The way indie rockers and other terminal hipsters disparage commercial radio and major-label recordings, one would think that nothing popular could possibly be good. So while the indie-rock types trade in obscurities and maudlin guitar introspection, those who have learned to take their pontifications with a grain of salt are…
Let’s Get Free marks a welcome return to the days when rap articulated a political consciousness, as Dead Prez members SticMan and M1 spit a vision “somewhere in between and N.W.A.” Like those groups, the Brooklyn-based duo is on a serious black community empowerment tip. And also like them, the…
Someone recently swore to Backwash that Aurora is the single worst place to live — in Colorado or anywhere. Though the conclusion wasn’t based on the sort of quality-of-life research that informs Forbes and other publications that regularly make such decrees, it seemed an authoritative one: The fella hailed originally…
North Mississippi Allstars, scheduled for three area gigs this week (a free in-store appearance 4 p.m. Thursday, July 20, at Twist & Shout, plus full-sized shows July 20 at the Gothic Theatre and Friday, July 21, at the Fox Theatre), are a different kind of second-generation band; key members Luther…
Abdomen, née Abdomen of Hypnosis, gears up for the 150th time on Friday, July 21, at the 15th Street Tavern, sharing plugs and sockets with the Geds and Jet Black Joy. Abdomen has dropped a couple of words from its name — as well as a musician or two (or…
People dont flock to Colorado because its a fashion mecca filled with eccentric designers and leggy models, but local designer Frog Greishaw is hoping that someday they will. Her five-year-old company, House of Frog, will present an avant-garde fashion show at the Boulder Theater on July 20 at 9 p.m…
One afternoon, Brian Transeau received a phone call that would forever change his life and, without exaggeration, the nature of dance music all over the world. “I was making records out of my bedroom in Maryland, never having heard English club music, and came up with IMA,” he remembers. “Some…
Contrary to popular belief, there are still a handful of jazz musicians with recording contracts who enjoy taking chances. But most of the acts that fit this description, including Other Dimensions in Music, Test, the Matt Wilson Quartet and local hero Hugh Ragin, are indie-imprint signees forced to toil in…
Gladhand has spawned an offspring. Anyone familiar with Denver’s compelling avant-garde musical misfits — whose live act involved everything from vomiting dancers to flaming baby-doll heads — may find this thought slightly unnerving; visions of a mutant cross-pollination of Cirque du Soleil and a resurrected G.G. Allin spring to mind…
What is it about the Beach Boys that makes them so damn appealing to alt-country acts looking to go mainstream? First Wilco shed its steel guitar for sunny vibraphone melodies on Summer Teeth; now the Jayhawks have a determinedly chipper album called Smile. If you don’t make the Beach Boys…
Wit doesn’t turn up that often in classical or experimental music, perhaps because composers fear (often with good reason) that the presence of humor will cause observers to take the music less than seriously. But Cloidt, a composer and engineer based in Oakland, California, doesn’t suffer from that particular brand…
On a recent lovely July evening at Red Rocks Amphitheatre — on which the moonlight hit the rocks in such a way that even the clouds appeared to share the ruddy properties of the Flinstonian architecture — you could hear the wind rustling the trees. The occasional bird chirping. And…
The Big Tymers with the Cash Money Millionaires (Juvenile, Lil Wayne, Turk, B.G.), Thursday, July 13, at the Paramount Theatre, are the latest group to emerge from the Cash Money Records franchise in Louisiana — an imprint that sold more than nine million records last year. Featuring in-house label producer…
Cherry Bomb Club, Thursday, July 13, at Seven South, boasts a membership more exclusive than that of the Denver Country Club. A project begun by Divineshaker (aka Dave Moore) of Foreskin 500 and Legendary (aka King Scratchie of the infamous Warlock Pinchers), the clubs roster now includes local blues goddess…
Andy Warhol said that everyone is famous for a fifteen minutes. Organizers of the Warhol Party 2, Tuesday, July 18, at the Foundry in Boulder, dont think thats quite long enough: People who attend their event, an offbeat fundraiser for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, can spend the entire…
When the String Cheese Incident began six years ago in Telluride, it was a band with a plan. “From the very beginning,” says SCI bassist Keith Moseley, “we’ve looked at this as a long-term project, something we wanted to be doing ten or fifteen years down the road. And we…
On the surface, the lineup of the Spitkickers Tour — De La Soul, Common, Pharoahe Monch and Talib Kweli, with Biz Markie thrown in for comic relief — seems like the yin to the yang of this summer’s Dr. Dre/Eminem/Snoop Dogg hip-hop extravaganza, with the former representing a forward-looking alternative…
The mythical Phoenix flapped its wings so hard it finally burst into flames. Singing a melodious dirge, this ridiculously flighty creature ended up burning to death — snap, crackle, pop — before rising up from its ashes happy as a lark. Renewed. Triumphant. Like Jesus with feathers. As tough an…
In the film Clueless, Cher Horowitz, played by Alicia Silverstone, dismisses the music loved by Josh (Paul Rudd), her stepbrother/love interest, as (I’m paraphrasing here) the sort of depressing dreck only overly sensitive collegiates could stand — and although she didn’t mention the Mendoza Line by name, it was probably…
What could possibly be better than sitting around the family hearth with a crackling fire and the Good Book, snatching deep and meaningful glances over Deuteronomy with uber-Christian Amy Grant? Maybe the little vixen just darned your socks or polished your Sunday snakeskins. Or fetched you a hot mug of…
Whether it’s the result of a karmic quirk or of nostalgic indulgence on the part of rock fans, there’s no denying that Astbury’s career suddenly and almost inexplicably has more legs than a Catholic girls’ school. A founding member of the Cult, a group whose blend of old-school swagger and…
