He may be on the verge of mid-career, but Ron Miles is still having growth spurts, as any good artist must. The Denver trumpeter’s compelling new collection of seven originals, Laughing Barrel, deploys a full-throated quartet to some vivid new regions of the jazz frontier, and none of the players…
The Muses — daughters of Zeus whom the ancient Greeks credited with inspiring artists of the day — were a contrary bunch, as capable of cruelty as of kindness. So it is with music (and, by association, the music business), which gives and takes with a whimsical disregard that’s perfectly…
At the Grammys last month, Fred Durst did his best to enter the grand fraternity of musicians who use artistic platforms to make political statements. Perhaps inspired by the creative protestations of everyone from Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan to Ian MacKaye, Marvin Gaye — heck, even yappy little Zack…
The secret to writing a perfect pop song? Learn everything — then forget it. Just look at Supergrass. This English group, playing Monday, March 17, at the Bluebird Theater, with the Coral, is almost an encyclopedia on tape of British popular music. Even a brief earful of any one of…
Fans of Breathing Eve’s guitar-driven mood rock were disappointed when the outfit called it quits in 2001, as the move seemed premature for a promising band still finding its sound. Apparently, guitarist Chad Lindberg, bassist Chris Calloway and drummer Katie Aikens agreed: The trio picked up songstress Heather Ballew and…
DJ Vadim takes pride in exporting the revolutionary idea that hip-hop knows no borders. Like a musical Karl Marx, the British turntablist gained his street knowledge from the polyglot culture of London, where a new vanguard of B-boys breakdance and play music in the city’s subterranean Tube system and its…
There are a few truisms of Mississippi life: Green tomatoes are fried in cornmeal, not flour, thank you very much; tea is lip-smackingly sweet; William Faulkner quotes drip off lips like honey; and the ghosts are inescapable. Expatriates flee to Yankee country, vowing to be done with that place that…
Despite their now-ghetto categorization, the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure helped define electronica when today’s stars were still in diapers. New releases from each band help restore some honor to their oft-underestimated legacies. The Pet Shop Boys’ Disco 3 is a followup to 1986’s Disco, an album that, along with…
Some recent alterations to Denver’s nightlife have been merely titular, as with the metamorphosis of Club Sanctuary to Butterfly. But in other cases, the change is more formal: For example, Friday, March 7, marks the grand opening of the Starline Lounge — the makeshift dance-and-performance space in the former Denver…
Drawing a line around The Sea and Cake isn’t easy. Over the past eight years, the Chicago quartet, appearing Friday, March 7, at the Gothic Theatre, with Califone, has soaked up color from a broad palette of influences: indie pop, kraut rock, post-punk, jazz, funk and techno. Sound splotchy? It…
To see Space Team Electra live is to see Myshel Prasad summon spirits. In the band’s moody, melancholy moments, the singer channels the high priestess of poetic punk drama, Patti Smith; during harder numbers, her guitar-laden grind recalls Inger Lorre, leader of the late, great Nymphs. But Prasad’s personal spirit…
Lighting should be theatrical rather than rockist. We are interested in atmosphere, mood, drama, energy, subtlety, imagination — not rock cliche.” So reads one of the dozens of protocols directed at light men, stagehands, producers, promoters, journalists, record labels and even would-be members of the band Pere Ubu. These commandments,…
The Australian rock outfit known as AC/DC is the perfect fraternity for boys who like tits, beer, ass, sex and serious power chords. But determining where the band lies in the hearts of female rockers can be complicated: What self-respecting woman can really appreciate songs about blow jobs and fat…
Rap marketing may have grown more sophisticated with the years, but you couldn’t prove it by the pimping of 50 Cent. After all, the man born Curtis Jackson is being sold to the public on the strength of two primary achievements: one, that Eminem likes him, and two, that he’s…
The car’s passenger ejected the Holopaw CD abruptly, replacing it with a crunchier, less emotive selection. “That was boring,” he said. “Who would want to listen to that?” Had this fellow spent some time alone with the music, he might have had a different response: Holopaw’s quiet atmospherics are shaped…
With their intelligent lyrics and sophisticated pop jangle, the Go-Betweens have always made it seem cool to be grown up. Without resorting to navel-baring exhibitionism or angry punk theatrics, the Australian band simultaneously exudes sex appeal and a subtle sadness. The combination of polished craftsmanship and visual interest — artwork…
A couple of years ago, artist and fledgling filmmaker Ben Wolfinsohn got a call from his friend at KXLU, Loyola Marymount University’s student-run radio station in Los Angeles. Wolfinsohn has a taste for weirdo music, and his friend figured the band getting ready to play an on-air set was right…
Living Legends, appearing Wednesday, March 5, at the Fox Theatre, are a grassroots, indie hip-hop phenomenon. A couple of years ago, MCs Sunspot, PSC, Murs and Grouch were selling tapes out of their car trunks. Now, they consistently sell out shows around the world. Working with a loose coalition of…
Arguably the first person on the planet to play prepared guitar and dobro in a compositional sense, Janet Feder manipulates the strings of her instruments by attaching beads, rings, bra hooks and modified alligator clips for a host of uncommon sounds. Gongs, rattles, steel drums, marimba and Oriental percussion are…
Westword: In preparing for this interview, I read a lot of articles and reviews that have been written about Audioslave. So I want to start out by issuing an apology on behalf of my profession. Tom Morello : A long overdue apology, my friend. Long overdue. Audioslave, a cooperative that…
You will never make out with one of the Donnas. Sorry. You’re a chump. Chump clothes, chump lingo, chump taste in liquor. Ain’t no way you’ll get your hands on these four bombastic California lasses, who’ve somehow evolved from a cutesy indie-rock girl group to an ass-kickin’, name-takin’ arena-rock monstrosity…
A touring musician sometimes finds himself in strange places at strange times. Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau knows this firsthand. “I’m in Seoul, South Korea, about thirty miles away from the demilitarized zone,” Mehldau says. “Weird!” Weird, perhaps. But the show must go on, even in unlikely places. And despite the…
