Hip-hop like it used to be in 1985, 1988 — the golden years of hip-hop — that’s gone,” says MC Iomos Marad. “All of that is over.” Rather than lamenting that fact, however, the Chicago-based, seven-piece Family Tree is planting seedlings culled from the collective gospels of Rakim, Public Enemy…
Trilobites. Plesiosaurs. The double-record, gatefold, vinyl LP. One would assume they were all extinct, rendered obsolete, yanked from the gene pool because, frankly, they just couldn’t compete with flashy new life forms like mammals and compact discs. First brought to prominence by the Beatles and then perpetuated by the likes…
Who wouldn’t give his right arm to be ambidextrous? Jeremy J. Jacobsen, that’s who. Using all four of his limbs to make strange, worldly and beautiful racket, this multi-dexterous Chicago transplant can play drums, keyboard and guitar simultaneously — while singing. He can play steel drum while tap dancing. And…
O.A.R. Guster. Hootie & the Blowfish. God Street Wine. Lisa Loeb. The Spin Doctors. Edwin McCain. The Wallflowers. Soulhat. The Cranberries. Jack Johnson. Toad the Wet Sprocket. The Dave Matthews Band. Vigilantes of Love. Shawn Mullins. Counting Crows. Tonic. Jewel. Jars of Clay. Rusted Root. Better Than Ezra. The Freddy…
Ashley Wales and John Coxon, the men of Spring Heel Jack, helped innovate and popularize drum-and-bass, a stripped-down electro movement that may have shot its wad as a stand-alone style but continues to influence production techniques in a variety of genres. Yet the duo aren’t interested in either repeating themselves…
I’m sitting across the table from Wendy Woo, Bob Rupp and a handful of other folks at the Goosetown Tavern after the Westword Music Showcase Awards ceremony; we’re reminiscing about the local scene. And from the smiles coloring everyone’s faces, no one is ready for the night to end. Wendy…
Harnessing the spirits of all slain and martyred chickens through the inverted KFC bucket on his head, guitar virtuoso Brian Carroll still leaves fans of wank rock slackjawed. As Buckethead, Carroll’s masked and mutant alter ego, the former Napa Valley, California, resident has come a long way from getting his…
Mixing rock and funk nowadays is usually about as appetizing as pouring shellac on your pancakes. Luckily for Denver, the Compulsions — who play Wednesday, July 9, at Herman’s Hideaway, with Horse Thief, Etherglow and Ball of Ages — nimbly sidestep the cliches and offenses perpetrated by this hybrid genre…
Fly Me to the Moon,” by Frank Sinatra. “Crying,” by Roy Orbison. “Roxanne,” by the Police. The hits keep rolling out of the jukebox and bouncing off the faux-walnut paneling and mirrored walls of the P S Lounge on East Colfax Avenue. The four members of Voices Underwater sit clustered…
Tortoise co-founder Doug McCombs no longer bristles at the term “post-rock.” But during the mid-’90s, he and his musical cohorts from the Windy City — fellow co-founder/drummer/ keyboardist/vibe player John Herndon, producer/drummer/vibe player John McEntire, percussionist Dan Bitney and guitarist Jeff Parker — couldn’t read one single review about their…
Let’s get this out of the way right off: Norwich, England’s KaitO is not named after Inspector Clouseau’s butler from the Pink Panther series. Nor is it named after the Green Hornet’s sidekick/valet from the mid-’60s television series, or any other American pop-culture icon, for that matter. That said, the…
Those who focus too heavily on history are doomed to overestimate it. Witness Koufax, which joins American Analog Set and KaitO at the Larimer Lounge on Sunday, June 29. Given that the group was initially championed by the Get Up Kids — an act linked to the term “emo” like…
Sounding more like an aural sketch pad of ideas rather than the fully realized followup to his 2002 self-titled debut, Andrew Broder’s Ether Teeth nonetheless sustains the Fog founder’s personal lo-fi charm from beginning to end. Soothing moodscapes and mopey sing-alongs abound. Pastoral psychedelia strides hand in hand with subtle…
With its latest collection of blues-oriented roots rock, Quicksand/Cradlesnakes, Chicago’s Califone has kicked it up a notch. While Quicksand sees the band reaching a new level of creativity and sophistication, it also captures a venture into a more accessible and often tuneful region. Last year’s Roomsound lent itself to a…
If the project Theo Smith is working on right now pans out, his dreams will murder his reality. But from the nonchalant way he talks, he’s either downplaying the possibilities or hasn’t fully grasped the epochal implications. Most folks around these parts remember him as Lord of Word — a…
Saturday Looks Good to Me, playing at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, June 27, sports a nostalgic streak that, fortunately, is shot through with quirkiness. The combo — fronted by guitarist/songwriter Fred Thomas and featuring a sizable percentage of the Midwest’s indie-rock practitioners — makes plenty o’ references to music’s…
Punk rock sure has come a long way since the days of three chords, battered amps and shredded knuckles. Just don’t tell The Hacks. This mosh-pit-scarred trio — playing Saturday, June 28, at the Ogden Theatre as part of Blister 66’s Summer F**king Jam — is the type of band…
The glamorous if shortsighted image of substance-fueled musicians in the throes of debauchery, burning out long before their time, will probably never be fully extinguished. The corpse of Layne Staley and the doddering figure of Ozzy Osbourne bleating out a helpless “Shaa-ron!” notwithstanding, there’s something almost comforting in that notion…
On the morning before the first birthday of her firstborn, Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers slept late, and with good reason. The previous evening, her son Talon lived up to his rather fierce name by fighting a mostly successful battle against slumber. “He’s actually done quite well lately,” Chambers says in…
Wayne Shorter didn’t start out playing the saxophone — or even music. His first mode of expression as a teenager was the graphic arts. “Back in 1949, I did a lot of drawings,” says Shorter, now 69, as close to a jazz legend as anyone alive could claim to be…
During the ’90s, when he played bass for the edgy combo Iz and fronted a group pointedly dubbed Love Supreme, Adrian Romero established himself as one of Denver’s most complicated musicians — a performer eager for popular success, but not at the expense of artistic accomplishment. If Shirts Against Skins,…
Trumpeter Brad Upton’s previous CD on the Black Orchid label, Dragon, was recorded in May 2001 and released earlier this year; it revealed a jazzman whose ideas and gifts were spreading far and wide. His “current” release, also called Black Orchid, is, in truth, a leftover from 1999 that’s just…
