Ever seen a fat, balding, bearded guy crowd-surfing on a queen-sized mattress? How about kissing random men full on the mouth while plastered in a sweaty polyester jogging suit? No? Then you’ve never seen Les Savy Fav. Over the past nine years, this Brooklyn quartet has hauled post-punk and art…
Richie Hawtin has a grip of gear at his fingertips: turntables, computers, effects processors, drum machines, customized mixers, software programs, keyboards and scratch amps. And ten years into his skanking, cartoon-martian alter ego’s recording career, he’s a certified expert at twiddling every knob. But there is one particular instrument that…
Much will be made of the fact that Iron & Wine’s latest record for Sub Pop, Our Endless Numbered Days, was recorded in a real studio (Chicago’s Engine Studios) with a real producer (Brian Deck, whose credits include Modest Mouse, Lois, the Sea and Cake, among others). But don’t let…
Even dudes into orchestras love the ladies. It’s no wonder that marketing mavens trying to peddle classical music to audiences accustomed to guzzling pop have found success in selling various aspects of femininity, from purity personified (Charlotte Church) to sexuality magnified (ultra-hot violinist Vanessa-Mae and Bond, a U.K. string quartet…
The Misplaced Destruction Upon Us (Self-released) According to punk rock in England in the early ’80s, the world was about to face the Apocalypse. Prodded by the collapse of punk’s chart popularity and the rise of arch-conservative Margaret Thatcher, tons of groups ditched the pop leanings of Sham 69 and…
Roll call at Denver City Council on Monday, April 5. Charlie Brown. Check. Jeanne Faatz, Rick Garcia, Michael Hancock. Check. Doug Linkhart, Kathleen MacKenzie, Judy Montero. Check. Rosemary Rodriguez, Elbra Wedgeworth and the Dalhart Imperials. Check. What the — ? The Dalhart Imperials? Yessir. Among those present and accounted for…
An Albatross Friday, April 16, hi-dive, 720-570-4500. Getting naked and unconscious on stage is as played out as Jim Morrison. And ever since the rise of bands like the Locust and Black Eyes, so is mincing spazz-core and Tourette’s-addled electronics. Why, then, does the music of An Albatross feel as…
Everything’s bigger in Texas, which explains why 1989’s “What I Am,” by Lone Star denizens Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, was played ad nauseam back then and still echoes on radio waves today. But Brickell’s subsequent creative output has been so on and off, you’d think she was attached…
In the early ’70s, when Funkadelic decried gluteal oppression with their smash hit “Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow,” bumpers and grinders the world over realized the unlimited possibilities between mind and body. And behind every subsequent jig lurked a booty-addled alchemist like Dr. Funkenstein in the wings, beaker…
Randall Frazier calls the music of Orbit Service a “soundtrack for a dying world.” But as the band’s frontman and founding member, Frazier isn’t your typical gloomy Gus. When he was a teenage goth, for example, bouncing between psych wards in Eastern Texas and Denver, suffering from auditory hallucinations and…
When Mike Patton first brought Fantmas to life in 1998, the term he used to describe the band’s work was “uneasy listening.” That’s a tremendous understatement when applied to its third and latest album, Delirium Cordia — which consists of one continuous 74-minute piece of music called “Surgical Sound Specimens…
People who think the Smiths’ music sounds depressing are dumb. There’s all kinds of stuff in there: humor, anger, lust, joy — even the occasional jolt of raw power. One can only hope that when the Seattle outfit Aveo gets likened to the Smiths (which it does, incessantly), the analogy…
Three years ago, Usher was joyfully walking arm in arm with his girlfriend, TLC’s Chilli, promoting his third release, 8701, and happily dissing Sisqo on BET’s 106 & Park. Now Sisqo is MIA, and Usher is being called a cheater after his public split with Chilli. Hence what seems to…
The members of Depeche Mode spent years defending their work as real music: Their use of electronic instruments was blasphemous to punk and new-wave artists who couldn’t imagine life without guitars. But by leaping ahead of those who sought to preserve the instrumental status quo, Depeche Mode became one of…
The Reals Majestic (Self-released) The Reals feature Matt and Cheyenne Kowal, a brother/sister-fronted roots-and-country act that, along with other family-tied groups like the Roches or Fiery Furnaces, possesses the kind of telepathic harmony normally bequeathed upon blood kin. Specializing in nakedly honest autobiographical songs, the pair drops a heavyhearted anchor…
James Hetfield is a has-been. A washed-up, second-rate Lemmy. You heard me. And Metallica is the metal equivalent of U2, which time has rendered as obsolete as pager technology. If you’re still buying that shit that Hetfield and company are selling, you’ve been Metallipunk’d. Sure, when I was a fresh-eyed…
The Building Press Thursday, April 8, Climax Lounge, 303-292-5483. Nagging itches, deep bruises, a fibula-cracking cramp in your calf muscle that wakes you up screaming in the middle of the night: Such are the metaphors for the music of the Building Press (right). For the past few years, this Seattle-based…
Punk took a nefarious turn for the bland the day that groups like Green Day laid claim to the moniker. The genre has since been about as exciting as a Boulder compost heap. Luckily for anyone old enough to remember when punk’s Pistols were loaded, the new front of proclaimed…
We’re just walking around looking for a bong hit or something,” says Nicholas Diamonds of the Unicorns. Unicorns. The word brings to mind a myriad of images: cute, cuddly toy horsies for little girls; the noble, doomed creature that didn’t make it onto Noah’s ark; valiant knights and their mystic,…
Although most mainstream rock fans don’t know anything about Dave Kerman, the drummer is a household name in at least a few places. For the passionate international cult that champions Rock in Opposition, a musical movement dedicated to promoting truly progressive sounds, he’s a key figure, thanks to his work…
Three years after releasing its self-titled debut album on Saddle Creek, Now It’s Overhead (with Statistics on Wednesday, April 7, at Rock Island) returns with its stylistically diverse, bleak pop follow-up, Fall Back Open, an ideal companion for a cold, endless winter night or the damp dawn of a summer…
Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka the Neptunes, are nothing if not ambitious. Their production techniques rule pop radio, but they hunger for success that not only crosses genre lines, but obliterates them. Hence, N.E.R.D., in which Williams, Hugo and cohort Shae attempt to reach the rock audience without alienating…
