen-sized mattress? How about kissing random men full on the mouth while plastered in a sweaty polyester jogging suit? No? Then you’ve never seen Les Savy Fav. Over the past nine years, this Brooklyn quartet has hauled post-punk and art…
Rod Stewart, if you’re reading this: Please give up. He first appeared as a street-walking urchin with a heart full of R&B, then evolved into a suave, rooster-coiffed crooner of ballads and standards — and still, Stewart just will not fade away. Rod the Mod started out as, believe it…
People who think the Smiths’ music sounds depressing are dumb. There’s all kinds of stuff in there: humor, anger, lust, joy — even the occasional jolt of raw power. One can only hope that when the Seattle outfit Aveo gets likened to the Smiths (which it does, incessantly), the analogy…
Celebrate personal freedom at “Banned: A Celebration of the First Amendment,” a performance by the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus. “We seem to be at a place in history where the First Amendment is somewhat under assault,” says DGMC artistic director Sue Coffee. “This is a really good topic for a…
New York’s Stellastarr* (slated to appear at Larimer Lounge on Tuesday, April 20) has taken a ton of shit over the last year. Having gigged around Gotham with the pre-fame Strokes, the coed quartet has been accused of riding Casablancas and crew’s coattails — of landing a major-label deal on…
We’re just walking around looking for a bong hit or something,” says Nicholas Diamonds of the Unicorns. Unicorns. The word brings to mind a myriad of images: cute, cuddly toy horsies for little girls; the noble, doomed creature that didn’t make it onto Noah’s ark; valiant knights and their mystic,…
Seeing as how George W. “Blow ‘Em All Up” Bush was somehow nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, all of a sudden it makes sense that the award’s founder, Alfred B. Nobel, wasn’t known for penning a famous treaty or curing some disease. He invented…dynamite. And just like the…
Like most people with pulses, you gag on the gooey pabulum spewed by Norah Jones, Jason Mraz and their spindly ilk. So brace yourself for the full-blooded, muscle-toned vocal stylings of… The Iron Sheik? Born Khosrow Vaziri, the native Iranian wrestling legend began his career as a gold-medalist in the…
