Three years ago last week, when I became the Backbeat editor of this hallowed fish wrap, I was convinced that I had landed the coolest gig in the music biz, bar none. But now I’m not so sure. After speaking with Alexandra Patsavas, who handles music-supervision duties for such shows…
Drag the River ain’t your grandpappy’s country — unless your grandpappy used to stitch Op Ivy patches to his hoodies and rock out in prominent local punk bands. Then, yeah, this is that old-timer’s kind of groove. The Fort Collins-based outfit boasts a lineup of luminaries that reads like an…
The Veronicas are 21-year-old twin sisters out of Brisbane, Australia, who have been performing together since they were five. Just two years ago, Warner Bros./Sire signed Lisa and Jess Origliasso for an obscene amount of cash, with hopes of turning the girls into the next Ashlee Simpson or Kelly Clarkson…
R&B heartthrob Chris Brown admits to having dated at least one older woman in his day, which isn’t hard to believe. He just turned seventeen, and given the blockbuster success of his eponymous debut CD and its irresistible lead single, “Run It!,” there’s an enormous number of potential candidates. Nevertheless,…
Lachey and Angel are members of an especially creepy brotherhood: They’re both ex-boy-banders who opened their lives to reality-TV cameras in the name of career advancement. Nevertheless, their discs are poles apart. Lachey’s CD is the equivalent of a tear-jerking Lifetime movie, while Angel’s largely eschews lachrymose sentimentality in favor…
Mojave 3 is made up of shoegazing trumpeters Neil Halstead (on vocals and guitar), Rachel Goswell (vocals and bass) and Ian McCutcheon (drums). Formerly known as the entrancing ambient-pop dream outfit Slowdive, the British mates dropped the dive-y moniker in favor of Mojave 3 when their music picked up pace…
On their third album, the core members of I See Hawks in L.A. are joined by Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), Rick Shea (Dave Alvin Band) and other heavies from L.A.’s alt-country gang. It’s the songwriting of the principal bandmates, though, that grabs your attention. Lead vocalist and guitarist…
The majority of Colorado hip-hop artists haven’t made a ripple outside the state, and in years past, there were good reasons for their fate; with a handful of exceptions, even promising performers just weren’t ready to challenge the genre’s big-timers. Today, however, that’s less true than ever before, as the…
Metal dudes are totally cute — those big, burly Hessian beards and pot-bellied pudges of flesh stretching out faded biker T-shirts touting slogans like “If you can read this, then the bitch fell off.” Just like a wicker basket of puppies, those headbanging alpha males are — yup, just like…
Angels & Airwaves, We Don’t Need to Whisper (Suretone/Geffen). Ex-blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge is the rare musician who appears to have told the truth when he said he separated from his previous band over artistic differences. Problem is, he replaces blink’s pop punk with bloated arrangements, pretentious lyrics and guitar…
Quavery-voiced New Jerseyan Daniel Smith may have a singular vision, but he plays well with others. Ships, his new disc for the Secretly Canadian imprint, finds him in the company of artists with whom he’s worked (or wanted to work) over the course of a career that’s eccentric even by…
For Philadelphia’s notably disheveled Man Man, hackneyed comparisons to Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits must be flattering, but they’re hardly applicable. Granted, frontman Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner) has the kind of pipes that make him sound like he gargles with sand and yells at traffic all day — but his…
Even when Vinny Caruana was fronting the hardcore-tinged punk band the Movielife, he never really considered himself a singer or a songwriter. But after the group dissolved in 2003 and he was left to his own devices, he discovered that he actually had a lot to say. And so he…
The industrial-music scene is an incestuous orgy of member-swapping between synthesizer swingers. These days, you can’t throw a rock into a room of rivetheads without hitting at least one person who did a guest spot on a Revolting Cocks album. Front Line Assembly’s Bill Leeb is no exception (although, to…
When Coloradans talk about great musical artists with local roots, they seldom mention jazz guitarist Bill Frisell — and frankly, this omission is mystifying. Frisell, who graduated from East High School and put in a couple of years at the University of Northern Colorado, has been releasing albums under his…
If socially conscious worldbeat star Baaba Maal hadn’t followed his heart, he might have ended up a humble fisherman, or — God forbid — a lawyer. Thankfully, he chose the same path as blind childhood pal Mansour Seck, whose ancient caste carried the honorable burden of preserving Podor, Senegal’s oral…
In 2002, when the Streets (aka Mike Skinner) burst onto the scene with his debut, Original Pirate Material, he was lauded for his offbeat flow and the careless attitude he dropped over British two-step garage beats. Skinner must’ve anticipated the shelf life of garage, however, because two years later, he…
Most of the music that came out of L.A.’s glam-rock explosion during the ’80s was largely disparaging toward members of the fairer sex — despite the fact that most of the men from that era went to great lengths to portray a feminine image. Chicks in bands just didn’t exist…
What I wouldn’t give to be a greaser. The life’s all about hot rods and hotter broads, pomade and pompadours. I’ve wanted to be a greaser since the first time I saw The Outsiders. Like my uncle used to say, though, I have “wavy hair” — my one hair in…
Little Louie Vega has enjoyed a twenty-year career as one of the most influential artists ever to be involved with dance music. As part of both Masters at Work and Nuyorican Soul with partner Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez, Vega has redefined again and again what house music can be, and he…
Donovan Welsh and Bryan Knoebel came together over a blow job. “True story,” says Welsh, Dork’s bassist. “In 2001, I used to live at this house that was just crazy, and Bryan ended up at a party there. I had just bought a guitar that day, and he was playing…
Given the highly varied nature of Pelican’s music, it’s only natural that Laurent Lebec, a guitarist for this Chicago instrumental group, would have eclectic tastes. Still, even he’s amazed at how diverse his list of favorites has grown. For instance, he’s a big fan of Leviathan, a black-metal act whose…
