Most working musicians have, at one point or another, fantasized about the day when they sign the dotted line of a recording contract and promptly get on with the business of becoming international superstars. Yet those involved in the world of underground electronic dance music are more likely to view…
Believe you me, I understand full well why folks have been raving about this disc: With much of what passes for heavy music these days being so relentlessly stoopid, it’s bracing to discover a long-player that mates big guitar noise with words that are actually about something. But anyone who…
As disciples of meditation and chanting throughout the ages have known, there is a form of change revealed in repetition. So if the modern-day breakbeat is another incarnation of this trance-inducing tradition, then the DJ must be the master who brings balance to the force. Attracting diverse collaborators such as…
The jazz musician who doesn’t improvise is the chef who doesn’t cook, the writer who lays down his pen, the ballplayer on the bench. Nonetheless, the famously quirky (and infamously temperamental) jazz pianist Keith Jarrett has decided to go straight in his new solo CD, The Melody at Night, With…
Like a Mexican wrestler bouncing Ricky Martin’s overexposed face off the pop-cultural turnbuckle, this siren (and sometimes ambulatory) call of Latin speed metal is one bruisin’ dose, hombre, a full throttle mosh-fiesta of punk, funk, ska, hardcore and plenty of good Chicano snarl. Sung entirely in Spanish, Éxitos is a…
Overheard on the sidewalk outside of the Cosmo Lounge last Thursday during the early portion of a night dubbed “The Pimp & Ho Ball”: “Dude, this place blows.” Truly, the young man who made that comment just might not have been down with the LoDo club’s theme last Thursday evening…
Gang Starr, Wednesday, November 24, at the Denver Coliseum with Rage Against the Machine, has masterfully honed its jazz-leaning hip-hop during the ten years of its career. Led by Guru (for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal) and DJ Premier, the formidable duo proves that rap and jazz can be fused into…
Colemesis, Friday, November 19, at the Bluebird Theater with Moore, Drudgery and Dope, is not a band name most people in the area are yet familiar with. And attempting to learn something about them can prove a difficult task, but not because their brand of Latin-flavored heavy metal has gone…
The members of New Orleans’s Southern atomic sludge lords, Sour Vein, have just about all the ammunition they need to become extreme-rock superstars in the next millennium. For beginners, they boast an impressive pedigree: Guitarist Liz13 once served as ax-woman for defunct doomsters 13; while vocalist T-Roy hails from the…
As career moves go, Bryan Ferry’s new disc is as quizzical as they come. After all, 1994’s Mamouna, his last album, didn’t set sales charts aflame, and in the five years since then, his extremely limited public activity has allowed the ardor of even his most fanatical boosters to cool…
Wanna know how come no one paints his or her favorite band’s name on the back of a denim jacket anymore? It’s not because blue jean-jackets are out of style — it’s that rock bands are. No kidding. There ain’t a group out there worth cracking out the acrylics for…
Primus AntiPop (Interscope) Yeah, Primus Sucks. There are bumper stickers, T-shirts, even www.primussucks.com to support this stupid battle cry, and the band could suck harder than an atomic horse leech before some of its longstanding faithful would bitch about it. Just be forewarned, hardcore believers: There’s very little fresh or…
As a former entertainment editor for Boulder’s Colorado Daily, Leland Rucker is perhaps among a handful of people qualified to compile a thorough history of the town’s rock-and-roll history. At least that’s what the Boulder Arts Commission might have been thinking when its members approached Rucker and Channel 8 producer…
Philadelphia’s Bardo Pond, Wednesday, November 17, at the 15th St. Tavern, creates a big noise, wall-of-sound schizophrenia that you can withstand without nurturing a bottle of Thorazine. Unlike most of its peers in the genre, the self-taught ensemble does not get lost in its improvisations. On Set and Setting, its…
The sci-fi musical comedy The Incredible Comeback of Frankie Pera runs Friday nights through November at the Mercury Cafe. It’s Reno by way of Roswell when the charismatic Pera, played by dramatist Mike Chappelle, takes the stage. For the next two hours, Pera’s job is to prep the audience for…
Musician Todd Bradley’s friends aren’t the people in your neighborhood. Instead of kicking back on a modulated sofa with a cold can o’ Coors, they’d prefer to chat on the Internet about WAV files, audio compression and the most current analog-to-digital conversion methods. Actually, Bradley’s friends aren’t even the people…
Most right-wingers would expect a punk rocker like bassist Krist Novoselic to burn flags. Instead, he waves them. Half of the rhythm section that made Nirvana run, Seattle-based Novoselic hasn’t turned his back on music since guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain used a shotgun to kill both himself and his band’s future…
Even for those who were more into Speed Racer and Toughskins than the Sex Pistols when they invaded America, there was a time when the prospect of stage-diving into middle age wasn’t so far-fetched. But the problem with so much punk rock (Suicidal Tendencies, the Exploited, DRI and Fear come…
Andy Warhol once wrote, “A person is entitled to the lighting they need.” It’s a philosophy the Pet Shop Boys seem to have taken to heart throughout the two-decade span of their careers as dance-music innovators. The Boys peaked during the synth-pop happy Eighties, thus ensuring that their songs would…
In the spirit of a surge of satirical acts performing around the area in recent and coming weeks (The Monsters of Mock at the Bluebird; the Aerosmith cover band Walk the Line at the Soiled Dove on Halloween; Neil Diamond impersonator Super Diamond at the Ogden on November 13) it…
Dead Moon, Wednesday, November 10, at the 15th Street Tavern, is Fred, Toody and Andrew, three Portland-based fifty-somethings who started gigging together around the time most of their current fans purchased their first Bugaloos LP. But don’t let their ages fool you: These raunchy garage rats know how to rock…
Trump Mother Jones, Friday, November 5, and Saturday, November 6, at the Soiled Dove, is a seven-man band whose players dedicate their skills as studied musicians to pure, unapologetic funk. Five of the seven are graduates of various Colorado music programs, while lead vocalist/percussionist Jeff Cook draws lyrical inspiration from…
