With Labor Day upon us, we thought we’d pay tribute to America’s celebration of the working man by recognizing the worst jobs in rock. There are few gigs shittier than these. Guns N’ Roses management June saw the release of nine allegedly mastered tracks from Guns N’ Roses’ mythical Chinese…
Vocalists get the prima donna’s share of attention in most groups. But according to Evan Mast, who represents half of the Brooklyn-based instrumental duo Ratatat, their presence can put a damper on creativity. “As a band, Ratatat can get away with doing a whole spectrum of styles,” he points out…
Peter Bradley Adams, Leavetaking (Sarathan Records). Peter Bradley Adams’s second solo effort finds the former Eastmountainsouth frontman surveying familiar downbeat territory while taking an introspective turn, telling stories of people and places dear to him. The result is a rougher, more original sound. — David DeVoe Clutch, Full Fathom Five…
When I first started getting into jazz almost two decades ago, I listened repeatedly to Chet. It’s a gorgeous Chet Baker album comprising mostly ballads, ideal for a late-night seduction. At the same time, I was frequenting a jazz club in Santa Barbara that featured Nate Birkey, a trumpeter heavily…
Sometimes the most brilliant musical minds come in the most unassuming packages. This is certainly the case with Tom Metz. His project, Iuengliss, is a one-man affair that consists of Metz and his laptop. While this setup might seem boring in the live setting, Metz takes on an intense yet…
King Britt’s musical resume is long and varied. He rose to prominence as the DJ for the ultra-cool, jazz-inflected hip-hop act Digable Planets. These days, he’s known as a master remixer and startlingly original DJ who can fuse everything from Philly soul to broken beats into silky smooth, sensual, swinging…
For a band that performs live music with such fun-loving, reckless abandon, teamAWESOME! always seems to put out well-recorded, tightly played albums. At the same time, the act manages to preserve the sense of playfulness and fun that accompanies its shows — and Burnt Siena is no exception. Chuck Potashner…
Bands with designs on commercial success often remove anything resembling a personality from their work in an attempt to broaden their appeal. So credit Fiancé with coming up with material that’s extremely accessible without succumbing to blandness. “Pretty Model Hands,” a highlight from this EP, is built upon the sort…
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, released in 1981 (and recently reissued), was an attempt by David Byrne and Brian Eno to forge new territory via found sounds, samples and assorted Africanisms that foreshadowed a good many musical trends. In contrast, Everything That Happens represents a retrenchment, albeit an…
“Me and my friends are like the drums on ‘Lust for Life,'” sings Craig Finn, opening Stay Positive with what is almost certainly the perfect rock-and-roll analogy. Not only is it a cool literary device, but it captures the essence of the Hold Steady, marrying classicism with punk ethos and…
When he was just sixteen, flautist Orlando “Maraca” Valle joined Irakere, a supergroup founded by Chucho Valdés that has featured some of Cuba’s finest musicians over the past three decades. After six years of playing flute and keyboards and arranging for the group, Valle began his solo career and has…
This Long Island quartet extracts order from chaos perhaps more than any other band in extreme metal today. With its harsh guitar crunch and heavy drum thunder, Car Bomb sounds like something akin to a bunch of helicopters crashing in succession, complete with explosions and blades spinning all over the…
During the Wu-Tang Clan’s prime, most of the group’s members enjoyed successful solo outings. But times have changed since then, mostly for the worse: Ol’ Dirty Bastard is dead, Method Man and Raekwon are no longer the draws they once were, and recent discs by the RZA and Inspectah Deck…
Jam bands playing Boulder are a dime a dozen. But once in a while, a group comes into town whose imaginative compositions are rich enough to burst the bounds of self-indulgent musicianship. Taking worldbeat to its logical conclusion, Global Noize combines elements of jazz, rock and funk in a way…
Most electronic music makers fall into one of two broad categories: They’re either interested in making art or making people dance. However, San Francisco’s Tussle, appearing with Pictureplane and Analog Space DJs, frequently straddles these classifications. “Transparent C,” a key track from Cream Cuts, the group’s latest disc for the…
This photo just popped into my e-mail box from my dude Chris Gray at our sister paper in Houston. Matt Sonzala, the man behind the Houston So Real blog, snapped this pic of Bun B from UGK straight flossin’ at Pepsi Center and sent it to Chris this afternoon. Now…
The Rock the Vote Denver 2008 show slated to take place this Friday afternoon at Sculpture Park has reportedly been moved to the Denver skate park. No word on why the show has been relocated, but were tipped off to the switch from one of the bands on the local-centric,…
I didn’t Google-map the location of the MySpace-sponsored Nelly show on Monday night. I had a general idea of where I was going, but no actual concrete directions, which made it difficult, since finding this venue — the sprawling Mile High Station — is pretty much impossible. I drove around…
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE @ DENVER COLISEUM | 8/27/08 Live blog: 11:10 a.m. Wednesday, August 27, 2008: It’s just after 11 a.m., and things are just getting underway at the Denver Coliseum. State Radio just took the stage and is in the midst of playing an energetic set in front…
Photo by Eric Syl Gruneisen Willie Nelson & Family with Jerry Jeff Walker and Jakob Dylan Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Red Rocks Amphitheater Better Than: Sitting inside watching the Hillary Clinton speech. It was a gorgeous night at Red Rocks when Jakob Dylan and his three band members took the…
“Don’t you think there should be some sort of law where you can’t have nuclear bombs unless you can pronounce ‘nuclear’?” said David Crosby.
Today started out like any other day: 6 a.m. coffee, a couple of smokes, some news and left overs from the night before. I turned on the TV and flipped to MSNBC, because that was the one big news network that I happened to see setting up Sunday afternoon by…
