Music

If Skip Reeves had his way, Denver would be one city under a groove. The self-proclaimed Funktologist is pumping the funk back into the Mile High City every Saturday night with his Funk Above the Rest show on KUVO, spinning everything from Larry Graham and Funkadelic to the Gap Band…

In a time when war without end looms on the horizon and impending economic and ecological disaster hangs over us like a Sword of Damocles, it’s easy to forget the little things that sustain us. Luckily, there are groups like the Kissing Party to help keep us centered, with songs…

Last week, the Denver music scene lost a legendary figure when Terry Dalton passed away at the young age of 59. The renowned singer-songwriter and open-mike host died at his home on Friday, March 23. Dalton will be fondly remembered for his “humor and his razor sharp wit,” says his…

Being blind is no laughing matter — which means that jokes about being blind aren’t funny. Still, as I waited at DIA last week for a flight to Austin and South by Southwest, I couldn’t help but snort at one overheard comment. After handing him his boarding pass, a woman…

Sam Baron fits the profile of a quintessential Gemini. Dualistic nature? Check. Contradictory? Yep. Complex? Definitely. Exuding confidence often to the point of arrogance, the MC, who answers to the name Mane Rok and is also one-third of the hip-hop trio Maneline, carries himself with an unwavering bravado that’s earned…

Despite his youthful appearance, Carrick Moore Gerety has been doing this indie-pop thing for longer than some of his fans have been alive. Most notably, Moore Gerety and his brother, Finn, co-captained the Push Kings — the Harvard-hatched boy band of the international pop underground that achieved stardom in Japan…

Country Ghetto, JJ Grey & MOFRO’s latest effort, is like a musical postcard from the South. On the front is a collage of pictures — Otis Redding, the Meters, Dr. John, Muddy Waters — and on the flip side, Grey’s spinning yarns about his life, his family, his worldview and…

Our music’s not guarded,” notes David Obuchowski, guitarist and vocalist for Brooklyn’s Goes Cube. “We’re not into irony; we’re not into being that subtle. When we get up on stage or we record a song, we have no problem saying ‘We love this,’ and we have no problem putting it…

The multi-ethnic, multi-disciplinary L.A.-based tribe known as Ozomatli made its name by cutting up salsa, hip-hop, traditional Mexican music, funk, jazz and more into barn-burning, irresistible party music. Unfortunately, this followup tries too hard to capitalize on the group’s Grammy-winning success by aiming straight for the multi-culti pop charts. While…

Definitive Jux founder Jaime Meline, who goes by El-P, has spent the millennium battering hip-hop’s boundaries, and on his first solo CD since 2002, he takes things well beyond his previous extremes. The results are intriguing but self-consciously arty, engaging the brain more often than they move the body. El-P…

Denver DIY queen Wendy Woo is hardworking and prolific; Luxury, whose release is being celebrated on Friday, March 23, at a Fox Theatre party opened by the Chris Webb Band, is Woo’s seventh CD since 1997. This time, however, the disc is credited to the Wendy Woo Trio as a…

There are half a million people in Denver, but it seems like there are only about twenty musicians to go around. The local scene is incredibly incestuous, with folks moonlighting in at least a couple of acts and the same names popping up again and again in new projects. Such…

The cover art of the Thermals’ latest, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, demands a close look. The intriguing collage features Jesus with a black bar covering his eyes, standing with his arms outstretched in a junkyard, surrounded by what look like dead appliances. So what the hell does it…

Although long in the shadow of scenemates Hüsker Dü and the Replacements, Soul Asylum ended up being the most commercially successful of the three. Early on, the act was derisively dubbed Hüsker Jr. by certain critics primarily because its early records seemed to imitate Dü’s high-trajectory melodic hardcore. But by…

Jonas H. Dahl, Arne Stöy Kvalvik, Ådne Meisfjord and Kjetil Ovesen, the four Norwegians who make up 120 Days, are too young to have lived through the nascent era of synthesized rock, and in this case, ignorance is bliss. Rather than put the spotlight on a few key elements, “Come…

By all accounts, Conner is from Lawrence, Kansas — although considering how frontman James Duft sings, with a tar-thick, faux-British accent, you’d be forgiven if you assumed the group hailed from across the pond. And ironically, the positive notices that the quartet has received thus far have all been from…

Guitarist/singer Coco Montoya started off as a rock drummer. Albert Collins walked into the club where Montoya was working, and the club owner let him use Montoya’s drum set — without asking him. Montoya blew a gasket, and Collins ended up calling to apologize. Collins phoned a few months later,…

There’s a good chance the Lord of Word is on his way to becoming the Lord of Dance. And, no, we’re not talking some Riverdance bullshit. You see, Theo Smith, who for seven years fronted the seminal Denver funk band Lord of Word and the Disciples of Bass, is trying…

In recent years, a spate of would-be synth-pop revivalists have come into the world. Some have mixed in rock instrumentals, while others have stuck to pure electronics. The resulting music — a good portion of it, anyway — has been self-consciously kitschy. Few acts, however, have pushed the art form…