At times, the proliferation of talented collectives in the underground is overwhelming, even for the hip-hop cognoscenti who devote the majority of their time to manning the radar stations. In the last few years, a staggering number of artists have dropped albums with depth, texture and clarity the mainstream acts…
Like the frightening creatures that haunt its songs, Moore is a monster that just won’t die. Limbs — er, members, that is — have been hacked off, with replacements sewn on, sometimes only to be severed again. The current incarnation, though, seems stronger than ever. Brought to life in 1995,…
Bob Rupp can’t stop smiling. Behind his drum kit, flailing his arms wildly, he looks like he’s either parking planes or simultaneously channeling the spirits of Keith Moon and Rikki Rockett. He’s having the time of his life, and who can blame him? This is the second-to-last time he’ll ever…
Nearly every article, review or blurb about Interpol, among the ripest acts to emerge from New York City’s bumper crop of nu-rock revivalists, dwells on the same theme: the quartet’s supposed sonic similarity to Joy Division, a memorably mopey late-’70s collective whose frontman, Ian Curtis, earned a spot in the…
When it comes to centers of power, none in history can approach the hubristic might of Washington, D.C., the seat of the American Empire. And yet, dwelling in the shadow of that city’s neo-classical white-marble monuments is a thriving, outspoken punk scene, one that revolves mainly around the independent Dischord…
The economy is in the crapper right now. And it’s had a trickle-down effect on the music industry, but not in the way that analysts would have you believe. For years I’ve been hearing that the music world, as we know it, is on the verge of taking a dirt…
In today’s climate of indie-rock sarcasm, a band called Destroyer plays sweet, sophisticated pop, while groups with names like Sparkles play music that’s more bludgeoning than brass knuckles. But there’s nothing tongue-in-cheek about the Oregon combo All Girl Summer Fun Band (which will perform Thursday, September 18, at the Larimer…
Subversive-music snobs may thumb their noses at the first Colorado Underground Music Festival, slated to take place this Saturday, September 20, at the Ogden Theatre. After all, how “underground” can it be if it’s held at the Ogden, sponsored by a radio station and includes bands already favorably regarded by…
“I can’t remember the last time I listened to a country record.” For most people, that would be a pretty innocuous statement. But for someone who plays in a band that has been shoehorned into the alt-country pigeonhole for the past five years, it’s almost antagonistic. M.C. Taylor of the…
It’s a Tuesday night at Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey, a cozy jazz club on Colfax Avenue. A handful of people sit on overstuffed couches listening devoutly to Dave Cieri and the Arms and Legs Quartet as the ensemble finesses its way through a set comprising jazz standards and improvisational departures. Nobody…
The September 18 Rolling Stone touts a list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” but the accompanying article is not nearly as wide-ranging (or definitive) as its headline implies. The late Andrés Segovia may be widely regarded as the finest classical guitarist of the twentieth century, but Jann…
“The reason I agreed to do this tonight was because there are a lot of people that are pissed off because this band is doing so well,”said Maris the Great, host of D.O.R.K. ‘s CD-release party at the Soiled Dove. “If someone has a problem because a local band is…
It’s been seven years since we’ve heard from Evan Dando, who once lent the Lemonheads a perpetually stoned swagger as well as an affinity for ’60s-flecked guitar pop. During that time, he got hitched, fought — and often lost — a battle with the bottle and eventually got around to…
Contrary to popular belief, rock and roll is not a form of music. It’s not an attitude, either, or a lifestyle, or a sexual position, or even a catchphrase. It’s an accident. Literally, an accident: a collision of bodies, a random act of gross negligence, a forced release of bodily…
It happens once every couple of years. You wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. Your memory’s stuck in shuffle mode, so you roll out of bed and start digging around in the closet for some musty knickknack or photo album. Then suddenly,…
Moving is hard on any kid. You’ve got to leave your friends behind and start over in a strange place, where you don’t know anyone, and everyone has their own stories and memories that don’t include you. But take a twelve-year-old who grew up somewhat provincially — on a fifty-acre…
Long removed from his reputation-establishing work fronting the Pixies, Frank Black has watched his stature diminish terribly over the past ten years. While ex-bandmate Kim Deal went on to great success with her Breeders, the onetime indie-rock hero has bounced around a few labels, recording lackluster albums of varying quality…
Anthology of American Folk Music, originally released in 1952 and reissued in boxed-set form in 1997, is among the most influential recorded collections of the past century. Musical anthropologist Harry Smith’s assemblage of raw, heartfelt acoustic obscurities such as Chubby Parker’s “King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O” became the sonic bible…
The futuro-punk metal and lyrical free-association of At the Drive-In was tuned for big arenas and seemingly destined for greatness. But in 2001, a rift formed, and the band split in two, with three-fifths becoming Sparta, and the rest — Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez — launching the Mars Volta…
Wildwood Flower’s liner notes are reason enough to recommend the final recording by June Carter Cash, who died unexpectedly from complications of heart surgery in April. Penned by stepdaughter and songwriter Rosanne Cash, they eulogize Carter Cash as a uniquely talented and loving mother and musician who for nearly forty…
Baggs Patrick, longtime host of the Sunday-night open stage at Cricket on the Hill, is calling it a day. “After twelve years, it was getting past my bedtime,” he says. “I quit a little sooner than I thought I would, but basically the stage had slowed down, and the fact…
Ovulations? Clowns with knives? Suns that don’t want to be photographed? With subjects like these, you might figure that why? isn’t your typical, gold-grilled hip-hop MC. Born Jonathan Wolf, the Oakland-based vocalist and producer grew up as the son of a rabbi in suburban Cincinnati. It was there that he…
