Along with tunesmith David Rawlings, Buddy Miller is a relatively low-profile member of the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue, a lineup of rootsy performers anchored by Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Gillian Welch — but that doesn’t mean he’s low on talent. Indeed, Miller happens to be one of the most…
“What is it/This anger dissected?” wails Gabe Shapiro of Volante in the song “Everybody Loses.” Little does he know, he’s already answered his own question. “Anger dissected” pretty much nails his band’s sound: a surgically wrought revelation of buried strife, a biopsy of amputated desires and in-grown rage. When Volante…
If the members of Machine Head (below, left) sound like they have something to prove on their latest effort, the menacing, prog-core opus Through the Ashes of Empires, it’s because they do. After meekly following trends with releases like 1999’s regrettable Burning Red and 2001’s Supercharger, which suffered the post-9/11…
The eight-hour Projekt Revolution festival is a lot like Lollapalooza once was: a long, eclectic rundown of name-brand, rock-the-house acts, following one another in rapid succession. Rock, represented by the Used and Less Than Jake, is in the minority here. Two of hip-hop’s modern greats, Ghostface and Snoop Dogg, provide…
In 1978, Grease was the word. And Olivia Newton-John proved she could be America’s darling as both the sweet, sweater-clad character seen throughout most of the movie — and the black-leather bad girl glimpsed at the end. Starring with a young, lean John Travolta in the cinematic romp that’s still…
Two things never fail: Only the good die young, and all the great Denver bands break up before their time. Add Manalive! to the latter. The stalwart local trio will be packing it in this Friday, August 27, at Pancho’s Villa (3428 Downing Street), with Bailer, Call Sign Cobra, Murder…
U.K. hard-trance DJ Scott Bond was initiated into his craft in 1989 at one of the rowdiest clubs in England, the Hummingbird. If the playlist didn’t meet the crowd’s fancy, glass bottles were thrown straight at the DJ’s head. Talk about being tossed straight into the lion’s den. You either…
Huey Lewis once said, “Sometimes ‘bad’ is bad.” And I think he’d agree that saddling your bar with a name likely to net more Beavis-like snickers than business is one of those bad times. While there may have been other factors involved in the recent closing of Surges, I’ll bet…
The Velvet Teen practices in a shack made of long white planks covered in fuzzy, sea-green moss. Located in Petaluma, California, a couple dozen feet off the highway, next to the home of bassist Joshua Staples’s parents, the shack is a small room with low ceilings; if it were underground,…
Every DJ is a junkie — a record junkie, that is. Digging through moldy piles of used vinyl and lining your crates with rare sides isn’t just a means to an end for a DJ, but a sheer rush in and of itself. Dusty fingers, bleary eyes, dog-eared want lists…
Try as they might, veteran performers tend to mellow with the years — but Primus’s Les Claypool and P-Funk vet Bernie Worrell show few signs of succumbing to this inclination. Along with guitarist Buckethead and occasional Primus drummer Brain, both of whom survived the endless sessions for the alleged Guns…
Trashcan Sinatras was already a throwback when it popped up in the early ’90s — a reincarnation of the jangly, Smiths-inflected pop that had been supplanted by the psychedelic groove of the Stone Roses and the ambient barrage of My Bloody Valentine. But the group wasn’t without a certain charm,…
It happens sometimes when you walk down the street in a faraway city: A face floats out of the crowd, so familiar it hurts, so unexpected it makes your chest clench. You can’t place it; it doesn’t belong to any particular person you’ve ever known. But your whole being resonates…
This album has taken so long to arrive that expectation has probably curdled into cynicism in some quarters. Rumor had it that Miss Machine was to be an attempt at a glossy sellout. Others predicted a lame rehashing of Calculating Infinity. Either way, suckage was the prognosis. Well, the only…
Rancid side projects need no longer be feared. The Bastards contain exactly zero members of Blink-182. Instead, Frederiksen has stolen former Forgotten guitarist Craig Leg and borrowed Forgotten/Slip singer Gordy. On Viking, his second solo effort, Frederiksen offers seventeen tracks of variable-speed rock with gruff Motrhead vocals. The first several…
With the release of its third record, Detroit Deli: A Taste of Detroit, Slum Village has been paired down to a duo. Jay Dee and Baatin may be gone, but T3 and Elzhi haven’t missed a step. The bangin’ first single, “Selfish,” featuring Kanye West and John Legend, proves that…
As documented in these pages, Pound Boys Greg Diehl and Craig Christenson, better known as DJ Dealer and DJ Craig C, have gone their separate ways. Fortunately, they left behind this generous collection — three discs’ worth of house improvements that provide a convenient survey of dance music in Denver…
Ten minutes can be an eternity. Take, for example, the Great Redneck Hope’s new CD, Behold the Fuck Thunder — a nine-minute-and-eighteen-second, eleven-track geyser of heaviness and schizophrenia that stretches (shrinks?) the idea of the “full-length album” to the point of implosion. It takes longer to read Fuck Thunder’s song…
In last week’s Beatdown, I insisted that hip-hop was not responsible for the latest melees in Mootown. Never let it be said that I’m not willing to put my money where my mouth is: On Thursday night, I ventured into the belly of the beast — Bash, in the heart…
Vinyl’s kinda pricey. Any DJ who’s serious about his job has gotta have a budget for shopping. Fortunately, Mark Farina funneled most of his scratch into record-store registers while still freeloading off the P and M. After finally moving away from the shelter of his parents’ roof, grocery bills –…
Todd Snider first garnered attention with his 1994 single, “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” from his debut, Songs From the Daily Planet. Unfortunately, the too-clever, Dylanesque sendup of the Emerald City’s self-indulgence — coupled with his too-handsome publicity shots — caused many to write him off as a novelty act…
Carl Newman, as he’s been known for most of his career, has an estimable track record thanks to the estimable tracks he’s placed on records by Zumpano and, especially, the New Pornographers. (Mass Romantic and Electric Version, issued in 2000 and 2003, respectively, provided all the pleasures promised by the…
