As the frontman for the gritty, visceral Coachwhips, John Dwyer whipped crowds into a frenzy. With the Ohsees, he’s slowed the pace considerably, from a breathless sprint to a crawl. Sucks Blood, the outfit’s most recent disc, is a drony, reverb-drenched, tremolo-laden psych-folk excursion that conjures the boozed-up ghost of…

Most people’s idea of doing karaoke involves standing alone on a stage in front of a mike, singing the words to a song that they vaguely know, helped along by reading the words on a screen. The setting, of course, varies depending upon where you go. Ultimately, though, the idea…

The Eric McFadden Trio could just be the Band of Gypsys for the new millennium, a fact not lost on McFadden, who not only borrowed a few tricks from Hendrix, but even called his previous band the Eric McFadden Experience. In all fairness, though, McFadden’s scope runs wider. On 2005’s…

New Belgium Brewing company, those fine folks up in Fort Collins who make Fat Tire Amber Ale and other Belgian-inspired beers, have opened a new hub — er, make that pub — in Concourse B at DIA. The spot, dubbed the New Belgium Hub, sports art by local artists Todd…

Jona Bechtolt is the David Blaine of laptop pop. No, really. Dude is a card-carrying member of the Society of American Magicians. A bona fide magic man. So how fitting is it, then, that the Portland-based IDM wizard dubbed his new album I Believe in You, Your Magic Is Real?…

In the span of about two weeks, Patterson Hood got divorced, had his car stolen and watched the band he started with Mike Cooley, Adam’s House Cat, break up. This was back in 1991. Shortly thereafter, he and Cooley were eating dinner and listening to an elderly couple who looked…

I know this librarian who once met Tom Waits. She told me one of his favorite books was Really the Blues, which then, of course, quickly became one of my favorite books, because, well, next to Bukowski, Waits is my guy. He’s like a god to me. The book, meanwhile,…

You gotta hand it to a gal who calls her record Breasticles. Not entirely sure what she was shooting for there, but we’re guessing it’s either shorthand for a guy who has man-boobs or a woman with breasts that sag like, well, testicles. Whatever the case, Young clearly has balls…

Personally, I just can’t stand doing the same thing all the time,” says Soulive drummer Alan Evans. “And all of us feel the same way. I think a lot of musicians, no matter what you’re doing, you always feel the need to reinvent yourself.” Subsequently, to keep from stagnating, Evans…

One of the things that truly sucks about going to a concert, especially on Colfax, is trying to find parking. Hell, you spend half the show just looking for a space. Thankfully, the fine folks over at Rockbar (3015 East Colfax) feel our pain and have come up with a…

On Harbor, Joel Harrison’s latest effort, it’s evident that the guitarist’s compositional scope reaches as wide as his technical prowess. He takes a song and turns it into a journey, changing moods and vibes as he leads the listener on cross-continent treks from India to Africa to Asia, incorporating hints…

Paul de Jong and Nick Zammuto formed the Books in 2000, shortly after being introduced by a friend. The two were drawn together by their mutual love of collecting and manipulating the sounds around them: De Jong was into sampling old movies and vinyl, while Zammuto had been making field…

It’s funny how the most trivial things can get a guy pumped up. For a dude who spends a lot of time in dives, a Thursday night in a country bar seemed like a nice diversion. Driving west down highway 36 toward the newly opened Electric Cowboy (8811 Harlan Street),…

Ari Hoenig may be an explosive, heavy-handed madman on a drum kit, but he’s equally at home swinging lightly on a ballad or plunging into the outer extremes of an avant-jazz excursion. Hoenig is one of the more innovative drummers to come along since Joey Baron — hell, the guy…

Billy Martin & John Medeski, Mago (Amulet). These guys have been meaning to make a duet record since they first jammed nearly twenty years ago. Aside from a few free jams and a hipster-tinged bossa nova cut, Medeski and Martin don’t stray too far the from the same kind of…

The Greyboy Allstars first came together in 1993 for the release of DJ Greyboy’s Freestylin’. Greyboy (aka Andreas Stevens) wanted to have a live band play tracks from the album at his release party, so he assembled a group made up of saxophonist Karl Denson, who had played on the…

If Skip Reeves had his way, Denver would be one city under a groove. The self-proclaimed Funktologist is pumping the funk back into the Mile High City every Saturday night with his Funk Above the Rest show on KUVO, spinning everything from Larry Graham and Funkadelic to the Gap Band…

Menomena’s music is supposedly synthetic in origin. The Portland trio reportedly composes many of its songs on looping software created by one of its members, multi-instrumentalist Brent Knopf. In reality, though, those songs sound far more organic than the average computer-driven drivel. Sure, after a few spins you can pick…

John Scofield’s never been one to settle in any particular musical style. While he always comes back to bop in one way or another, the chameleonic guitarist is equally deft in soul-jazz, funk and fusion. Lately, when he hasn’t been on the road, he’s been working on bottleneck slide guitar…

There’s a good chance the Lord of Word is on his way to becoming the Lord of Dance. And, no, we’re not talking some Riverdance bullshit. You see, Theo Smith, who for seven years fronted the seminal Denver funk band Lord of Word and the Disciples of Bass, is trying…

The cover art of the Thermals’ latest, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, demands a close look. The intriguing collage features Jesus with a black bar covering his eyes, standing with his arms outstretched in a junkyard, surrounded by what look like dead appliances. So what the hell does it…

Country Ghetto, JJ Grey & MOFRO’s latest effort, is like a musical postcard from the South. On the front is a collage of pictures — Otis Redding, the Meters, Dr. John, Muddy Waters — and on the flip side, Grey’s spinning yarns about his life, his family, his worldview and…