In this space last week, Don Howe, local head honcho for Cincinnati’s Jacor Communications, which owns eight powerful radio stations in the Denver-Boulder area, got to crow about problems at KKHK-FM/99.5 (the Hawk), a competitor that went from celebrating its purchase of the Howard Stern show to announcing that the…
“The first thing that defines an artist who is local,” says Montbello rapper Bumpy Chill, “is to do a show without using anyone else’s beats and then see how the crowd reacts.” The Don Kronicals, which pairs Chill with his cousin, Aurora’s L.O., has had no problems passing such tests…
James Lavelle, the 24-year-old founder and president of England’s Mo Wax Records, has an active fantasy life, and movies are his touchstone. The promotional items for Psyence Fiction, a new CD credited to a project he’s dubbed Unkle, include a mockup of the original poster from Star Wars (his favorite…
Elliott Smith XO (Dreamworks) Considering the one-dimensional press Elliott Smith has been receiving of late, you can be forgiven for assuming that XO captures the sound of a strange, homely man sobbing himself to sleep over his acoustic guitar. Not that the album will be mistaken for something by Up…
Harvey Reid looks like your standard-issue new-age guitarist. But when he speaks about the state of the acoustic-music field he works in, it’s clear that there’s more behind his flowing locks than initially meets the eye. “A lot of my guitar compadres are still lost in open-tuning mantra stuff and…
The fourth annual Westword Music Awards Showcase, held September 20 in LoDo, featured music of virtually every description, as well as a special guest appearance by representatives of the Denver police department. Let’s get to the latter situation first. Concentrated Evil, a trio nominated in the Showcase’s Metal/ Goth category,…
If you want to get technical, the Westword Music Awards Showcase guide at the center of this issue is an advertising supplement. But it’s also the most extensive overview of the Denver-Boulder music scene that any area publication will print this year. In addition to a map and a complete…
Massive Attack’s sound, which integrates street life, DJing, music, art and angst, has played a major role in shaping the pop music of the Nineties–and with this accomplishment have come some impressive spoils. Today the group’s Robert del Naja (aka 3D) is as comfortable ordering room service in swanky hotels…
Just because the word “swing” frequently accompanies descriptions of Money Plays Eight’s music doesn’t mean the members of the group are happy about it. “We wouldn’t even describe ourselves as swing,” insists singer James Leo, one of two imposing frontmen for the nine-piece ensemble, a nominee for this week’s Westword…
Barry Adamson As Above, So Below (Mute) With this disc, the criminally underrated Adamson takes a risky plunge off his ivory tower of instrumental ambience. This composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist has compiled a decade-long discography as emotive as anything produced by the planet’s foremost musical anti-heroes, yet the verbal explorations…
Pianist Forrest Meyer is the leader of a group that specializes in big-band music–a style that’s hotter today than it’s been in decades–and whenever he plays live, he draws large and appreciative crowds. But while most of his peers work their brand of brassy magic in smoky nightclubs or theaters…
Aceyalone A Book of Human Language (Project Blowed) Why do so many artists choose to take the path of least resistance? The current plight of rapper Aceyalone offers an answer. Born E.M. Hayes Jr., Aceyalone was part of the Freestyle Fellowship, a West Coast act that incorporated jazz sounds every…
The building at 2401 Broadway in Boulder doesn’t blend into the scenery. Designed by the late architect Charles Haertling, whose “mushroom house” made a guest appearance in Woody Allen’s 1973 sci-fi comedy Sleeper, it’s very large, very white and very space-age. Locals say it looks like a rocket–which makes it…
Howard Stern is capable of turning a radio market upside down faster than any other single on-air personality. Although he’s been involved in big-time media for ages, he continues to inspire the ire of the Federal Communications Commission (the fines levied against him throughout his career have been astronomically high),…
Hole Celebrity Skin (Geffen) When a colleague of mine who’d heard an advance copy of this disc told me that it was essentially a Go-Go’s record, my first reaction was relief: Thank God it’s not a heartfelt screed about how Courtney Love really didn’t kill Kurt Cobain, I thought. But…
Bernie Worrell knew that listeners outside the United States had long treated classic American music more honorably than had those within it. Likewise, he’d heard plenty of stories about veteran jazz, country or rockabilly artists who’d either moved to foreign locales or made most of their money overseas. But as…
Turntablists–DJs who turn mixing and spinning into hip-hop performance art–have made a big noise in San Francisco and New York, but they’re just now getting the attention they deserve in many other cities. As a result, most locals don’t realize that Denver DJ Jam X is widely regarded as one…
The past twelve months have been very, very good to A.J. Salas. Since last summer, the blues-and-boogie-woogie pianist has composed and arranged a piece for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and wowed large crowds at the People’s Fair, the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and several other big-time local events. He’s also…
The January 15, 1998, edition of this column introduced you to Big Pauli & Mr. V-Lo, a spinoff from the Denver hip-hop act Deuce Mob (“Join the Mob,” February 14, 1996). The Mob’s breakup, which took place after the group opened for the Ice Cube side project Westside Connection in…
Those of us who grew up as fans of punk and alternative music always have our radar up, and as a result, we can sense a sellout a mile off. When, for example, David Bowie claimed before a tour a few years back that he was playing his old songs…
Earlier in their careers, Madonna, Liz Phair and Tori Amos routinely prescribed megadoses of overt female sexuality, and since their musical pills were alternately sugared with disco beats, indie minimalism and highfalutin piano classicism, large numbers of fans eagerly swallowed them. Recently, however, these high-profile women, each of whom came…
Most local gay nightlife languishes in self-imposed mediocrity that couldn’t be further removed from the exciting club milieu invented by queers back in the Sixties and Seventies–which is why Kim Fronapfel, aka DJ Sentiment, is such a valuable part of the community. By blending funk, jazz, R&B and rap from…
