Bigwheel Electrosoul

Bigwheel Electrosoul’s The Guac Vol 1. features the intricate live instrumentation you expect from Bigwheel, boosted by the turntable skills of DJ Vajra, who chops things up and keeps them fresh and full. The ambience of the set, recorded live at Lola, is perfect for a progressive brunch crowd. Not…

Mr. Midas: Crack killed us and fed us

Mr. Midas has finally put his stamp of approval on his debut, Son of the Crack Era, which details the ills and spills of the crack epidemic on society from a hip-hop perspective. Not only is Midas using his laid-back, honeyed voice to create a line of storytelling that will…

Liz Phair talks about her haters

After releasing a short run of independently released cassettes titled Girly Sound in the early ’90s, Liz Phair quickly garnered critical acclaim for her offbeat sense of humor and knack for quirky, inventive pop songs. On the strength of those releases, Phair signed to Matador Records, which released her debut…

Conspirator, January 14 at the Fox Theatre

Whether or not you dig the heavily trance-influenced livetronica group the Disco Biscuits, you should give the Biscuits’ side project, Conspirator, a fighting chance: Instead of trance-jam-band fusion, Conspirator draws heavily from trance, downtempo and drum-and-bass, creating soundscapes that are eerier, subtler and more interesting to the trained electronica ear…

Tonight: Cowboy Mouth at the Bluebird

For some bands, touring is a natural state of being. This is absolutely true for Louisiana’s Cowboy Mouth, as the quartet comes through Denver tonight on it’s 16th annual “Mardi Gras tour.” Making country-twinged pop-rock since 1990, the band pulls from influences like The Clash — heard loud and clear…

Boldtype tapped to open Guttermouth tour

Hey, what do you know? Performing at the Showcase can actually be beneficial to your career. Well, so to speak. In a roundabout way, playing at the Showcase helped the men of Boldtype land an opening slot on the upcoming Guttermouth tour. Well, it sealed the deal, anyway. We’ll let…

Tonight: Dave Aude at Beta

Even if Dave Aude’s name isn’t immediately recognizable, it is impossible to have missed his work over the past two decades. The prolific DJ and producer has worked with Katy Perry, Mary J. Blige and Lady Gaga on Billboard-charting remixes this year alone, and put his precise ear to task…

In Better Senses leaves a tree on a platter

Wow! It’s our first flier of the new year with the year 2011 inscribed on it. Looks kind of weird. Who knew the future would come so quickly? Anyway, this In Better Senses flier keeps things simple but still manages to be a nice combination of the psychedelic and the…

Tonight: the Slackers at the Bluebird

Living through the third-wave ska movement of the mid-’90s and still keeping an admirably visible profile in 2011, the Slackers are a musical anomaly. Like labelmates Hepcat and Stubborn All Stars, the Slackers’ success hinges on a penchant for the swing of blue beat while ditching the silliness made popular…

When it comes to hip-hop, it’s a man’s world

You know,” confides Sherie Cole, “it’s not the biggest part of it, but I definitely had a breast reduction because of the names I used to get called — they would call me ‘Big Titty Rie Rie.'” While music in general has always been a male-dominated field, hip-hop, in particular,…

Ashes of Ruin, January 8 at Cervantes’ Other Side

When you hear death metal or any of its offshoots, you either appreciate its technical precision or you hate it. Ashes of Ruin (due this Saturday, January 8, at Cervantes’ Other Side) combines elements of that kind of metal with more melodic guitar leads, yet the rhythms are no less…

Dave Aude

House heavyweight Dave Aude’s credentials read like an impressive who’s who of both pop and electronic music. He’s produced tracks for Barenaked Ladies, Korn, Britney Spears, the Pussycat Dolls, Faith No More and Madonna, and back in the ’90s, he formed Lunatic Fringe with Steve Levy, a partnership that eventually…

Cowboy Mouth

Since its inception in 1990, New Orleans-based Cowboy Mouth — named after Sam Shepard and Patti Smith’s play about misfits musing on the foibles of the American Dream — has produced the kind of eclectic sound that defines most of the music coming out of that town. The group delivers…

Jeff Tweedy

Thin White Rope and Green on Red may have been some of the early artists in what became known as “alt-country,” but Uncle Tupelo took that style to much greater prominence. Along with his friend Jay Farrar, Tweedy led that band for seven years before the former left to form…