With all the pomp and drama that never seem to fade from fellow ’90s alt-country survivors like Ryan Adams and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Rhett Miller of Dallas’s Old 97’s tends to get overlooked. Really, though, that’s how it should be. While Miller’s band has never been short on fans, the…
Raekwon, a Brooklyn native and one-ninth of the infamous Wu-Tang Clan, is a gritty-voiced lyricist who sheds light with his distinctive descriptions of ghetto life. Quickly carving out his lane among the rest of the clan as the resident wordsmith and slang ambassador, Raekwon solidified his underground constituency with his…
On its debut, Fingers of the Sun delivers songs that are sunny and upbeat without ever seeming superficial or trite. Lyrically, there is an uncommon level of sensitive observation and deep reflection that’s easy to miss when you’re caught up in the beauty of the album’s three-and-four-part harmonies — not…
Considering all the Denver musicians who have moved to New York lately, it’s refreshing to see someone do the reverse. New Yorker Dustin Edge relocated to Boulder a few months ago, and the songwriter is already releasing a new EP. Unlike Edge’s previous releases — the post-punk-leaning A Forest Through…
Repeated listens to Osiris King’s new album, Hostile Takeover, reveal that the production ultimately outshines the rapping. It’s not that Osiris can’t rap: He does just fine with what he’s got, and both his cadence and his delivery are technically proficient. It’s more that his rhymes seem flat, and the…
To some, Tennis’s whirlwind story sometimes seems just a bit too quaint and fantastical to be true: Boy meets girl, they fall in love, save money, take a sailing trip along the Atlantic Seaboard, hear “Baby It’s You” in a Floridian bar, store the sound and try to re-create it…
Katie Gold and Becky Christian were introduced by a mutual friend and didn’t know much about each other until a few months after they started working together. Their creative chemistry, though, was immediately evident. With a shared background in literature, Gold and Christian wrote songs without making reference to anything…
A founding member of the Glitch Mob, producer/DJ Kraddy is no stranger to the electronic-music scene. He’s the mind behind “Android Porn,” a track sometimes cited as the glitch-hop anthem, and although he began his career with breakbeats back in 2003, Kraddy’s been mixing it up ever since, blending heavy…
Old school metal fans across the country are no doubt peeing themselves right now over The Big 4 (we certainly are). In case you happened to miss the big announcement on Facebook earlier today, four of the metal’s venerable titans are going to be together on the same stage for…
By now you’ve seen the monstrosity that’s been constructed at Civic Center Park. Turns out it wasn’t a mini-skyscraper skyscraper after all. It’s a ramp, as you can see here in the photo taken just a bit ago from the top of structure by our always intrepid scribe and resident…
While Portland, Maine’s Cruel Hand has been identified with that strangely durable neo-hardcore style of the last decade, the band’s sound stretches a little further, encapsulating the diverse energy and heaviness of Metallica and Bouncing Souls. Vocalist Chris Linkovich leads Cruel Hand with a Black Flag-era Henry Rollins’ authority, projecting…
Les Paul has been a long-time inspiration for Jeff Beck, and last summer, Beck paid tribute to the legendary guitarist on what would have been Paul’s 95th birthday. Beck’s two performances at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, where Paul performed for fourteen years until his death of August 2009, will…
By all accounts, the first installment of the Colorado Music Gear Swap Meet at Cervantes’ yesterday was a success. The two-level venue was buzzing with activity through most of the afternoon as vendors and gearheads alike made conversation, purchases and trades of everything from keytars to sitars. Vendors included well…
This was the scene outside of the Rockstar Lounge this morning. In case you haven’t heard, over the weekend, a parking valet died a short time after getting struck in a hit-and-run incident outside of the Rockstar Lounge at 940 Lincoln Street. The victim, Jose Medina, 21, was struck by…
In the past decade, the music industry has seen a lot of changes, but it has struggled to keep pace with technology, piracy and consumer demands. Already this year we’ve started to see a few more changes take shape, from crackdowns on piracy websites, a resurgence of interest in the…
Forming at the end of an era, Lynch Mob’s late-’80s birth shot straight from George Lynch’s departure from Dokken and acted as a platform for his highly skilled guitar work. Reincarnated in 2008, Lynch Mob has been playing shows in different formations with the guitarist and mastermind at the helm,…
CROCODILES With Hearts In Space and Overcasters 01.22.11 | Larimer Lounge With the stage bathed in shifting hues provided by Shane Williams, Overcasters opened its set with a new song — something a little more on the bluesy and noisy side of the band’s repertoire. While the rest of the…
Jonathan Coulton With Paul and Storm 01.22.2011 | Soiled Dove Underground Monsters, vaginas, science fiction, shop-vacuums, pirates, robots: just a few of the topics covered last night at the Soiled Dove Underground, 7401 E. 1st Avenue, by Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm. The geek-cred-cum folk musicians aren’t known for…
The first edition of Hip-Hop Covers, an all-female Wu-Tang tribute, was way beyond sold out. By the time the nine local MCs, poets and singers took the stage, the Walnut Room was at capacity, and there was a crowd of people waiting outside the door. It didn’t matter if you…
This just in: B.B. King’s sold-out show tonight at the Boulder Theater has been postponed due to inclement weather in the mountains. From the promoters: “The date will be rescheduled as soon as possible for a to-be-determined date later to be announced.” This won’t tide you over ’til then, but…
Last night at Illiterate Callery, bands and members of the music community who participated in the making of Denver Undiscovered got a special sneak peek of the film before its public debut on February 4. The yet-to-be-released documentary — which is a collaboration between filmmaker Dane Bernhardt and Westword’s own…
Friday night is Basic Rhythm at Sugar House. Just Ben from Whomp Truck headlines the event with other locals, including DJ Matty vs. Just Al, Joshua Red, DJJD, Shapeshifter and Shaggy. Sugar House played host to a few different dance music events recently; this one will be more bass-heavy. ($5,…
