Music

Owing a clear artistic debt to the smoky atmospheres and muscular rhythms of Portishead, Ode to the Marionette performs the kind of music you’d expect to hear in a club scene in a Gregg Araki movie. The outfit sounds a bit like the Cranes with a grounding in jazz lounge…

When it comes to Akron/Family, expect the unexpected. The group boasts not one, not two, but three multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriters: Dana Janssen (who took part in a Q&A accessible at blogs.westword.com/backbeat), Seth Olinsky and Miles Seaton. Moreover, each member of the trio is so naturally eclectic that the tuneage on their…

Jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall has released a dozen albums in the two decades she’s been performing professionally. Her latest album, the bossa-nova-tinged Quiet Nights, might be her most romantic effort to date. She has said the album is very womanly — “like you’re lying next to your lover…

Having formed during a backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail, San Francisco’s Hot Buttered Rum is, on the surface, pretty much the embodiment of what many find so distasteful about the jam-band scene: Rum has worked with former members of the Dead, tours around the country in biodiesel-fueled vehicles…

One day, perhaps, Oklahoma psych-pop ensemble Starlight Mints will finally escape the long shadow cast by fellow Okie weird-rockers The Flaming Lips. But that day isn’t coming anytime soon. And singer-guitarist Allan Vest’s high, quirky voice, his surreal lyrics, the act’s interest in orchestral-flavored arrangements and everything-including-the-kitchen-and-bathroom-sink sonic experimentation doesn’t…

With so many bands using the musical equivalent of Mr. Peabody’s Waybac Machine, San Diego’s Donkeys are hardly alone in terms of looking to the past for direct inspiration. Often enough, Americana and country are where punk rockers end up when their anger peters out. These four may not have…

The five-song debut EP from Hearts Like Lions kicks off with “Through the Cracks,” an irresistible, luminescent monster of a track. Balancing edgy, epic guitar lines with simple synths and an unforgettable vocal, the tune references a large swath of the ’80s new wave without pointing too closely in any…

Subcon has been playing the local rap game since the mid-’90s, and Antitoxin sounds like it. No question that he’s well-intentioned on numbers such as “Hey Mom,” dedicated to “all the single mothers out there,” and “4Ever Mine,” a sincere love song — and “Too Blessed to Be Stressed” is…

The title track of this album is an opening salvo that sets the pace for a collection of songs that make you wonder how this outfit can call itself Yawn Tron. As Iuengliss, Tom Metz’s solo material is expansive and heady, in sharp contrast to his work here. The first…

From Unadorned’s balls-out opener, “Escape From the Suburbs,” all the way through to the disc’s bonus cut, CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” it’s apparent these guys are well-schooled in the ways of ’70s and ’80s punk and garage rock. The garage-y “Repossession,” one of the album’s highlights, is…

While being hailed as one of the city’s best blues bands, the Informants also mix it up with soul, rock and rockabilly, as heard on their outstanding 2007 debut, Stiletto Angel. The group continues down a similar path on its new album, Crime Scene Queen, which was produced by Big…

Aerosmith still sounds remarkably vital for a band that’s been battering auditory canals since Richard Nixon’s first term. But its members are paying the price for abusing their bodies on an epic scale during the ’70s and ’80s. Over the past year or so, they’ve collectively suffered from enough health…

If you long for the glory days of progressive house, ache for the smooth, propulsive and polished mixes of Sasha and John Digweed past, you need to listen to 16 Bit Lolitas (due at Vinyl on Friday, July 31). Amsterdam-based Peter Kriek and Ariaan Olieroock are busy re-creating that same…

Although its members are pushing sixty, AC/DC is still going strong. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a bunch of younger musicians coming along and paying tribute to the Australian hard-rock masters. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a city on earth that didn’t have at least one AC/DC…

So yesterday we posted some footage of the Fray crew pranking the Meese boys and vice versa. Seems this sort of tomfoolery is rite of passage on tour. Who knew? Evidently, while they were on the road with Katy Perry in Europe, the members of the boy band known as…

Elizabeth & The Catapult and Greg Laswell Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Walnut Room Better Than: A show with similarly-minded music performed by a bunch of stiffs. For various reasons I don’t often find myself going to the Walnut Room for a show, but a little band from Brooklyn caught my…

Have you seen this? The infomercial for the “most controversial music festival in the world,” the 10th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos? Redamndiculous. Everywhere you look, as host Sugar Slam so eloquently puts it, there’s some different shit popping off. Indeed. They should call this little shindig — slated to…

We heard murmurs about this over the weekend, but the official word just came down. Beginning Friday morning at 10 a.m., Indie 101.5 will be broadcasting at Indie303.com. Being billed as Denver’s internet station, Indie 303 will presumably work to build its niche ala WOXY.com (which, incidentally, is in the…