We Are! We Are! is a hard-charging instrumental rock trio with a danceable, muscular sound and a killer live show. The group formed in the summer of 2003 in Asheville, North Carolina, and relocated to Denver in 2006, where it’s been wowing audiences ever since with tight, high-energy performances. We…
While preparing for John Coltrane’s 1957 landmark album Blue Train, trombonist Curtis Fuller says he had only three hours to learn the tunes before the band started recording at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in New Jersey. Fuller, who was 22 at the time, said he teased Coltrane about learning the…
The Alarm, Guerilla Tactics (The Twenty First Century Recording Company). With this overall winning collection of mostly under-four-minute tunes, death-defying Welsh rocker Mike Peters has bridged the gap between the memorable melodies and polished production of his classic alternative fare and the brash, decibel-drenched rock of his more recent musical…
A cousin in Louisiana once shot a cow with an AK-47. Legend has it that he and some friends hoisted the dead cow pumped full of bullets into the back of a pickup and drove it over to my uncle’s house, which used to be a church. They somehow dragged…
Because singer Malgorzata Wacht moved to the United States from Poland before the term “alternative” became synonymous with “grunge,” she never had to be saddled with that musically hermetic attitude that precludes certain people from appreciating the haunting and seductive beauty of Dead Can Dance, as well as the imaginative…
If trance is your thing, you need to make plans to go to the Global Dance Festival on Saturday, July 19, at Red Rocks. Nothing like seeing one of the most popular trance DJ/producers in the world — Ferry Corsten, consistently voted into the top ten of DJ magazine’s top…
Rachel Pollard’s first full-length is filled with delicate, melancholic poetry and winsome reverie. While Pollard often sings about heartbreaking experiences with the hindsight of wisdom, her outlook and delivery are informed by a certain innocence that welcomes the pitfalls of life and relationships. Because of this, each of these tender…
No surprise that Boom Bust recalls last year’s Holladay. Both EPs were produced by Hot IQ Bryan Feuchtinger, and they share an appreciation for tight, punchy songcraft. Still, the latest disc, which will be feted during a Saturday, July 26, hi-dive show featuring the Jim Jims and the Black Apples,…
Metal bands that transition from the underground to the overground can suffer painful backlashes. Thus far, though, Mastodon – part of a massive Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival lineup that includes Slipknot, Disturbed, Machine Head, Underoath, Dragonforce, Five Finger Death Punch, The Red Chord, Suicide Silence, 36 Crazy Fists, Airbourne, Black…
Although better known as the backup singers for Jenny Lewis on Rabbit Fur Coat, Chandra and Leigh Watson are no slouches on their own. Having grown up in Louisville, Kentucky, these twin sisters, like many Southern kids, started singing in the church choir. Upon relocating to Los Angeles, the twins…
Hip-hop artists don’t typically reject critical acclaim, but neither do they expect that good reviews will translate into big sales – and Britisher Dizzee Rascal’s probes into the American market demonstrate why. Rascal has won raves for his spare, raw hybrid of hip-hop and dance music – a form originally…
My Feral Kin took root in the artistically fertile DIY soil of Phoenix, Arizona, and is currently one of the promising groups across the country tapping into a more tropical sound born of non-English-speaking folk traditions. Stands to reason: Julio Mendoza Jr., Kin’s primary creative force, is the son of…
Danger Mouse is arguably the most adventurous producer to tackle a Beck project since the Dust Brothers helped birth a 1996 baby called Odelay (the Dusters’ return for 2004’s Güero doesn’t count). The resulting sound is satisfyingly dense and intricate; the neo-surfisms of “Gamma Ray,” the delicate psychedelia of “Chemtrails”…
On Coldplay’s fourth and latest album, producer Brian Eno attempts to use the same formula that worked for U2 by freshening up the band’s reliable brand of emotive lyricism and comforting melodies with his signature ambient infusions. Unfortunately, this approach just ends up making Coldplay sound like U2. And that’s…
According reports filed by NME and the Washington Post, Kanye West is reportedly in talks with AT&T to perform at a party being thrown on behalf of Bono’s One Campaign, a non-partisan organization whose primary mission is to raise public awareness in the areas of global poverty, hunger and disease…
Matmos Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Boulder Theater, Boulder Better Than: Just about any other electronic show I’ve seen. Balloons. Last night, the Boulder Theater was all about the balloons. I arrived just as Lexington, Kentucky-based openers Offthesky started its set. Accompanying the outfit’s de rigueur abstract video projection was a…
Ween Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Hodi’s Half Note, Fort Collins Better than: Any rock show in Fort Collins in recent memory. There really is no precedent for last night’s show in Fort Collins that feels worth mentioning – none that I’m aware of, anyhow. As far as momentous occasions go…
Des Tours, the Don’ts and Be Carefuls, Pleistocene Tuesday, July 14, 2008 Larimer Lounge Better Than: The generic Mariachi music I hear in my mom’s neighborhood. Due to a prior commitment, I missed all but the tail end of the final Pleistocene song. Too bad, because the group sounded especially…
The members of Tickle Me Pink have announced plans to soldier on in the wake of bassist Johnny Schou’s death. The band has enlisted longtime friend and former Brotherhood of Dae Han guitarist, Joey Barba, to fill Schou’s slot, and will resume its tour this Friday in San Diego…
Depending upon who you ask, Lazyface is no more. Lead singer Sam DeWitt, who recently parted ways with the act, contends that he opted to dissolve the band that he and Jonathan Kosares co founded, prompted by the fact that the two are longer with the outfit. The remaining members,…
Sounds like Nick Forster has cause to celebrate. The founder and president of etown has reached an agreement with Stephen Tebo for his organization to purchase the historic church Tebo’s family owns on the corner of 16th and Spruce in Boulder. According to Forster, Tebo dropped the price of property…
It’s often been said that being in a band is a lot like being in a relationship, that sometimes your bandmates know you better than your significant other. We’re putting this notion to the test by asking a select band member a half-dozen personal questions (easy, tiger, nothing salacious), and…
