When many people think of folk music, they envision acoustic-guitar-wielding mopes who pick at their fractured relationships like apes searching for ticks. In truth, the style is as big as the planet, and if Jolie Holland hasn’t explored every square inch of this creative territory to date, give her time…
His name isn’t really Elvis Costello. The London-born iconic pop figure popped out of the womb christened with the desperately un-romantic and very un-rock-star handle of Declan Patrick MacManus. The young MacManus outgrew his given appellation by his early twenties and adopted the combined names of Elvis (straight from the…
Remember Sonic Youth? Really, how could anyone forget? Those inciters of noise-heavy rhythms, those provocateurs of alt-rock exploitation — Sonic Youth, oh, how we hold a tiny place in our grunge-begotten hearts for thee. More than two decades on, the Youth troupe has managed to stay afloat through the turbulent…
Ex-matchbox twenty frontman Rob Thomas is an inspiration to average musicians everywhere. Check the facts: He’s not overwhelmingly handsome, he doesn’t have an especially compelling personality, his voice falls well short of spectacular, and his songs are nearly as generic as his name — yet the guy’s a platinum-selling star…
Rogue Wave’s debut, 2004’s Out of the Shadows, was a bittersweet album of ’60s-inspired pop ideal for melodists and English Lit students who had gone too long between Shins albums. It was the work of one man — Oakland’s Zach Rogue (born Zach Schwartz), who recorded the album before even…
Since its formation in 1999, the Colorado Art Rock Society has consistently presented some of the most inventive local and national music in the state. The Jama-Sonique debuted in 2004 and featured the best in local prog-rock bands, providing a great creative atmosphere and, for good measure, a man in…
If you believe what all the big electronic magazines say about Ferry Corsten (due at the Church on Thursday, June 22), then you might think he’s just another in a series of untouchable superstar DJs from the U.K. Although the label may be accurate, it’s also a bit disingenuous. It’s…
Welcome to the twelfth annual Westword Music Showcase. Twelve — the dirty dozen. Can you believe it? When we launched the first Showcase all those years ago on a rainy Sunday night in LoDo, who would’ve thought that it would grow to such a mammoth event? Then again, did anyone…
Dan Rutherford looks like the cat who just ate the canary, like he knows something no one else does. He’s had this look for a few months, ever since he returned from South by Southwest at the end of March. Now it’s a blistering hot afternoon in early June. Rutherford…
Whether she’s singing through speakers or in the footlights of the stage, or talking on the other end of a telephone, there’s a certain distance in Aimee Mann’s voice that makes her sound a million miles away. Especially today, while she’s on break from an L.A. recording session for an…
Dave Einmo, the main mind behind Seattle’s Head Like a Kite, is parked on the shoulder of Interstate 90 in rural Montana, and no matter where he moves inside his vehicle, he can’t get decent cell-phone reception. So he steps onto the roadside and is immediately transfixed. “Wow,” he says…
Before launching a singer-songwriter career, Virgil Shaw co-helmed San Francisco’s Dieselhed in the early ’90s with members of Camper Van Beethoven and Mr. Bungle — a freewheeling union that produced a few notable punk-and-country-tinged albums for Beck’s Bong Load Records. Now residing in Manhattan’s East Village, Shaw pays the bills…
Oops, Liars did it again: The trio made a concept record. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that they made an album and then wrapped a concept around it. At its core, Drum’s Not Dead, released earlier this year on Mute, is a winding rock voyage that maps the…
Three years ago last week, when I became the Backbeat editor of this hallowed fish wrap, I was convinced that I had landed the coolest gig in the music biz, bar none. But now I’m not so sure. After speaking with Alexandra Patsavas, who handles music-supervision duties for such shows…
Drag the River ain’t your grandpappy’s country — unless your grandpappy used to stitch Op Ivy patches to his hoodies and rock out in prominent local punk bands. Then, yeah, this is that old-timer’s kind of groove. The Fort Collins-based outfit boasts a lineup of luminaries that reads like an…
The Veronicas are 21-year-old twin sisters out of Brisbane, Australia, who have been performing together since they were five. Just two years ago, Warner Bros./Sire signed Lisa and Jess Origliasso for an obscene amount of cash, with hopes of turning the girls into the next Ashlee Simpson or Kelly Clarkson…
R&B heartthrob Chris Brown admits to having dated at least one older woman in his day, which isn’t hard to believe. He just turned seventeen, and given the blockbuster success of his eponymous debut CD and its irresistible lead single, “Run It!,” there’s an enormous number of potential candidates. Nevertheless,…
Lachey and Angel are members of an especially creepy brotherhood: They’re both ex-boy-banders who opened their lives to reality-TV cameras in the name of career advancement. Nevertheless, their discs are poles apart. Lachey’s CD is the equivalent of a tear-jerking Lifetime movie, while Angel’s largely eschews lachrymose sentimentality in favor…
Mojave 3 is made up of shoegazing trumpeters Neil Halstead (on vocals and guitar), Rachel Goswell (vocals and bass) and Ian McCutcheon (drums). Formerly known as the entrancing ambient-pop dream outfit Slowdive, the British mates dropped the dive-y moniker in favor of Mojave 3 when their music picked up pace…
On their third album, the core members of I See Hawks in L.A. are joined by Chris Hillman (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), Rick Shea (Dave Alvin Band) and other heavies from L.A.’s alt-country gang. It’s the songwriting of the principal bandmates, though, that grabs your attention. Lead vocalist and guitarist…
The majority of Colorado hip-hop artists haven’t made a ripple outside the state, and in years past, there were good reasons for their fate; with a handful of exceptions, even promising performers just weren’t ready to challenge the genre’s big-timers. Today, however, that’s less true than ever before, as the…
Metal dudes are totally cute — those big, burly Hessian beards and pot-bellied pudges of flesh stretching out faded biker T-shirts touting slogans like “If you can read this, then the bitch fell off.” Just like a wicker basket of puppies, those headbanging alpha males are — yup, just like…
