This is the kind of show that almost never comes to our fair city, or any other midsize burg between the coasts. Kraftwerk, a German ensemble co-founded in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, is a legitimate popular-music pioneer, introducing electronic music to the masses with “Autobahn,” which hit…
Shelby Lynne’s career path is as twisted as that of any contemporary performer, and it shows no signs of straightening out anytime soon. She bowed in 1989 with Sunrise, which Epic Records marketed as country. But her inability to color within the genre’s lines caused her to bump from label…
Is it wrong to write such catchy songs from a killer’s perspective? Am I a sick man for finding this so cool? Does this mean I have deeply buried issues? Probably. What can I say, I always wanted to see a band that sounds like a David Byrne-fronted Devo tribute…
Denver’s newest celebrity — Daisy Graves, semi-finalist for the heart of Poison’s Brett Michaels on Rock of Love II, almost fucked her way to the top. Well, if by the top you mean being chosen from a house full of attention-starved, drama-drunk reality-TV contestants as the (most likely) throwaway squeeze…
Sporting one of the greatest names of any band in Denver, Cougar Legs set about blowing minds with their improvisational jazz stylings on April 14. Slide show by Molly Kreck…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Some bands merely play, while others engage in full-scale musical riots. In this review, Monotonix opt for the latter…
Ian Cooke and Laylights Saturday, April 12, 2008 Bluebird Theater Better Than: Any other show I’ve seen from either act Though I was secretly skeptical about this weekend’s big Laylights CD release show, not only were my low expectations completely blown away, but I also came out of the show…
LOCALS ONLY Local hip-hop artists and their fans rarely get to hear their music played on the radio. But in recent years, opportunities for local hip-hop artists to get their music on the air have grown immensely. Local hip-hop artists like Dent, Babah Fly, Catch Lungs, Infinite Minds, Deca and…
Eels Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Fox Theater Better Than: hockey Being an innovative and legendary creative force in the world can place undue stresses on a person. Expected to perform at a certain level, to consistently engage an audience, to rise to greater heights with each utterance, the artist can…
It’s official: Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman, the pair of hooligans known collectively as 3OH!3, are no longer free agents. “We sent the contract in the other day,” Motte confirms. “It’s all said and done. We’re excited.” The act has been snapped up by Photo Finish Records, an offshoot of…
Sometimes it’s hard to look back on your past. With a mixture of shame, sadness and nostalgia, you leaf through your baby pictures, grade-school love letters, high-school yearbook, wedding album and resumé, trying to find the signposts and forks in the road that brought you to your current situation. For…
If brevity is truly the soul of wit, then Eric Earley, the lead vocalist and guitarist for Oregon’s Blitzen Trapper, is the cleverest man on the planet. Earley’s not the slightest bit rude during an extended interview even though he’s stuffed into a Dodge Sprinter van with his bandmates —…
There isn’t much demand for tap dancers these days, so kudos to Omaha’s Tilly and the Wall for employing Jaime Pressnall in place of a traditional percussionist. (She also plays guitar, but unfortunately, not while tapping.) The coed five-piece is the crown jewel of Bright Eyes songwriter Conor Oberst’s independent…
On There’s Nothing Safe, Vendetta Valentine’s latest, the Los Angeles-based trio draws inspiration from George Orwell’s 1984, touching upon topics ranging from Big Brother to the falseness of government. The album, soaked in electro-pop and Pixies hooks, was produced with the help of famed sports talk-show host Jim Rome. We…
Ben Allison, Little Things Run the World (Palmetto). Ben Allison is a brilliant composer, and here he’s cooked up another batch of adventurous originals as well as a reworking of his outstanding cut “Respiration,” which originally appeared on 2004’s Buzz, with guitarist Steve Cardenas and trumpeter Ron Horton. Also stellar…
While listening to a live recording of Widespread Panic at last week’s Widespread Wednesday at Moon Time Bar & Grill (846 Broadway), I noticed a bumpersticker (one of many plastered on the beer coolers behind the bar) that read “Politicians and diapers need to be changed for the same reason.”…
If you’ve been paying attention for the past several years, you know that scores of bands have been cultivating atmospheric pop music with sweeping melodic hooks. While most claim Joy Division as a predecessor, too many are diluted third-rate Radiohead clones. It might seem foolish for Overcasters (due at the…
Nearly a decade ago, tech house emerged to fill an important evolutionary niche in dance music. By straddling the middle ground between the cheesy excesses of progressive house and the somnambulant tendencies of deep house, the new sound quickly became the dominant movement in the scene. Minimal but driving, with…
Literary references abound on Vonnegut’s EP, beginning with the band’s moniker and continuing through songs such as “So It Goes” and “Burn Victim,” which nod, respectively, to a recurring phrase used throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and a subplot concerning the World War II-era blaze that destroyed Dresden, Germany. Yet these…
Kind as Summer’s opening track, “Hanging in the Hollow,” reveals Good Housekeeping’s influence almost immediately — specifically, you’ll hear the lounge end of ’60s French pop, Stereolab and maybe a bit of Broadcast. The album’s gently chiming, resonant guitars are also reminiscent of later-era Cocteau Twins, but with greater warmth…
We expect a lot from our crossover pop stars nowadays, even from a duo as inspired as Gnarls Barkley, aka DJ Danger Mouse, and Cee-Lo Green. We expect guilt-free-yet-radio-worthy earworms like “Crazy,” not to mention genuine pathos, both of which the act somehow managed to deliver on its debut, St…
With the possible exception of the three people who look back fondly on Bruce Willis’s recording career, we’re well acquainted with the eardrum damage that can occur when actors live out their rock-star fantasies. But don’t shy away from She & Him’s debut just because the female half of the…
