Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind (Columbia) There’s a federal statute prohibiting anyone who doesn’t admire Bob Dylan from becoming a rock critic, so it’s no surprise that I’m crazy about a great many of his recordings. Highway 61 Revisited and The Basement Tapes are my favorites, followed by Bringing…

In 1977, when Gary Givant got his first job as a DJ, his mother wished he would get a real job instead. Two decades later, she’s still wishing. In a profession where career longevity is often measured in months rather than years, Givant remains a powerful force on the Denver…

Oasis Be Here Now (Epic) Many reviewers tackling this disc have complained that it’s too derivative. Well, duh. You’re likelier to get a lie-detector test from John Ramsey than originality from these blokes. But such sniping entirely misses the point of Oasis. The Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, aren’t trying…

America is in the midst of another British Invasion, at least in terms of the electronica movement. Almost all of the electronic-dance groups making impressive showings on the Billboard sales charts these days hail from merry old England, and even as we speak, A&R representatives desperate to cash in on…

DJ Jonas Tempel accomplishes more in one week than many of his peers have this decade. He is perhaps best known at present for his residency at the Church, one of the most recent additions to the local nightlife. But this gig is only a sideline to the real love…

In the beginning, Perry Farrell envisioned Lollapalooza, an event he helped create, as a traveling circus that would expose just-outside-the-mainstream styles to the public at large. A few seasons later, this goal had been largely forgotten: Last year’s disastrous tour, headlined by Metallica (not exactly an obscure cult group) and…

Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape (Capitol) Like most of you out there, I figured that the self-titled debut by the Foo Fighters would be on par with a Ringo Starr solo album, so the quality of the disc came as a pleasant surprise. However, the recording’s strength meant…

“Many people consider fetish to be wearing leather, latex and rubber outfits, or something basic like that–but fetish is much more than a costume,” says Jamie Goldberg, one of the men behind “Whip It II: The Ritual,” a fetish party that’s returning to Rock Island for its second year. “It’s…

Vince Clarke, the instrumental ringleader of the pop duo Erasure, has cast a large shadow over the field of electronic music. As a founding member of the seminal Eighties electro-bands Depeche Mode, Yazoo (aka Yaz) and the Assembly, he used his formidable musical abilities to create a genre that led…

Radish Restraining Bolt (Mercury) Hate to break it to you, Kurt, but this is what the movement you popularized has come to–imitations of you by a fifteen-year-old kid from Texas. Ben Kweller is his name, and he’s got your style nailed. The throaty vocals, the distorted guitars, the punchy songwriting,…

Craig Christensen, aka DJ Craig C, has been spinning dance records at Denver nightspots for five years–an eternity by late-night standards. But he shows no signs of slowing down. He and his frequent partner, DJ Dealer (ne Greg Diehl), have become nationally known remixers; their revision of Joi Cardwell’s “You…

The Offspring Ixnay on the Hombre (Columbia) Despite the presence of Jello Biafra on “Disclaimer,” a bit o’ hucksterism plopped at the top of this disc in an effort to rent a little credibility, Ixnay is punk rock only in the broadest sense. The comfort lead shouter Dexter Holland displays…

Although Denver has been growing its own brand of DJs for as long as there have been clubs to mix records at, the last five years have witnessed a maturation of the scene and an explosion of urban record-slingers whose work rivals anything being done by their smug big-city cousins…