If you ask a teenage boy why he’s learning how to play the guitar, there’s a good chance he’ll reply, “To get chicks.” Sure, he might say something like “To be cool,” but even then, he’s really hoping that some guitar chops might help him get laid. In fact, a…
Nels Cline got an electric guitar when he was twelve years old, but he wasn’t really serious about trying to play, and he admits that, at the time, he didn’t know what he was doing. “I played with two fingers until I was sixteen,” Cline confesses with a laugh. “I…
I had a high-school Spanish teacher who was Yosemite Sam personified. Seriously, I was convinced the guy modeled his mustache after the cartoon character. And that mustache could be quite frightening at times, especially after I’d pulled a Jeff Spicoli (you know, Sean Penn’s stoner in Fast Times at Ridgemont…
The morning after playing a party for his high-school graduation, Josh “Reverend” Peyton woke up with severe pain in his hands. Doctors thought that Peyton, who had been playing guitar for five years, would never play again. “For almost two years, I didn’t play,” Peyton notes. “I ended up having…
The morning after playing a party for his high-school graduation, Josh “Reverend” Peyton woke up with severe pain in his hands. Doctors thought that Peyton, who had been playing guitar for five years, would never play again. “For almost two years, I didn’t play,” Peyton notes. “I ended up having…
At the beginning of True Romance, there’s a scene in which Clarence Worley (played by Christian Slater) is in a movie theater, eating popcorn and watching one of the flicks that’s part of a triple feature of Sonny Chiba kung fu movies. He’s alone, it’s his birthday, and he always…
After Brian Wilson completed the Beach Boys’ watershed album Pet Sounds in 1966, he started work on Smile, which would be his “teenage symphony to God.” While the album was never officially released (although bootlegs surfaced), Wilson reconstructed it nearly forty years later. In the past four decades, the Beach…
I grew up in Cherry Creek North in the ’70s and ’80s, and it’s hard not to think about the days before the Cherry Creek Shopping Center replaced the old mall. To think about the very first record I bought: the twelve-inch single of the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”…
Several film directors have used actors as their alter egos: François Truffaut had Jean-Pierre Léaud, Federico Fellini had Marcello Mastroianni, and John Hughes had Michael Anthony Hall. When I was in high school, I had no idea who those European directors were — but Hughes made a big impact. The…
Bluesman David Booker, who moved to Denver from England in 1981, is one of the busiest musicians in town. You can hear the guy nearly every night of the week playing in solo, duo or trio settings or with his Swingtet. While Booker didn’t study music formally, he learned a…
Soul singer Bettye LaVette and the Drive-By Truckers recorded The Scene of the Crime in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where one of the most significant things in LaVette’s 47-year singing career happened. In 1972, she recorded Child of the Seventies for Atlantic Records, but instead of it being the breakthrough record…
“We like to do 2 percent jazz and 98 percent funky stuff,” proclaimed Maceo Parker on his 1992 live album, Life on Planet Groove. Sure, he’s a deft jazz player, but when it comes to funk and R&B sax, Parker is the king. After honing his chops in James Brown’s…
In Woody Allen’s film Sweet and Lowdown, Sean Penn plays guitarist Emmet Ray, who said he cried every time he listened to the great gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Some of Reinhardt’s beautiful ballads have the same effect on me, and knowing his history makes the music all the more…
After working with jazz luminaries like Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan and Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Chick Corea performed and recorded in Miles Davis’s electric bands in the late 1960s and early ’70s. During that time, he played on Davis’s Bitches Brew, a revolutionary album that gave birth to jazz-rock fusion. Davis,…
After working with jazz luminaries like Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan and Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Chick Corea performed and recorded in Miles Davis’s electric bands in the late 1960s and early ’70s. During that time, he played on Davis’s Bitches Brew, a revolutionary album that gave birth to jazz-rock fusion. Davis,…
For a lot of guys, the more important things in life all start with the letter “B”: babes, boobs, butts, bikinis, beer, barbecue, burgers, basketball, baseball, bikes… the list goes on. And all that and more was going on in one way or another at Caldonia’s (2252 South Parker Road)…
In the liner notes of his debut, Aakash Mittal asserts that every moment can be the start of something new or the end of something old, and that “through improvisation we seek to create something new from the old.” On Beginnings (slated for release at Dazzle on Thursday, May 29),…
When I was just a kid, I walked into Budget Tapes & Records in Cherry Creek to ask Rusty, my friend’s older brother, for some music recommendations. From behind the counter, he asked me what kind of stuff I was listening to, and I said I was a big fan…
Rachael Pollard likes roller skates. A lot. She got married with her skates on, played a few gigs with them on and even skated in the pivot position for the Red Riding Hoods roller derby team for about nine months. It might be something to keep in mind when listening…
What was supposed to be a May 2 benefit show at the Rock & Roll Grill (1531 Champa Street), one of downtown’s two all-ages venues, ended up more of a melee that left a huge hole in the stage — and lots of hard feelings. An online shouting match broke…
Rolling Stone recently reduced New Zealand-based singer-songwriter Liam Finn to a simple formula: He equals Elliott Smith minus the despair plus a leprechaun. The Smith thing might have some validity, and Finn does have a beard, but there’s a whole lot more to the guy. The son of Neil Finn,…
It’s been a rough year for the owners of the 15th St. Tavern. Last June, Mykel Martinez and Jennifer Raddatz were served notice to clear out of the club’s original location, at 623 15th Street, which has since been demolished. Near the end of July, on his way to meet…
