Probot

Irony’s not dead; it’s just lame. And Dave Grohl may have proved it once and for all with his newest project. Probot consists of the Foo Fighters frontman playing all the instruments on a bunch of metal tunes, with a different guest vocalist on each. Thankfully, Grohl doesn’t treat metal…

Various Artists

The fine soundtrack that accompanied 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? earned a Grammy as best album. It’s no wonder, then, that the awards-hungry folks at Miramax attempted to repeat the feat with the companion platter to Cold Mountain, even hiring Brother producer T Bone Burnett to man the boards…

The Beatdown

Bring on the hookers and blow. If the members of Vaux — bassist Ryder Robison, vocalist Quentin Smith, guitarist/keyboardist Greg Daniels, guitarists Chris Sorensen and Adam Tymn, and drummer Joe McChan — aren’t somewhere partying like rock stars right now, by God, they should be. Since they recently finalized a…

Critic’s Choice

In a cultural landscape littered with decaying, decrepit rap stereotypes, Mr. Len is resurrecting yet one more: the strong, smart hip-hop artist who is neither pumped-up thug nor science-dropping spazz. Len began his career as part of the New York City crew Company Flow, whose 1997 debut, Funcrusher Plus, was…

Hit Pick

In a perpetual state of disaster as a result of ongoing famine, drought and political corruption, Zimbabwe has still managed to export some of the world’s most infectiously joyful music: complex sounds characterized by soaring melodies, intricate vocal harmonies and the kind of polyrhythmic percussion that can induce a collective…

Club Scout

Kit’s caboodle is littered with experimentation and eclecticism, refusing to conform to club-music normalcy. Debuting in 1997 on his own Cytrax label with the EP Negative Powers, Kit Clayton alternates between dubby techno and adventures in noise. He’s known as the consummate computer geek, living life by the light of…

Sounds of Silence

Rachel Simring sits down at a linoleum-lined table at Pete’s University Cafe and does something she wouldn’t do last spring: She speaks. In late 2002, after doctors found a cyst on her vocal cords, she entered a period of veritable silence that lasted for the better part of a year…

Odd Band Out

We don’t have tattoos on our necks. We don’t write songs about feelings and stuff. And we certainly don’t scream enough. We’re probably going to get eaten alive.” Matt Armstrong, bassist for the Bloomington, Indiana, quintet Murder By Death, is scared shitless. It’s two years ago, and his band is…

The Beatdown

Last Tuesday night, War’s “The World Is a Ghetto” poured from the jukebox as a handful of regulars bellied up to the bar at the Lion’s Lair. A little farther down Colfax, Bargain Music prepared to take the stage at the Bluebird. As far as John Q was concerned, it…

Jay-Z

Since his debut in 1996, it’s been hard to be a fan of music — let alone hip-hop music — and not have a couple of Jay-Z choruses stuck in your head. Whether it was “Ain’t No Nigga,” “Big Pimpin” or the ingeniously sampled hook to “Hard Knock Life,” it’s…

Fun Lovin’ Criminals

Fun Lovin’ Criminals’ first hit, “Scooby Snacks” (from the outfit’s 1996 debut, Come Find Yourself), was easy to dismiss as imitation gangsterism too kitschy for its own good. But it’s important to note that much of the Criminals’ output has been informed by the misspent youth of frontman/guitarist Huey, who,…

Mark Farina

Occasionally, connoisseurs of hallucinogens become convinced that they are somehow capable of actual flight. So it’s hardly surprising that Mark Farina, a man famous for his mushroom-influenced mixes, considers himself captain of his very own airline. “The communications on this record were recorded in over fifteen hours of flight time,”…

Starsailor

Starsailor’s 2001 debut, Love Is Here — a million-selling Brit-rock triumph described by critics and fans alike as a tender, majestic union of Van Morrison, Jeff Buckley and the Verve — was pretty much a hunk of crap. Leader James Walsh’s drab songwriting and overwrought vocals were about as stirring…

Critic’s Choice

If garage rock is music that supposedly sounds like it was made in a garage, “fallout-shelter rock” might be an appropriate term to describe The Dirtbombs, who will be tearing up the Bluebird on Saturday, February 7, with the Tarmints. Led by Mick Collins, formerly of the Gories — who…

Hit Pick

After enduring every embarrassment from the electric slide and Dollywood to Toby Keith’s persistent Arab-baiting nonsense, country music feels likes it’s in a dang ol’ coma. But before the plug is pulled on the patient and farewells are said, it only seems appropriate to celebrate the art form’s golden age…

Club Scout

Hidden deep in the jungle, away from casual clubbers, true devotees can find exciting sounds by innovative talents not yet discovered by the masses. Drum-and-bass artist Red One is among them: A hit on the Euro side of the pond, he’s not well-known to club-goers in the States. That should…

Jonesin’

A loose cannon known to brawl with bouncers, bandmates and even the occasional audience member, Anton Alfred Newcombe has been 86’d from his share of music venues over the years. He’s blown off sound checks to get drunk and stormed off stages after playing only two songs. He’s provoked hostile…

People Pleaser

Perry Farrell is either the youngest 44-year-old in the pop-music game or (with apologies to Captain Beefheart) an old fart at play. On occasion, Farrell is prone to nostalgia. How else to explain his decision last year to simultaneously revive Jane’s Addiction — the group he’d officially disbanded over a…

The Beatdown

The Recording Industry Association of America fired off another round of lawsuits last week. Utterly shocking, I know. But this time, rather than bullying a bunch of blue-hairs and soccer moms, the RIAA has made it personal — or impersonal, as the case may be. The association expanded its dragnet…

Critic’s Choice

After getting a Grammy nod for its 1997 full-length debut, Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon, and rousing audiences while opening tours for everyone from the Melvins and Helmet to Morphine and Primus, Skeleton Key got lost in the shuffle by its label, Capitol, and seemed to disappear. Thankfully, the band resurfaced…

Hit Pick

As hardcore gradually and inexorably seeps upward into rock’s mainstream, a lot of shit ends up getting filtered out. Leave acts like Thrice and Glassjaw to the sassy and fashion-whipped; we’ll keep Yuriko. This Denver quintet is as staunchly committed to maintaining its independence as it is to yanking punk…

Club Scout

Hasn’t the world seemed a tad safer since the capture of Tommy Chong? With the dangerous criminal mastermind securely behind bars, we’re free from the wave of terror he created with his brutal spree of, um, er, water-pipe sales over the Internet. The fact that Chong, whose name is scribbled…