Q&A with the Overcasters

It’s been a while since we’ve come across a flier that struck us as cool enough to post in Pole Position. That said, we think this one touting the Overcaster’s CD release party this Saturday night at the Falcon more than qualifies. And while we’re on the subject of the…

Remembering Westword‘s endorsement of… George Clinton?

Not quite the next president of the United States. Barack Obama’s election last night stirred memories for me of the 1992 campaign. My son, Nick, was three-years old back then, and each time he saw a commercial touting one of the three major candidates, he delivered a stock response. At…

This Just In 11/6-11/12

Umphrey’s McGee returns to Colorado for a three-show run in January. Umphrey’s McGee has played here so many times over the last few years that you’d almost think the guys were from here rather than from Chicago. The band revisits our state right after its new studio album, Mantis ,…

So, tonight … Metallican or Metallican’t?

Alright, so it’s a day of reckoning, a day a great many of us have been anticipating for quite a while now — and no, I’m not talking about the election. I’m talking about fucking Metallica at the Pepsi Center, dudes. Tonight we’ll see if the cats still got it…

Rock the Vote: Beastie Boys and Tenacious D at the Fillmore

Photo: Chad Fahnestock Rock the Vote: The Beastie Boys and Tenacious D November 3, 2008 Fillmore Better than: Any other reason to miss Monday Night Football In case you haven’t heard, there’s an election today. Rock the Vote brought Tenacious D and the Beastie Boys to Denver to remind young…

More pressing questions for the Beasties and Tenacious D

The press conference preceding Monday’s Rock the Vote show with Tenacious D and the Beastie Boys was a strictly Q-and-A affair, which meant that the musicians hadn’t prepared anything to say, and the success of the event hinged on questions from the handful of journalists in attendance. Thankfully, my intelligent…

DeVotchKa’s “How It Ends” gets licensed… again

Photo: Bryce Boyer When he penned “How It Ends,” it’s a safe bet that Nick Urata’s artful inclinations far exceeded any commercial aspirations he might have had. All the same, the members of DeVotchKa, whose contributions to the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack earned the act reams of acclaim, have gotten…

Andy Butler and Patrick Park discuss their time in Denver

Just stumbled across a pair of great interviews with two former Denverites who are pursuing music careers on opposite coasts. The first article features Andy Butler from Hercules and Love Affair, who got his start here as an underground dance DJ, while the other interview focuses on Patrick Park, who…

TV on the Radio at Ogden Theatre

Photo: Aaron Thackeray TV on the Radio Sunday, November 2 Ogden Theater Better Than: The band’s rushed, abbreviated set at Monolith (which wasn’t really the band’s fault). Detroit riff-rock veterans the Dirtbombs opened last night’s show at the Ogden. I was a bit disappointed to see that their two-drummer setup…

Peter Tong at Beta

Pete Tong October 31, 2008 Beta Better than: Sitting at home rewatching horror movies I’ve seen a dozen times. Ah, Halloween. It’s a night for the freaks to come out, for normally buttoned-up folk to indulge in wild fantasies, wear too little clothing and get way, way drunker than normal…

El Chapultepec switches things up…and out

Received a rather alarming tip this afternoon that El Chapultepec‎, a bona fide Denver institution, was drastically scaling back its jazz programming. The thought of the ‘Pec without jazz is like, well, like Denver without the mountains. So we put in a call to Angela Krantz, whose father, Jerry, still…

Live Review: Experience Hendrix at the Paramount Theatre

Experience Hendrix Paramount Theatre Thursday, October 30, 2008 Jimi Hendrix once said, “Music is my religion,” and the Paramount Theater essentially became the Church of Hendrix for three hours while some extraordinary guitarists paid tribute to who many consider the ultimate guitar god…

Ichiban charts on CMJ

Looks like big ups are due to Ichiban, whose latest platter, Psycle Analysis, checked in this week at #39 on CMJ’s Top 40 hip-hop chart. That feat puts the rapper, who took home honors in the Hip-Hop MC category at this year’s Westword Music Showcase, in damn fine company. The…

Death Magnetic gives Metallica a new lease on life

Two decades removed from its last truly cutting-edge work, Metallica is still a household name, having sold millions of records worldwide. Staying relevant, however, has clearly been a struggle for the band, whose iconic status, particularly in metal circles, rests solely on the strength of its first four albums, a…

Go minimal at Zen or max it out at Wicked Garden

When Kostas Kouremenos took over the old meeting hall at 940 Lincoln Street, his initial plan was to retool the space with an Asian concept, since the building’s Japanese architecture would lend itself to that. But instead, in 2006 he opened an airplane-themed bar, DC10, which flew for two years…

Hot Robots at the hi-dive

Lots of bands try to do exactly what Hot Robots already do extremely well — that is, write solid, hooky, intelligent pop music. On stage, the group may look like an average bar band, with good equipment but perhaps weighed down by pedestrian musical inclinations. As it turns out, though,…

Mini Reviews

Crystal Antlers, EP (Touch and Go). These Long Beachers locate the art in hardcore. Their music is as wild and thrashy as anything that’s ever come out of a garage, but tracks such as “Until the Sun Dies (Part 2)” and “Vexation” feel epic, unbound, with melodramatic organ and screeching…

Equulei at Herb’s

Over the past ten years, Equulei has quietly produced some of the most consistently challenging and innovative electronic music to ever come out of Denver. Through its Nobot label, Equulei (due at Herb’s with Les Freres Courvoisier and Mike Robot on Sunday, November 2) has issued records of its own,…

Larry Ochs expands his Sax & Drumming Core

Although Larry Ochs is probably best known for his work with the Rova Saxophone Quartet during the past three decades, in recent years the avant-garde musician has released two outstanding albums — The Neon Truth and last year’s Up From Under — as the Sax & Drumming Core, with seasoned…