The Threatened and the Wilder Situation Sunday, August 3, 2008 Larimer Lounge Better Than: Everything else going on late on a baking Sunday night. The members of the Threatened, who played an acoustic show without their drummer, informed us sometime toward the end of their set that they’re normally a…
The Fertile Crescent, Hot White and Yoda’s House Saturday, August 2, 2008 Rhinoceropolis Better Than: Having to spend the money to go to the actual Middle East to hear music like this. It was still a sweltering 90 some-odd degrees by the time I got to the Rhino late after…
UMS Day Two Saturday, August 2, 2008 The Baker District, Denver Better Than: Spending the afternoon regretting not going. Due to a prior engagement, I only caught a few bands for this second day of the festival and in capsule format once again: Hunter Dragon & Fridge Magnet, Indy Ink,…
UMS Day One Friday, August 1, 2008 The Baker District, Denver Better Than: Having to miss some of the best bands in Denver in spite of everything. There were plenty of reasons for me not to go to this festival, but ultimately, it would mean having to miss out on…
Locals Only When Ichiban’s name was announced as the winner of Best MC at this year’s Westword Music Showcase, the hip-hop heads in attendance were taken aback but so was the rapper himself. “There were so many dope MC’s in the category this year, I was actually very surprised,” Ichiban…
The Melvins, Secret Chiefs 3 and Big Business Thursday, July 31, 2008 Ogden Theater Better Than: Almost every heavy rock show I’ve ever seen. Maybe it was just the right day, or maybe the Melvins’ crowd is a cut above most, but I expected the show to be sheer mayhem…
Just received word that Robin Thicke’s August 18 show at the Gothic Theatre was canceled. Ray LaMontagne has announced dates for his upcoming fall tour, which includes a stop at Boulder’s Macky Auditorium on October 27, in support of his of his forthcoming album, Gossip in the Grain. Larimer Lounge…
Photo: Tom Murphy Calm Calm, Reflect June, Tullie, Ancient Mith and Mr. Dibbs & Rob Viktum Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Fox Theatre Better Than: A mainstream hip-hop show. I’m pretty sure I got to the show on time and Calm opened their set with one of their best songs –…
It was well nigh impossible to judge this recording objectively on its release date due to the startling death of bassist Johnny Schou — and even weeks later, Schou’s liner-note thanks to friends, family and “last but not least you!” spurs a melancholy reaction he could never have anticipated. Regarding…
It takes extraordinary finesse to put a new spin on grindcore, to say nothing of keeping it interesting for an entire album. How exciting, then, that local grind powerhouse Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire manages to accomplish both in one fell, shrieking swoop on its second album…
On Untitled, Nas is clearly hoping that by name-dropping big issues (reparations, single motherhood, media control) and dazzling you with his acrobatic flow (“I’m over they heads/Like a bulimic on a see-saw”), you’ll gloss over the fact that he’s not saying anything coherent. When he simultaneously decries poverty and glorifies…
The members of Secret Chiefs 3 may not actually be part of some obscure, underground Muslim music scene, but they sure sound like they are, with their appropriation of Arabic and Persian musical styles, if not necessarily instrumentation. Mr. Bungle alumnus Trey Spruance is the main architect of this band’s…
The music marketplace is constantly shifting, but there always seems to be room for artists who fill certain niches: the gorgeous-pop-soulstress-with-the-five-octave-range slot, for instance, or the position of adorable teenage country warbler. Another constant? Handsome young guys who sing in the lounge-friendly style beloved by parents and grandparents everywhere. Harry…
Nederland’s own Yonder Mountain, joined at Red Rocks by Keller Williams, is a jam band in the sense that, well, the members jam, and they do so pretty regularly. But Jeff Austin and company have a better feel for when to say when than many of their instrumentally diarrheal contemporaries…
If this band had stuck with the name Killgun, you might have rightfully expected the kind of music that comes from listening to too much Big Black and Scratch Acid. Instead, the Fertile Crescent’s actual sound skirts close to post-rock with its inspired, sonically rich atmospheres. Inside the unconventional song…
Not really a threesome (tour manager Nolan McGuire often plays guitar for live shows), Alkaline Trio is one of the best purveyors of catchy, thoughtful punk/hardcore at a time when fashion sense and well-applied eyeliner have sadly become the modus operandi of many in the genre. Even though label snafus…
Like corrupt politicians and David Hasselhoff, gangsta rap isn’t going away — but the played-out quality of T*O*S suggests that it’s headed for an extended stretch on the down-low. Five years ago, the smashing aggressiveness of “Straight Outta Southside” would have offset its lack of originality. Now, though, the redundant…
Alice Cooper, Along Came a Spider (SPV Records). Alongside modern-day “slasher” films, this PG-rated tale doesn’t deliver the same shock as Cooper’s 1975 magnum opus, Welcome to My Nightmare. Still, the serial-killer story is on par with any decent episode of CSI, and it’s not bogged down with the narcissistic…
It doesn’t take a genius to make a Mind Eraser. The drink’s usually just equal parts Kahlúa, vodka and tonic or soda water. But there’s something about the combination, or maybe just drinking it down through a straw, that can be downright hazardous. A long time ago, I was at…
One of the beautiful things about being a fan of a relatively young genre such as electronic dance music is that many of the early masters are still performing. Take Frankie Bones, who plays July 31 at the Church. Bones was playing dance music when the ’80s were still a…
Ideal Fathers is a band that shouldn’t work. You shouldn’t be able to mix edgy Gang of Four-esque guitar adventurism and funky rhythms with the thorniness and snarling vocals of early Dead Kennedys and get anything but an unholy mess. Theirs is a collection of sonic elements that seem to…
The last time Republic Tigers singer and multi-instrumentalist Kenn Jankowski was in Denver, he destroyed his guitar and punched his effects pedals after finding out that his wife had been cheating on him. It was late 2005, and Jankowski was in town with his previous band, the Golden Republic, which…
