Music

Though Mudhoney was a catalyst, victim, beneficiary and survivor of the major-label feeding frenzy that swept through the Pacific Northwest in the early ’90s, the band is surprisingly unchanged by the experience. After six years on Warner Bros.’ Reprise imprint, Mudhoney returned to Sub Pop in 2002 with the brilliantly…

Despite an endless audience for radio-friendly music, most pop-oriented artists eventually become bored with straightforward pop-music structures — a tradition that’s been carried down from the Beatles to Christina Aguilera. And really, who can blame them? Even though it’s one of the hardest things to construct, the pop hit is…

Mastodon was initially scheduled to release its third album, Blood Mountain, on August 22 — the same day Lamb of God dropped its fourth disc, Sacrament. But with Mountain’s street date pushed back to September 12 and Lamb of God’s relentless live schedule, the U.S. metal throne has been all…

In the quest for the heaviest metal in the universe, it might not occur to most folks to look to France, which is known more for heavy foods than heavy music. But it would be unwise to ignore Gojira, the Bayonne-based quartet that packs more monstrous mass per minute into…

That five-star Rolling Stone review notwithstanding, this disc is no classic; a few too many of its bluesy lopes and old-timey crooneramas are musically interchangeable. But if Dylan’s latest is a lesser variation on 2001’s Love and Theft, it’s every bit as cheeky. Instead of acting like a cranky old…

Despite her breezy R&B vocals, Dani Siciliano sings in spidery movements, bending around the beats as if controlled by Etch-a-Sketch knobs, while producer Matthew Herbert smashes together traditional soul and blues elements with forcefully inorganic electronic rhythms. “Be My Producer” crackles with insect ticks and stuttering plinks of bass, making…

While it’s tempting to compare the Hidden Cameras’ Joel Gibb with other literate gay singer-songwriters, if Rufus Wainwright or Stephin Merritt were to sing about the joys of anal penetration or swallowing urine, it would be nothing short of hilarious. When Gibb does it, though, it’s barely even ironic; rather,…

Denver scenesters have long believed that the across-the-board success of even one local band would draw A&R reps to the area in droves. Well, the Fray has finally turned this trick, and as a result, acts like Lazyface, another sensitive, piano-heavy combo, may get a sniff. But while Smile is…

Seeing Michael Reisinger without his hands down his pants is like attending a birthday party without cake. Motheater’s unabashed vocalist has made the dirty deed a staple live — one that’s immodestly hard to pry your eyes from. Reisinger says its an entirely subconscious, I’m-just-totally-lost-in-the-moment thing. Whatever the case, it’s…

Bound Stems, Appreciation Night (Flameshovel). Appreciation Night, the giddy, hopelessly awkward and delightfully messy full-length debut from unhinged indie-pop quintet Bound Stems, features snippets of samples, boy/girl vocals, twee keyboards and guitars that go from jangly to jarring without warning. There’s an all-over-the-map aesthetic at work here; even so, the…

When Kenny Rogers began promoting his latest CD, Water & Bridges, earlier this year, he was treated like a walking punchline thanks to hideously botched plastic surgery; he looked as if he’d inflated his head using a bicycle pump. Despite all the guffaws, however, the disc’s lead single, “I Can’t…

With wide-eyed innocence and cockeyed optimism, the 1090 Club — straight outta rock mecca Billings, Montana — invites you to its loose-limbed, attitude-at-the-door pop-rock party. Guitarist Sean Lynch, pianist Mike Galt, violinist Megan Dibble and drummer Steve Serfazo enthusiastically attack their songs with a refreshing lack of assumption and an…

There are tribute bands, which focus all their energy on replicating somebody else’s music. And there are outfits that play “original” material that sounds exactly like that of their heroes. Then there are those genius auteurs who wear their influences on their sleeves yet still manage to do their own…

Not too terribly long ago, the Darkness turned heads with flashback metal delivered with tongue so far in cheek that the damn thing must have been severed at the root. DragonForce, appearing with All That Remains and Horse the Band, draws from the same inspirational well, but with a major…

Snowden’s Jade Tree debut, Anti-Anti, instantly transports listeners to the dark, electro-infused ’80s rock of Joy Division, Bauhaus and the Cure. So, naturally, comparisons to Interpol, She Wants Revenge and the Editors are inevitable. However, none of that name-checking helps much, except to hint at the dark drama, intensity and…

Converge had the good fortune to tour through Boulder a few years back during the heyday of sports riots and couch-burning. One particular show fell on the same night as CU versus Somebody (like it mattered who was playing), and as hardcore kids stormed the inside of Tulagi, football maniacs…

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. In the beginning, synth-pop pioneers like Bronski Beat, Soft Cell and Heaven 17 collectively shared the DNA of American soul, ’60s pop and funk, coupled with a limited ability to re-create that music on conventional instruments. To make up for this shortcoming,…

Kurt Cobain loved the Melvins. And if he hadn’t shot himself into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then biographers and dutiful note-takers of music history might not have paid any attention to this small fact. And here’s another one: Without the influence of the Melvins, there would be…

Get Three Coffins Ready doesn’t need no stinkin’ vocalist. The Denver-based purely instrumental band makes dance-floor toe-stepping goodness that’s as much sock-hop shtick as it is rockabilly crass. Riding the waves of ’50s and ’60s beach-bum pop and crashing it into mid-’70s grungy garage, Get Three Coffins Ready offers an…

Mike Doughty is not your boyfriend. Maybe there’s one woman in New York who can say he is, but that’s it. If you think you’re his girlfriend, that makes you a stalker. And that’s just creepy. “I get a lot of them, that’s for sure,” says Doughty from his home…

Matt Fecher would make a great politician. When asked even the most innocuous of questions — like how the upcoming South Park Music Festival will be different from last year’s, for instance — he pauses, then carefully chooses each word of his response so as not to alienate anyone even…