Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (Geffen). Judging by the way Cole is marketed, the You in her sophomore CD’s title is Mary J. Blige. But if her vocalizing isn’t always as distinctive as it could be, she’s got a knack for soulful, take-no-crap dramas such as “Shoulda Let You Go”…
Last New Year’s Eve, Charles Trujillo and Paul Piciocchi opened the sleek and sexy Sutra Room at 1109 Lincoln Street, and soon followed it up with Left on Lincoln, which took over the front portion of the building as well as the patio. They were essentially separate clubs under the…
On stage, Weird Turn Prose resembles the average post-slacker-phase indie-rock band. The players look relatively clean-cut, despite their informal style. They also seem to have taken the time to actually learn how to play their instruments — so well, in fact, that there isn’t a poorly executed moment. While it’s…
There’s one thing that all the best DJs have in common, an ineffable quality that’s completely subjective yet somehow universal: good taste. And no one has better taste than DJ Sasha, which has made him one of the world’s premier superstar DJs for almost a decade. Sasha (due at Vinyl…
It’s lucky for Kid Rock that he’s an egomaniacal dipshit, because otherwise his music would be about as memorable as a Molly Hatchet eight-track sans “Flirting With Disaster.” Still, the former Mr. Pamela Anderson’s good-humored salutes to his own cocksmanship, not to mention his skill at Xeroxing classic boogie, can’t…
The genesis of Mac Lethal’s new album reads like a classic struggle between art and commerce. After years of annihilating the competition at Scribble Jam, the Kansas City MC signed to Rhymesayers in 2005. His mother had died the previous year, and he turned in an album full of poignant,…
The Pornstarrs are MC J-Von the JiggaL.O.W. and producer Chili Fantastic, who are both known primarily for their production and remixing skills. D.O.P.E., the duo’s latest, is a collection of pre-Pornstarrs work — or, more specifically, that of Zero Hour, J-Von’s previous outfit, and subsequent projects that came about after…
Gear Fab Records’ Roger Maglio, who recently relocated to Littleton from Orlando, Florida, specializes in reissuing obscurities from the ’60s and ’70s — and the majority of tunes on Psychedelic States, a two-CD set that’s part of a U.S.-spanning series, more than qualify. Even local-music experts are unlikely to know…
What is it about these indie folksters using pseudonyms? Samuel Beam goes by Iron and Wine, and Will Oldham has recorded under Bonnie “Prince” Billy and various Palace monikers. Then there’s Matthew Houck, who’s been recording and performing as Phosphorescent for the past seven years. Fittingly enough, Houck’s latest effort,…
The music of Black Moth Super Rainbow seems custom-fitted for a Sofia Coppola film. It has that daydreamy, otherworldly sound favored by acts like Air and Broadcast, with low-end buoyancy propelling sparkly, soaring waves of sound — sort of like Stereolab without the political agenda and driving, droney guitars. And…
Paolo Nutini’s star has risen so fast in the last year that you almost have to wonder who the kid has on the payroll. Even if Atlantic Records thinks it’s found the Scottish James Blunt, Nutini doesn’t need much more than a piano or an acoustic guitar to turn the…
Back in the mid-’90s, when Earlimart opened for business, the Los Angeles band, which is currently touring with Office, specialized in the usual punk-rock products. Since then, the merchandise has undergone substantial changes: The group’s membership is down to two, Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray, and while the tracks that…
At this year’s Warped Tour, a gaggle of fourteen-year-olds engaged in a passionate debate about Tiger Army that went something like this: One side said, “Tiger Army rocks!” and their opponents countered with, “Tiger Army sucks!” Truth is, both groups have a point. The combo, which shares this bill with…
IO Echo, Kenna, She Wants Revenge October 11, 2007 Gothic Theatre Better than: Wearing out your vinyl copy of Floodland. Upon arriving at the Gothic for last night’s She Wants Revenge show, the first thing that struck me was the diversity of the crowd. There were dolled-up big-hair girls, hippie…
Anders Trentemøller October 10, 2007 Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom Better than: Another by-the-numbers DJ set. After a fine, extended set by DJ Ivy that dwelt in deep house territory and skirted the techno and progressive neighborhoods, there was a brief pause, a chance to catch your breath and prepare for the…
Eric Shiveley just took a shot at me. “These look like a couple of music critics,” he said, looking into the camera, holding a Luke Skywalker action figure in one hand and a big, colorful, plastic coffee-mug toy of some sort in the other. “They’re the journalistic equivalent of the…
On the cover and liner of II, the latest CD by Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, singer Dallas Taylor and the rest of his bandmates portray members of the infamous “Ma” Barker gang of the 1920s and 1930s, just as they did on the Southern metalcore band’s 2005 debut…
Jose Gonzalez’s sophomore full-length album, In Our Nature, sounds like a live concert held in a run-down room in an old clapboard hotel on the outskirts of a tiny plains town along a long-forgotten highway. The folk-bent singer-songwriter glides through a collection of songs with his acoustic guitar and voice,…
Chemistry is key when it comes to being in a band. For the guys in White Rabbits, it’s everything. Since moving to New York from Columbia, Missouri, two years ago, all six members have lived together in a loft that doubles as their rehearsal space. Kindred spirits, the guys all…
It’s fitting that McRad sounds like a skateboard trick. The act has been featured on several skateboard videos, and mastermind Chuck Treece had more than a few sponsorship deals as a pro. McRad’s new album, FDR, is the group’s first since 1987; the upcoming split with Denver’s Frontside Five will…
Purchasing a Rascal Flatts CD is like going to Cold Stone and ordering a vanilla waffle cone. There are so many flavors of country music that it seems a shame to settle for the blandest of all the varieties. Still Feels Good, the trio’s fifth studio album, is a boring…
The music on 2006’s Everything All the Time, Band of Horses’ breakthrough CD, could serve as the soundtrack for the originality-vs.-inspiration debate. There was nothing novel about the disc, with most ditties overtly recalling assorted expressionistic, guitar-driven predecessors. Yet the tunes were so passionately performed that they frequently made freshness…
