On 1994’s 24-Hour Revenge Therapy, Jawbreaker singer/songwriter Blake Schwarzenbach spat out the righteous truth against his peers of the time: “You’re not punk and I’m tellin’ everyone/Save your breath, I never was one.” In one backhanded bitch slap, Schwarzenbach knocked the Sid Vicious-inspired snarls off a generation of “punk-rockers” who,…
For bands whose debut recordings are more popular with critics than they are with mainstream or even college/indie rock listeners, the temptation to diffuse key elements of individuality and musical discovery can be a problem when it comes time for that tenuous sophomore release. Many bands seem to decide that…
In terms of pop music, originality is often a more vital consideration in the short term than it is years down the line. The Gap Band, for instance, obviously ripped off the Parliament-Funkadelic sound on many of its most successful songs, but when you’re shaking booty two decades later to…
Robert Ashley has co-existed with Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass in that segment of the music world where the experimental impulse and a smirking fascination with theatre and opera take over. Ashley’s career, though, hasn’t achieved Anderson’s brief pop success or Glass’s cottage career as a composer of soundtracks and…
In that spirit of Thanksgiving, here’s a cornucopia of reviews of local releases: On “Denver Radio Talk Show,” the first track off his five-song CD, titled, well, Five Song CD, Gregory Ego has got it in for a battery of local radio talk-show hosts. In fact, his thinly veiled indictments…
Elephant Sixers of the southern latitudes, the Olivia Tremor Control will be stuffing the Fox Theatre on Monday, November 29, with summer-of-love harmonies and finely wrought psychedelia. While their 1996 debut, Dusk at Cubist Castle, was an ambitious, epic doodlefest, the players hadn’t yet learned to ride the mythical beasts…
16 Horsepower, with the 32/20 Jug Band, Tuesday, November 30, at the Gothic Theatre, makes its first live appearance in Denver in several months; among other things, frontman David Eugene Edwards and bandmates Jean-Yves Tola and Pascal Humbert have spent a hearty chunk of time recently recording a new album…
At an age where most students of music were adopting a methodical paint-by-numbers approach to learning, singer/composer/audio engineer/multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio was already coloring outside of the lines. “I made this, I guess, quasi-philosophical decision not to take lessons,” she says. “I decided when I was twelve that I already knew…
Time was the average American citizen equated country music with beer-swillin’, belly-achin’ and cinchin’ hefty belt buckles too tight. To “refined” ears, the music and the aesthetic of the genre represented a particular form of pathos with a limited demographic appeal. And though some of that twangy whining, moaning and…
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…
