Bring Us Meat, Thank God for Astronauts’ latest effort, is, to be precise, impressively bland. The album (due for release this Saturday, April 21, at the hi-dive) is a mostly mediocre attempt at cutesy-yet-earnestly-indie pop music, and despite sincere comparisons to acts such as the Shins or even Sunny Day…
Bassist Chris Pearson has been a key component in two strong Denver bands, Jux County and the Czars. Now he’s a member of the Inconsolable, and if his new group’s not yet on the level of these predecessors, it’s on the right road. The liner notes emphasize that “this album…
The Four Level, Stars From Aircraft (Breakbeat Science). Veteran drum-and-bass producer Pieter K and singer/songwriter/psychotherapist Amy Jacob team up to produce a pumped-up, chilled-out full-length. K creates darkly dynamic electronic backdrops for Jacob’s soulful rock tunes, which range from Dido-esque electro-folk to female-fronted Nine Inch Nails aggression. The duo’s mysterious…
U.K. scenesters understand that it’s easier to come up with a new descriptor for a musical subgenre than it is to actually invent a fresh sound. Hence “new rave,” which cleverly combines two tried-and-true handles in a manner that means everything and nothing at exactly the same time. Klaxons members…
Ari Hoenig may be an explosive, heavy-handed madman on a drum kit, but he’s equally at home swinging lightly on a ballad or plunging into the outer extremes of an avant-jazz excursion. Hoenig is one of the more innovative drummers to come along since Joey Baron — hell, the guy…
Say Anything’s …Is a Real Boy is the absolute zenith of MySpace-era pop punk. Deranged and volatile, with psychotically catchy choruses and anthemic chants and million-dollar hooks bursting in every direction, it’s ten pounds of psycho in a five-pound bag. Fueled by Max Bemis’s very public emotional struggles — he’s…
For members of the original hardcore generation, the concept of polite punk is oxymoronic in the extreme — on par with family-friendly heavy metal and hip-hop done the Aaron Carter way. For listeners young enough to be free of historical hangups, however, the stuff offered by Relient K, currently touring…
On his latest effort, Hip-Hop Is Dead, Nas performs an autopsy on rap’s corpse, and the results are ugly: Toothless rap pioneers-turned-crackheads and one-hit wonders who have no sense of history populate hip-hop’s wasteland. By contemplating the demise of an art form that he fell in love with as a…
It’s funny how the most trivial things can get a guy pumped up. For a dude who spends a lot of time in dives, a Thursday night in a country bar seemed like a nice diversion. Driving west down highway 36 toward the newly opened Electric Cowboy (8811 Harlan Street),…
Okay, pretend Nirvana never forced hair bands into early retirement — it can be pretty bleak to think about. But if you listen to the recorded output of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, you might hear something a little different. Not just soloing for the sake of showing off their…
When proto-punk and original-era punk acts were in their prime, I was either too young or too far from the various scenes to catch them in action. As a result, my only chance to see such groups perform has been in reunion formats — and my experiences at such shows…
You’ve already met Zac Pennington. He’s the well-dressed kid behind the counter at the record store; the one with the Modest Mouse good looks who intimidates you with his storehouse of music knowledge. He’s the one standing outside the venue passing out hand-drawn flyers for some multimedia art-rock show he’s…
It was one of those moments when a music fan can feel as if he’s fallen through the looking glass. This morning, I had to dash to my neighborhood King Soopers, in the Ken-Caryl Ranch area, to pick up some orange juice and milk, and as I stepped inside, the…
Shut the hell up. Seriously, Chatty Cathy, clip your freaking string. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the crowd watching the Wheel warm up for Ian Cooke at the hi-dive last week, those words kept rolling across my mind like a Times Square news crawl. Because even as…
Rock historians regard the glory years of the Stooges to be 1969 and 1970, when the proto-punk act released The Stooges and Fun House, their two most influential albums. But according to Ron Asheton, the voluble guitarist for the combo, which is close to intact after coming apart more than…
For a musician to remain relevant two decades into his career is beyond remarkable. Far too many commercially successful artists become a parody of themselves after their second or third releases. Like sonically kindred visionaries the Flaming Lips and the brilliantly eccentric Tom Waits, Mike Patton has kept his cachet…
F. Scott Fitzgerald once declared that there are no second acts in American lives. Had the novelist ever met Will Baumgartner, however, he might not have been so quick to make such an assertion. The Action Figure 8 frontman has successfully battled back from a lengthy crack addiction that caused…
If national elections are the government’s way of dicking you over every four years, Tax Day is its way of making sure you don’t forget who has the biggest dick every single year. The worst part is that while you could spend the rest of the year wondering how your…
The Greyboy Allstars first came together in 1993 for the release of DJ Greyboy’s Freestylin’. Greyboy (aka Andreas Stevens) wanted to have a live band play tracks from the album at his release party, so he assembled a group made up of saxophonist Karl Denson, who had played on the…
Tim Mosley’s megalomania is totally justified. He’s among the most consistently inventive producers of the past decade, and his profile has risen immeasurably thanks to recent hits on which he’s both dial-twister and co-star. However, Shock Value proves he’s a better supporting player than a main attraction — and his…
Don’t be fooled by Amy Winehouse’s boozy-beehive, tabloid-fodder image. This gum-popping Londoner has the talent and substance necessary to back the substantial hype. With vocals that ooze a seductive combination of confidence, innocence and sleaze, Winehouse is a real-life dream girl. While her throwback approach is mightily informed by classic…
Time and AwareNess have been collaborating for years. Though the two MCs are somewhat obscure in Denver, they’ve earned a dedicated following across the country, even counting members of the Anticon collective as fans. On Anti-Smiles, released under the Calm moniker, the pair explores themes of existential uncertainty. Instead of…
