That a person could be in two hugely influential bands is rare enough, but John Lydon also became something of an icon for punk rock and experimental music. The Sex Pistols were instrumental in bringing punk rock to the attention of people worldwide, whether they liked the music or not…
You know how they say sex sells and all that? Yeah? Well, spoiler alert: It does. Or does it? What if you’re not instantly cognizant that it’s sex that you’re being sold? What if the innuendos aren’t being overtly pushed along by an undeniably sexualized video? Do you still have…
In the vast universe of freaky shit from which we draw the material for this here Freaky Friday, the strangest entries often come from enthusiastic amateurs with a great love for their art and absolutely no skill at their craft whatsoever. Or sometimes, with a great love for some weird…
A couple of nights ago, we had the absolute pleasure of seeing William Shatner and Lin Yu Chun do a rendition of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on Lopez Tonight that made our hearts cream with loving ecstasy. We have no clue what to actually think of Lin Yu Chin…
Every Friday we spotlight the hottest cats (and kittens) behind the decks in the MHC, grilling them to gain some insight on what it takes, exactly, to get the party rocking, to find out about their most treasured crate digging experiences and what they really think when we stumble up…
Ani DiFranco|Buddy Wakefield 04.22.10|Ogden Theatre It’s appropriate that Ani DiFranco stopped at the Ogden on Earth Day; she revealed during the show that she has a friend in this locale who showed her some springtime joy. When she tours, she said, normally she walks from “bus to basement to stage…
On A Chorus of Storytellers, Album Leaf’s mastermind/frontman Jimmy LaValle once again proves he isn’t a spectacular wordsmith – like a derivative musician who needs to widen his exposure to sounds, LaValle’s lyrics suggest he could benefit from studying poetry for a bit. Just the same, his calm, enigmatic techno-suites…
Reminder in case you missed it when we posted last week: The Swayback is pointing the wayback machine toward the place where it all began. Tonight the outfit is slated to play a show at the Lion’s Lair, where it played its very first show way back in the day…
The biggest expense touring bands face is lodging. Motel rooms, even shitty ones, aren’t cheap. Sometime you can sleep in the van, but let’s face it — that sucks for a multitude of reasons, even though it’s cheap. What is cheap and doesn’t usually suck is crashing on the floor,…
With shit like the Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls blowing up lately, I’ve been trying to trace the all-to-familiar sound back to at least a semblance of its roots. While I could name off a hundred bands I thought these bands sounded like, I couldn’t quite nail it. A…
Jónsi • Death Vessel Paramount Theatre | 04.22.10 There was a moment during Jónsi set at the Paramount while he was playing the (excellent) single “Go Do,” in which 85 percent of the crowd had risen from their seats. That probably makes sense because Jónsi, whose real name involves a…
Julian Casablancas | Haim 04.21.10 | The Ogden Theater Being a bit of a curmudgeon about the Strokes, it was with something more than a small amount of trepidation that I approached frontman Julian Casablancas’ solo show last night at the Ogden. It’s not that the Strokes are bad (they’re…
Meet Savoy, a dance act with the soul of a rock band. “We did always want to play dance music, but we’re also fascinated with the big-time stadium-rock feel, too,” explains Ben Eberdt. “All of our music is dance-y, but a lot of it is very hard-edged and rock-y. We…
Reprise. A decade ago, Denver had dueling dueling piano bars: Sing Sing, which is still going strong at 1735 19th Street (with the slogan “LoDo doesn’t get any lower”); and, over at 1949 Market Street, the Tavern Downtown was once the piano-pushing Soiled Dove. But now Denver’s about to get…
When Kevin Wesley and Darren Kulback started Hot White, it was more of an experimental noise-rock instrumental duo, with guitar and drums laying into seemingly improvisational pieces that were as angular as the were incendiary. With the addition in the fall of 2008 of Tiana Bernard on bent circuits, Hot…
Someone should seriously kill the term “shitgaze” — but it’s not going to be these guys. Given the scatological name and the release of their 2009 Woodsist Records release, Shitgaze Anthems, it’s clear that they embrace the designation. In 2008, Psychedelic Horseshit was part of an MTV2 mini-documentary about lo-fi…
Even though this Brooklyn-based band took its name from an article in The Onion about the location of Donald Rumsfeld’s secret hideout, there’s nothing sinister about the act’s music. If anything, Fang Island, not unlike White Denim, figured out how to bring together styles that shouldn’t work side by side…
Justin Pearson has made a career out of being annoying — but it’s a brutal, funny, sublime, uncompromising and at times even groundbreaking kind of annoying. With his main band of the past fifteen years, the mighty cyber-grind outfit the Locust, on an apparently indefinite hiatus, Pearson has poured his…
B.o.B. did his time in rap’s AAA league, having brushes with success, remaining one or two degrees of separation from household-name status for three years. But that’s all over now: His proper debut full-length, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, will be in stores next Tuesday, and, more likely than not,…
When Nathaniel Rateliff was fronting Born in the Flood, his voice was strident, powerful and pensive. It was impressive, but not uniquely his own. On “Once in a Great While,” the opening track of his Rounder debut, an unblemished near-falsetto croon introduces the world to the new and improved Nathaniel…
From the opening track, the comically harrowing “Cemetary,” through the playful nostalgia of “Pac-Man,” the Lust-Cats have carved a new chapter in outsider punk rock by updating riot grrrl for the current era. “Stand-up Gal,” especially the chorus (“Can’t wait to see her/Kinda want to be her/She’s a real stand-up…
Electro-pop has been zombified so badly over the past few years, it’s no wonder that futurism now sounds totally quaint. The Denver trio Take the Mickey doesn’t try to reinvent the CPU with its new full-length, Dinosaurs Now and Machines Later — but the band does make a valiant attempt…
