The Acorn Glory Hope Mountain Paper Bag Records 00:22-01:07 of “Low Gravity” The Acorn proves, apparently, that Canadian indie-rock has a “sound,” and bands like the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade and the Acorn all jerk each other off with their Baroque attitudes, collective ideals and slightly worldly…
On the Tuesday before Father’s Day in 2006, Tia Fuller went to an audition that changed her life. Beyoncé was scouting for members of her ten-piece, all-female touring band at Sony Studios in New York. Although the tryouts started at 9 a.m., Fuller didn’t show up until 6 p.m. The…
Precious few listeners notice the drumming in modern-rock bands. But Julian Dorio, stick man for the Whigs, is an exception to this rule. His agitated skinsmanship on Mission Control, the band’s new full-length, not only anchors the album, but provides just as many of the hooks as do frontman Parker…
If Clipse and its Re-Up Gang collaborators ever get arrested, they might regret rapping about selling “more powder than Maybelline.” Now signed to Columbia, the outfit is prepping for its next proper album with a new installment of the We Got It 4 Cheap series. Get it for free (via…
About halfway through David Allan Coe’s song “You Never Even Called Me By My Name,” he talks about how his friend Steve Goodman wrote the first part of the song and told Coe that it was the perfect country-and-Western song. Coe then goes on to say that he wrote his…
Like invaders from the North Country, Greeley’s Lil Slugger is something of a shockingly unexpected surprise — but in a good way. Rather than, say, looting, raping or setting things on fire, this ferocious foursome adds credence to the notion that some of the most compelling music comes from people…
At last, chiptunes have arrived to give even techno snobs something to point at as being “too electronic-sounding.” Fashioned out of the raw, bracing sound of ancient game machines and obsolete computer circuits bent into music machines, chiptunes are both nostalgic and forward-looking. They fuse the sound of childhood’s sugar-fueled…
Crossover quintet Sworn Enemy came out of New York’s hardcore scene about ten years ago. Its early material was, at best, a pale shadow of Agnostic Front’s worst. With nothing to lose, the band switched from NYHC to thrash on 2006’s The Beginning of the End. And it worked: Trading…
Eschewing convention, this Torontonian electro outfit — with a name only a motherfucker could love — doesn’t use computers to create its hallucinatory soundscape. Compelled by an aesthetic defined as “find something in the trash and plug it in,” founding members Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh create their effects using…
By titling their 2003 debut full-length The Decline of British Sea Power, Scott Wilkinson and his shipmates seemed determined to lower expectations. In contrast, the moniker affixed to the outfit’s latest album — Do You Like Rock Music?, recently issued on the Rough Trade imprint — is practically a dare,…
Although the willowy Ms. U, on tour with Keith Urban, may have been the most generic American Idol winner to date, she’s used this indistinctiveness to her advantage. Underwood initially came across as a blandly pretty warbler with no neck and zero stage presence; she moved her arms stiffly in…
In an era when countless bands were emulating successful formulas from years past, the Dismemberment Plan was a refreshing departure: It wasn’t a punk band, yet it played with the furious intensity of one. And it wasn’t a funk or jazz act, but its rhythmic sophistication hinted at such influences…
At the end of January, when I first glanced at the tentative list of acts chosen to perform at this year’s South by Southwest festival, I did a double take. The lineup looked like a holdover from the first Bush administration, the days when gas was still under two bucks…
“One After 909” The Beatles Let It Be…Naked My single top Rock ‘n’ Roll fantasy goes as follows. The Beatles are in trouble and Paul clings desperately to the idea that he can save the band by convincing John that the only thing to be done is to head out…
The Whigs, a buzz band that gets the profile treatment in the March 6 Westword, plays music of the sort typically identified as indie rock – yet drummer Julian Dorio continues to receive the sort of love from percussion aficionados that’s all but unheard of in the genre. Dorio takes…
Here’s another highlight from the Westword Q&A archives: a wonderful conversation with country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell that preceded a June 17, 2004 profile. At the time, Crowell was no longer scoring hits as he did throughout the ‘80s, when he and his former wife, Rosanne Cash, were country royalty, but…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Video games are so the new rock and roll, which makes this Battle of Rock Band tournament, in which players competed at the game Rock Band, the new Ed Sullivan Show. Or something…
Saturday, March 1 saw the CD release party of Astrophagus at Hi-Dive. There was rock, blood and roller derby girls and all was good, as you can see and read in this slide show review…
Oblio Duo and the Archers, Monofog, Bad Luck City Friday, February 29, 2008 3 Kings Tavern Better than: Almost anything else you can get for five dollars Anticipation and delayed gratification aren’t that common in the Denver music scene. The talented bands that play around town are so eager to…
Michael Jackson Thriller 25 (Epic/Legacy) Thriller’s continuing ubiquity — not to mention MJ’s descent into epic creepiness — makes the planet’s best-selling album as difficult to objectively analyze as The Wizard of Oz. But the 25th-anniversary edition’s best moments remain stellar, even if some cuts taste cheesier than Kraft Singles…
Locals Only DJ Low Key is doing big things in Denver right now. The last year was a big one for the Basementalism Radio Show alum and 2008 is looking to be just as big. He ended 2007 having his mixtape Median’s Relief in the Making (hosted by 9th Wonder)…
Sometimes, all that stands between a mundane, quotidian existence and an ecstatic assumption into the heavens is a sneeze guard. Such was the case for Hearts of Palm’s set at Artopia last Saturday night. Though it was probably the only space large enough to hold the band – normally nine…
