Like invaders from the North Country, Greeley’s Lil Slugger is something of a shockingly unexpected surprise — but in a good way. Rather than, say, looting, raping or setting things on fire, this ferocious foursome adds credence to the notion that some of the most compelling music comes from people…
At last, chiptunes have arrived to give even techno snobs something to point at as being “too electronic-sounding.” Fashioned out of the raw, bracing sound of ancient game machines and obsolete computer circuits bent into music machines, chiptunes are both nostalgic and forward-looking. They fuse the sound of childhood’s sugar-fueled…
Crossover quintet Sworn Enemy came out of New York’s hardcore scene about ten years ago. Its early material was, at best, a pale shadow of Agnostic Front’s worst. With nothing to lose, the band switched from NYHC to thrash on 2006’s The Beginning of the End. And it worked: Trading…
Eschewing convention, this Torontonian electro outfit — with a name only a motherfucker could love — doesn’t use computers to create its hallucinatory soundscape. Compelled by an aesthetic defined as “find something in the trash and plug it in,” founding members Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh create their effects using…
By titling their 2003 debut full-length The Decline of British Sea Power, Scott Wilkinson and his shipmates seemed determined to lower expectations. In contrast, the moniker affixed to the outfit’s latest album — Do You Like Rock Music?, recently issued on the Rough Trade imprint — is practically a dare,…
Although the willowy Ms. U, on tour with Keith Urban, may have been the most generic American Idol winner to date, she’s used this indistinctiveness to her advantage. Underwood initially came across as a blandly pretty warbler with no neck and zero stage presence; she moved her arms stiffly in…
In an era when countless bands were emulating successful formulas from years past, the Dismemberment Plan was a refreshing departure: It wasn’t a punk band, yet it played with the furious intensity of one. And it wasn’t a funk or jazz act, but its rhythmic sophistication hinted at such influences…
At the end of January, when I first glanced at the tentative list of acts chosen to perform at this year’s South by Southwest festival, I did a double take. The lineup looked like a holdover from the first Bush administration, the days when gas was still under two bucks…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Video games are so the new rock and roll, which makes this Battle of Rock Band tournament, in which players competed at the game Rock Band, the new Ed Sullivan Show. Or something…
Saturday, March 1 saw the CD release party of Astrophagus at Hi-Dive. There was rock, blood and roller derby girls and all was good, as you can see and read in this slide show review…
Oblio Duo and the Archers, Monofog, Bad Luck City Friday, February 29, 2008 3 Kings Tavern Better than: Almost anything else you can get for five dollars Anticipation and delayed gratification aren’t that common in the Denver music scene. The talented bands that play around town are so eager to…
Locals Only DJ Low Key is doing big things in Denver right now. The last year was a big one for the Basementalism Radio Show alum and 2008 is looking to be just as big. He ended 2007 having his mixtape Median’s Relief in the Making (hosted by 9th Wonder)…
Beach House Devotion Carpark 03:10-03:55 of “Wedding Bell” This is so mellow. I should be in a calm and relaxed place — too bad this is apparently a duo of folks that can “play” so many instruments that the muddled sound of quiet relaxation turns into this slightly off-putting mesh…
Back in the ’90s, there was an In Living Colour sketch about a Jamaican family of workaholics who each held down at least a dozen jobs. Priding themselves on their insatiable work ethic, they’d chide the notably less ambitious for their laziness. “You only have one job,” they’d sneer incredulously…
Sit in a room with the members of Astrophagus and you will hear the most amazing mix of sound thinking and absurd fancy, of profound wisdom and ridiculous nonsense, that most humans will ever experience. Informed discussion of the recent presidential caucus is punctuated by random jokes about sweaters and…
Since Boulder is a college town, you’d think there would be more places to dance as well as drink, says Will Coleman. And with his latest venture, the two-level Elixir lounge at 1915 South Broadway, Coleman’s given the town just that. “Downstairs is really the hottest dance environment in Boulder,”…
Folks might remember Aaron Betcher and Chad Peterson from their long-running band O’er the Ramparts, a confounding project that seemed to be going in several directions at once. But as scattershot as the music was, there were moments of artistic clarity, and they’ve resurfaced in the pair’s new project, the…
It’s fitting that Dean Coleman was discovered by Deep Dish, since his sound is a natural evolution of that duo’s deep and funky take on progressive house. Coleman’s tracks and mixes incorporate sounds and influences from electro-house, techno and even pop. Since his bootleg remix of Narcotic Thrust’s “Safe From…
Love him or hate him, with six Grammys to his name and having sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide, Billy Joel has a pedigree that’s impossible to ignore. Although he’s known primarily for crafting shamelessly catchy pop melodies with an ear for the British Invasion and a fondness for…
Thoreau said that most men lead lives of quiet desperation, going to the grave with the song still in them. It’s obvious that he never met anyone like Guy Clark, a troubadour who’s been penning odes of quiet desperation for more than thirty years and shows absolutely no signs of…
While Gil Mantera’s Party Dream makes more-or-less sincere and angst-filled electro-emo, you’d never guess it from the duo’s live shows. On stage, the brothers from Youngstown, Ohio, dance, prance and make general asses of themselves with giddy, homoerotic abandon and total disregard for any hangups the audience might have. Gil…
It’s a safe bet that all ambient instrumental rock after the turn of the century will inevitably be compared to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós. Even compelling acts such as This Will Destroy You will be subjected to such lazy comparisons. In this case, the association isn’t completely…
