Playlist

Nancy Wilson Live at McCabes Guitar Shop (Epic) Which one was the dog and which one was the butterfly? And how come there wasn’t a pony? Nancy Wilson (dog, I’m guessing) flies solo on this go-round, a live, unplugged, “nakedly human” collection of Seventies classics, four (and twenty blackbird) cover…

Monster Mash

No need to pull the four Denverites in the Velveteen Monster from the stage with a crooked cane: They’re happy to saunter to the side and haunt from the wings. In fact, after several years in the seminal tumbleweed act Jux County, veteran players Andy Monley, Ron Smith and Chris…

What’s Ike Got to Do With It?

If Ike Turner’s life were evaluated strictly on his musical contributions, he might be considered a pop-cultural saint. As an A&R man for a number of Memphis talent scouts and record labels, he was something of a modern-day Noah, rescuing B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Parker and plenty of other…

Feedback

Internet radio isn’t a panacea: At this point in its technical development, the sound quality can be mighty iffy. But the airwave-based commercial radio of today is generally so dreadful–too narrow, too formatted, too repetitive, too brain-dead–that this new medium is exploding anyhow. For instance, Boulder-based GoGaGa Brand Radio (accessible…

Good Times, Gangsta Style

On the surface, the timing for the Hard Knock Life tour, a hardcore rap showcase that hit the Denver Coliseum on April 27, could hardly have been worse. A number of concerts had been canceled as a result of the April 20 killings at Columbine High, including an April 24…

Greatest Schiz

The scene is a self-serve copy shop on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, the time is several years ago, and the protagonist is Wesley Willis, beloved local icon. Willis is built like Sasquatch (he’s 6-4 and weighs over 300 pounds), but his spirit is friendly and gentle–which is why his sudden…

Surf’s Not Up

For the men and women of the Ladybug Transistor, discussion of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds is strictly taboo. “These days, we refer to it as ‘the P word,'” jokes guitarist Jeff Baron. “It seems to follow us wherever we go.” Vocalist/trumpeter Gary Olson concurs. “It’s kind of funny. For…

Taking Wing

Pianist/accordionist John Magnie and drummer/percussionist Steve Amedee, the key members of a new quartet called Magpie, were once half of the Subdudes, a group that earned a lofty place in Colorado music history and an impressive national reputation prior to its 1996 breakup. But on this April afternoon, the two,…

Playlist

Joey McIntyre Stay the Same (C2 Records) If you needed any more proof that musical cycles are swirling faster than ever before, look no further than Joey (formerly Joe) McIntyre. This scrumpdillyicious hunkaroo was part of New Kids on the Block, which captivated the nearly pubescent crowd between 1988 and…

Feedback

Local songs from the end of the century. Jonny Mogambo’s Colorado Golden, on Hapi Skratch Records, is slick but mostly enjoyable blues rock. Mogambo is a skilled guitarist whose occasional hippie-isms don’t put the brakes on the propulsive ditties “Victoria,” “Sorry State of Affairs” and “Melanoma Superstar,” and if the…

Edutainment

Duane Johnson Jr. occupies two worlds that most people see as mutually exclusive. By night, he is Defari Heru, a rising hip-hop star whose impressive debut album, Focused Daily, was recently issued by Tommy Boy Records. But during the day, he is simply Mr. Johnson, a 27-year old geography and…

Feedback

How could anyone be surprised that Howard Stern made tactless remarks about the Columbine High School shootings during his April 21 broadcast? After all, his appeal, in large part, is based on his willingness to make tactless remarks about anything and everything, so he was simply running true to form…

A Whiter Shade of Pale

If the mythology surrounding it is to be believed, the 1954 discovery of Elvis Presley turned as much on race as on talent. The story goes something like this: Sam Phillips, whose Sun Studios concentrated on songs aimed at the average rhythm-and-blues consumer, wanted to break into the musical mainstream–and…

The Curator of Pet Sounds

Jim McIntyre, the brain behind Von Hemmling, lives among amps and mikes and dogs and cats at Pet Sounds, the shabby yet illustrious recording haven of the Apples and other acts affiliated with the Elephant Six imprint. In doing so, he’s grown accustomed to having indie-pop royalty traipsing through his…

England’s Shame

Gomez is an up-and-coming English rock group, but its members don’t act like it. Their clothes aren’t terribly exciting, their music doesn’t “shimmer,” “jangle” or “pulsate” from the speakers of a dance club near you, and they resist the urge to tell the press that their British peers are either…

A Hamblin You Can Dance To

“I try to imagine what the scene in Denver would be like if we hadn’t been here–myself, Darrin Choice, John Chamie, Hipp-E and the other visionaries,” says Ken Hamblin III, better known as DJ K-Nee. “And I’m not certain it would be as interesting. We all saw that this music…

Still Burning

In conversation, bluesman R.L. Burnside exudes satisfaction. He doesn’t have an unkind word for anyone, and his comments glow with a sort of beatific acceptance: He delivers his most common replies–“Mmmmmm-hmmmmm,” “That’s right,” “Oh, yeah” and “I really believe that”–in a sweet growl, like James Earl Jones after being mellowed…

Playlist

Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton Trio II (Asylum) When Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt recorded the first Trio in 1987, the collaboration made sense. Harris had been building a respectable country audience, Parton had earned a couple of number-one country hits and some acting credibility in 1980’s…

Feedback

Despite author Thomas Wolfe’s definitive warning, lots of people regularly try to go home again, only to find that the old place is no longer what it used to be. But not all such journeys end in disaster. Take the Smashing Pumpkins concert on April 19 at the Ogden Theatre–the…

Playlist

Schrasj F (Ojet) the buddyrevelles September, November (Motorcoat) Kitty Craft Beats and Breaks From the Flower Patch (Kindercore) Masters of the Hemisphere Masters of the Hemisphere (Kindercore) Over the past several years, the buzz over indie rock has become a barely audible murmur, and for a very simple reason: The…

Party On, Garth

When it comes to the Denver club scene, the Eighties are in. Expensive venues such as Polyester’s and Lucky Star are treating expanding crowds to a diet laden with plenty of the Human League and the Cure, and nightspots associated with modern rock or current dance music, including Tracks 2000,…

Everything’s Zen

Standing six-foot-seven and sporting a dark, frizzy coif straight out of the Handsome Dick Manitoba playbook, Zen Guerrilla vocalist Marcus Durant looks more like a refugee from the White Panthers than a budding soul sensation. Yet Durant insists that within his lanky, bohemian frame beats the heart of an honest-to-God…