“I like trying to remain mysterious,” says Michael Schwartz, whose turntablist nom de plume is Mix Master Mike. “It’s like hitting and running — hit the spot, then go home and work on the formula until my next call comes, and I get a chance to show people real hip-hop…
Richmond Fontaine is best known for its haunting country-punk sound and the troubled characters that populate its songs. But while the talented four-piece from Portland, Oregon, is enamoured of dark themes, the band hasn’t succumbed to the same bad fortune that fascinates its lead singer. “I feel more comfortable with…
Here’s more proof that C&W authenticity doesn’t mean jack anymore. Kelly Hogan, whose past gigs have included stints with the Jody Grind and the Rock*a*Teens (not to mention a day job doing publicity for the very label that released this disc), is no one’s idea of a homegrown country chanteuse…
It’s easy to be amazed by Voodoo, D’Angelo’s long-anticipated followup to 1995’s Brown Sugar. The album speaks to ancestors, both musical and historical, as experienced as on the prayer “Africa.” And it does so in language that those ancestors would surely understand. You can imagine the spirits of a rich…
As musical tributes go, this new disc from Austin’s vaudevillian all-stars is a stone-cold smoker. Twelve of the recording’s thirteen tunes focus on the same verdant theme — marijuana — the apparent herb of choice for the Spanking gang. Such a heady theme might seem burned out if it were…
The policeman was standing near the entrance of the Fillmore Auditorium last Thursday night. Not that the crowd — sizable, but under capacity — that had amassed to see Fiona Apple presented any threat of violence or substantial drug possession. The cop — an older man, crew cut, dressed in…
Rahzel, with Mix Master Mike and Choclair, at the Fox Theatre Sunday, March 26, must be seen to be believed. A self-described “vocal percussionist,” he has perfected the art of beat-boxing. Also known as the “Godfather of Noyze,” Rahzel can duplicate the sounds of whole albums — with his mouth…
The Maybellines, with Dear Nora and Jason Heller Thursday, March 30, at the Bluebird Theater, bounce around the same musical stratosphere like fellow locals the Breezy Porticos and Dressy Bessy, and it’s an affiliation the band wears like a scratch-and-sniff sticker. The cover of the band’s new self-titled single features…
The Denver Record Collectors Spring Expo 2000, Sunday, March 26, might be the only place in town where you’re likely to see hip-hop DJs and fans of ’50s rock compete for access to the same record bins. The annual event will once again be held at the Holiday Inn Northglenn…
As gigs go, singing the national anthem at a sporting event is the ultimate dream and nightmare. The upside is the thrill of belting out the nation’s rallying cry to thousands of pumped-up countrymen and women, a rush no other gig can offer. The downside, of course, is the song…
Most once-forgotten bands wind up being forgotten forever by pretty much everyone except the people who were in them — and depending upon past drug use, even that’s no guarantee. But on occasion, a group that fell short commercially and earned relatively few critical plaudits during its heyday will linger…
The last time the Flaming Lips played Denver, the band looked out on the capacity crowd at the Ogden Theatre and saw what some — okay, most — musicians might regard as a peculiar sight. The audience members were more or less doing what they normally do at concerts: watching…
On his fifth album as leader, recorded roughly one year ago, Denver trumpeter Ron Miles returns to a classic trio approach for the first time since his 1987 debut, Distance for Safety. The trio — and its subtle, patient beauty — might surprise some listeners more familiar with Miles’s cosmopolitan…
By this point, to expect an Oasis album not to sound like a discourse on the history of British rock is like expecting Britney Spears not to bare her midriff onstage. The band is a sometimes cartoonish composite of its predecessors — not so much a British Invasion as an…
Somewhere along the line, most jazz musicians who were interested in actually earning a living at their craft realized that free jazz was better for dispersing crowds than drawing them, and moved on to explore less divisive variations on the form. Yet a few fiscally irresponsible stragglers have stayed true…
Orchestrated easy-listening pop is, by definition, supposed to be unambitious, soothing and relaxing — or so many of us have been lazy enough to believe. But the hell with that: The High Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan composes as if he’s campaigning for his own chapter in Elevator Music, author Joseph Lanza’s…
Dan Castellaneta is the driving force behind the band Two Lips, but it’s a sure bet that whatever renown he gains from his music won’t eclipse the attention he gets from his day job: Castellaneta is the voice of Homer Simpson. A talented impressionist, he also channels Grandpa Simpson, Krusty…
A friend of mine has this habit. She’s normally a very well-composed, even reserved person who hails from a finer area of Boston, likes to talk about art and uses words like fabulous without any pretext of irony. Yet she’s got more than a little distant Irish blood running through…
Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise, with John McEuen and Jimmy Ibbotson, Sunday, March 19, as part of an E-Town taping at the Boulder Theater, has maintained a somewhat more than normal level of interest in the past few years, based as much on the mythology of the band’s formation as on…
The Bug Theater has always maintained an eclectic national profile, but on Thursday, March 23, it will concentrate on a disparate bill of excellent local acts, including Ratiocination, Some Gumption, Mystery Children and Judith Priest. It’s a sensibility, not a sound, that ties these groups together, as all four focus…
Battle of the Bands, Thursday nights at the Buffalo Rose in Golden, provides local bands and musicians a chance to compete for top honors in a performance setting. The weekly event is part open-mike night, part rehearsal, part vaudeville cabaret. At its most heated, it’s a musical variation on American…
Patty Larkin is sitting in a hotel room in Grand Junction. It’s cold there, she says, but not any colder than it gets on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she lives and, when she can, records in her home studio. The hotel of the moment is pretty typical of those she’s…
