Music

The only way Franz Ferdinand, the latest in a long line of overhyped British imports, could justify the celebratory verbiage penned about the group by U.K. journalists would be if its members brought peace to the Middle East, eliminated global poverty and transplanted a fully functioning brain into Jessica Simpson…

No, Janet isn’t flashing a breast in Damita Jo’s liner notes, and she doesn’t have any songs about “wardrobe malfunctions.” However, heavy sexual references and innuendos are prevalent throughout the record. The eighth studio album from Ms. Jackson picks up where her previous album, All For You, left off celebrating…

“Denver rap sucks.” That’s a bold statement, especially when made before MCs like Dent and Black Pegasus, hosts of the April 18 DMC turntable competition at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, as well as such Mootown luminaries as Apostle and Kingdom (whose beef I wrote about in this space on…

Ms. Woo would make a fine role model for any musician looking to make a career in a city, like this one, that’s far from the industry power centers. Rather than begging the management of Boulder’s Fox Theatre to put her on the bill, she took a job there as…

Don’t let the warm, wooden tones of the marimba fool you: Every sound, shade and nuance heard on this disc originates from an electronic drum (Ed for short). And through the calculated miracle of digital touchpads and proper fingertip placement, Ed chirps and urps its way through an infinite combination…

Tech N9ne has a gun. File that little detail under “No shit.” After all, the Kansas City-based rapper (below) is named after an illegal semi-automatic weapon. Yet the guy with the red Medusa hair and penchant for color coordination says he hates being strapped, but as an upshot to his…

What with eight bandmembers clad in matching jumpsuits and rubber masks, and the bludgeoning cacophony those bandmembers have produced over the years, it’s easy to dismiss Mushroomhead as a bargain-basement knockoff of Slipknot. Shroomco, however, was founded in 1993; Slipknot didn’t come together until 1995. And Mushroomhead donned the getups…

“Are you ready? Are you ready?!?” howls Valentine, vocalist of Portland’s The Get Hustle, as spidery piano and slinky percussion shudder like a death knell all around her. The thing is, it’s too late: You’re already three songs and two changes of underwear into Dream Eagle 1, the trio’s 2002…

A recent Denver performance by Portland’s The Planet The brought heckles of “pretentious asshole” that were aimed at singer/guitarist Charles Salas-Humara as he pouted, pranced and robot danced his way through a brief set of utterly brain-fucking rock. The Planet The knows how to polarize a crowd; the trio doesn’t…

After seeing Sonic Youth perform in Kiev as a teenager, Eugene Hütz caught a glimpse of his own future: fronting a multi-national New York-based band of ragtag immigrants. Raised on gypsy street music, plus any black-market recording that he could find from the Birthday Party or Einstürzende Neubauten, the Ukrainian…

Back in 1980, when REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin promised to “Keep On Loving You,” he meant forever. Which is why he and the rest of the band are still out there, making good on their vow to “Keep the Fire Burnin’.” Singer Cronin’s hair may be a little shorter and…

The main men of Uversa (due at the Mercury Cafe this Thursday, April 29) are no strangers to each other. Guitarist Tim Edwards and bassist Tom Sublett, plus Bruce Crisman and Kenny Ortiz — who share drum duties on Electric Jazz, the band’s provocative new disc — are veterans of…

I just want to share my sadness with the world,” sighs Shane Montgomery Ewegen, singer and guitarist of Denver’s Fifth Utility. There’s a problem with talking to the guys in the Fifth Utility: They’re dead fucking serious. Even more serious, in fact, than their music might lead you to believe…

Right now, the song stuck in my head is ‘Send in the Clowns’ — the Judy Collins version,” says Mark Kozelek from a hotel phone in New Orleans, where he’s scouting for real estate. “I heard that in an antique shop yesterday down on Magazine Street, and everything just kind…

I think there is so much that can be done with samples, but fewer people are making an effort to raise the bar,” says DJ Shadow via phone from somewhere in the Midwest. “So it just makes the evolution of the sound slower.” Even though the art of sampling seems…

Any seven-year-old will tell you: Lying is easy. Screw all that “What a tangled web we weave” crap. All you have to do is keep up that poker face, look people dead in the eye and — most important — believe your own bullshit. Of course, the biggest rule of…

Cops and white men beware: Dead Prez has secured another record deal and is ready to unleash its onslaught once again. Four years ago, the act’s debut, Let’s Get Free, criticized the government, the school system, the police force and other artists for using music to talk about nonsense. MCs…

Among the most popular heirs to the throne of scruff music, Widespread Panic has the uncanny power to pack venues (to the point of bursting) full of faithful, doped-up and ecstatic road warriors. With a little darker vibe than its musical forebears, the Grateful Dead, the band is led vocally…

Far too many musicians are scared to death of “What the hell?” moments — those times when a song’s sudden shift into unexpected territory leaves listeners puzzled and slack-jawed, for good or ill. In contrast, Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans thrive on such reactions. Since the early ’90s, the electro-obsessed…

Don’t believe the hype. Chuck and Flava said that back in the day, and how right they were. Losing your virginity: overrated. Lord of the Rings: whatever. Hockey: Don’t even get me started. And this admonition is particularly useful when considering music. I mean, the Von Bondies? C’mon. Still, every…