Music

How easy is it to manipulate popular culture? Ask Klaxons’ Simon Taylor-Davies. Long before the British guitarist and his cohorts, vocalist Jamie Reynolds and keyboardist James Righton, were musically proficient by his standards, they announced that they’d created a sonic style called “new rave” — and the term quickly seized…

Magic is being hyped as Springsteen’s rocking return to his classic period, and that’s understandable: The album contains lotsa familiar musical totems, not to mention lyrics about driving a highway until the road turns black, and a diner on the edge of town (bet it’s dark there). But while Boss…

Songs About Girls is derivative, repetitive, insipid, insincere and pandering. Oh, and if that weren’t enough, it also has the worst insert booklet in recent memory: seven pages of will.i.am mugging in a checkered suit. Actually, the first song, “Over,” a lover’s lament featuring a sample from Electric Light Orchestra…

Solpowa has put in work in the local hip-hop scene for more than a decade, mostly as part of the RRAAHH Foundashun and as a producer for hire. Now he’s stepping out on his own with his solo debut, Da Ace of Clubs. Expectedly, the album showcases Sol P’s production…

As its moniker implies, Light Travels Faster, which recently moved to Denver from Amarillo, Texas, isn’t in a hurry. The latest EP by guitarist/vocalist Christopher Rigel and percussionist Kyle Fuller (recently joined by bassist Todd Spriggs) refuses to rush, championing long-term atmosphere over short-term impact. “A Broadcast of Natural Resonance,”…

Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True (Hip-O). This is the fifth separate release of essentially the same music recorded by Costello in a 24-hour rush thirty years back using somebody else’s band. Despite “bonus” tracks, the continued enticing of consumers to repurchase foreshadows the final squeal of the corporate-label pig…

San Francisco’s Deerhoof must have a magic radio that picks up stations from outer space — or the future, or some kind of off-kilter bizarro world out there where anything goes. This is evident from the way it creates such a distinctive blend of sweet pop goodness and obtuse experimental…

Natasha Khan, who performs under the Bat for Lashes banner, is part of a distinctive sorority — one populated by high-flown warblers with a taste for ornate lyrical fantasies. The style’s tricky to master, since even minor miscalculations can turn potentially quirky and creative airs into something teeth-grindingly coy and…

Magik Markers, originally from Hartford, Connecticut, caught the ear of Thurston Moore, who invited the three-piece to join Sonic Youth on its 2004 tour. After that, Moore released the act’s debut, I Trust My Guitar, Etc… on his Ecstatic Peace imprint. The Markers’ original sound evoked no wave’s tortured, abrasive…

Look at the liner notes of the best punk and post-punk albums to come from Washington, D.C., over the past two decades-plus, and you’re likely to find Don Zientara’s name on lots of them. During the late ’70s, Zientara founded Inner Ear Studio in his basement, and since then, he’s…

It’s hard to avoid sexual innuendos when discussing That 1 Guy, the alter ego of Mike Silverman. For starters, he calls his instrument his Magic Pipe, which is made up of two six-foot steel pipes (dude’s seriously packing) wired with a single bass string. The thing looks like a Blade…

“You know where a guy can find a good drink?” said the guy wearing the T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. The lanky bartender looked at him for a moment, then said, “You don’t ask a bartender that kind of thing.” “Give me a Shirley Temple,” the guy said with…

The whispery, fairy-tale tone of the Slow Crash’s music is deceptively fey. Akin to the intense chamber rock of famed Fort Collins outfit Matson Jones, the sound is decidedly darker and would never be confused with more traditional indie rock. With a multi-instrumentalist singer who’s an amalgam of Johnette Napolitano…

Blip-beep-tick-thump-thwack. To outsiders, the preceding onomatopoeia serves as an easy stereotype — and grounds for dismissal — of electronic music as a whole. Devotees know, however, that it’s all a real master needs to set a room off and keep fans moving all night long. Daniel Bell is one such…

Hot Hot Heat Gothic Theatre October 1, 2007 Better Than: Seeing Hot Hot Heat after the Rockies lose a tie-breaker. I’ve always wondered if sports or music impact my life more. Both are my two main escapes and give my idle brain something to do. Whenever someone is nice enough…

The Last Town Chorus and The Weakerthans Marquis Theater September 27, 2007 Better Than: Waiting in line at the DMV. Lead singer of the Last Town Chorus, Meghan Hickey, has a voice that is both sultry and seductive. Hickey’s ability to handle her slide guitar is like watching the best…

“What do you call a dog with no ears?” the guy sitting next to me asks while tapping my elbow with the back of his hand. I wait a few moments, then shrug. “Nothing,” he says. “Because he sure as hell ain’t coming.” I don’t know this guy, and the…

Back in January 2005, I profiled the masterminds behind Beatport.com just as they were launching version 2.0 of their online music store. At the time, Beatport was a fairly modest operation, with roughly 14,000 users. But the niche concept had epic potential, even if only a small number of people…

With a name like Pink Hawks, you’d be forgiven for thinking the band was some kind of acoustic-punk duo. But Pee Pee’s sax man, Yuzo Nieto, and a rotating cast of bandmates shred the conventions of music as well as your expectations of a live band. When performing, Nieto’s aim…

Readers of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle will never forget the final image of Bokonon thumbing his nose at God while the terminal freeze of ice-nine overcomes him. That unapologetic spirit of defiance against authority and tradition is summoned throughout this entire album. Oh, sure, a lot of the guitar work…