We’re just walking around looking for a bong hit or something,” says Nicholas Diamonds of the Unicorns. Unicorns. The word brings to mind a myriad of images: cute, cuddly toy horsies for little girls; the noble, doomed creature that didn’t make it onto Noah’s ark; valiant knights and their mystic,…
Although most mainstream rock fans don’t know anything about Dave Kerman, the drummer is a household name in at least a few places. For the passionate international cult that champions Rock in Opposition, a musical movement dedicated to promoting truly progressive sounds, he’s a key figure, thanks to his work…
Three years after releasing its self-titled debut album on Saddle Creek, Now It’s Overhead (with Statistics on Wednesday, April 7, at Rock Island) returns with its stylistically diverse, bleak pop follow-up, Fall Back Open, an ideal companion for a cold, endless winter night or the damp dawn of a summer…
Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka the Neptunes, are nothing if not ambitious. Their production techniques rule pop radio, but they hunger for success that not only crosses genre lines, but obliterates them. Hence, N.E.R.D., in which Williams, Hugo and cohort Shae attempt to reach the rock audience without alienating…
New York’s Stellastarr* (slated to appear at Larimer Lounge on Tuesday, April 20) has taken a ton of shit over the last year. Having gigged around Gotham with the pre-fame Strokes, the coed quartet has been accused of riding Casablancas and crew’s coattails — of landing a major-label deal on…
The spoken introduction on Memphis Bleek’s latest effort — “With Jay stepping down,” a GoodFellas-type voice utters, “it was Bleek’s turn to be made” — sets the record up for failure. With such a bold statement, you’re expecting an MC who’s about to step out of the shadows and deliver…
Breezy Porticos Keep It Crisp (Best Friends Records) Judging by the lyric sheet included with their latest CD, Andy Falconetti, Jeff Almond and Eric Van Leuven of Breezy Porticos didn’t cut many classes during their scholastic careers. The title of the first song — “Gee, Your Math Looks Terrific” –…
Fuck the Fags. Yeah, I’ve seen the T-shirts. I know “homophobia is gay.” But the Fags — a band out of Detroit that performed two weeks ago at South by Southwest — still blows. For the uninitiated, SXSW is a mutant hybrid of Mardi Gras and spring break that takes…
Louie Vega Thursday, April 1, the Church, 303-832-3528. New York’s Louie Vega has matured into a man of far-reaching musical talent. Best known in house-music circles as one half of the famed production duo Masters at Work (he and partner Kenny “Dope” Gonzales are also known as Nu Yorican Soul),…
In entertainment, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder; it makes the mind go blank. Spiv likes to go away just long enough to be forgotten, then hop back into the lives of Denverites like a long-lost lover, hoping you’ll spend the night with the act. Like those in a…
Over the past several years, Regina Carter, who fronts a quintet that headlines the Boulder Theater on Thursday, March 25, has been closely linked to a dead man: nineteenth-century classical master Niccol Paganini. A virtuoso so fiercely gifted that he was rumored to have sold his soul to Satan in…
Seeing as how George W. “Blow ‘Em All Up” Bush was somehow nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, all of a sudden it makes sense that the award’s founder, Alfred B. Nobel, wasn’t known for penning a famous treaty or curing some disease. He invented…dynamite. And just like the…
I’ve had a pretty hectic day,” says Arrington de Dionyso from Olympia, Washington, the state’s tiny capital and the headquarters of K Records, the venerable indie label that de Dionyso’s band, Old Time Relijun, calls home. “A bag that contains a passport and all of my jaw harps was stolen…
Touring with the Godfather of Soul can get a little heady. One minute you’re at the Apollo in New York, and the next you’re performing in such far-flung locales as Turkey, Greece or the Caribbean. Yet for Damon Wood, who plays guitar in James Brown’s band and fronts his own…
Bop Skizzum Waiting For (Angry Burro Records) It’s an age-old conundrum: How can a band that’s built for the stage manage to sound great on disc? With its latest disc, Bop Skizzum, which has been dishing out soul-and-jazz-influenced dance music in these parts since 1999, makes a bold attempt to…
Considering that John Vanderslice’s jagged pop and conceptual story-songs have stranded him everywhere from the loneliest tips of Antarctica to Mommy’s cluttered basement, it’s hardly surprising that his fourth album explores brooding territory. But surpassing previous efforts in terms of sonic design, craft and coherence, Cellar Door (the two words…
The cover of Van Hunt’s self-titled debut has a picture of our man’s face framed by psychedelic squiggles and a comic-book speech balloon announcing his name. Kinda funny when you think about, seeing as how the hyped neo-soul movement of the past few years has graced us with a lot…
It’s been a long time coming, but Twista has finally been given the resources to generate an album worthy of his underrated talent. Off the momentum of the insanely popular Kanye West-produced “Slow Jamz,” Twista delivers no less than a classic presentation of mid-’90s Southern-esque hip-hop on Kamikaze, giving credence…
Long before Doc Atkins convinced us to 86 whitey and the boys from the pyramid, beef was a rap staple. Feuds between rival MCs like LL Cool J and Kool Moe Dee, KRS-One and MC Shan have clogged many an artery: Pac taunting Biggie about knocking boots with Big Poppa’s…
It’s been nearly five decades since Bo Diddley wrote “Who Do You Love?,” a rock-and-roll classic that perhaps best sums up youth’s reckless disregard for mortality: “Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind/Just 22 and I don’t mind dying.” Diddley recently celebrated his 75th birthday; needless to say, Papa Bo may…
At its best, rock and roll is a noncompetitive, egalitarian art form, in which like-minded musicians come together to create, communicate and share their souls as equals instead of constructing bloody ladders to superstardom out of the corpses of the weak. Of course, that’s total crap, and for proof, check…
Until February 20 of last year, Jack Russell was best known for one song — a cover of Mott the Hoople’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” performed with a big-haired bravado that made his band, Great White, a momentary star of the ’80s hard-rock firmament. What a difference a year makes…
