Satisfaction doesn’t become Ms. Harvey. Her last CD, 2000’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, was her most upbeat, but while critics gushed over it, many fans missed the rabid qualities that marked her best work. This time around, the nastiness is back, and thank goodness — although…
One of Christianity’s virtues is misericordia: mercy of the heart, a sense of pious compassion for your fellow human being. Seeing as how Pedro the Lion’s (due at the Bluebird Theater on Tuesday, July 6) David Bazan is a self-confessed Christian, it’s a sin that he doesn’t take more pity…
Are you sitting down for this? The members of Matson Jones are. Or at least three-quarters of them are: Unlike the typical rock lineup of leg-kicking pose-strikers or pigeon-toed emo wusses, they’ve got their asses planted in chairs. That’s because both of Matson Jones’s singers — Martina Grbac and Anna…
Usually when musicians name their band after a song, said number is the best they’ve got at the time, or damned close: “Black Sabbath,” co-written by Ozzy Osbourne, is a good example. Singer-songwriter John Nichols must feel likewise about “You Are the Birthday Girl,” since he made it the title…
It’s Saturday night, and the tenth annual Westword Music Showcase has just come to a close. I’m sitting on a ledge at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Street, downing Gatorade and thumbing through my notebook. An old Journey song keeps running through my mind. “Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever?”…
Born Alexander Coe, Sasha (below) has earned a glowing reputation as a spinner and mixologist via a series of influential collaborations with John Digweed; the impressive Northern Exposure series went a long way toward defining the template of late-’90s dance music. But like many a superstar DJ before him, this…
Broncos vs. Raiders. Blur vs. Oasis. Bush vs. Kerry. Us vs. Them. All of these pale before Bear vs. Shark. Like a tightly packed bundle of nerve endings trying to burst in five directions at once, this Michigan-based quintet is at war with itself. The territory being fought over is…
Jared Southhard’s grandmother had an owl fetish: clocks, salt-and-pepper shakers, you name it. And while such seemingly well-mannered knickknacks often embody the qualities of wisdom and patience, who’s to say they won’t suddenly fly into your windshield late at night and shatter a thoughtful moment? For the bird-watching frontman of…
You can plan it on your calendar. It happens every year at this time. It’s become as routine as Big Head Todd’s New Year’s Eve concert. As the sky starts exploding and everyone around you becomes a lawn-chair patriot, John Popper and his crew roll into Mootown to celebrate freedom…
Somewhere deep in the swampland of New Orleans, a diabolical, bayou-spawned shaman begot the ultimate rock-and-roll voodoo doll. Angus Young’s broken guitar picks became its eyes; Gene Simmons’s used condoms became its skin. And then, in a fit of unholy transfixion, this high priest of the occult emptied out one…
Metal Church is the perfect representation of ’80s-era speed metal. Even the group’s logo, its thick crimson letters peaked with jagged edges, remains quintessential ’80s. The Church has had several leaders over the past two decades, and its members have changed over time, but the music remains the same. Founding…
Eric Lowe’s tenure as a Denver musician has been a quest for essence. Starting with his ’90s stints in the warmly remembered pop-rock bands the Christines and Honeydew, the singer/guitarist has been paring down and laying bare the hidden, pulsing heart of classic songcraft, digging for that raw pulp at…
In the often too serious world of jungle and drum-and-bass, Gavin King, aka Aphrodite, is one of the few DJs and producers who haven’t forgotten that dance music is supposed to be fun. During the U.K.’s acid-house revolution and the later hardcore rave days, Aphrodite was already producing anthems such…
Legends are supposed to last forever — but Hollywood Legends has called it quits after thirty years. Dennis Muck opened the club originally called After the Gold Rush at 5255 West Sixth Avenue in Lakewood in January 1974, and he closed the doors for good on June 21. Among the…
Three years ago, I was part of what’s now one of the hottest, most talked about bands in the country. “So we’re just walking down the street in Lawrence, Kansas,” recalls Daniel Sproul, “and some chick comes up to us and says, ‘Are you Rose Hill Drive?'” Shocked to be…
Pain is the great motivator, anguish the most compelling muse. In other words, a world of hurt can go a long way. Just ask Chris Fogal, singer/guitarist of Denver’s the Gamits. His group’s brand-new disc is called Antidote, and it’s meant to be exactly that: an anodyne for crushing agony,…
According to the calendar, New Year’s Eve is still six months away. But you’d never know it from the faces at Herman’s Hideaway on this steamy Friday night. The place is packed, with a line pouring out onto the sidewalk. Inhibitions are stacked at the door like so many unneeded…
The female singer-songwriters of today can be lumped together into two convenient camps. There’s Camp Norah Jones, in which every sensitive, hushed-tone lullaby is safe passage to chart-topping success. Sarah McLachlan and Alicia Keys are camp counselors, while Jewel reads from a book of poems. They aren’t looking to rock…
Sonic Youth remains one of the great names in rock, but it may be a bit past its expiration date. After all, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley celebrated the big 4-0 a while back, and Kim Gordon hit the half-century mark last year, leaving relative newbie Jim O’Rourke…
Few things could be as emotionally stunning as a mute suddenly opening his mouth and speaking. Over the course of the past five years, San Diego’s Jimmy LaVelle, who records under the name The Album Leaf, has honored an almost monastic vow of silence; barring the occasional collaboration with luminaries…
It’s no secret that Neurosis is a changeling. Masters of mixtures and daredevils of disparity, guitarists Steve Von Tills and Scott Kelly, bassist Dave Edwardson, percussionist Jason Roeder and keyboardist Noah Landis have fifteen years of genre-bending music to their credit. Drawing on hardcore, industrial, metal, ambient and folk music,…
Chicks with dicks love the Symptoms. So do dudes with pussies. In fact, anyone who’s ever felt the pull between the masculine and the feminine within them might get a little wet between the legs upon their first exposure to this six-song debut. Founded in 2003, the group is new,…
