Rebecca Folsom has been kicking around the local scene for a decade-plus, and her experience shows throughout Water on Stone. The disc, which she’ll introduce on Friday, May 9, at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, with Rob Drabkin opening, is thoroughly professional and consistently pleasant. It could have been more, though, given…
Dan Craig found time between commitments to medical school and indie-pop juggernauts Hearts of Palm to realize his third full-length album (due to be unveiled at the Oriental Theater this Friday, May 9). Craig makes mellow, innocuous acoustic music that moms just love, with nods to other sweet, sensitive types…
Narrow Stairs sounds just like Plans, right down to the obvious production, weepy lyrics and inoffensive guitar, continuing Death Cab’s tradition of aping Morrissey lyrics without Moz’s counterintuitive turns of phrase or dark jokes. Songs like “Long Division” seem the product of some sort of indie-rock nerd-crafted lyric generator: “And…
Back in 1997, when Portishead’s self-titled second album arrived, the group’s sound was routinely described as trip-hop. Eleven years later, that term is as dead as Fatty Arbuckle, but Portishead is alive again, and more captivatingly obtuse than ever. “I never had the chance/To explain exactly what I meant,” lead…
“Oh Canada,” a song from Anything for Flowers, the new CD by Kathleen Edwards (joined live by the Last Town Chorus), won’t be mistaken for the national anthem of the singer-songwriter’s native country. The track is a gritty attack on a society whose media shifts into overdrive when a white…
If the Art Institute of Colorado is looking for a house band, it might want to think about doing some recruiting at the Bluebird this Friday. As art rock as art rock gets, Murder by Death has often been compared to Johnny Cash and Tom Waits. Really, though, the act…
Rolling Stone recently reduced New Zealand-based singer-songwriter Liam Finn to a simple formula: He equals Elliott Smith minus the despair plus a leprechaun. The Smith thing might have some validity, and Finn does have a beard, but there’s a whole lot more to the guy. The son of Neil Finn,…
The growing number of television series that employ mid-tempo rock songs and plaintive ballads to pump up the emotion in major scenes has resulted in a proliferation of bands eager to provide the same — and San Diego’s Augustana, which appears on this date with Wild Sweet Orange, couldn’t be…
With a name adopted from a character out of the movie Barbarella, Duran Duran is often dismissed as a disposable pop band from the ’80s — and with its slick, ridiculous videos featuring half-dressed exotic women and phallic imagery, it’s easy to understand why. Since that era, the act has…
We’re knee-deep into Depression 2.0. We’re running out of jobs, and we’re overwhelmed with the amount of people looking for them. You’re unemployed — or if you aren’t, then there’s a good chance that you will be, because your job can be combined with the guy in accounting and the…
Before Margaret Cho arrived in town for the May 3 performance of her one-woman show, Beautiful, her manager contacted once-and-future masseuse Mike Jones, who’s back in Denver after putting his one-man play, Naked B4 God: Exposing the Hypocrisy of Ted Haggard, on hiatus. Cho wanted to meet Jones, the manager…
Photo by Stephanie Berger from laurieanderson.com Before Laurie Anderson came to perform at the Boulder Theatre last month, she chatted at length with Michael Roberts about her new project, Homeland. But as it turns out, she was about to make a change in her own homeland’s status, by marrying long-time…
“Hey, you guys like magic?” It was Saturday night, and I was standing outside Scruffy Murphy’s, 2030 Larimer Street, with Chris Shelby, Dave Lamoth, Braden Rauen and Andy McQueen of sixtysixdays, a local Irish-rebel-music band taking a smoke break before starting their first set of the evening. We were catching…
Fresh off of an overheated performance at Coachella launching its latest tour, DeVotchKa continues to garner great national exposure. Next Friday, May 16, NPR will be broadcasting the act’s Washington DC show at 9:30 Club live for its All Songs Considered program. Then, three nights later, the eve before its…
In a recent Playlist review, I complained about the frequency with which music-scene observers equated the Nine Inch Nails set Ghosts I-IV with Radiohead’s In Rainbows during discussions about major artists releasing material for free or at radically reduced rates online — my point being that Ghosts constitutes a series…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Learn the history of Seattle music as seen by John Roderick of The Long Winters in a special two-for-one show of love, because I somehow missed part one last week. Here are the…
So, the one and only Metropolitan Tom Waits, once a mainstay around these parts, has announced his summer tour plans. Guess what… no Denver date!! Two freaking shows in Phoenix (two!!), and he’s even making his way to St. Louis, but nothing for us?! Waits explains the glaring oversight routing,…
Instead of a rundown, I simply give you a list of the amazing stuff we heard and saw this weekend: Cut Copy and Black Kids @ Larimer Lounge; Kool Keith, ManeLine and the Americans @ the Oriental Theater; Destroyer and Josh Queen @ the Walnut Room, Bad Weather California, Velella…
Click here for more photos by Brian Folkins. The Hollyfelds and Three Miles West Friday, May 2, 2008 The Walnut Room The Hollyfelds are a country band – a fact that co-lead singer Eryn Hoerig made sure to point out. Although this was pretty obvious after the band’s first song,…
Cut Copy and Black Kids Saturday, May 3, 2008 Larimer Lounge Better Than: Seeing New Order. A lot better. It’s a rare thing to see a tour bus parked in front of Larimer Lounge. Vans with trailers are a lot more common. They don’t hand out buses to just any…
Kool Keith, ManeLine and the Americans Saturday, May 3 2008 The Oriental Theater Better than: Trying to get a cab home from the Oriental Theater. How often do you imagine meeting someone famous? Do you wonder if they’ll be nice, or a complete jackass? Likewise what about a band or…
Destroyer and Josh Queen Saturday, May 3, 2008 The Walnut Room Friday night’s gig at the Walnut Room marked a bit of an anniversary for opener Josh Queen. His first Denver show after moving here from North Carolina a year ago was at this intimate club. Armed with just a…
