Music

The Epilogues, the Bears, Sleeper Horse August 13, 2007 Larimer Lounge Better than: Watching my beloved Broncos win a preseason game of faux football earlier in the night. Arriving nearly an hour early at the Larimer Lounge, I settled in on the patio to make some phone calls and then…

Side-Fi Noise, Dartanian, A Shoreline Dream, Peña August 10, 2007 Larimer Lounge Better than: Spinal Tap opening for Sigur Ros You just never know what you’re getting into at a local show, but Denver audiences are usually open to anything good. A Friday night show to kick off A Shoreline…

Hybrid, DJ Ivy August 11, 2007 Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom Better than: The tired, overrated DJs playing at the night’s other big dance music event. Upon my 10 p.m. arrival at Cervantes’ DJ Ivy was playing an excellent set of dark yet funky breakbeats and to a “crowd” of maybe eight…

Social Distortion, Blue October, Jack’s Mannequin, Motion City Soundtrack, Plain White T’s, Single File, I Hate Kate, Tickle Me Pink, Synthetic Elements, No Fair Fight August 11, 2007 Coors Amphitheatre On the surface, summertime festival shows seem like a good idea and a real bargain: a lot of bands for…

On Sunday night at Red Rocks, Joe King told the boisterous, capacity crowd that this particular performance — the second date in a sold-out, three-night stand — marked the penultimate gig of an exhaustive two-year Stateside run supporting his band’s multi-platinum debut, How to Save a Life. And indeed, the…

Jason Isbell is finally in the driver’s seat. After five years of riding with the Drive-By Truckers, he’s now behind the wheel of his own rig. But he says that no hard feelings fueled the decision to veer off on his own, speaking from the road during the first week…

Jam Nation has been anxious since November 2006, when the String Cheese Incident revealed that because of guitarist Bill Nershi’s determination to focus on “other musical projects,” the band would be making no plans beyond summer 2007. The decision was reinforced in an April announcement of concert dates culminating with…

For her latest album, Experiment in Truth, jazz singer Rene Marie and her band set up shop in an auditorium at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Gathered in a circle on the stage, they recorded 23 songs in two days. “If one person hits a wrong note, just…

Man has been boiling meat and veggies for about 5,000 years now, but it wasn’t until some Neolithic primitive invented the spoon that we also learned to sup up the liquid with the boiled contents. A few thousand years and countless varieties of soup later, man gets the next step…

Stevie. The Stones. Sir Paul. They’re no longer geniuses, but they keep making music. Since 1995’s The Gold Experience, Prince has been in the same boat. Once upon a time, he strutted around, strumming G-chords in a G-string, screaming about blowjobs and incest. But along came the shock and awe…

Unlike many of his rap contemporaries, Rashid “Common” Lynn has matured artistically — but he had a head start. Back in 1992 when he released his debut CD, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, under the name Common Sense, he was already sage beyond his age — and since then, his…

Generally, I have about as much use for campy music as vegans have for a steakhouse. But I’ll be damned if Rock Your Box didn’t blow my skirt up around my uptight, TV On the Radio-loving ass. If the entire Bloodhound Gang downed a Zeke smoothie every day, with chunks…

Folks exclusively interested in original sounds should avoid this EP. Singer-songwriter Whalen, who appears with Shannon Curfman on Thursday, August 9, at the Walnut Room, specializes in the tried-and-true, and if a single note on her latest is unique to her, it’s well hidden. Nevertheless, the six songs here are…

Roky Erickson, You’re Gonna Miss Me (Palm Pictures). Part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness and money for the tormented psychedelic songwriter, this companion soundtrack to the forthcoming bio-doc overlaps significantly with the more comprehensive two-disc compilation, I Have Always Been Here Before. However, a handful of rare live…

We Americans tragically underestimate the importance of time off to revitalize our cheap, weary souls, working more hours than the people of any other country and letting our paid vacation time gather dust. The Rentals, led by singer-songwriter Matt Sharp, understand the value of getting some rest. After a seven-year…

Mandolinist David Grisman has spent the past three decades playing what he calls “dawg” music, which is essentially a mix swing, bluegrass, Latin, jazz and gypsy. While the line-up of his band has changed over the years, Grisman’s always had a knack for recruiting skilled players, such as Tony Rice…

The Plain White T’s may be the most polite band in pop-punk. The Tom Higgenson-led combo — which joins Social Distortion, Blue October, I Hate Kate, Jack’s Mannequin, Motion City Soundtrack and Single File as part of KTCL’s Big Gig — is best-known for “Hey There Delilah,” a moony bit…

Nearly a decade before the current wave of nostalgia-tinged music, the Elephant 6 collective almost single-handedly reinterpreted the genius of the Beatles and the Beach Boys for a new generation. The Ladybug Transistor is another act that looked back to the ’60s for inspiration, but rather than attempting to recreate…

“Lounge music” was once a pejorative term: It called to mind blowsy has-beens warbling off-key Peggy Lee covers while slumped against a baby grand at the airport Ramada. That changed last decade, when the increase-the-beats approach to dance music birthed the chill-out room, where revelers could recharge in advance of…

It’s been a hectic two months for the owners of the 15th Street Tavern. In June, Myke and Jeneye Martinez were served papers notifying them that they had to vacate the location. They started scrambling to find a new spot, and on the last day of June, they held their…

As the backing guitarist for Sara Thurston’s Clotheshorse, David Lack displayed an impressive knack for crafting moods and turning rhythm parts into unconventional leads. This gift, coupled with his natural songwriting ability, carried over into his latest project, Stung By Bees, which has frequently been compared to Modest Mouse but…