Music

Five years ago, the unexpected, runaway popularity of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack propelled Ralph Stanley into the American mainstream, his contribution earning him a Grammy and enough royalties to finally tool around in a shiny black Jaguar. On the downside, the deeply religious 78-year-old bluegrass legend still…

There aren’t many bands who have actually toured in an eighteen-wheeler — let alone committed their artistic vision to something called “balls-out trucker punk.” But for the good buddies in Steerjockey, amphetamines and hundred-mile coffee fuel a sound that won’t back off the hammer, leading a rumbling convoy of Zeke,…

When indie buzz band Denali broke up last year, the group’s singer, Maura Davis, wasted no time in rounding up a new posse. Minus her guitarist brother, Keely (who left Denali to focus on his main project, Engine Down), the Virginia-based chanteuse enlisted the talents of three Chicagoans — bassist…

“What’s it gonna be — pleasure or action?” wails Stephonik X of Aqui on “Roll,” a song from the group’s welt-raising debut, The First Trip Out. The Brooklyn outfit is a maelstrom of noise and electricity, a metal-inflicted mutation of art, punk and rock just as likely to make eyeballs…

On the face of things, Eisley ought to be the shittiest group ever. After all, the group features siblings Chauntelle, Sherri, Weston and Stacy DuPree, who range in age from 15 to 22 and look like a casting director’s dream. Thank goodness comparisons to the Partridge Family end there. The…

The fact that three venues in the Denver-Boulder area have booked Del McCoury over a four-day period speaks to his genre-spanning, cross-generational appeal. He’s been a bluegrass frontman since 1967, but despite recording a slew of long-players for roots labels like Arhoolie and Grassound, he was forced by fiscal realities…

In richly intimate songs, David Wilcox creates audio tapestries that blend intricate arrangements and warmly appealing tunes with the musician’s ongoing personal growth. Whether recording in a log cabin — as he did for the 1997 release Turning Point — or experimenting with unconventional guitar techniques, the introspective Wilcox has…

Love hurts. Love stinks. If the Valentine’s season makes you want to run gagging to the nearest gutter, inoculate yourself against America’s most contrived holiday in style — as part of the Funeral of Hearts 4: Day of the Dead celebration this Friday, February 11, at Rock Island. Conceived as…

DJ Lady Tribe would probably be one of the first to admit that her looks have opened doors. But although her obvious sex appeal may have landed her steady residencies at some of L.A.’s top hip-hop clubs, it’s her turntable skills that have kept her there — and proved she’s…

The basement where Cost of Living practices is like the armpit of a buried corpse. The stairwell is pitch dark. The brickwork is crumbling. It stinks of decay. But inside this ten-by-ten-foot tomb beneath the Conspiracy Skateboards warehouse on the outskirts of Five Points, there’s a buzz of life as…

In 1996, when she was just 22, jazzy vocalist Madeleine Peyroux issued Dreamland, a disc on Atlantic Records that earned solid sales, a gazillion comparisons to Billie Holiday and a slot on a subsequent Lilith Fair bill. Considering the high-profile nature of these accomplishments, not to mention the waves of…

Late last year, Mootown residents locked horns over the holiday lighting display at the Denver City and County building, re-igniting the age-old conflict between church and state. For all I care, next year Hizzoner Hick could put Don King in the Nativity scene and have the lights above his office…

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to make pop music that isn’t popular. Not that End of Love, the fifth full-length by Clem Snide, abandons itself to the conceptual outback of art pop; instead, it continues the group’s erratic, enthralling arc across old-school song wizardry…

Alternative hip-hop has developed into a de facto criticism of the form that spawned it, with artists like Sage Francis delivering the sort of complex, politically charged imagery that’s strikingly rare in mainstream rap. Unfortunately, accessibility and entertainment values frequently take a back seat in much of their work, which…

Poland has the dubious distinction of being America’s most complicit and obsequious ally in its current crusade in the Middle East. It makes a twisted sort of sense, then, that the country birthed the pagan-death-metal ogre known as Behemoth (appearing Tuesday, February 8, at the Bluebird Theater). Demigod is a…

Strike Anywhere wants a better world, one where “punk” doesn’t mean Good Charlotte and “political” means more than P. Diddy. With intelligence and admirable chops, the Virginia quintet crafts straightforward, Oi!-inspired anthems far superior to the usual Hot Topic punk pabulum. To Live in Discontent brings together several of Strike’s…

With 2002’s Lifted, Omaha-born phenom Conor Oberst was elevated to mythical status among rock critics, lauded as a Dylan of the plains, the finest songwriter of his age. Although the reluctant messiah has tried to avoid the “voice of a generation” title he’s been saddled with, now, more than ever,…

Since deciding that he didn’t want to be a rock star, Mike Patton, of Faith No More fame, has turned his record label, Ipecac, into a shelter for some of the world’s oddest and most interesting music, made by acts as varied as Fantmas and Kid 606. Flat Earth Society,…

On “Club Killah,” Robert Houston, aka Black Pegasus, attacks radio programmers for ignoring his music. Most MCs avoid dropping such rhymes out of fear that the words might land on them, but Houston doesn’t hesitate — a bold move typical of an album that’s as honest as it is catchy…

For a compilation of local music, PS 2 oddly lacks a unifying identity; the word “Denver” doesn’t appear anywhere on it, and the bands it features certainly don’t sound very much alike. But diversity has long been a strength of Colorado’s indie scene, even if it somewhat hamstrings groups’ efforts…

Tift Merritt’s sophomore release, the masterful Tambourine, was just nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Album, which is ironic: Although Merritt has been a staple of North Carolina’s alt-country scene for years, the disc is a big departure from the rustic strum of her 2002 debut, Bramble Rose. Her…