Hybrid is a fitting name for an act that blends snappy, high-impact breaks with production elements from trance and progressive house. The group’s boundary-pushing use of orchestras and guest singers such as Perry Farrell and Kirsty Hawkshaw have generated comparisons to Underworld and Massive Attack without damaging Hybrid’s cred among…
The August 9 profile of the String Cheese Incident’s Kyle Hollingsworth, timed to mark the band’s final Red Rocks appearances prior to going on a hiatus that may or may not last forever, mines a few nuggets from his interview with Westword. This is the place to find the whole…
Rufus Wainwright and Sean Lennon August 7, 2007 Fillmore Auditorium Apparently, being the offspring of famous people isn’t the draw it once was. Last night’s Rufus Wainwright-Sean Lennon concert was the most poorly attended show by major recording artists I’ve attended in recent memory. Although the main performers have a…
Sure, the members of the Fray just completed a triumphant three-night run at Red Rocks, solidifying their local-hero status. But their steady march to cultural hegemony has been formalized by their appearance in the realm of some real heroes: the X-Men. X-Factor issue 22, to be released on August 8,…
David Waxman August 4, 2007 Club Vinyl Better than:, Sweating that much for no good reason. Slide show On a hot Saturday night made humid by drizzling rain and the sweat of hundreds of clubbers, David Waxman brought New York City to Denver at Club Vinyl. For roughly two hours…
Bob Marley and the Wailers Roots, Rock, Remixed (Quango) Since most remix/tribute discs bite, the listenability of Roots, Rock, Remixed comes as a pleasant surprise. With a couple of exceptions, the album’s programmers wisely steer clear of the most overplayed Marley material in favor of less known compositions epitomized by…
Kelly Clarkson My December (RCA) How did I know that Ms. Clarkson’s latest would be a commercial disappointment? Because I kinda like it. Don’t get me wrong: The disc doesn’t exactly qualify as an artistic triumph – not given the surplus of mock-profound couplets exemplified by “I’m strong/But I break”…
In June 2001, Alex Lemski — then-president, visionary and chief benefactor of Creative Music Works — sent Westword a rather scathing letter in response to a review of Ken Burns’s ten-part Jazz documentary. “If listeners are just as scarce (scared?) as the industry and media are in covering jazz,” he…
Reed Foehl isn’t a household name yet. But you’ve probably heard his work just the same. Every song from his last record, 2004’s Spark, and a few tunes from his latest, Stoned Beautiful, have been licensed by a slew of TV shows — everything from Dawson’s Creek and Joan of…
Ryan Adams has been called many things: brilliant, temperamental and more. But the famously prolific tunesmith, who records solo and with his group, the Cardinals, is also something of a new-breed hippie who’s comfortable sharing big-picture musings of the sort many performers keep to themselves. An example? “This is a…
It would be inaccurate to call Marc Broussard a soul man. One listen to his new album of soul covers, however, might make you think otherwise. A Southern Louisiana native, Broussard was raised on gospel, blues, jazz, swamp boogie, Cajun and plenty of soul. His homegrown songs are a voodoo…
Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte were driving to Mendocino, California, about three hours north of San Francisco, when they came up with the name for Great Northern’s debut. The pair had just gotten off the highway and were heading down a narrow road lined by redwood trees when inspiration struck…
Because plenty of French artists wear their reputation for pretentiousness like a particularly tony beret, the decision by Justice’s Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay to name their latest disc after a cross-like symbol doesn’t bode well. Fortunately, the duo’s electro-fiddling on † tends toward the egalitarian, not the exclusionary,…
Four presidential administrations later, socio-political firebrand Bad Religion is still making enemies and influencing imitators with its trademark melodic pop punk. Although guitarist/Epitaph founder Brett Gurewitz was suspiciously absent during the Clinton/Atlantic Records era, he re-upped in time for Dubya. One of the most recognizable and replicated voices in the…
It’s been less than a year since Dark Songs of the Prairie, Across Tundras’ most recent full-length, swept into stores — but the band’s already readying a successor. Full Moon Blizzard, an EP available through the act’s MySpace page, includes demos of three tracks slated for the next recording, plus…
Epileptinomicon’s latest is kindred to the more cutting-edge releases on the Kranky label or even Denver’s own Pteranodon: It’s not music so much as an arty vehicle that captures moods and expresses things that are difficult to get across with words. It’s remarkable to think that Mike Reisinger and Kevin…
Nathaniel Mayer, Why Don’t You Give It to Me? (Alive Records). Forty years removed from his R&B hits, Detroit’s Nathaniel Mayer fuses soul with psychedelic rock. His co-conspirators on this effort include members of the Black Keys, the Dirtbombs and SSM — kids half his age. The guest stars relentlessly…
There’s a live recording of alto saxophonists Richie Cole and Phil Woods playing Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple” at breakneck speed, each thoroughly versed in the ways of the Bird, both propelling each other at Denver’s Paramount Theatre. That was back in 1980. It was one of those shows…
Growing up is hard to do. Between its lauded 2003 debut, Charm School, and this year’s followup, The Broken String, Bishop Allen went through a very public adolescence. Throughout 2006, the Brooklyn quartet released an EP every month, logging nearly sixty songs for the year. This twelve-EP project generated plenty…
Dudes insecure about their sexuality, be warned: Release the Stars, the latest Rufus Wainwright disc, is one of the gayest recordings since the Communards sang “There’s more to love than boy meets girl.” Still, Wainwright’s love of excess and willingness to push his compositions too far — and then a…
Covering Jimi Hendrix is ill-advised for just about any artist. And those who’ve taken the material on have seldom added anything of value. Patti Smith, however, is a completely different story. A rock icon, poet and punk princess, Smith, who is often covered herself, adds a new twist to “Are…
Although the overwhelming majority of nascent punkers who attended the recent Warped Tour stop at Invesco Field don’t know Rush from Russia, those who caught several of the day’s more adventurous sets, including the standout performance by Coheed & Cambria, unwittingly absorbed more than a few of this comparatively ancient…
