Concerts

Last April, when jazz drummer Ari Hoenig returned to New York after playing a gig in Denver, he was greeted by an e-mail from a woman who wrote him a long, thoughtful note expressing how much she hated the music his trio played at Dazzle. He was a bit stunned…

Thriller 25 hit stores this week. For obvious reasons, the world’s best-selling album probably won’t get its proper due, so Chicago rapper Rhyme-fest (with the help of producer Mark Ronson) posted Man in the Mirror free at his online store (www.rhymefeststore.com, click on Mixtapes). On his MySpace blog, Rhyme writes,…

One of musical prognosticators’ favorite New Year’s activities is wagering which personalities will be waved past the velvet rope into the Ultimate Afterparty sometime over the next 365 days (well, 366 this year). Last year, Britney Spears was flirting pretty hard with the bouncers, but somehow managed to stay off…

Although its members proclaim themselves purveyors of “voodoobilly,” San Diego’s Deadbolt doesn’t tread quite the same musical waters as psychobilly outfits like Mad Sin, with its overt co-opting of snotty punk-rock poses dressed in retro guise. Instead, the act’s music is closer to its obvious influences: Duane Eddy and Dick…

With the sudden demise of MTV’s Headbangers Ball in 1995, metal had nowhere to go but underground. The scene fractured, the sound intensified, and shares of Aqua Net plunged. Since then, a legion of back-to-basics core whores like Massachusetts’s All That Remains have pumped life back into the genre that…

There’s not a lot of new to be found in Black Lips’ fuzzy, skuzzy, hard-charging garage rock. Take a spin through last year’s Good Bad Not Evil or any of the band’s older releases and you’ll find the usual assortment of influences: Velvet Underground, maybe a touch of 13th Floor…

As the second wave of grunge washes across the country and the globe — whinier and wimpier than the first — the world’s metal mavens have begun to scurry to their corners to formulate survival strategies. Increasingly, these Mad Maxes look to past heroes for salvation and inspiration. Among them…

The post-stoner sounds made by Atlanta’s Zoroaster can be described in extremely simple terms — “loud” and “heavy” among them. But the band’s seemingly basic approach still leaves room for aural weirdness by the truckload. “Tualatin,” from the combo’s 2007 disc Dog Magic, provides the template. The track begins with…

Welcome to the first installment of Snob Talk, where we ask different writers to wax philosophic, and self-indulgent, about a new topic each week. This week, we had folks write about bands that they’re pretty sure people laud more than listen to. I’m astounded by how much of Stereolab’s music…

British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music? Rough Trade 02:20-02:55 of “Waving Flags” Hmm, yes I do like rock music. I appreciate it when bands ask me questions. It makes me really feel like I’m involved in their creative project. It’s kind of like when an author tells me…

Welcome to the first installment of Snob Talk, where we ask different writers to wax philosophic, and self-indulgent, about a new topic each week. This week, we had folks write about bands that they’re pretty sure people laud more than listen to. Every hipster—who’s as mysterious and obscure as the…

Super-hero and Miami electro guru Otto von Schirach this weekend asked a crowd in Denver that age-old question: would you rather have your ears twisted or have a dance-party-orgy? Find out what the answer was with this slide show review by Cory Casciato…

Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: The Next Big Thing has been sighted by Tom Breihan; prepare yourself for the onslaught of sensitive white-boy robo-soul…

On February 10, the Grammy Awards marked their fiftieth anniversary with a program so misguided and wrongheaded that it perfectly encapsulated all of the music industry’s current woes. Following a suitably embalmed duet with the thoroughly dead Frank Sinatra, appearing in stock footage, Alicia Keys declared, “We honor our past,…

Locals Only: DJ Bedz Joins XM Radio DJ Bedz has been handling business with Denver on his chest for quite awhile now. From spinning the weekend mixes on KS107.5, to reppin’ as the official Denver Nuggets DJ, to mixtaping the heck out of the Mile High City and even appearing…

Slide Show DJ Shadow + Cut Chemist, Kid Kiola Thursday, February 7, 2008, Ogden Theater Better than: Dancing with the waitresses at Tom’s Diner. A long long time ago, 1996 to be exact, some sage named Beck surmised that the one key to any party was “two turntables and a…

I’ve always promised myself that I’ll quit this gig — or at least seriously re-evaluate things — the minute I feel myself becoming jaded. After nearly five years of covering the same beat and sorting through band after band, day after day, I figure it’s bound to happen at some…

The romantic mix CD: Every man has made at least one. It’s one of the most sure-fire ways to woo a woman or, if your goals are more base, get laid. With Valentine’s Day just a week away, as a public service, we present a list of songs that you…

When Abracastabya first formed in 2004, guitarist Geoff Brent and vocalist/pianist Willow Welter never intended to perform live. Before long, though, the two realized that their collaboration had evolved, and they enlisted cellist Lauren Langley and drummer David Grimm to round out the lineup. Last year the band entered the…

Red Holloway’s storied career had auspicious beginnings. While playing in DuSable High School’s big band in Chicago in the mid-1940s, Holloway and fellow saxophonist Johnny Griffin were sometimes visited by jazz royalty, such as Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and others, who would stop by the school and sit in with…