In all likelihood, my November 5 article on Rick James had nothing to do with his recent hospitalization–but just in case it did, I’m sorry. Really sorry. To fill in the gaps for those of you who pick up Westword mainly to read the personal ads: The profile in question…
“Let’s face it–negativity sells records,” says Taboo, one of the three emcees behind Black Eyed Peas. “It’s wack, but it does. Negativity sells movies; violence sells a lot of things. Sex and violence are two of the biggest things that turn humans on.” That may be true, but the men…
“We’re waging a war against the disappearance of the full-service gas station,” says Tarmints drummer A.J. Hathaway. “It’s the same thing we’re doing with records, man. You pull up to my door, you know what to expect. I’m delivering you quality. You know it, I know it–no problem. You’ll come…
It’s a local-recording blitzkrieg. Look out below. Grace is a project built around the songs of longtime Denver scenester Tom Mestnik and his compadre in Moot, bassist Bob Gumbrecht. The band’s CD, Music With Knives, feels like an early Genesis album, what with consecutive songs that mention lambs (“Grey” and…
Bob Mould The Last Dog and Pony Show (Rykodisc) With enough sweet hooks to gaff a pod of whales, The Last Dog and Pony Show delivers everything that a clever record should. Unlike Peter Murphy and Morrissey, two other cutting-edge lead singers whose work since leaving their groundbreaking Eighties groups…
The house owned by blueswoman Mary Flower looks like it could belong to practically any young musician. The living-room walls are adorned with onstage photos of Flower and her musical heroes, along with a small collection of oddball and cheapo guitars; the bedroom contains more axes–a steel-bodied National Tricone and…
Dave Wyndorf, the lead singer for Monster Magnet, has heard the snickers from snooty, pretentious reviewers who dismiss his band as the real-life Spinal Tap. And he wants such Poindexters to know that they’re on to something. “My whole life in Monster Magnet, and pretty much my whole life in…
The B-Movie Rats may reside in Los Angeles, but according to Derek Christensen, lead vocalist for these rock brutes, their hearts live in Cowtown USA. “We love Denver,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s all the people who I meet there, or the girls, or the altitude–I drink two…
The 1997-98 Denver concert-promotion war has led to a handful of casualties: For instance, booker Jeff Krump lost his position at Jacor Concerts when the folks at Jacor’s radio wing decided to shrink the size of the financially tentative operation (Feedback, October 1). At the same time, however, another new…
What’s in a name? In the case of Michael Colin, plenty. Colin, who also answers to Big Mike, is best known for his work with Phantasmorgasm, a group that made some of the most aggressive music heard in Denver during the late Eighties and early Nineties. But he’s also performed…
When Rick James was at the height of his fame, he was a super freak. When he was addicted to cocaine and crack, he was a super freak, too–so freaky, in fact, that he wound up in Folsom Prison for an extended stretch. But is James still a super freak…
In the bluesy cult duo called Doo Rag, Bob Log III handles guitar and vocal duties while his twisted partner, percussionist Thermos Malling, pounds on everything in sight. Malling, however, isn’t part of Log’s current solo tour–and Log admits that keeping a beat without him has proven to be a…
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4, people in Denver and Boulder will find another choice on their radio dials. KVCU-AM/1190 (aka Radio 1190), a new station associated with the University of Colorado-Boulder, is set to make its long-awaited debut at that time–and early indications are strong that the outlet…
Bang on a Can All-Stars Music for Airports (Point Music) When Brian Eno stuck the “ambient” tag on Music for Airports back in 1978, he unwittingly helped create new sonic ventures that would morph into new-age music, along with the chill-out/ambient/electronica extension that followed. The four untitled instrumental pieces that…
In the beginning, there was No Doubt. Or maybe it was Sublime. And didn’t I hear something about the Mighty Mighty Bosstones putting out an album before 1997’s Let’s Face It? Thus runs the garbled ska gospel according to many of the new fans attracted by the genre’s most recent…
In conversation, bassist Mike Gordon sounds exactly as a member of Phish should. He’s relentlessly pleasant, and modest, too. Whenever he offers a reply that might be construed as even mildly boastful, he immediately softens it with a little laugh meant to indicate that he usually doesn’t take himself all…
Joel Abell, guitarist for Gina Go Faster, feels that the Denver music scene has fallen to new lows. “It’s pitiful,” he says. “There’s no camaraderie anymore, and we can’t even find anybody to play with. It’s ridiculous. All the bands are gone now, and there aren’t any new ones coming…
“I’m entirely dedicated to the flow,” says Andreas Vollenweider. “I believe that everything constantly changes and flows, and nothing stays the same. That should be part of the musical experience for everybody. At least for me it is.” That’s debatable. The flow on Kryptos, the latest album by the mellowest…
Generally speaking, there is little overlap between the demographic destined to practice medicine and the one whose members are fated to play blistering hard rock for the drunken denizens of shoddy bars. In fact, the Speedholes may be the only evidence that there’s any overlap at all. The band is…
How powerful is Big Jon Platt? Powerful enough to convince rapper and current Rolling Stone cover boy Jay-Z to take time out of the best week of his professional life–a week in which his latest CD, Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life, debuted at the top of the Billboard album charts thanks…
Scott Strong, the interim program director at KXPK-FM/96.5 (the Peak), won’t confirm that the station for which he’s working has experienced a format switch; he refers to it as “a tweak.” But there’s no question that something substantial is happening at the station, which went from being the hottest new…
“You know those records that you can listen to over and over again and you hear something new every time? We’re trying to make records like those,” says Geoffrey Chisholm, bassist for San Francisco’s favorite psychedelic son, Creeper Lagoon. “We want to make the kinds of records that stay in…
