Music

We’ve been telling you about the Westword Music Knowcase for weeks. We’ve patiently explained how we will destroy all comers. We even took a few minutes to re-explain it, using only small words, to the conceited and confused elitists at the Donnybrook Writing Academy, who seemed to have trouble getting…

So just in case you were wondering how well Nathaniel Rateliff is being received in other parts of the country, check this out: Last week, he caught the notice of Jon Pareles, the highly estimable pop critic for the New York Times, who saw fit to include Rateliff’s show at…

All right, here’s some news that literally just makes your stomach turn: A few weeks ago, Boonie Mayfield (aka Solomon Vaughn), one of the state’s — hell, the country’s — preeminent beatmakers and producers had his entire studio cleaned out by some soulless scumbags. Worst part: Boon Doc had only…

It was hard for Grant Gordy not to feel ridiculous as he crossed the casino floor in Central City. A showgirl tossing out beads led the parade, and a stilt walker brought up the rear. Gordy was caught somewhere in the middle, picking out Cajun tunes on a tenor banjo…

“People who are interested in the World Cup can roll out of bed and watch it on their couch, but the feeling is that people want to watch it with like-minded people and get with other fans,” says Glen Eastwood, general manager at Fadó (1735 19th Street). “A hundred guys…

Only a handful of people who have been part of the circuit of underground-rock shows in Denver since the early part of last decade remember Façade. Part dream pop and part jazz-inflected rock, the band put out one album before fading into the background in 2002. Its talented guitarist, Joe…

If ever there were an indie-rock Cinderella story, MGMT could be cast in the lead role. Starting out as The Management when Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden were in their first year at Wesleyan University, this project had already been around for a few years by the time it toured…

At first glance, Jamey Johnson looks like someone who just walked out of the outlaw movement. That’s probably because he spent the better part of a decade in the Marines after dropping out of college. Unlike the “outlaws,” though, Johnson moved to Nashville to pursue the beloved country music of…

Written off in the ’90s as yet another relic of the original heavy-metal era, Iron Maiden found new life and relevance when metal made a huge comeback in the new millennium. Still, it’s sad that resurgence had to happen in such a roundabout way: If Maiden has long proved one…

With Glee and Lady Gaga all the rage, one can only hope that flamboyance and theatricality are a bit more acceptable across the board today. Regardless, Jeffree Star can and will push any envelope he can find; the genre-bending artist — who seemingly turned to music as a means to…

It’s been two years since Wovenhand released Ten Stones. But it might as well have been an eternity. Since that last batch of songs, frontman David Eugene Edwards has cast a net across time and space and snared The Threshingfloor, an album that severs the band’s already tenuous tether to…

Laura Brehm is eighteen — and she sounds like it. Start with her voice: With the high, girlish timbre and inflection of Miley Cyrus, she’d rate similarly on the Disney Pop Machine register of innocent to raunchy. Of course, unlike most of those Disney starlets, Brehm writes her own songs,…

Anyone familiar with electronic music of the ’90s and underground hip-hop will hear shades of Sole, Massive Attack, post-ambient Aphex Twin and Dead Cities-era Future Sound of London on this intriguingly eclectic release. If Martin Scorsese decided to remake After Hours, “Makin’ Love Free” would be the ideal song for…

On its bio, Strange Lights, a duo that hails from the town of Crestone, cites influences like Television, the Flaming Lips and R.E.M. Anyone who digs any of those acts, however, would probably steer clear of Strange Lights’ third album, Light Bright. Apart from the incongruous comparison, most of the…

Imagine revamping a fiery activist anthem into a mindless, rump-shaking jam. That’s exactly what Ludacris did on “How Low,” which features Chipmunk-style vocal effects and young girls being seduced out of pajamas. (It should be noted that How low can you go? in Public Enemy’s original version of “Bring the…

The way that Afrofuturist singer Janelle Monáe talks about balance, you’d think she was an acrobat. For example, when discussing the meaning behind her single, “Tightrope” (featuring Big Boi), she touts the importance of avoiding emotionally detrimental extremes. Monáe says the single is similar in spirit to James Brown’s late-’60s anthems…

The music of dubstep artist Excision is a fitting soundtrack to the desolate, gritty, apocalyptic landscape of a future ruled by homicidal machines. His tunes are warped, stuttering affairs studded with samples from both sci-fi and hip-hop (and probably some sci-fi hip-hop for good measure). Wobbly bass that can double…