Cross-breeding animals can be successful only when the parents are of similar species. For example, a buffalo can boink a cow to create a beefalo; a whale can diddle a dolphin to produce a wolphin; and a zebra can straddle a donkey into dropping a zonkey. But what would happen…
Given that “Drive,” Incubus’s signature ditty, was a typical mid-tempo sensitivity showcase, “Megalomaniac,” the first single and lead number on the latest disc, comes out of Left’s field. In a direct affront to instant gratification, the cut takes a full minute to build tension and steam before erupting in a…
Throwing an equal ratio of temper tantrums to doomsday confetti, this rotating eight-piece from San Diego — featuring members of Red Aunts, Hot Snakes, the Screws, the PeeChees and Rocket From the Crypt — mistreats vintage gear in the name of fun and toxicity, fox-core gyrations and simple, unadorned garage…
For some, last Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, the final day of drunken debauchery before Ash Wednesday. For music activists across the nation, it was Grey Tuesday, a day of civil disobedience. Nearly 200 websites allowed people to download copies of DJ Danger Mouse’s Grey Album — an innovative effort that…
If Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda had ditched Easy Rider and taken over 2001: A Space Odyssey from Stanley Kubrick, Dead Meadow would have made the perfect soundtrack. This Washington, D.C.-based trio is riding high on the acclaim from its third record, 2003’s downright wizardly The Shivering King and Others…
Quebec City transplant Jay Munly Thompson has been known to tell his share of whoppers, like the one about losing an eye while running with a gang of Irish Catholics. Or how brain-damaged heavyweight prizefighter Gerry Cooney (“The Great White Hope”) not only babysat him during the ’70s, but took…
Self-proclaimed diva DJ Irene believes that “people come out to dance to forget the life dramas that wear on their souls, or to be a little more glamorous than they are during the day.” And few DJs know drama better than she does. An openly gay mother of a son…
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as the twin-engine Lockheed Electra took off from Lae, New Guinea. It was July 2, 1937, and although international relations were tense, World War II was still many months away. The only enemy the little plane had was the Pacific itself, vast and…
It’s a bitch trying to get a giant stuffed grizzly across international borders these days. “We have a big bear. He’s been coming on stage with us lately,” Hamilton explains in a British accent thicker than a London phone book. “We’d like to bring our bear, but he’s not allowed…
Britisher Dylan Mills’s pseudonym doesn’t exactly carry its weight in stateside street cred. Truth be told, the name Dizzee Rascal suggests Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer with a bad case of vertigo. But dismiss his debut platter at your peril, because Boy in Da Corner is a hip-hop hybrid that’s a helluva…
Those who’ve followed Van Morrison faithfully through his myriad solo releases and collaborations know that he’s put out a handful of towering monuments as well as some relative dogs. His latest release features many of the classic elements he’s doled out over the years: jazz- and blues-inflected power vocals, thoughtful,…
Lauded producer Kanye West has a king-sized chip on his shoulder about being passed over so many times as an MC. But with the breakout success of The College Dropout’s first two singles (“Through the Wire” and “Slow Jamz”), it’s a safe bet the chip has been whittled down to…
Existence, according to Henry Miller, is an ovarian trolley, a runaway treadmill full of yolk-like crap that could care less how it gets incarnated. Birth, identity and death are inconsequential; it’s the motion itself that has any chance of meaning anything. On As the Eternal Cowboy, Tom Gabel of Florida’s…
“They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday’s just as bad/Lord and Wednesday’s worse, Thursday’s oh so sad.” Those lines are from T-Bone Walker’s oft-covered “Stormy Monday” — but they’re also an apt description of the weekday business at Brendan’s Pub since it reopened on Larimer Street last summer. And come…
Dillinger Escape Plan, which joins the Locust and Your Enemies Friend at the Bluebird Theatre on Wednesday, March 3, has been called grindcore, hardcore, death metal, math metal and pretty much every other sonic descriptor this side of easy listening. And it’s no surprise. The band, anchored by guitarist Ben…
When Dave Hall of The Honky Tonk Hangovers sings about life in the big rig, he’s not speaking from a childhood spent watching reruns of B.J. and the Bear. When he was a boy, he used to accompany his big brother, Steve, on runs in an eighteen-wheeler — which explains…
Some urban music legends claim Roni Size served as the best man when drum and bass were married; others say he performed the ceremony. Either way, the Bristol native knows the couple well, launching the experimental Full Cycle label in 1993 with pal and collaborator Krust. Over a decade later,…
Bill, get a jump rope, get in shape and have a Coke. — anonymous post in Rogue’s guest book “I’ve gotten laid more than any of these skinny guys who talk shit about me,” Bill Terrell says emphatically. “I’ve played more shows than any of these skinny guys. I’m cooler…
Things just aren’t always what they seem. Take, for instance, Andy Tanner, lead singer and guitarist of Laymen Terms. He’s a tall guy, spindly, with a fringe of greasy hair hanging over his forehead. Draped in a T-shirt and jeans, he hunches his shoulders and mumbles a little, humble and…
In the future, entire universities will be staffed by legions of cultural archaeologists toiling for decades to fully catalogue the extent of the atrocities that Coldplay has inflicted upon the world. Besides their own music — which, admit it, sounds like a Gap-plastered Radiohead giving a dry-ice enema to Sting…
Craig Maierhofer was part of Orphan Tears, a popular local combo from the ’90s whose shot at the bigtime struck wide of the mark. Like his previous work, 49 Floors drips with commercial potential — and other stuff, too. Folks who think “Your Body Is a Wonderland” represents the pinnacle…
The Barrys serve up an enormous and unruly combo platter of geek punk, idiot blues and experimental pop on their 74-minute self-titled debut. But generous sonic portions of analog-enhanced hijinks is not what sets them apart from most Denver-based bands: Committed to revolutionizing rock and roll the way McDonald’s revolutionized…
