Despite their now-ghetto categorization, the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure helped define electronica when today’s stars were still in diapers. New releases from each band help restore some honor to their oft-underestimated legacies. The Pet Shop Boys’ Disco 3 is a followup to 1986’s Disco, an album that, along with…
Some recent alterations to Denver’s nightlife have been merely titular, as with the metamorphosis of Club Sanctuary to Butterfly. But in other cases, the change is more formal: For example, Friday, March 7, marks the grand opening of the Starline Lounge — the makeshift dance-and-performance space in the former Denver…
Drawing a line around The Sea and Cake isn’t easy. Over the past eight years, the Chicago quartet, appearing Friday, March 7, at the Gothic Theatre, with Califone, has soaked up color from a broad palette of influences: indie pop, kraut rock, post-punk, jazz, funk and techno. Sound splotchy? It…
To see Space Team Electra live is to see Myshel Prasad summon spirits. In the band’s moody, melancholy moments, the singer channels the high priestess of poetic punk drama, Patti Smith; during harder numbers, her guitar-laden grind recalls Inger Lorre, leader of the late, great Nymphs. But Prasad’s personal spirit…
With his alias “The White Shadow,” DJ Bedz could be Denver hip-hop’s superhero, on a mission to proliferate the somewhat misundastood genre. With residencies at four area clubs, the Occidental College-educated mixmaster proves that white men can rap without straying too far toward either Eminem or Vanilla Ice territory. The…
Lighting should be theatrical rather than rockist. We are interested in atmosphere, mood, drama, energy, subtlety, imagination — not rock cliche.” So reads one of the dozens of protocols directed at light men, stagehands, producers, promoters, journalists, record labels and even would-be members of the band Pere Ubu. These commandments,…
The Australian rock outfit known as AC/DC is the perfect fraternity for boys who like tits, beer, ass, sex and serious power chords. But determining where the band lies in the hearts of female rockers can be complicated: What self-respecting woman can really appreciate songs about blow jobs and fat…
Rap marketing may have grown more sophisticated with the years, but you couldn’t prove it by the pimping of 50 Cent. After all, the man born Curtis Jackson is being sold to the public on the strength of two primary achievements: one, that Eminem likes him, and two, that he’s…
The car’s passenger ejected the Holopaw CD abruptly, replacing it with a crunchier, less emotive selection. “That was boring,” he said. “Who would want to listen to that?” Had this fellow spent some time alone with the music, he might have had a different response: Holopaw’s quiet atmospherics are shaped…
With their intelligent lyrics and sophisticated pop jangle, the Go-Betweens have always made it seem cool to be grown up. Without resorting to navel-baring exhibitionism or angry punk theatrics, the Australian band simultaneously exudes sex appeal and a subtle sadness. The combination of polished craftsmanship and visual interest — artwork…
A couple of years ago, artist and fledgling filmmaker Ben Wolfinsohn got a call from his friend at KXLU, Loyola Marymount University’s student-run radio station in Los Angeles. Wolfinsohn has a taste for weirdo music, and his friend figured the band getting ready to play an on-air set was right…
Living Legends, appearing Wednesday, March 5, at the Fox Theatre, are a grassroots, indie hip-hop phenomenon. A couple of years ago, MCs Sunspot, PSC, Murs and Grouch were selling tapes out of their car trunks. Now, they consistently sell out shows around the world. Working with a loose coalition of…
Arguably the first person on the planet to play prepared guitar and dobro in a compositional sense, Janet Feder manipulates the strings of her instruments by attaching beads, rings, bra hooks and modified alligator clips for a host of uncommon sounds. Gongs, rattles, steel drums, marimba and Oriental percussion are…
Storm the Unpredictable is giving hip-hop a bad reputation: The thirty-something rapper enjoys talking about his family, hanging out at church and working a day job at Montgomery College. The Washington, D.C., native’s current hit, “Get Your Weight Up,” can be heard on East Coast radio stations, and his name…
Westword: In preparing for this interview, I read a lot of articles and reviews that have been written about Audioslave. So I want to start out by issuing an apology on behalf of my profession. Tom Morello : A long overdue apology, my friend. Long overdue. Audioslave, a cooperative that…
You will never make out with one of the Donnas. Sorry. You’re a chump. Chump clothes, chump lingo, chump taste in liquor. Ain’t no way you’ll get your hands on these four bombastic California lasses, who’ve somehow evolved from a cutesy indie-rock girl group to an ass-kickin’, name-takin’ arena-rock monstrosity…
A touring musician sometimes finds himself in strange places at strange times. Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau knows this firsthand. “I’m in Seoul, South Korea, about thirty miles away from the demilitarized zone,” Mehldau says. “Weird!” Weird, perhaps. But the show must go on, even in unlikely places. And despite the…
Despite their name, the Stanleytones are more than just a Stanley Brothers tribute band. On a fine debut album, Half a Dozen Heartaches, the Denver-area bluegrass quintet — guitarist and singer Gary Dark, mandolinist Sam Cohen, banjoist Jim Bertolin, fiddler Mark Weeg and bassist Drew Garrett — pay homage to…
The Double-Barrelled Slingshots run up a riot on Destroy Rock City, the band’s first (and aptly titled) full-length release. A detonation of no-nonsense old-school punk, the disc crisply lays bare the local coed outfit’s unrelenting live energy. The fourteen songs rev into the red on an engine of crash-and-burn guitar,…
Unlike Detroit, New Orleans, Seattle and other musical hotbeds, the Denver/Boulder axis has yet to spawn a truly distinctive sonic style that influences other artists across the country. Perhaps that’s because so many artists around here are busy replowing well-furrowed fields — like, for instance, the ones associated with the…
They’re coming to your town, they’ll help you party down, they’re a Jewish world band. Singing songs of celebration, suffering, love and prayer, Los Lantzmun honor on Lantzville the world cultures that have given rise to Jewish music. The group borrows its uplifting sound from traditional Israeli music, Gypsy culture…
Trumpeter/flugelhornist Brad Upton prefers contemplation to fireworks, and his new release, Dragon, recorded in Boulder in May 2001, reveals a musician deep inside his thoughts. Of the eight Upton originals collected on the disc, four are dedicated to Buddhist teachers important in his spiritual life, one is for his eighteen-year-old…
