On her third release, Fun9 (somehow pronounced “funk”), Minekawa lays down a manifesto of experimental pop and future folk. It’s a curious record of breathy, My Bloody Valentine-esque dissonance, beautiful melodies and experimental bedroom samplings. Yet Fun9 is catchy without being pure kitsch. Minekawa makes jet-set pop for the future…
In September 1999, local hip-hop promoter Wendy Barr invited more than a hundred of her closest friends into a not-quite-finished space on Market Street, a portion of LoDo known for its sports bars, trendy restaurants and even trendier people. It was the grand opening of Liquid, a dance club that…
Bad Brains, Tuesday, February 22, at the Bluebird Theater, with Fitz of Depression and Gina Go Faster, are back with all of the band’s original players after a four-year spiritual retreat. Whatever cosmic realms the bandmembers may have trespassed during that time, musically, they’re doing what they’ve always done. Combining…
The fifth annual Artopia, Saturday, February 19, at the Temple Events Center, promises an evening of tribalism, trance music and extraterrestrial art under tents. This year’s fete is hosted by Westword, and the rulers of Artopia seem as intent on summoning alien craft as they are on showcasing some fine…
Looking to get a dose of Scott Joplin in your head? Have you got visions of gambling halls, the origins of jazz and boater hats floating in your veins? Then get a load of the 7th Evergreen Ragtime Bash, Saturday and Sunday, February 19 and 20, at the Evergreen Elks…
Tommy “Working Man” Thomas is in a jam. Sure, he’s got a new CD, Working Man, out in stores, and he’s slowly selling copies of the bluesy six-song disc. He’s also getting a dash of airplay on the local airwaves. But musically speaking, Thomas’s handle doesn’t seem to hold water…
Talk to a purveyor of the blues long enough and you’ll eventually hear about how (irony of ironies) the fans in Europe have so much more respect for the form than do their counterparts in the U.S. of A., where the genre was born. But according to guitarist/vocalist Judah Bauer…
Chuck Prophet’s earlier solo work was likable enough: twangy, stripped-down roots rock that, released nowadays, would immediately get him pegged as yet one more exponent of alternative country, singer-songwriter division.(Think Tom Petty without the Byrds infatuation and recording budget.) The Hurting Business, though, rises head and torso above his four…
A former member of the Delta deconstructionist duo Doo Rag, Log has chosen a literal interpretation of the term “stripped-down blues” on his second solo release: He credits Trike’s rhythm section to two “professional women,” by which he does not mean musicians. Instead, Log paid a pair of female pros…
One of the joys of truly independent discs is the lack of baggage they carry. Or, to put it another way, you can’t come to an album with preconceptions if you don’t know anything about it. Take Enter the Draco, by the duo of Mima and Naoki Morimoto, aka Draco…
With each subsequent release of the various Wu solo projects, the individual members (perhaps with the exception of Method Man), have all seen diminishing returns in the fickle rap marketplace. Which raises the question: Does the public still crave product from the Wu-Tang dynasty? With this followup to his classic…
Over the telephone, local blues light Nina Storey has a teeny-tiny voice. It’s the soft-spoken, polite kind of voice one might expect of a florist, or a librarian, or a person who spends large amounts of time soothing animals or small children. So when she expounds on the latest wave…
Luscious Jackson, Monday, February 14, at the Fillmore Auditorium, with Smash Mouth and 22 Jacks, takes its smooth swagger on the road in support of Electric Honey, the band’s first album since the departure of keyboardist Vivian Trimble. Now a trio with vocalist/bassist Jill Cunniff, drummer Kate Schellenbach, and guitarist/vocalist…
Acoustic Junction, Thursday, February 17, at the Gothic Theatre, with the Yonder Mountain String Band and Fox Trot Zulu, returns after a hiatus from live performances. But the popular Boulder-based band hasn’t spent its time away from area stages gingerly: After finding itself freed from a recording contract with Capricorn…
Material World, Saturday, February 12, at the Boulder Theater, pays homage to the decade of Dallas, jellies and Reagonomics as part of an ’80s Retro Dance Party. The good people at the Boulder will convert the palatial music and film venue into a nightclub revisiting that dark decade with performances…
Besides immortalizing the pithy catchphrase “squeal like a pig,” the 1972 screen adaptation of writer James Dickey’s Deliverance burned an indelible impression into our collective unconsciousness through its lightning-quick, banjo-fueled soundtrack. Go ahead — try to forget that wonderfully creepy genetic wildcard who out-grins and out-picks actor Ronnie Cox note…
For a public that ordinarily associates politics in music with can’t-miss issues such as world hunger and rocking the vote, j.frede’s theories about cultural hegemony can be as startling as his intense brand of electronic noise. “My whole political standpoint is about the idea of terrorists being victims trying to…
1999 was a good year for the white suburban thuglet: Kid Rock catapulted to stardom as an ace bulldog in a bullshitter’s paradise; the proud, fiery crime spree of Rapestock ’99 boasted no fewer than eight reported sexual assaults — two in the mosh pit, for Chrissakes — and all…
In the eyes of the modern classical press, Stephen Scott can’t compare with Philip Glass and Steve Reich; an ocean’s worth of ink has been spilled over the opuses of the latter pair, while Scott’s work has spelled doom for just a puddle or two. The reason is simple: Unlike…
At least as significant as the advent of grunge or R&B’s takeover of the pop charts in the ’90s was the rise of Southern rap, starting with Arrested Development in 1993. For one thing, although that groundbreaking hip-hop crew fizzled by the time of its second release, Southern rap has…
In the interest of full disclosure, I must take this opportunity to let readers know that Backwash is in the midst of negotiating a merger with America Online, Time Warner and EMI, so that, like the entire catalogues from Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, everything printed on…
The klezmer clarinet has recently seen more action than Hugh Hefner, as a revived interest in Jewish traditional music has caused little pockets of klezmer mania to pop up in the most unlikely of places. Take, for instance, the case of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, who play Friday, February…
