Jim Bianco, Paper Bird, Bitter:Sweet August 15, 2007 The Walnut Room Better than: Any variety show I’ve ever seen. Question: What do you get when you add a musical comedian, an old-timey girl group and a smooth, downtempo chanteuse? Answer: Last night’s show at the Walnut Room. It started an…
Danny Vegas can be a bit much when you first meet him. With a toothy grin plastered across his face and a booming voice delivering a rap that he has down cold, he has the air of someone who’s putting you on — and seems exactly like a guy who…
One fateful day in Boulder back in January 2006, when word came down that Newcomers Home was breaking up, wild-eyed mourners wept openly in the streets. Folks wandered aimlessly along the Pearl Street Mall, rending their garments and clawing out their eyes. There was much gnashing of teeth, and the…
“I had a pretty tough year last year,” says Hilary Duff. Granted, Duff’s status as a rich pop star and actress — she reportedly collected $15 million in 2005 — won’t earn her many sympathy points with members of the public, most of whom she could buy and sell like…
In Hollywood, you often hear of passion projects — movies that nobody in their right mind should try to produce, yet a handful of stubborn filmmakers do it anyway. El Cantante, starring Marc Anthony as salsa pioneer Héctor Lavoe and Jennifer Lopez as his wife Puchi (she also produced), is…
In the world of freestyle, Supernatural is the king. He’s battled and defeated such luminaries as Craig G, Juice and Proof from D12. He also currently holds the Guinness World Record for the longest freestyle at just over nine hours. Now he’s hosting the entire Rock the Bells tour, where…
In all the hoopla over the influence of ’60s and ’70s art rock on some of today’s most interesting bands, one salient fact is frequently overlooked: A lot of that stuff blew. For every Roxy Music and King Crimson, there was a Yes or an Emerson, Lake & Palmer (plus…
Against Me!’s latest goes beyond the simple polemics of post-American Idiot punk and suggests that ordinary citizens may be as much to blame for America’s current predicament as the present administration — well, almost, anyway. On “Americans Abroad,” Tom Gabel likens his band’s European tour to the encroachment of corporations…
On Friends and Lovers, Married in Berdichev’s last release, Brittany Gould crafted delicate, hauntingly beautiful pop songs that featured girlish yet poignant and affecting vocals, qualities that have carried over to the new record. Listening to Cold Feet, Warm Hearts! is like waking up from a restful night’s sleep after…
Nathaniel Motte and Sean Foreman, the twosome behind 3OH!3, are to subtle musicianship what hot dog-scarfer Takeru Kobayashi is to table manners. The sounds on their debut CD are blessedly loud, proud and goofy. Applying the term “production values” to the disc seems pointless, since the electro-instrumentation featured here probably…
Joe Henry, Civilians (Anti). Jazzy, but not quite jazz, old world, but completely now and rock, Joe Henry showcases his varied talents with an album of laid-back summer picnic melodies from an impressionistic painting. Emotive lyrics and colorful chord progressions move his music like a lazy river with an urgent…
Two decades ago, the Beastie Boys were the scourge of morality arbiters everywhere. Just one example: Following a March 1987 Beasties concert in Columbus, Georgia, that featured a twenty-foot mock-penis and repeated suggestions that women attendees flash their jugs, the town’s police chief publicly criticized his officers for not charging…
Mickey Avalon’s been through some shit, man. His mom had him selling weed for her when he was just a teenager. She fired him a little while later, though, when she discovered he was shooting up smack at the age of sixteen. And things only got stickier and trickier from…
History is full of characters who were too beautiful, too intelligent or too delicate for this world. Ireland’s Guggenheim Grotto appears ready to join those ranks. Kevin May, Mick Lynch and Shane Power — all versatile multi-instrumentalists — create soul-shuddering tunes that grip the heart with cold comfort and worldly…
It’s probably just as well that emo, and not indie pop, has become the soundtrack to so many suburban teenage lives. It could’ve gone either way, really. Thankfully, it didn’t. Otherwise, acts like Red Pony Clock might be less inclined to perform at more intimate, non-traditional venues such as Rhino…
Every era needs an impossibly perfect vocal goddess, and Beyoncé Knowles ably fills the role. On the surface, the various elements that make up her image — Texas homegirl, classy song stylist, steamy temptress, hip-hop honey — don’t seem compatible in the slightest. Somehow, though, they fit together to create…
About a decade ago I lived downtown, just down the street from the Red Garter strip club, which today is La Boheme Gentlemen’s Cabaret (1443 Stout Street). Unlike its replacement, the Red Garter was a sketchy joint and all-nude, which meant no alcohol could be served there under Denver ordinances…
The Constuct (formerly known as Orwellian Math Project) nimbly pushes the boundaries of what punk and indie rock can be as it mates aggressive, fiery songs with lonely, contemplative material. Instead of opting for a traditional band, the Boulder-based two-piece has forced itself to be more creative through the use…
Israel’s Infected Mushroom specializes in completely over-the-top psychedelic trance. A breakout act in their homeland’s substantial psy-trance scene, the duo takes an unusually eclectic approach to the genre, which has led to some odd crossover attention — being tracked on JamBase.com, for example, a website dedicated to the jam scene…
The Epilogues, the Bears, Sleeper Horse August 13, 2007 Larimer Lounge Better than: Watching my beloved Broncos win a preseason game of faux football earlier in the night. Arriving nearly an hour early at the Larimer Lounge, I settled in on the patio to make some phone calls and then…
Side-Fi Noise, Dartanian, A Shoreline Dream, Peña August 10, 2007 Larimer Lounge Better than: Spinal Tap opening for Sigur Ros You just never know what you’re getting into at a local show, but Denver audiences are usually open to anything good. A Friday night show to kick off A Shoreline…
Hybrid, DJ Ivy August 11, 2007 Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom Better than: The tired, overrated DJs playing at the night’s other big dance music event. Upon my 10 p.m. arrival at Cervantes’ DJ Ivy was playing an excellent set of dark yet funky breakbeats and to a “crowd” of maybe eight…
