As you know, the current music scene is in the doldrums: Little new ground is being broken, and the bands receiving the most popular acclaim are either rehashes of old groups or the old groups themselves. But even as we head toward the low end of the quality cycle, strong,…
When last we heard from Vartan Tonoian (Feedback, May 8), the Russian-born entrepreneur was exulting about the closing of his namesake venue, Vartan Jazz, formerly at 231 Milwaukee Street in Cherry Creek. In his view, the club’s collapse gave him an opportunity to reopen at a bigger, less expensive space…
The mythology surrounding the 1969 appearance by the Doors at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium is as thick and obscuring as smoke from a magician’s flashpot. Historical revisionists like Oliver Stone, who directed The Doors, a 1991 hagiography of the band, have done their best to turn the late Jim Morrison’s…
Boom Christopher Paige, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist for the Denver-based Society Burning, comes from a musical family; his father has a background as a percussionist. So how does Dad feel about Boom’s band, an industrial trio that eschews a living, breathing timekeeper in favor of a drum machine? “He hates us,” Paige says…
The London Symphony Orchestra Paul McCartney’s Standing Stone (EMI) Our nation’s classical-music critics have gone after this disc like a great white shark at a blood drive, which makes perfect sense: McCartney, who reportedly spent four years completing the piece, cheerfully admits that he can’t read music and acknowledges receiving…
Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, the German duo behind Mouse on Mars, live in a world in which music is king and other matters rarely intrude. So naive were they about marketing that they had to be cajoled by record-company executives into coming up with a name for their…
Of all the fan letters received by Cary Hudson, singer and guitarist for the Oxford, Mississippi, trio Blue Mountain, one towers above the rest–and it’s easy to figure out why. You see, this particular note was written by Jimmy Carter and delivered to the band at an Atlanta bar by…
The first words spoken by Stevie Nicks to the capacity crowd at McNichols Arena on October 29 for the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour were, “Welcome to our party.” But for just an instant, I thought she said, “Welcome to our payday.” It was an easy mistake to make, given how…
It’s 3:30 a.m. in Paris, and Lee “Scratch” Perry is living up to his reputation as one of reggae’s most colorful–and least stable–characters. “My real name is Death Before Dishonor,” he announces in a gruff, wizened voice. “There is nothing I cannot do. That’s the name of my sword: Excalibur…
When artists associated with secular music decide to record a gospel album, it usually means one of two things: Either they are in deep trouble with the IRS, or they have seen the evil of their showbiz ways and want to repent. So when Memphis’s audacious soul-sludge kings, the Oblivians,…
If a visitor wanted to find out about the latest in Colorado hip-hop, he’d have a difficult time learning anything from the most readily accessible sources. Reporters at network-TV affiliates probably wouldn’t do a story on a local rapper unless he had been arrested for a felony. The commercial radio…
Jerry Only, bassist and co-founder of the Misfits, knows all too well that being an influence doesn’t pay the bills. Founded in 1977, Only’s band, which was led by singer Glenn Danzig, inspired a generation of punk and metal musicians during its six years of existence. But the ghoulish group’s…
A few years ago, when rage was all the rage, Mary Timony, singer and guitarist for the Boston-based band Helium, spread breathy layers of female angst over slabs of guitar sludge. But things have changed. While other artists formerly known as angry young women are either donning Versace or becoming…
At one point or another during the first half of the Nineties, virtually every minor band that had a lightweight MTV hit ten years earlier reunited–and for the most part, I didn’t care. Book of Love, Suicidal Tendencies: Sure, I liked them, but it was just as satisfying to sit…
Regular perusers of Westword’s Letters column may have noticed that I occasionally come in for criticism from a percentage of this publication’s readers, each of whom I love and admire in a sincere and personal way. But I’ve never received abuse as eccentric as the kind dished out by Cindy…
Seven years ago this month, Westword published my list of the 100 worst hit songs of the rock era (“The Scum Also Rises,” October 24, 1990). But this countdown to mediocrity, which began with Andy Gibb’s “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” and ended with the unfathomably abysmal Paul Anka anthem…
“We’re not a band for vegetarians, you know,” says Kyle Loving, guitarist and frontman for Denver’s Ray-Ons. “But if you like meat and potatoes, I think you can dig it.” True enough, there are no frills on the Ray-Ons’ menu–just the rocking riffs offered up by Loving, the elastic bass…
Rumors. Without them, there might be a lot of empty space in this column every week. But, as even I have to acknowledge, they’re not always true. Take the chatter surrounding City Spirit, a restaurant and nightspot at 1434 Blake Street that came to life in lower downtown twelve years…
Folks trying to fathom commercial country music in 1997 need to look no further than this summer’s presentation in New York City’s Central Park by singer-songwriter Garth Brooks. The concert, televised live on HBO, drew a leviathan crowd of corn-fed white people; the park probably hasn’t contained so many Caucasians…
Over the fifty years he’s been performing in public, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, 73, has earned seven Grammy nominations and numerous W.C. Handy awards, played alongside pupils such as Eric Clapton, Leon Russell and Ry Cooder, and developed a multi-genre sound that he refers to as “American music, Texas style.” But…
“All harpists do not have long blond hair, and they aren’t tall and willowy and quiet,” declares Boston-based harp virtuoso Deborah Henson-Conant. “Not by a long shot.” Henson-Conant is living proof of this claim. Not only is she a musical innovator, taking the harp where it’s never gone before, but…
Every musician has a story about gigs from hell, but few of these tales can compare with the one told by Michael Rains, bassist and vocalist for Denver’s 1000 RPM. The band was booked to play a back-to-classes bash at the Colorado School of Mines, where 1000 RPM guitarist/ vocalist…
