While living in New York a few years ago, I started keeping track of what I played on the jukebox in the three bars I frequented. I’m not entirely sure what inspired me to first jot down song names in my notebook, but it got to the point where I…
When Shea Sweeney and Joe Vacarelli were in the neo-alt-rock band Whirlaway a few years ago, they displayed a surprising level of sophistication in their pop songcraft. While the two have taken a step back from the spotlight as members of the Visitors, their knack for tasteful dynamics and buoyant…
House-heads of Denver, prepare yourself for a treat. Belgian-born house maestro Olivier Desmet makes his first Colorado appearance to promote San Francisco Sessions Vol. 6, his latest mix for the fabled Om Records label. Desmet is a champion of the signature Om sound: melodic, sophisticated deep and funky house studded…
Since the Bravery and the Killers are the two American groups most likely to be misidentified as British, their 2005 pissing match was wholly predictable but more entertaining than anticipated. Recall that the Killers’ Brandon Flowers chided the Bravery’s Sam Endicott for having once played in an outfit named Skabba…
Certain folks will love the music of native Australian Xavier Rudd, while others will hate it the way they despise injustice, cruelty toward children and animals, and the smell of hard-boiled eggs left in the sun for two weeks. To decide which category best fits you, consider the following: 1)…
When Split Lip Rayfield played at the Bluebird Theater in September 2006, it was hard to tell that guitarist Kirk Rundstrom had just a few months to live. Despite the fact that the 37-year-old was battling esophageal cancer, he tore through the set with the fervor of a teenager taking…
Over the past few years, DJ Lee Coombs has emerged as one of the innovators and champions of tech-funk, a sound that fuses elements of techno and acid house to the snappy dance-floor kick of breakbeat. An ever-evolving sound, tech-funk is an accessible blend that takes the funky, earthy sensibilities…
Willie Wisely has paid his dues. Hailing from the same 1980s Midwest scene that spawned the Replacements, Hüsker Dü and the Violent Femmes, Wisely has had a career that’s been as storied as it’s been criminally neglected. He got his start as a promoter at the well-known Minneapolis institution First…
Click here for slide show Sea Wolf Larimer Lounge January 15, 2008 Better than: Watching girls dancing with hula hoops Last May, Sea Wolf played to a handful of people at the Larimer Lounge. The band played a fine set, and after the gig I picked up the band’s Get…
Denver music fans of the 1990s knew Nick Pomeroy as Rusty Shears, the energetic, memorably monikered frontman for the Garden Weasels, a ska-punk combo devoted to good humor and good times. But there was a lot more than wacky stage antics to Pomeroy, who died of cardiac arrest at age…
Z-Trip January 15, 2008 Sutra Better Than: Going to bed early on a school night. Without a doubt, Z-Trip is still the unequivocal master of the mash-up, as evidenced by his energetic set last night at Sutra, where he threw down at a private party sponsored by Red Bull. From…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: There are good ways to promote your band, and then there are very bad ways, like this sticker, and many more like it…
The Knew, Light Travels Faster, The Get Down January 12, 2008 Lion’s Lair Better Than: Watching the false pageantry of another Patriots win. Popping into the Lion’s Lair on Saturday night, I marveled at how much the bar has changed since I first started making my way in there with…
Eric Bachmann w/ Ian Cooke, Elin and Freida Saturday, January 12 Better than: The hangover the next morning The swell of people at the Hi-Dive Saturday night seemed like a perfect fit for Denver transplant Eric Bachmann. Any one of the many there may have been a random character from…
On the Brotherhood of Dae Han’s MySpace page, there’s a picture of the guys standing on the front lawn of a mammoth house with cans of gasoline in their hands and their backs to the camera. The house is engulfed in flames, and the fellas are just watching it burn…
Red Orange Yellow, Harvey Knuckles, Magic Cyclops Thursday, January 10, 2008 hi-dive Better than: Watching BBC America Last night was an evening of triumphant returns at the hi-dive. While Red Orange Yellow existed and played a few gigs years ago, the project disbanded and disappeared when drummer Devon Shirley went…
LOCALS ONLY Spoke In Wordz is one of the best emcees out of Denver and his album Word Play was one of the hottest local releases of the year. But just so you can familiarize yourself with how Spoke gets down, here’s a taste from the album Take a Breather…
The Afters Never Going Back to OK EP INO Records 01:10-01:55 of “Never Going Back to OK” Wow, the chorus is actually “Never Going Back to OK,” I figured it was just going to be one of those titles that didn’t really have any relation to the actual song (there…
The productions and remixes of John Graham, who’s best known as Quivver, have been a staple of the world’s top DJs for more than a decade. His work has been featured in the sets and mixed albums of some of the world’s top progressive DJs, including Sasha, Paul Oakenfold and…
Bear in Heaven, Red Bloom of the Boom (Hometapes). Any one of these songs might’ve worked brilliantly on the soundtrack to the film Morvern Callar, especially between the cuts by Can and Holger Czukay. Drawing from those artists, as well as Brian Eno, Bear in Heaven creates some damn fine…
On a cold Sunday night, five teenagers are hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the club at 1531 Champa Street. Inside, on the stage near the front window, I can see a few guys breaking down their equipment. A dozen or so kids are scattered in front of…
For generations, musicians have moved to Los Angeles because they want to get famous, and they hope that being in close proximity to industry power brokers will expedite the process. But the goals motivating Alex Church, the multi-instrumentalist behind the brainy future-folk ensemble dubbed Sea Wolf, are more modest. Church,…
