Music

Damian Lazarus’s free Lazpod podcast reveals him to be more than just another DJ. Instead of a quick mix of whatever records he’s flogging in the clubs that month, each entry in the series uncovers a deep and omnivorous love of all music — from vintage soul and retro electro…

Canada’s Arts & Crafts imprint is dominated by acts that operate on the margins of rock rather than the dead center. That makes the Stills the white sheep of the family. On Oceans Will Rise, their latest recording, singer/guitarist Tim Fletcher and his crew present their songs in a very…

Aaron Parks was precocious as a youngster. At age fifteen, he was already working on a triple major in math, computer science and music at the University of Washington. He says he never really thought about a career in music until the music began playing him. By the time he…

MSTRKRFT men Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P, appearing with Felix Cartal and LA Riots, are regularly accused of borrowing from their dance-tastic predecessors rather than taking the genre’s sound to new places — and based on the sonic familiarity of their debut long-player, 2006’s The Looks, this argument has some…

Clouds’ Legendary Demo EP was generally pretty decent, blending sludge rock with dips into dub and groove, even if some took it as a bad sign that the group covered Frank Zappa’s “Willie the Pimp” by renaming it “Magic Hater,” hoping nobody would notice. The band isn’t pure stoner rock;…

Ever wonder what the musicians you listened to growing up listened to growing up? If you were a fan of Hot Water Music or Avail, the Revival Tour will answer that question. The show features those bands’ frontmen, Chuck Ragan and Tim Barry, along with Lucero’s Ben Nichols, together on…

Hip-hop evangelist, entrepreneurial philanthropist, talented producer and DJ extraordinaire Diplo (aka Wesley Pentz) came to international prominence through his work with M.I.A. As a musical force for good in his own right, Diplo is helping to lay the groundwork for a new international underground movement. We caught up with him…

The Legendary Pink Dots Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Bluebird Theater Better Than: Anything that pretends it’s dark and intense but isn’t. Nearly thirty years into its career, the Legendary Pink Dots are still among the most unique and evolving bands to have come out of art and psychedelic rock movements…

Dave Nesi The Flobots have officially been certified platinum for one million downloads of “Handlebars.” The announcement really comes as no surprise. After the single was shipped to radio a few months after the first of the year, it reached “Crazy”-like ubiquity almost immediately. The Flobots are only the second…

A few weeks ago, we got a sneak peek of the brand new 3OH!3 video in the October 3 edition of Entertainment Weekly. Alas, we finally get to see what the grease paint and loin cloths were all about. Yesterday, the 3OH!3 hooligans premiered their new video, posted after the…

Photo: Chad Fahnestock visit slide show for more pics Steve Lawler and Audiofly October 18, 2008 Beta Better than: The first/last time I saw Steve Lawler Dance music doesn’t need much to succeed. A steady beat, a killer bassline and something, anything, to serve as an occasional hook and you’re…

Dressy Bessy, the Fire Drills and the Pseudo Dates Bluebird Theater Saturday, October 18, 2008 Better than: listening to it in your headphones When Tammy Ealom started singing about a gal obsessed with the ‘60s in the song “Do You Whisper?” on Saturday night, it was hard not to think…

Relive the weekend’s parties — including Steve Lawler at Beta (above) and other DJ shows — at westword.com/slideshow…

Photo: Aaron Matthews LOCALS ONLY The funny thing about living in Colorado is that you may have superstars right in your own backyard and not even know it. That’s certainly the case with rapper ytCracker. While he’s not widely known in the Colorado hip-hop scene, he’s a beast in “nerdcore,”…

See the slide show M.A.N.D.Y. October 17, 2008 Beta Better than: Most acts with that much superfluous punctuation M.A.N.D.Y.’s entry in the Fabric series has been spending a lot of time on my speakers and headphones, and each listen reveals new reasons to like their style. That can be a…

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, with All Smiles and The Like Thursday, October 16, 2008 Ogden Theatre, Denver Better than: Any mystic valley I’ve ever wandered through. First things first: Conor Oberst would like his ring back. The poet laureate of Omaha, Oberst (formerly Bright Eyes) was in…

File under: Whoa! Uh-uh. Really? Cool! Just received word that my good buddy Brian Johnson, who publishes Marquee Magazine and frequently quotes my tossed off line about smoking like it’s my job, has been named as the new publicist for Boulder’s venerable Fox Theatre. Johnson, who will be assuming his…

Photo: James Bludworth Attention distraught, inconsolable fans of the recently departed Breezy Porticos: We’ve just been handed some late-breaking news that might inspire you to stop playing rush hour Frogger in the middle of I-25. It seems the outfit’s erstwhile frontman Andy Falconetti has already begun work on a post-Breezy…

Photo: Sarah Cass Hey, everybody, Chuck Potashner has posted a pair of new tracks on his MySpace page! You might know Chuck from his time in teamAWESOME! — although if you ask us, dude’s just plain awesome, team or no team. While both tunes he’s posted are pretty swell, “Slightly…