Search the Internet for information about the average band and you’re likely to wind up with sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. Do the same for Sleater-Kinney, however, and you’ll think you’ve stumbled into the Library of Congress. Since the release of the band’s 1996 disc, Call the Doctor, the…
“Being good at being poor has allowed me to do what I want to do–and it’s allowed me not to be hamstrung by a lot of things,” says singer-songwriter Micah Ciampa. “It’s a good thing, in a lot of respects. If you live like a monk and plan on it,…
Fans of Rancid feel that the group is one of the last real punk bands, while detractors accuse the quartet of being a band of poseurs. But no one ever called the combo a wedding band until this summer, when Rancid members did the unthinkable: They performed at a wedding…
Because of a ticket snafu, a representative of Universal Concerts led me through the bowels of McNichols Arena just before the start of the Family Values show on October 6. While she searched the box office for my passes, I was left for a few minutes in the trauma-care room,…
Low owL remix (Caroline) Songs for a Dead Pilot (Kranky) The three ultra-minimalists in Low (who appear with the Czars at the Bluebird Theater on October 26) are known for music that’s the sonic equivalent of a horse tranquilizer, albeit one with an overtly melodic and stately grace. Acres of…
The Minders are no longer one of the best bands in Denver. Just a week or so prior to the appearance of Hooray for Tuesday, the act’s charming debut for the spinART label, key members/life partners Martyn Leaper and Rebecca Cole decamped for Portland, Oregon. That they fled at such…
Ska: The word can cause the most cynical of sneers to cross the faces of punk aficionados. (It’s the same look you’d get if you suggested to a seasoned skateboarder that his sport is a brother to inline skating.) So why on earth have the eight brave souls in Mail…
Sunny Day Real Estate is less a band than a psychodrama. Decisions aren’t just made; they’re agonized over. Relationships don’t simply end; they shatter. Reunions aren’t merely satisfying; they’re life-changing. With these guys, there are no half-measures. They’re as openly creative and nakedly sincere as their songs–and if that means…
Tacoma, Washington’s Girl Trouble has made some of the kitschiest, trashiest, most entertaining garage rock to come out of the Pacific Northwest since the Sonics hung up their Silvertones for the last time. The trouble is, they haven’t made that much of it. During its fifteen years of life, the…
It’s tough to get a handle on the Spinanes. Guitarist/singer-songwriter Rebecca Gates is the only permanent Spinane, but she sees the contributions made by an ever-changing cast of players as essential to her sound. So is the glorious pop-rock collective a band or a solo project? In Gates’s opinion, it’s…
Korn Follow the Leader (Immortal/Epic) The words dispensed here by Korn singer Jonathan Davis are as disturbing as ever: Imagine having to wrap barbed wire around your feet to get better traction on a snowy day and you’ll have an idea of what picking your way through them is like…
“Ninety-nine percent of all the people in prison are going to be released,” says Sammy Town, lead singer of the punk institution called Fang. “And I’m telling you, when you go to prison, you get meaner. You get bitter, you get bigger and more criminalized. And then”–a menacing cackle–“you get…
Dan Wanush is best known as King Scratchie, the twisted, hard-rapping frontman for the sadly defunct Warlock Pinchers. But although Wanush still loves the fusion of hardcore, funk and hip-hop that the Pinchers brought to Denver during the late Eighties and early Nineties, he admits that he’s harbored a secret…
O’Shea Jackson, known to friends and enemies alike as Ice Cube, has a daughter, a son and a stepson whose ages range from four to eleven. But despite their tender years, he sees no reason why they shouldn’t be able to enjoy the furious wit and wisdom he puts on…
In this space last week, Don Howe, local head honcho for Cincinnati’s Jacor Communications, which owns eight powerful radio stations in the Denver-Boulder area, got to crow about problems at KKHK-FM/99.5 (the Hawk), a competitor that went from celebrating its purchase of the Howard Stern show to announcing that the…
“The first thing that defines an artist who is local,” says Montbello rapper Bumpy Chill, “is to do a show without using anyone else’s beats and then see how the crowd reacts.” The Don Kronicals, which pairs Chill with his cousin, Aurora’s L.O., has had no problems passing such tests…
James Lavelle, the 24-year-old founder and president of England’s Mo Wax Records, has an active fantasy life, and movies are his touchstone. The promotional items for Psyence Fiction, a new CD credited to a project he’s dubbed Unkle, include a mockup of the original poster from Star Wars (his favorite…
Elliott Smith XO (Dreamworks) Considering the one-dimensional press Elliott Smith has been receiving of late, you can be forgiven for assuming that XO captures the sound of a strange, homely man sobbing himself to sleep over his acoustic guitar. Not that the album will be mistaken for something by Up…
Harvey Reid looks like your standard-issue new-age guitarist. But when he speaks about the state of the acoustic-music field he works in, it’s clear that there’s more behind his flowing locks than initially meets the eye. “A lot of my guitar compadres are still lost in open-tuning mantra stuff and…
The fourth annual Westword Music Awards Showcase, held September 20 in LoDo, featured music of virtually every description, as well as a special guest appearance by representatives of the Denver police department. Let’s get to the latter situation first. Concentrated Evil, a trio nominated in the Showcase’s Metal/ Goth category,…
If you want to get technical, the Westword Music Awards Showcase guide at the center of this issue is an advertising supplement. But it’s also the most extensive overview of the Denver-Boulder music scene that any area publication will print this year. In addition to a map and a complete…
Massive Attack’s sound, which integrates street life, DJing, music, art and angst, has played a major role in shaping the pop music of the Nineties–and with this accomplishment have come some impressive spoils. Today the group’s Robert del Naja (aka 3D) is as comfortable ordering room service in swanky hotels…
