The Germany of popular imagination is a place ruled by efficiency, order and a rigid, uptight worldview. How is it, then, that so much incredibly sexy, funky house music originates there? Okay, the fact that so much of it is of the stripped-down, minimal variety lends credence to that whole…
In Woody Allen’s film Sweet and Lowdown, Sean Penn plays guitarist Emmet Ray, who said he cried every time he listened to the great gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Some of Reinhardt’s beautiful ballads have the same effect on me, and knowing his history makes the music all the more…
Driving eastbound on I-70, Ellison Park has one hand on the wheel while the other navigates an iPod mounted to his dash. Scrolling through the songs, Park makes his way to the batch of demos he recorded on his MacBook and pushes play. As his voice pours from the speakers…
Beehatch, Beehatch (Lens Records). Frequently danceable and consistently dark, Beehatch is a collaboration between Phil Western and Mark Spybey, both previously members of Skinny Puppy side project Download. Beehatch often sounds like the soundtrack to both your nightmares and your wet dreams, but trance beats and the occasional melodic hook…
If writing obscenely accessible pop is a crime, Set Forth should get the chair. Radio-friendly? Hell, these guys might as well send BFF pendants to program directors with copies of their four-song debut. Figures that the group formed at the behest of a radiohead. Shortly after catching Steve Melton and…
No, the world hasn’t been waiting for another folkish band fronted by a precocious, big-voiced singer, and the familiar nature of the strummier material on Let’s Build doesn’t help separate Girl Named Kyle from the pack. Take the concluding “Epar,” which contains the confession “I feel like I’ve been here…
Singer-songwriter David Berman is as much of an ironist in life as he is in art. Note that after landing in rehab following a Xanax overdose (an act with sardonic aspects of its own), he belatedly embraced Judaism — a belief system he’d never taken that seriously despite his band’s…
Husband-and-wife team Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner seemingly make gorgeous indie-pop songs as casually as the rest of us shower in the morning. Much has changed since they released their 2006 debut on Barsuk, Bring It Back; they’ve moved to New York and had another daughter, for starters. But Re-Arrange…
“We like to do 2 percent jazz and 98 percent funky stuff,” proclaimed Maceo Parker on his 1992 live album, Life on Planet Groove. Sure, he’s a deft jazz player, but when it comes to funk and R&B sax, Parker is the king. After honing his chops in James Brown’s…
Emmylou Harris explored the arty side of the street on her previous three studio albums: 1995’s indelible Wrecking Ball, helmed by studio auteur Daniel Lanois, plus 2000’s Red Dirt Girl and 2003’s Stumble Into Grace, made with Lanois protegé Malcolm Burn. In contrast, All I Intended to Be, her forthcoming…
You know your band is in trouble when it’s being covered by MTV and lumped in with a movement called “Lo-Fi Punk.” Fortunately, the music of Columbus, Ohio’s Times New Viking does not lend itself well to vast commercial accessibility. In both recordings and live performances, the group brings a…
“Post-rock” may not be the most ridiculous descriptor in contemporary music; I’d cast my vote for either “sadcore” or “neo-prog.” Still, the term means next to nothing when it’s applied to a band like Russian Circles, which co-stars on this roster with Daughters and Young Widows. On 2006’s Enter and…
What do you get when your dad leaves the priesthood and your mom gives up on the nunnery? If you’re Martin Dosh, the answer is: piano lessons. And thank God for that. On his fourth proper album, Wolves and Wishes, the Minneapolis native gracefully transforms his love for ambient electronica,…
In “Crystal Beach Memories,” an animated video accessible at www.FunnyOrDie.com, 32-year-old singer-songwriter Hayes Carll remembers his early gigs at Bob’s Sports Bar and World Famous Grille, a Texas eatery that promoted his appearances with a sign that read “All U Can Eat Fried Chicken & Hayes Carll, $4.99.” Carll saw…
Soul singer Bettye LaVette and the Drive-By Truckers recorded The Scene of the Crime in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where one of the most significant things in LaVette’s 47-year singing career happened. In 1972, she recorded Child of the Seventies for Atlantic Records, but instead of it being the breakthrough record…
Denver has long been a home to intelligent, sophisticated pop music. In their relatively brief time together, the Pseudo Dates have established themselves as purveyors of thoughtful, ambitious, infectious pop, with songs that recall the Kinks, early Floyd and various acts from the Elephant 6 collective. On the eve before…
You know when your mom sometimes goes on and on about how handsome you are, or how talented you are and whatnot, and you’re all like, “Ah, ma’, you’re supposed to say that crap. You’re my mom”? Keep that sentiment in mind right now as we tell you just how…
Finnish dance-music producer Ville Virtanen, better known as Darude, scored a giant hit with his first release “Sandstorm,” a track that’s sold close to two million units worldwide since its release. While he’s never managed to replicate the success of that initial monster track, he’s managed to carve out a…
Panic at the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet June 3, 2008 Fillmore Auditorium Trend-hopping highfalutins who place equal value on their hipster credibility and their genitalia likely view Panic at the Disco with contempt bordering on the pathological, and that makes perfect sense. The band…
R.E.M., the National and Modest Mouse Tuesday, May 30, 2008 Red Rocks Better Than: Every large-scale rock show I’ve seen for ten years. Last night was a perfect night for a concert at Red Rocks. What more could you ask for to complement a night of great music besides a…
Slide show by Jon Solomon Return to Forever Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Paramount Theatre Better Than: Going back to the future. When it comes to chops, Lenny White, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola and Stanley Clarke are heavyweights. Just seeing one of these guys on his own would be a…
Hayes Carll’s always been known as an animated performer – but these days, the description can be taken literally. In “Crystal Beach Memories,” a clip accessible at Will Ferrell’s FunnyOrDie.com site, he looks like the image above as he talks about his life and times – topics that dominate a…
