Update: A memorial service celebrating the life of Nick Williams is scheduled to take place at 4.p.m. this Sunday, January 20, at the Paramount Theatre. The gathering will feature a video montage, as well as words and memories offered up by many of Nick’s lifelong friends and those from his…
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood (Nonesuch) Pop stars who try to establish themselves as serious composers are typically asking for trouble, embarrassment or some combination thereof. Think of Billy Joel: Even though he’s spent much of the past decade focusing on classical music, fans who turn up at his…
LOCALS ONLY Veteran Denver emcee D.O. The Fabulous Drifter is still putting the finishing touches on his new album D.irector of O.perations while working overtime for a collaborative venture. He connected with Canadian songbird JaQe for a project called His and Hers, a combination of hip-hop and soul that D.O…
They say smell is the most powerful trigger for memory. In fact, Marcel Proust wrote a seven-volume novel that all but proved it. For me, though, it’s always been music. As Dave Herrera wrote last week, the songs of our youth, irrespective of their quality, leave an indelible imprint on…
Peña w/ Side-Fi Noise, Blue Angels. Wednesday, January 16, 2008, Larimer Lounge Better than: Doing trigonometry at a bus stop. One chord. Yes, one chord. One sweet, loud, savory guitar chord. That’s all it took. And the next thing everyone knew, “Blitzkrieg Bop” took over a nation. So what is…
Why give anything an earnest listen, when you can make snap judgments? Raheem DeVaughn Love Behind the Melody Zomba Records 01:00-01:45 of “Customer” I had to stare at the cover of this record for a few minutes before I realized that it wasn’t called, “Love From Behind.” I’m not sure…
I’m going to double-check the calendar just to be sure, but I think this could be the year of the Swayback. At least, that’s the sense I get from listening to Long Gone Lads, the act’s absolutely killer new platter, which Eric Halborg blessed me with last week. More than…
Most artists don’t consider premature retirement until after they’ve made it big — really big. But Lupe Fiasco isn’t most artists. His first album, 2006’s Food & Liquor, earned excellent reviews, a trio of Grammy nominations and sales that remain just shy of gold status, and his entertainingly scattershot new…
Art Blakey had a knack for finding young jazz talents and grooming them in his Jazz Messengers group. He helped jump-start the careers of Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, who was just 21 years old when Blakey reached out to him. More…
Some things are best in small doses, including synth-laden dance punk. That may be why Professor Murder sticks to EPs rather than full-length albums. Despite the critical acclaim that followed last year’s five-track debut, the New York City quartet has opted to give away Professor Murder on a Desert Island…
Sounds Under Radio was still unsigned when the producers of Spider-Man 3 heard its song “Portrait of a Summer Thief,” from the then-unreleased album Cinematica, and determined that the Austin-based act’s driving, slightly gloomy yet still accessible sound would be a good fit for the soundtrack. Singer/guitarist Lang Freeman says…
While living in New York a few years ago, I started keeping track of what I played on the jukebox in the three bars I frequented. I’m not entirely sure what inspired me to first jot down song names in my notebook, but it got to the point where I…
When Shea Sweeney and Joe Vacarelli were in the neo-alt-rock band Whirlaway a few years ago, they displayed a surprising level of sophistication in their pop songcraft. While the two have taken a step back from the spotlight as members of the Visitors, their knack for tasteful dynamics and buoyant…
House-heads of Denver, prepare yourself for a treat. Belgian-born house maestro Olivier Desmet makes his first Colorado appearance to promote San Francisco Sessions Vol. 6, his latest mix for the fabled Om Records label. Desmet is a champion of the signature Om sound: melodic, sophisticated deep and funky house studded…
Since the Bravery and the Killers are the two American groups most likely to be misidentified as British, their 2005 pissing match was wholly predictable but more entertaining than anticipated. Recall that the Killers’ Brandon Flowers chided the Bravery’s Sam Endicott for having once played in an outfit named Skabba…
Certain folks will love the music of native Australian Xavier Rudd, while others will hate it the way they despise injustice, cruelty toward children and animals, and the smell of hard-boiled eggs left in the sun for two weeks. To decide which category best fits you, consider the following: 1)…
When Split Lip Rayfield played at the Bluebird Theater in September 2006, it was hard to tell that guitarist Kirk Rundstrom had just a few months to live. Despite the fact that the 37-year-old was battling esophageal cancer, he tore through the set with the fervor of a teenager taking…
Over the past few years, DJ Lee Coombs has emerged as one of the innovators and champions of tech-funk, a sound that fuses elements of techno and acid house to the snappy dance-floor kick of breakbeat. An ever-evolving sound, tech-funk is an accessible blend that takes the funky, earthy sensibilities…
Willie Wisely has paid his dues. Hailing from the same 1980s Midwest scene that spawned the Replacements, Hüsker Dü and the Violent Femmes, Wisely has had a career that’s been as storied as it’s been criminally neglected. He got his start as a promoter at the well-known Minneapolis institution First…
Click here for slide show Sea Wolf Larimer Lounge January 15, 2008 Better than: Watching girls dancing with hula hoops Last May, Sea Wolf played to a handful of people at the Larimer Lounge. The band played a fine set, and after the gig I picked up the band’s Get…
Denver music fans of the 1990s knew Nick Pomeroy as Rusty Shears, the energetic, memorably monikered frontman for the Garden Weasels, a ska-punk combo devoted to good humor and good times. But there was a lot more than wacky stage antics to Pomeroy, who died of cardiac arrest at age…
The January 17 Westword profile of Lupe Fiasco was based on a wide-ranging conversation – and the following Q&A preserves every word. The man born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco begins by discussing the three characters he created for his latest CD, The Cool, noting along the way that they represent pieces…
