I don’t think there’s any reason why someone should become a Decemberists fan unless they’re fully prepared,” says vocalist/tunesmith Colin Meloy. “Frankly, I’d rather see a smaller audience, but an audience that is more attuned to the music, than a huge audience made up of moderately interested people.” The Decemberists’…
Hot damn! Another concept album. With recent releases like the Mars Volta’s De-Loused in the Comatorium, Cursive’s The Ugly Organ and Racebannon’s Satan’s Kickin’ Yr Dick In, the gears on this idea are starting to get stripped — as if they weren’t already eroded enough in the ’70s. What saves…
The Autumn Defense’s sophomore disc was just released. It’s brand-new. Really. You can check the date on the back. But if you listen to the record blindly, you’d swear that Circles — with its Burt Bacharach-esque string and horn arrangements, undulating bass lines and delicate vocals — was recorded around…
The long list of worthy artists who have never won Grammys includes the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Norah Jones, on the other hand, took home five in one night, most for the 2002 song “Don’t Know Why” — a title that pretty much sums up her sweep…
The Church may get lumped in with other one-hit wonders from the ’80s — its only stateside hit was “Under the Milky Way” from 1988’s Starfish — but the outfit actually has a recording history that spans over twenty years, as well as faithful fans around the world, particularly in…
The last time Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons was in town, back in May 2003, he announced that he’d be bringing one of his famed hip-hop summits to Denver later that year. But 2003 ended without a repeat appearance by Simmons — much less a Mootown summit. This past Thursday,…
Railbenders Segundo (Big Bender Records) For the most part, Colorado’s country-music scene is divided between artists aligned with contemporary Nashville values and acts that pay homage to the twangier, more authentic sounds of yesteryear. The Railbenders (due Friday, March 12, at Herman’s Hideaway) are part of the latter classification, but…
In the iconography of childhood, hearts and stars are crayon-scrawled hieroglyphs symbolizing love, hope and wonder. Fittingly, Heart is the title of the newest album by Canadian outfit Stars, which will appear on Monday, March 15, at the Climax Lounge, with the Dears and George & Caplin. The band’s throwback…
General Populace simultaneously pays homage and pushes parameters in its exploration of the jazz genre. The act’s performances are highlighted by Bec Mhalek’s baritone sax and her unique slap-tongue technique, which peppers select songs with a percussive chirp and pop. Meanwhile, Dave Cieri’s Hammond B-3 organ seems at times to…
Breasts: Kids love ’em! Grown men, too — and while Ruben Studdard has a nice set, most dudes prefer the ones on women. Why? Chemistry. See that guy across the room from you? His testosterone started boiling the second he first registered the joys of feminine pulchritude, and it probably…
It is an honor and a privilege of mine to say ‘Fuck you, Clear Channel,'” says Sage Francis, the Rhode Island-based rapper/spoken-word artist, as he prepares to embark on a national tour that he brazenly calls the Fuck Clear Channel Tour. “Clear Channel is a company that likes to bully…
This music comes from New York,” says Karsh Kale, a key figure in what has been dubbed the Asian Massive movement, about his music. “It really shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other music that comes from New York.” Born in London to Indian parents and raised in New…
In Andy Greenwald’s lame book Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers and Emo, the author unhooks his lips from the gonads of Dashboard Confessional long enough to cite Denver’s own Christie Front Drive as one of the founders of contemporary emo. Granted, that alone is enough to make anyone justifiably…
Cross-breeding animals can be successful only when the parents are of similar species. For example, a buffalo can boink a cow to create a beefalo; a whale can diddle a dolphin to produce a wolphin; and a zebra can straddle a donkey into dropping a zonkey. But what would happen…
Given that “Drive,” Incubus’s signature ditty, was a typical mid-tempo sensitivity showcase, “Megalomaniac,” the first single and lead number on the latest disc, comes out of Left’s field. In a direct affront to instant gratification, the cut takes a full minute to build tension and steam before erupting in a…
Throwing an equal ratio of temper tantrums to doomsday confetti, this rotating eight-piece from San Diego — featuring members of Red Aunts, Hot Snakes, the Screws, the PeeChees and Rocket From the Crypt — mistreats vintage gear in the name of fun and toxicity, fox-core gyrations and simple, unadorned garage…
For some, last Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, the final day of drunken debauchery before Ash Wednesday. For music activists across the nation, it was Grey Tuesday, a day of civil disobedience. Nearly 200 websites allowed people to download copies of DJ Danger Mouse’s Grey Album — an innovative effort that…
If Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda had ditched Easy Rider and taken over 2001: A Space Odyssey from Stanley Kubrick, Dead Meadow would have made the perfect soundtrack. This Washington, D.C.-based trio is riding high on the acclaim from its third record, 2003’s downright wizardly The Shivering King and Others…
Quebec City transplant Jay Munly Thompson has been known to tell his share of whoppers, like the one about losing an eye while running with a gang of Irish Catholics. Or how brain-damaged heavyweight prizefighter Gerry Cooney (“The Great White Hope”) not only babysat him during the ’70s, but took…
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as the twin-engine Lockheed Electra took off from Lae, New Guinea. It was July 2, 1937, and although international relations were tense, World War II was still many months away. The only enemy the little plane had was the Pacific itself, vast and…
It’s a bitch trying to get a giant stuffed grizzly across international borders these days. “We have a big bear. He’s been coming on stage with us lately,” Hamilton explains in a British accent thicker than a London phone book. “We’d like to bring our bear, but he’s not allowed…
Britisher Dylan Mills’s pseudonym doesn’t exactly carry its weight in stateside street cred. Truth be told, the name Dizzee Rascal suggests Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer with a bad case of vertigo. But dismiss his debut platter at your peril, because Boy in Da Corner is a hip-hop hybrid that’s a helluva…
