The towering, ethereal vocals of Porcelain frontman Eric Larson seem to come from a shadowy place outside of normal time and space. Although Larson’s voice is evocative of Jeff Buckley’s or Thom Yorke’s, it’s underpinned by the repetitive, phaser-heavy guitar work and vocal harmonies of Tristram Nelson, his Atlanta art-school…

Wearing their garage-band title as a kind of attitudinal badge of honor, the Dallas-based Deathray Davies have honed a casual, offhand cool that dovetails nicely with the anti-refinement, retro-rock movement. But Midnight at the Black Nail Polish Factory confirms that the band is most powered by its own momentum. On…

The glamorous if shortsighted image of substance-fueled musicians in the throes of debauchery, burning out long before their time, will probably never be fully extinguished. The corpse of Layne Staley and the doddering figure of Ozzy Osbourne bleating out a helpless “Shaa-ron!” notwithstanding, there’s something almost comforting in that notion…

There’s a scrappy two-piece from the Rust Belt that works from a minimal palette of drums and guitar, bashing them into an unpretentious cacophony of masterful rock, culling elements from Delta blues and classic soul, and overlaying the whole with the guitarist’s wailing, manic vocals. And, just for the record,…

Bedouin is composed of approximately eleven players who come together in shifting combinations, with singer/guitarist/songwriter Stewart Erlich at its nexus. Recently transplanted to the Front Range from New York, Erlich is striking out on his own after completing Book of Storms, an engaging, promising outing that showcases his stylistic versatility…

If you were to put together a list of a hundred of the most random, bizarre ideas on which to base a song, you would probably be hard-pressed to come up with anything more peculiar than the theme of “Sultan, So Mighty,” a track from Vic Chesnutt’s new album Silver…

Like that friend who is always cheerful without being annoying — or, God forbid, perky — Dressy Bessy does pop with enough edge and subversiveness to infect even the most cynical among us. And while a cynic might say it’s a little soon for a greatest-hits disc from this Denver-based…

Poor old Europe. The continent just can’t catch a break — not from crowing Fox News hawks, not even from arty musicians. “I hate going there,” says Will Oldham, who recently returned from an overseas jaunt in support of Master and Everyone, his latest release as alter ego Bonnie Prince…

Living Legends, appearing Wednesday, March 5, at the Fox Theatre, are a grassroots, indie hip-hop phenomenon. A couple of years ago, MCs Sunspot, PSC, Murs and Grouch were selling tapes out of their car trunks. Now, they consistently sell out shows around the world. Working with a loose coalition of…

A touring musician sometimes finds himself in strange places at strange times. Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau knows this firsthand. “I’m in Seoul, South Korea, about thirty miles away from the demilitarized zone,” Mehldau says. “Weird!” Weird, perhaps. But the show must go on, even in unlikely places. And despite the…

Raw exuberance matched with a burning desire to change the world is the hallmark of enlightened youth, often leading to embarrassing clothing buried in attics and repressed memories of auctioned-off idealism. But on occasion, a rare alignment of planets can turn such bright-eyed passion into a more permanent contribution –…

A sort of creepy troubadour who’s steeped in melancholia and art-folk tradition, Joseph Arthur, Wednesday, January 22, at the Fox Theatre, sings songs that are personal and also incredibly murky. With lines like “You’re a rapist and your only victim/You’re a fact and you’re fiction” (from “History,” off of 2000’s…

Del tha Funkee Homosapien is known to be a video-game junkie, so it’s no surprise to hear booming electronic explosions firing off in the background of his tour bus; it’s just a member of his crew exploring a new game demo. Del’s response when asked what games he’s into these…

Richard Patrick of Filter might be a good moderator for a music-conference panel: The Hit Single: More Harm Than Good? The band’s 1995 release, Short Bus, produced a major hit with the single “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” but its overexposure on MTV and commercial radio did not come without a…

With all of the recent drooling over nouveau/retro straight-up rock outfits like the Strokes and the Stripes, you’d think someone would have noticed the Deathray Davies by now. This Dallas-based garage-pop band, which appears at the Bluebird Theater on Friday, August 16, with Superdrag, is the brainchild of former Bedwetter…

Throughout the ’90s with Mazzy Star, Hope Sandoval’s voice combined with David Roback’s shimmering, darkly psychedelic slide guitar to create some of the most memorable indie music to come out of Los Angeles’s so-called paisley underground. It wasn’t exactly a rocket ride to the top: The band’s flirtation with recognition…

There may very well be something terribly wrong with the members of Speedealer. “Everybody in this band is pretty pissed off,” says bassist Rich Mullins. “I think our attitude is that in order for something to rock, you have to really mean it. Jeff calls it ‘a tremendous amount of…

Coming from a band that’s known for playing hotheaded punk — aggressive, but ever mindful of the importance of melody — Wretch Like Me’s ambitious new album, I Am Become Death, is a little disconcerting. “You kind of get bored playing three chords,” says singer Abe Brennan. “It’s kind of…

The band’s name is shorter by three letters — namely R, E and O — but its songs are getting longer. Though Speedealer used to play twenty songs in under fifteen minutes, its new album, Second Sight, showcases more finesse, maturity and songwriting depth. Some songs on the album even…

Denver’s Czars, who appear Tuesday, July 2, at the Gothic Theatre with Lift to Experience and the Devics, have been compared to Radiohead, probably because of the atmospheric, swirling, textural quality of some of their songs. But the band also recorded “Song to Siren” for a Tim Buckley tribute album…

If you’re going to do an Internet search for the Queers (who appear June 11 at the Bluebird Theater, with the Briefs and the Independents), don’t do it at work: Locating the band online involves scrolling through pages of hits, including Queers for Christ and a Web site named thequeers.com…

Solomon Burke comes from the storied tradition of soul singers who made the leap from church choir to radio. He has been proselytizing since he was seven, and he has the warm, rich voice of a singing preacher: part B.B. King, part Al Green. It’s enough to make an unbeliever…