Music

You may already know Orlando Terrell. Tall and bald-headed, he used to walk all over downtown Denver towing three or four of his kids in a single-file line like ducklings while balancing a huge electronic keyboard on his shoulder. Occasionally you’d see him at Wax Trax Records, parleying playfully with…

If multi-instrumentalist Matt Friedberger’s relationship with his sister, Eleanor, wasn’t strong, there’s no way the two would have teamed up to form the engagingly quixotic partnership dubbed the Fiery Furnaces. Yet they’ve had their ugly moments, the worst of them coming as a result of cohabitation. “We would play when…

It takes but a single spark to burn down an entire forest — just ask Terry Barton. Here we are, barely two weeks into the new year, and I’ll be damned if a few Cowtown musicians haven’t tossed some Queen City-sized Molotov cocktails onto the drought-stricken tinder sticks that make…

Had George Orwell lived long enough to see 1984, he might have thought bands like Spandau Ballet were a more terrifying prospect than Big Brother. Then again, Orwell hailed from the same merry olde land that introduced the world to T. Rex, Gary Glitter, Slade and Bowie’s shrill alter ego,…

Can’t make up your mind between a rock show or a dance party? You’re not alone: Neither can The Royal We. This local threesome has been spinning melodies and bustin’ moves over the past year, torching Denver with its jittery, sassy brand of string-strangling pop. Singer/guitarist Eli Mishkin seems to…

I’m a bastard. That’s the whole thing.” It’s early on a frosty evening at Gabor’s, the infamous Capitol Hill dive bar where the jukebox leans toward Zeppelin and X and autographed snapshots of Hollywood has-beens like Louie Anderson adorn the walls. Charles Edward, leader of Seraphim Shock, sits at a…

I don’t know where the Slayer comparisons first started,” says Eric Madris, quick-fingered banjo picker for bluegrass quartet Split Lip Rayfield. “Obviously, other than just the speed, there isn’t much of a sonic comparison. The tempos are there, but it’s not like we’re trying to get bucked off a goat…

Lilium may be two-thirds of the venerable Denver-based alt-country collective 16 Horsepower, but Short Stories, the band’s second release, is a beautifully moody and atmospheric record that suggests this is far more than a side project. Multi-instrumentalists Pascal Humbert and Jean-Yves Tola make up the core of Lilium. Together they…

The ambient electro genre is usually associated with tropical playgrounds, not mountainous ones, which helps explains the title of this disc, as well as the name of veteran DJ Mark Riva’s production company (Mango Beach International) and the fact that his label is headquartered in Miami. Since 2000, however, the…

There’s something about sticking an acoustic guitar in someone’s hand and leaving them alone in a room that makes for some pretty gloomy tunes. Maybe it’s the solitude, the lack of external stimulus or simply the fact that that’s just what people have always done with acoustic guitars in lonely…

Long an outstanding fixture on the scene, Chris Daniels and the Kings began making a name for themselves years ago in the smaller clubs around town with their trademark rhythm and blues peppered with ample amounts of soul and superior musicianship. A few years back, the band began to make…

Scott Campbell has booked over 2,000 dates in the past eight years at the 15th Street Tavern and his own Larimer Lounge. The guy knows what works and what doesn’t in the concert biz. So a few months ago, when friends in Slim Cessna’s Auto Club asked him to help…

Laughter may be the best medicine, but to Stanley Jordan, music is the universal anodyne. The celebrated jazz guitarist is a spokesman for the American Music Therapy Association, and his 2003 disc, Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations, Volume One, is an hour-long improvised solo piece that showcases the more restrained…

The dream-rock maestros in The Very Hush Hush (due at the Hi-Dive on Saturday, January 10, with Navy Girls and O’er the Ramparts, and at the Gothic Theatre on Thursday, January 15) have an unmistakable sonic kinship to bands like Mogwai and Sigur Ros. Fortunately, though, the members of the…

It used to take Jimmy West roughly three days to set up the two-ton P.A. system he built from scratch when he first started working as a soundman in Denver. Most of the venues that hired him, from legit clubs to underground warehouses, had systems that were puny or non-existent…

If you ask the three members of the Procussions what’s missing from today’s hip-hop, they’ll tell you straight up: substance. “Everything seems to be really stale,” says MC Resonant, who pulls double duty as DJ for the Colorado Springs-turned-L.A.-based hip-hop combo. “If you’re not a super battle-rhymer, then you’re a…

Right turn, Clyde. This is the year of the monkey, and I can’t think of a better way to kick off 2004 than by flingin’ poo at my fellow simians. Since most of us are still basking in the afterglow of the holidays, however, I thought I’d focus on an…

Decent national concerts in Colorado scheduled the week after New Year’s Eve are about as common as politicians who aren’t interested in personal gain, thereby making skiing a better bet. Fortunately, those with a taste for white powder (not that white powder) have an opportunity to double their pleasure with…

If October Episode’s music doesn’t make an impact, its members can always use their imposing image — part prison-yard muscle, part garish Gacy clown makeup — to “persuade” listeners. Good thing Denver metal fans are already hooked on the band’s steel-toed stomp to the head of contemporary nu-metal, especially since…