Ryan Raddon, who records under the name Kaskade, isn’t a typical superstar DJ. For one thing, he schedules a late-May interview for 9 a.m., a time when most in-demand turntable manipulators are still lingering in slumberland. For another, he speaks just before heading to a recording studio in Salt Lake…
They tend to think I’m some kind of crazy lady,” says Shannon Wright with a laugh. “As far as things I’ve heard through the grapevine, I guess people think I’m angry, or they think the music is depressing.” It’s not hard to see how folks might get the wrong impression…
At this very moment, hundreds of bands in cities, towns and rural areas are studiously imitating Bad Religion. The group has survived for nearly a quarter-century, and for most of that span, it’s rarely been seen as trendy. Nonetheless, the blend of sonic rudiments, melodic brawniness and social savvy –…
When DJ Danger Mouse and Brooklyn MC Jemini released Ghetto Pop Life in October 2003, only those in the know — or in the U.K. — really caught on. But once Danger Mouse dropped The Grey Album — a remix of Jay-Z’s The Black Album using sounds and samples from…
Tied together by a threatening Lee Van Cleef spaghetti-Western theme, Dead Girls Don’t Cry rides the range from clanging Sabbath metal (“Black Wedding”) to harsh rockabilly (“Shock Star”). Loaded with death-defying two-part harmony, a well-crafted score, insane drum patter and orgasmic guitar licks, the Danes in Nekromantix have grown fiercer…
Chicago DJ/producer Felix da Housecat paid his dues for years in the underground scene, then exploded like a well-timed volcano with his 2001 release Kittenz and Thee Glitz, featuring oversexed electro chanteuse Miss Kittin. After starting off as a real house cat at fourteen and hitting Europe at seventeen, at…
Critics, including this one, tend to use terms like “competent,” “solid” and “professional” when reviewing albums that fail to hit our sweet spot but aren’t so mediocre as to deserve slagging. As a result, it’s easy for scribblers to forget that the qualities denoted by these identifiers can be positive,…
With a screech of chalk, today’s lesson begins. It’s time for the music-appreciation professor to liven up his boring-ass syllabus. “Set Me Free is an example of motifs from the classic period blended with modern elements like brick beats,” he says with a satisfied half-grin. As string-backed programming plays, some…
Three weeks ago, I opined in this space on the American Music Auditions that had taken place at Avalon May 12-16. I received quite a few e-mails in response, most of them from members of bands that had been duped — er, I mean, had participated in the event. None…
The globe may be far from grooving these days, but lovers and fighters, hawks and doves, Bush-lickers and Kerry converts alike can tune all of that out at the Global Groove World Music Festival. With its eclectic, communal vibe, the fest is an ozone-friendly, disaster-film-free example of global warming. Appropriately…
In an interview with Tampa’s Weekly Planet earlier this year, John Paul Caballero, bassist for California-based dios (below), predicted that “everybody’s gonna write about we’re a bunch of Mexicans, that we’re from Hawthorne and sound like the Beach Boys.” But journalists who stop there will be giving short shrift to…
Taking its name from one of the most stupid bits of slang ever to infest the youth vernacular, Hella (above) hails from the bland, artless sprawl of Sacramento. But the instrumental duo of guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer Zach Hill make some of the most adventurous, challenging noise rock going…
The concept of lo-fi is a curious one. How can something sound too good? Indie groups currently attempting to emulate the sound of ’60s garage bands overlook the fact that those older bands were striving for the highest-fidelity standards possible. The vinyl snap, crackle and pop and piss-poor production weren’t…
Kiss’s makeup is the foundation of the band in more ways than one. Truth be told, the group’s only got about three good songs — and, no, “Beth” isn’t one of them. The reason Kiss didn’t descend into rock-and-roll hell a long time ago, then, is due to its collective…
People love to hate Poison, but the band’s members are having too much fun to care. They tour faithfully, coming around Denver almost every year — and just as faithfully, fans keep showing up to hear them play. Because playing is what Poison’s always been about: pleasure in its many…
It’s a story as old as dirt and every bit as gritty: Rock band forms, shows promise, toils for years and years, fails to grab the brass ring and finally is written off as irrelevant. When faced with the fact that it will never make the bigtime, each act reacts…
Dave Ralph began his career in the late ’70s, before many of his fans were even born. His ingenuity and inclusion of multiple influences from outside the dance-club norm changed him from wandering unknown DJ to one of the most sought-after names on the scene. Ralph is a born performer…
If a bar owner wants to present live music, I think the requisite cabaret license should automatically be approved. Unfortunately, the real process is much more tedious, as Sudy Kudva has learned. Kudva, the new owner of the Squire Lounge,at 1800 East Colfax Avenue, is trying to get the city’s…
Yeah, we just mope around all the time,” says Mike Hudson, bassist for Aveo. It takes a half a second to realize that Hudson is fucking around. Upon first hearing Battery, the Seattle-based outfit’s new disc, you might not expect the trio to be anything but pensive, excruciatingly sincere, maybe…
Good Charlotte is one of the biggest bands in the nation right now, a pop-punk quintet that’s played the MTV Video Music Awards, graced the cover of Rolling Stone and sold over three million copies of its latest disc, The Young and the Hopeless. To Good Charlotte vocalist Joel Madden,…
Some bands are like street gangs. Others are like closeted gay relationships. The best, though, fall somewhere in between, and Detachment Kit (appearing Friday, June 4, at the Larimer Lounge) is just such a combo. Ian Menard and Charlie Davis formed the duo some dozens of months ago in Chicago,…
The average record-label sampler is an inconsistent mélange of already overexposed songs that weren’t that great to begin with. Jade Tree’s latest 21-track compilation, however, is a rare find that showcases the most interesting and talented artists on the label’s impressive roster. Since launching the Jade Tree imprint in 1990,…
