In the rap world, Long Beach, California, carries with it a certain stylistic connotation. When most hip-hop fans think of the town on Los Angeles’s southern edge, they think of hard-edged rappers laying down rhymes about gangster life set to that classic laid-back G-Funk sound. Not surprisingly, the all-white rap…
As anyone who’s ever suffered through a band audition can confirm, good musical help is hard to find. Players who are tolerable in confined spaces like tour vans and recording studios are scarce enough, never mind details like the compatibility of musical visions and styles. Of course, if you are…
Listened to at low volume, with attention focused on sounds — not words — Natural Selection makes what sounds almost like normal music. Permanent Teeth, its debut recording, abounds with airtight, verse-chorus-verse melodies that fit the pop-song formula with airtight precision. But listen more closely. Amid the electric, acoustic and…
Denver may not have all the urban accoutrements of the cultural meccas on the West and East coasts, but it does appear to be cultivating a substantial DJ-per-capita ratio; viewed from the sky, you can see them huddling in little flocks, turntables in one hand, headphones in the other, gathering…
The Causey Way is not a cult. Or so says this five-piece (give or take) from Gainsville, Florida. You can decide for yourself on Tuesday, January 30, at the 15th Street Tavern, when the band hits Denver to spread its “good word,” all in the name of converting wayward souls…
Denver-based trio Pure Drama takes center stage with the release of a second full-length album, On the Surface, to be celebrated with a multimedia fete on Friday, January 26, at Rock Island. The album’s twelve tracks work toward conveying emotion and energy through the often-dreamy beats and lyrics. Pure Drama…
Morgan Lander, lead singer/ shrieker for the metal act dubbed Kittie, calls it “Feline Association Disease” — the inability of journalists to write about her band without making endless, and endlessly banal, references to its name, thereby relegating Lander and her fellow daughters of destruction (guitarist/vocalist Fallon Bowman, bassist Talena…
Some musicians consider the stage a bully pulpit for pounding ideas into people’s minds. Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine are two groups who’ve often used their stage time to rail against the evils of capitalism and the corporate structure — while reaping the benefits of both. But, while…
Xzibit’s highly anticipated third album, a messy stew of multiple producers and room-crowding guests, neatly sums up both the pleasures and the limitations of today’s chart-topping hip-pop. Trouble is, though this Angeleno (by way of Detroit) hangs with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem (fellow travelers on this year’s biggest…
Whittle them down to their respective marrows, and the meaningful difference between shlock country and the alt stuff becomes clear: intellect. Done right, killer country fuses smarts with C&W’s all-American charm for a deeply rooted music that tickles the senses instead of insulting them. That hard-to-forge alchemy is in full…
Before it opened its doors as a concert venue in 1994 under the direction of a then-newish local promotional company called nobody in particular presents, the Bluebird Theater was empty, old and mildew-ridden. But back in the day, this space on East Colfax enjoyed an existence as a movie theater…
DJs Eric Morillo and “Little” Louis Vega (right) are hitting the turntables at Vinyl on Thursday, January 18 — and bringing a taste of deep and funky house to the Mile High City. Part of a much-needed renovation of the Broadway club’s talent lineup, the two Manhattan mix meisters’ Denver…
When they first got together roughly two years ago, Denver’s Breezy Porticos, with Kudzu Towers and Hyacinth, Saturday, January 20, at the Lion’s Lair, were already courting supergroup status. The trio’s foundation includes former Cavity drummer Eric Van Leuven and guitarist Andy Falconetti, formerly of the blissfully garagey local staple,…
More than thirty years ago, when he discovered the traditional route to success in America was more like a dead end, U. Utah Phillips set out on new path. With a guitar in his hand and a batch of folk songs and stories in his head, he carved himself a…
There’s really no such thing as a dinner mint,” says Peter Carnovale, drummer of the Denver band the Dinnermints. “There’s an after-dinner mint. What we’re saying is you can have your mint for dinner. Skip the after-dinner mint and just go straight to the dinner mint.” As aficionados of sugar-frosted…
A run for the money: The combination of white powder and loud music has long been a recipe for a good time — probably ever since the discovery that chewing coca leaves really enhanced the, um, spiritual feeling of the tribal drum circle. Although there’s little shortage of powder-induced fun…
JAAAAAMESBROWNNNNNNNN! Still superbad at 67, Papa can say it loud: “I’m old and I’m proud!” You dig? Don’t matter if he’s leadin’ the Famous Flames or just a high-speed chase across state lines: Soul Brother Number One be keepin’ it all explosive — like a…like a…pyrotechnical pompadour. Owww! Smokin’! So…
Eric Shiveley and the Shive-Tones, Saturday, January 13, at Herman’s Hideaway, with Rocket Ajax and Carolyn’s Mother, are riding a crest that mirrors the title of their debut CD, released last year. Everything Is Good has managed to entice both local audiences and critics, a semi-rare feat for a relatively…
Club Onyx gets Denver’s groove going with Hip-Hop Night, happening every Saturday starting at 9 p.m. DJ Tony V (left), from KS107.5, and DJ Javio are in control of the music, mixing the best hip-hop for the very hip and hopping crowd. Bring all your lady friends, because there’s no…
It’s a cold Saturday night in Arvada, the kind of frosty evening that keeps all but the most die-hard live music fans at home. But inside Mr. B’s Roadhouse — a neighborhood temple of sports, rock and roll and drinking culture — a handful of music patrons and barflies have…
Eras, like individual artists, often get typecast. For instance, ask most fans of real country music (as differentiated from the vacuum-sealed, pre-processed kind) what they think of the acts that came out of the genre circa the late ’80s and early ’90s and you’re apt to hear moans of displeasure,…
It’s gotten pretty easy to slide by as a half-assed punk-rocker. Throw down some thickly distorted guitars and lazily attack the usual institutions of government, religion and business, and a ready-made audience pops up, eagerly waiting for the chance to join in the song. There just isn’t much impetus for…
