Drum and bass was supposed to make the world safe for electronic music, replacing the predictability of “techno” with an expansive arsenal of shifting polyrythms. But when it digressed into another predictable set of formulaic thumps, the term Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) was coined to describe the work of a…
Aggressive Persuasion is but one of ten bands on a scintillatingly scary bill touted as “The Immaturity Show” and slated to hit the Aztlan Theatre on Saturday, August 11. Though the Pueblo-based quartet’s origins reinforce the values of the nuclear family — the band began shortly after leader David Bryant’s…
For the country artist with principles, preserving a career in these days of shlocky commercial twang requires survival skills. Jim Lauderdale’s life-saving methods have helped him somehow earn dollars in the mainstream as well as credibility among country’s fringe. But along with his more obvious skills — stellar songwriting chops,…
When Norman Blake performs at Swallow Hill on Saturday night, more than a few audience members will probably be there because they bought the soundtrack to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a wonderful collection of rootsy country music. On it, the 63-year-old Blake performs two numbers: “You Are…
The life of a jazz singer can be rough. First you’re in London, in early July, opening for George Benson at the historic Royal Albert Hall. Then it’s a full week of dates at Ronnie Scott’s, Europe’s premier jazz club, in nearby SoHo. Then you’re off to Copenhagen for a…
Once upon a time, back in the dark ages (before advertising tie-ins were cool), performers who sold their music for use in peddling products were seen as artistic heretics. But such thinking now seems as outdated as the eight-track-tape player or condoms that only come in one color. Turn on…
Not only does this CD feature the hit song “Sugar,” but it’s endorsed by Radio Disney and the Disney Channel. Plus there’s a free AT&T Calling Card inside! It’s good for five minutes — billed in one-minute increments. There’s a surcharge for calls made from pay phones, but you can…
Pennywise has got to feel a little like Prince Charles at this point: Both have been waiting and waiting and waiting to assume their respective crowns. While the day-to-day doings of Queen Elizabeth don’t give royalty watchers much to complain about, just about everyone who keeps up with punk rock…
It might have seemed like a mini-metal marathon last week, when an unusually dense lineup of some of Denver’s more hard-hitting bands took the stage at Sports Field Roxxx, the East Colfax venue that has become one of the city’s metal meccas: One by one, the musicians assaulted crowds with…
Perhaps the only thing worse than being an unknown, struggling musician without a hit song is actually scoring that hit and coping with the sudden, unfathomable fame that goes along with it. Just ask Kurt Cobain — or Warren Zevon, who performs Sunday, August 5, at the Fox Theatre. After…
Reshaped from Pornographic Memory into one of Northern Colorado’s most adventurous live acts, the Fort Collins-based quartet the President’s Wives — opening for Armchair Martian Friday, August 3, at the 15th Street Tavern — serve up a punk-influenced hootenanny of free-range improv based loosely around the writings of citizenly frontman,…
For songwriter Jim White, finding hidden blessings in times of catastrophe is nothing new. A charming backwater intellect who is as comfortable discussing Carl Jung’s collective unconscious as he is Alfred Hitchcock, Hurricane Earl or Jefferson Davis (“the mad scientist who got a $60,000 grant from MIT to record information…
It’s 10 p.m. on a Friday, and the Orb’s Alex Paterson enjoys the beautiful view as he works his way through the evening’s third interview. “It’s almost a full moon tonight,” he quietly interrupts. “It’s a very clear night, and I’m standing in the garden.” At home with his girlfriend…
Has the Wu-Tang dynasty fallen off? Rumors of strife within the group, along with Old Dirty Bastard’s legal troubles and declining record sales, all suggest the kings of Shaolin may have lost the power that they once wielded over the rap industry like a mighty sword. With so many Wu-affiliated…
The first thing listeners will notice about Lucinda Williams’s new album, Essence, is how dramatically it differs from her 1998 Grammy-winning classic Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. The rich narratives and roadhouse swagger have given way to a starkly introspective sound that ranges from gentle repetition on “Lonely Girls”…
This long-awaited four-CD collection contains nearly every song commercially released by Buffalo Springfield, the short-lived but seminal Los Angeles-based rock band. In fact, disc four presents, in their entirety, newly remastered versions of the group’s first two albums: Buffalo Springfield and Buffalo Springfield Again, its masterpiece. And most of the…
The passage of years tends to color perceptions of music conceived for the stage, no matter how good it is. Take Oklahoma!, which has been referred to so frequently as the play responsible for revolutionizing American musical theater that most folks consider it to be as musty and cobwebbed as…
Alex Lemski’s mind is a little like the jazz music he promoted as founder and president of Creative Music Works: It’s associative, non-linear, complicated and, right now, swimming with activity. But after eleven years of hard work on behalf of progressive music in Denver, Lemski is leaving town for good…
If you haven’t jumped on board yet, don’t worry, there’s still room: Nikka Costa’s bandwagon should be fuller, considering she’s been around for years. The 29-year-old singer — who appears at the Bluebird Theater on Tuesday, July 31 — opened for the Police when she was only eight and is…
A common theme among today’s rockabilly groups is purism. Often, bands measure themselves by how authentic their look is, how old their equipment and pomade is or how many original parts went into restoring their ’57 Chevys. It seeps into the music as well, and there are schools of guitarists…
Since the breakup of A Tribe Called Quest — the group that, for ten years, consistently put out some of the best records in hip-hop before disbanding in 1998 — fans have had varied success keeping up with the careers of its founding members. Last year, Jonathan “Q-Tip” Davis III…
It’s almost a given that any really good rock-and-roll documentary begins in a smallish town in the middle of nowhere, as, flanked by dreary industrial surroundings and repressive blue-collar mentalities, young artists see music as the only escape from a lifetime of factory work. For the Beatles, it was Liverpool;…
