Neko Case may be the lone country artist on a portion of this year’s Lilith Fair tour, but she has no interest in leading a women-must-twang-together campaign. “That would be preaching to the choir, wouldn’t it?” she asks. Too bad, because Case would make a fine spokeswoman for such a…

Denver’s Andy Polt is homeless; he’s spent most of the past seven years living in back alleys, rescue missions, rehearsal spaces, cars and various warm-weather job sites. But he hasn’t let his circumstances stand in the way of his musical objectives. Late last year, he released Hard Choir Gospel, six…

David Booker is one of the few Denver performers who could complain about playing too many shows–but that’s the last thing he’d do. A singer-songwriter and guitarist with the ideal name for someone with a heavily inked calendar, Booker describes his credo as “telephone by day, microphone by night.” In…

For the past decade or so, Steve Poltz has enjoyed indie-label-sized celebrity and a healthy level of musical notoriety as the leader of the Rugburns, a group of satirical semi-twangers from San Diego. But after years of whiskey-soaked tours to small clubs across America, he’s now marking time in the…

The next time you find yourself complaining about the state of the local music scene, consider the plight of Axel Praefcke, guitarist for rockabilly practitioners Ike and the Capers. Praefcke and his bandmates (vocalist/rhythm guitarist Ike Stoye, stand-up bassist Maurice Hagler and drummer Tina Hohne) hail from East Berlin, a…

Gang Starr Moment of Truth (Noo Trybe Records) For the past several years, a considerable number of citizens from the hip-hop nation have been waiting for the gangsta movement to jump into the grave. Well, they’re still waiting. Whereas the charts are no longer dominated by members of the Bitch-Slap-My-Ho…

Most musicians regard the view from the stage of the Paramount Theatre to be among the most spine-tingling in Colorado. But for Denver’s Bob Castle, the room’s sea of crimson seats, its starry sky of ornate architectural details and a jewel-like chandelier serve as mere backdrop for the Paramount’s biggest…

Garbage Version 2.0 (Almo Sounds) Given how many copies of Garbage’s first disc flew off the shelves, you know that critics are sharpening their skewers over this one. But Version 2.0 is so steely that such jabs will likely bounce right off it. Producer/drummer/mastermind Butch Vig may have worked his…

“Maybe you’d better leave out the surfing stuff,” bluesman/harmonica expert Rod Piazza says about his love of riding the waves near his Southern California home. “Sometimes it’s a hindrance for people to know what you’re really all about off stage, because they have this perception of what you’re like on…

When your job title is Professor of Trombone, you get used to the jokes. Bill Stanley, the University of Colorado at Boulder instructor who holds this obscure handle, has heard them all before, and he can prove it. “What’s the difference between a lawn mower and a trombone?” he asks…

Propellerheads Desksanddrumsandrockandroll (DreamWorks/’Heads Spin) Alex Gifford and Will White, a once-underground U.K. pair known by pretty much everyone but their mothers as Propellerheads, are the latest artists to be hyped relentlessly by a major label–in this case, Dreamworks, the Spielberg/ Katzenberg/Geffen behemoth–in an effort to infect America with electronica fever…

Black Oak Arkansas lead singer Jim “Dandy” Mangrum and his family have just spent the night huddled under a mattress in their bathtub as a string of tornadoes blew through their west Tennessee town. But when the time for an interview rolls around, he’s ready to rock–and why not? After…

Few acts of rebellion are as defining as imposing one’s music of choice on others. But while most youths who carry out such assaults use current, cutting-edge sounds as their weapons, rockabilly artist Josie Kreuzer waged one such sonic war with music from the past. “I worked at Tower Records…

Red Aunts guitarist Kerry Davis yawns into the phone, then promptly offers a polite apology. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m really tired today, and I just can’t wake up. I’m a waitress, and I just started working nights recently, getting home at like four in the morning. People think that…

The members of San Diego’s Deadbolt have labeled their group “The World’s Scariest Band,” and their latest disc, Tijuana Hit Squad, shows why. On it, guitarist Harley Davidson, drummer Les Vegas and a shifting series of accomplices portray a team of greasers who kill for hire, and they do so…

For rock historians and rockabilly fiends, Paul Burlison, guitarist for the Rock ‘N Roll Trio, is every bit as important a figure as Scotty Moore or Link Wray. Led by wildcat vocalist/acoustic guitarist Johnny Burnette and his stand-up bass-slapping brother, Dorsey, the Trio crafted some of the rawest music of…

Pete Alexander, bassist and co-frontman for Denver’s Damn Shambles, knows a thing or two about eating up his group’s profits. “We were playing at the Market Street Lounge, and some guy comes up to me and says he wants a CD,” he remembers. “I said, ‘Ten bucks,’ and he says,…

By day, Billy Sheets teaches special education to middle-schoolers in Los Angeles. But by night, he offers a different brand of instruction to swing dancers across Southern California. In a musical environment in which most combos make hep-cat Forties jazz and frenetic Western swing for the growing legion of loose-jointed…

To most stateside music lovers, the idea of a road show starring three accordion players conjures up images of Geritol-chugging seniors playing polkas to nodding retirement-home residents. Even here in Denver, where the instrument stars in the rousing local acts 16 Horsepower and Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, such a bill…

Carla Madison has probably been skin-to-skin with more famous musicians than anyone in Denver. But while most women would be reluctant to reveal such a fact, Madison takes pride in discussing the hefty number of stage-stomping idols she’s had her hands on. “Lou Reed, Eddie Vedder, George Clinton–I’ve worked on…