Maggie Simpson is an acoustic guitarist and songwriter, a teacher who instructs other musicians on how to connect emotionally with their own art. Three years ago, Simpson left Boulder for Laramie, Wyoming, our dusty metropolitan cousin to the north, where many a saloon window is darted with historic bullet holes…
Minneapolis rapper Slug might not yet be “bigger than breast implants” as he boasts on his song “Guns and Cigarettes,” but the lyrical skills he displays on that track and on other humorous cuts, like the pimpalicious “Lyle Lovette” (from his cassette-only release Headshots Se7en), are as notorious as Anna…
Eric Shiveley has shed the Shive-Tones, the band that backed him since the release of Everything Is Good in late 1999. He’s also bucked any notion that his moves as a songwriter can be easily predicted. On Desert Airport, unveiled on Saturday, January 12, at Herman’s Hideaway, with Carolyn’s Mother…
In the days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the nation’s radio programmers attempted to rid their playlists of material they feared might offend the sensibilities of a jittery public — a trend that temporarily left black marks on songs as disparate as System of…
The spectacular pre-holiday sales success of Echoes isn’t especially surprising. America is filled with people who greatly enjoyed taking drugs during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s but are no longer in a position to do so on even a semi-regular basis. For them, two discs of Floyd offer a safe,…
David Hollander has an enduring affinity for instrumental soundtrack music, especially from cop shows of the ’70s. With campy credits that include Kojak and Barnaby Jones, Hollander — whose DJ handle, Lil’ Earl, alludes to his early role on What’s Happening!!, where he played opposite a dancing gastropod called Rerun…
You’ve got to love an album that begins with a song called “Bells of Saint Alcohol.” Davey VonBohlen’s matter-of-fact account of booze-as-career is somehow light and airy — or at least accepting, even reverent, of a way of life that is usually treated with more dreary concern and grimness. On…
Further proof that the digital age can make strange bedfellows: This week, the Mercury Cafe will christen the Denver Barn Dance, a monthly series of country-music performances that hark back to the days when a nice, whoopin’ hootenanny closed a day of ridin’, ropin’ and Bible reading. And while the…
Aerosmith, Saturday, January 5, at the Pepsi Center, with Cheap Trick, has been an easy target for years; the headline “Dude Looks Like a Grandpa” appeared in one of Westword’s sister papers half a decade ago. But before you start chortling at the image of 53-year-old Steven Tyler spinning around…
The 8 Bucks Experiment is still technically a local band, though its knack for crafting smart, mathematically precise blasts of post-punk aggression has earned the Denver four-piece a name outside its hometown. A touring machine driven by the three brothers O’Meara, 8 Bucks is always worth the price of admission…
The year 2001 produced its share of catastrophes: major terrorist campaigns in D.C. and New York, a widespread anthrax scare — and J. Lo’s solo debut. Fortunately, there’s plenty worth remembering about the first official year of the new millennium, as artists of every genre proved that music still matters,…
In two shows, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Sunday, December 30, and Monday, December 31, at the Bluebird Theater, will say farewell to the year 2001 as well as the state of Colorado and three members of the band: Pedal-steel guitarist John Rumley, bassist “Danny Pants” Grandbois and drummer Ordy Garrison…
The Tarmints help break in a new performance space with a triple-bill show that includes the Cool-Rays and the Fifth Utility. On Saturday, December 29, the three bands will share the stage of the newly restored Oriental Theatre on 44th Avenue and Tennyson, a space now used by the Artists’…
There’s a reason that Sound Tribe Sector 9 has a following in towns like San Francisco and Boulder. While some bands rock for a cause, like forgiveness of Third World debt, and many rock just because, Sound Tribe is among a select handful that rock for healing — though healing…
First there was Napster, which made it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to get thousands of songs for free. It was one of the Net’s true mass-market hits, landing its nineteen-year-old creator on the cover of Time while thirty million users traded nearly three billion songs a month…
As film critics everywhere have pointed out, the first Ocean’s Eleven, released in 1960, isn’t much of a movie. The assorted “actors,” led by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., look as if they’re either suffering from lingering hangovers or are still tipsy (which mostly they were), and…
Poor Yoko. Born into an elite Japanese banking family and heiress to John Lennon’s estate, rock’s most famous widow seems to have tried everything under the sun to cope with the trappings of wealth: high-rent seclusion, mink coats, primal-scream therapy, tarot cards, waging peace from the comfort of bed, catching…
Living in the land of 10,000 lakes seems to do strange things to people. Take Manplanet, for instance. Aside from assuming a name that aggressively sounds like a gay-sex Web site, each member of this Minnesota-based band once fearlessly donned a snug vinyl bodysuit for a photo shoot in a…
Gwen Stefani was everywhere this year — or at least it seemed that way. Moby’s wan “South Side” became a much better song after the No Doubt singer’s spunky appearance sparked the remix, and her cred-defining cameo on Eve’s “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” made for one super girl-power single…
On Monday night, the Denver City and County Building reeked of teen spirit. During a meeting at which they were finally to vote on a much-belabored bill allowing for a new class of cabaret license — one that would allow patrons over sixteen years of age to mix with grownups…
Gigi, at the Palace Event Center on Saturday, December 22, has helped to modernize and popularize a style of pop music that thrived in Addis Ababa, the capitol of her native Ethiopia, in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Produced by Bill Laswell, Gigi’s recently released debut album abounds in…
Though they’re unabashedly spunky and devoid of pretense, the Dinnermints’ brand of bubble-punk still has its artistic leanings: The band sprang from the obtuse, intentionally difficult ambient project called the Twins, which enlisted ‘Mints singer/guitarist Sarah Mesmer and drummer Peter Carnovale. No surprise, then, that the guitar- and hook-heavy trio…
