Donna Jean and the Tricksters, Donna Jean and the Tricksters (Ryko). Former Grateful Dead backup vocalist and Muscle Shoals studio alum Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay has honked behind some of rock’s legendary artists. Stepping out front with New York’s Zen Tricksters, Godchaux-MacKay proves she’s still got it with natural soul-, blues-…
Denver-based Beatport.com pretty much dominates the world of electronic and dance-music downloads through its online store. The guys behind Beatport know the music inside out and have been booking some of the world’s best DJs for the past decade — so it seems only fitting that they’ve finally opened their…
Eyes Caught Fire percussionist Joel Brown’s bass drum head reads: “Keep Hope Alive.” For any other band, that might come off as a cheap slogan. But from this Colorado Springs quintet, it’s anything but. The act’s collective voice contains a dark, lustrous majesty that whispers like the specter of buried…
Better watch your girlfriend around Benny Benassi. Not only is he a suave-looking Italian guy, but he’s a rising star in the dance-music scene who specializes in sexed-up, electro-fueled house sleazefests such as “Who’s Your Daddy?” and “I Love My Sex” — you know, just the sort of thing to…
The debut release from Kevin Richard’s (Motheater) new label, Maybe Waltz EP is a compilation of Patrick Porter’s earlier recordings. Recorded in a disheveled apartment in Schenectady, New York, the songs recall the work of Nick Drake with their hushed beauty, and conjure a less angsty Elliott Smith as Porter…
When music-industry experts advise fledgling musicians how to achieve success, few probably suggest developing a weird blend of rock, pop and exotic folk music. DeVotchKa has done so anyhow, though, and A Mad & Faithful Telling, which will be spotlighted during a Tuesday, March 18, in-store appearance at Twist &…
Alexis Taylor and the rest of the Hot Chip crew are so devoted to dis-playing their intelligence and cheek that the band’s electro-pop shenanigans can seem positively exhausting at times. But while a handful of numbers on Made in the Dark overdo the cleverness, the majority manage to avoid the…
Like a Zen cowboy hobo, Jim White seems to have his finger on many pulses at once: One part backwoods hermit, one part Buddhist sage and two parts boxcar troubadour, the singer-songwriter makes music that is simultaneously heartbroken, lonely and perfectly content. The name of his latest release is White’s…
Had Glorytellers’ Geoff Farina gotten into music for cash and fame, his career trajectory would look very different. Instead of focusing on glitz and flash, he toiled for well over a decade in an obscure Boston-based combo known as Karate and also spent time in Secret Stars, a partnership with…
Fair warning: The Giraffes are a rock-and-roll band. Whiskey will be consumed. Verbal abuse will whirl around the joint like water in a toilet bowl. Blood may be spilled. Handlebar mustaches will be worn. And by God, that’s just as it should be. Consider Lester Bangs’s comments when regarding a…
All right, which of the following sentences best sums up 2007’s best rap album and its wacky brilliance? A) It was created by a white guy who grew up in the countryside; B) The artist behind said rap album is not really a rapper; C) The entire record pretty much…
Perhaps Columbus, Ohio’s Jerry DeCicca is a happy fellow in his everyday life — the sort of guy given to skipping and random outbursts of whistling. But as the leader of the Black Swans, who share this bill with Roger Green and Ego vs Id, he’s capable of inspiring cheer-up…
Yes, Denver’s got some crack sushi peddlers, but it’s not often that East really meets West here in cowtown. That will all change this Wednesday when Japan Nite returns to rock the Mile High City. The tour — now in its eleventh year — assembles a grab bag of under-the-radar…
Xiu Xiu, Thao Nguyen, Slight Harp Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Hi-Dive Better than: The Cure When Xiu Xiu were first starting out, some interviewer asked frontman Jamie Stewart to describe Xiu Xiu sound. With tongue held firmly in cheek, Stewart described the band as a “combination between Black Sabbath, Sandy…
The Sound of Color isn’t your usual ad campaign. It doesn’t feature the company’s product, a slogan or even its name. It’s not on TV, radio or in newspapers and magazines. In fact, if you didn’t know that Sound of Color, the brainchild of Denver-based film and video production company…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: In his second entry as the Seattle Weekly’s resident guest blogger, the Long Winters’ John Roderick meets classic-rock royalty in the form of Alan Parsons and it sparks some deep thoughts on the…
LOCALS ONLY This year, Basementalism will celebrates 10 years of airtime. What started out as a small CU student-ran hip-hop radio show on KVCU 1190 AM in Boulder has turned into the must-stop show for hip-hop artists traveling through Colorado, and one of the only consistent radio shows (KGNU’s Eclipse…
The Acorn Glory Hope Mountain Paper Bag Records 00:22-01:07 of “Low Gravity” The Acorn proves, apparently, that Canadian indie-rock has a “sound,” and bands like the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade and the Acorn all jerk each other off with their Baroque attitudes, collective ideals and slightly worldly…
On the Tuesday before Father’s Day in 2006, Tia Fuller went to an audition that changed her life. Beyoncé was scouting for members of her ten-piece, all-female touring band at Sony Studios in New York. Although the tryouts started at 9 a.m., Fuller didn’t show up until 6 p.m. The…
Precious few listeners notice the drumming in modern-rock bands. But Julian Dorio, stick man for the Whigs, is an exception to this rule. His agitated skinsmanship on Mission Control, the band’s new full-length, not only anchors the album, but provides just as many of the hooks as do frontman Parker…
If Clipse and its Re-Up Gang collaborators ever get arrested, they might regret rapping about selling “more powder than Maybelline.” Now signed to Columbia, the outfit is prepping for its next proper album with a new installment of the We Got It 4 Cheap series. Get it for free (via…
About halfway through David Allan Coe’s song “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” he talks about how his friend Steve Goodman wrote the first part of the song and told Coe that it was the perfect country-and-Western song. Coe then goes on to say that he wrote his…
