Music

It looks like all those idle assembly lines in Detroit have been put to a new use: pumping out scruffy garage bands soaked in high-octane R&B. But unlike some of its tougher, woman-fronted neighbors such as the Paybacks and the Detroit Cobras, the Hard Lessons crams pure pop into its…

There are easier ways to make a hip-hop living than the one chosen by Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab, the duo behind Blackalicious. These longtime partners, who’ve been together since the early ’90s, have plenty of charisma, and if they employed obvious samples and slung the usual crime rhymes,…

The Motet, an eclectic, Boulder-based, genre-twisting act, is known for bringing down the house this time of year with its drum-driven brand of blender groove. While past Halloweens have seen the band delving into authentic Afro-beat, flights of fusion-esque fancy and even last year’s Prince tribute, the group’s devoted fans…

Although technically a Canadian who now resides in Berlin, Richie Hawtin helped put Detroit techno on the map in the ’90s. As Plastikman, he found massive success in America’s underground rave scene and throughout Europe’s thriving dance scene. Always on the cutting edge technically and sonically, Hawtin is regarded as…

I like it,” says Alan Andrews, “because it’s not about punching.” No, it’s about dancing. And Andrews, singer/guitarist with the Photo Atlas, and his bandmates — guitarist Bill Threlkeld, bassist Mark Hawkins and drummer Devon Shirley — are at the vanguard of the Mile High City’s recent dance renaissance. They’ve…

Talk is cheap. Well, not that cheap, according to Brice Hancock, guitarist for Rubber Planet. He just bought DenverMessageBoard.com — lock, stock and flaming posters. And while Hancock won’t divulge the actual purchase price, he does say that in order to close the deal, he had to take out a…

In his videos and appearances on VH1’s seemingly endless parade of pop-culture nostalgia shows, singer-songwriter Jason Mraz comes across as bubbly and effervescent. Today, however, he’s apparently lost his fizz. Granted, he’s got his reasons. His visit to scenic Rochester, New York, has been interrupted by an interview, and because…

Cameron Crowe recalls how, in 1982, he had to fight with Universal Studios execs over the soundtrack to a little movie he had written called Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The studio wanted a conventional score — strings and things, very old-fashioned. Crowe demanded something the SoCal kids in the…

Although Decemberists vocalist Colin Meloy went on a solo tour this past winter, Picaresque, the Portland, Oregon, band’s third album, is arguably its lushest yet. The nuanced production of Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla finally matches Meloy’s obsession with detail: Horns, strings and accordion drift in and out of…

When you first listen to Vaux’s major-label debut, Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice, it sounds like little has changed from the smarter-than-most melodic metalcore of the act’s last effort, Plague Music. Then “Need to Get By” kicks in with its “Paranoid Android” vocals, soft-loud dynamics and volatile trajectory, and things just…

In 1970, Sister Gertrude, a painter and preacher who sermonized on street corners in the French Quarter, released an album titled Let’s Make a Record. More than three decades later, Rope-adope label head Andy Hurwitz found the obscure recording while in a New Orleans record store and immediately called producer…

Twenty-five years ago, Paul Weller would have smashed a pint glass in your face for calling him the punk version of Steve Winwood. But the analogy nearly fits. Both legendary English songwriters started out in blistering R&B-based bands and went on to dabble in groove-locked psychedelics and sultry rock. But…

Listeners who think of electronic music as a recent innovation will be disabused of that notion by this fascinating boxed set. The compilation’s earliest example of electro dates back to 1937, and many of its most bizarre offerings were created in the ’50s and ’60s, before performers such as Aphex…

Over the past decade-plus, Ty Burhoe, a Boulder tabla expert, has performed solo, in groups like Curandero, and as a sideman for string wizard Tony Furtado and many others. No matter the setting, Burhoe’s work has been consistently intelligent and sonically impeccable, and Sky, the first release for his new…

“Love Song,” by the Cure, is a great tune. And its almost as good when rearranged slightly to become “Devil,” the opener of Cat-A-Tac’s eponymous debut EP (whose release will be celebrated on October 21 at the Walnut Room). In fact, most of the disc’s five cuts are comfortably derivative…

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (Interscope). It was an admirable concept (cheap but solid greatest-hits packages), but the 20th Century Masters series has officially jumped the shark with this release. Selecting only from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s…

Dischord, the hallowed post-hardcore imprint, has been getting all kinds of folky lately. First, members of Lungfish released a haunting, bare-bones disc under the name Pupils, and then label founder and Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye formed the Evens, a hushed, strum-laden combo. Now that Q and Not U — Dischord’s…

East of El Segundo’s refineries and beachfront ghettos, Hawthorne, California, remains an unassuming musical bastion, home to the Beach Boys, pop wunderkind Emitt Rhodes, and Greg Ginn of Black Flag. It’s also the stamping grounds for dios (malos), Angelinos who share Brian Wilson’s love of druggy melodies and rich vocal…

On Catch Thirty-Three, Meshuggah’s latest, the music occasionally quiets or slows, but it doesn’t lapse for over 45 often deafening yet frequently exhilarating minutes. In that sense, the disc mirrors the band, which shows no signs of stopping, either. The group was founded in Sweden circa the late ’80s and…

Eric Elbogen doesn’t know my mother. And after listening to Ferocious Mopes, his third CD under the name Say Hi to Your Mom, I’m not sure I’d even introduce them. First of all, at 23, he’s way too young for her. Plus, she’s really not into whiners — trust me…

Lately, New York’s the Hold Steady has gotten more ink than a hipster covering up that embarrassing Lorax tattoo he got in college — and with good reason. The boisterous quintet sounds like ’70s-era E Street Band on meth and PBR, with motor-mouthed frontman Craig Finn spouting tales of Catholic…