Gear Fab Records’ Roger Maglio, who recently relocated to Littleton from Orlando, Florida, specializes in reissuing obscurities from the ’60s and ’70s — and the majority of tunes on Psychedelic States, a two-CD set that’s part of a U.S.-spanning series, more than qualify. Even local-music experts are unlikely to know…
What is it about these indie folksters using pseudonyms? Samuel Beam goes by Iron and Wine, and Will Oldham has recorded under Bonnie “Prince” Billy and various Palace monikers. Then there’s Matthew Houck, who’s been recording and performing as Phosphorescent for the past seven years. Fittingly enough, Houck’s latest effort,…
The music of Black Moth Super Rainbow seems custom-fitted for a Sofia Coppola film. It has that daydreamy, otherworldly sound favored by acts like Air and Broadcast, with low-end buoyancy propelling sparkly, soaring waves of sound — sort of like Stereolab without the political agenda and driving, droney guitars. And…
Paolo Nutini’s star has risen so fast in the last year that you almost have to wonder who the kid has on the payroll. Even if Atlantic Records thinks it’s found the Scottish James Blunt, Nutini doesn’t need much more than a piano or an acoustic guitar to turn the…
Back in the mid-’90s, when Earlimart opened for business, the Los Angeles band, which is currently touring with Office, specialized in the usual punk-rock products. Since then, the merchandise has undergone substantial changes: The group’s membership is down to two, Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray, and while the tracks that…
At this year’s Warped Tour, a gaggle of fourteen-year-olds engaged in a passionate debate about Tiger Army that went something like this: One side said, “Tiger Army rocks!” and their opponents countered with, “Tiger Army sucks!” Truth is, both groups have a point. The combo, which shares this bill with…
Hardcore is one of the purest forms of expression in music. More visceral than cerebral, the music is simple, direct and explosive. There’s no pretense or subtext — nothing to analyze. And, refeshingly, its practioners and enthusiasts are generally as straight-forward and no-nonsense as the music, which means they’re unaffected…
Don’t be frightened. Bassist DJ Wilson of Scary Kids Scaring Kids doesn’t come across as particularly terrifying in either the profile of the band published in the October 18 Westword or the full Q&A, reproduced below. Wilson begins by talking about his hometown of Gilbert, Arizona, before transitioning into his…
“The Underdog” Ga Ga Ga Ga Spoon This one goes out the entire National League. My brain is hopelessly and disproportionately dedicated to baseball at the moment, sorry. Hearing this song first thing in the morning guarantees that I will be humming Spoon for the rest of the day. The…
Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew Spirit If… (Arts & Crafts) The credit Kevin Drew chose for himself on this disc seems designed to reassure fans fearful that his decision to release a CD under his own name means Broken Social Scene is bound for the grave. But the wordiness…
IO Echo, Kenna, She Wants Revenge October 11, 2007 Gothic Theatre Better than: Wearing out your vinyl copy of Floodland. Upon arriving at the Gothic for last night’s She Wants Revenge show, the first thing that struck me was the diversity of the crowd. There were dolled-up big-hair girls, hippie…
Anders Trentemøller October 10, 2007 Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom Better than: Another by-the-numbers DJ set. After a fine, extended set by DJ Ivy that dwelt in deep house territory and skirted the techno and progressive neighborhoods, there was a brief pause, a chance to catch your breath and prepare for the…
Eric Shiveley just took a shot at me. “These look like a couple of music critics,” he said, looking into the camera, holding a Luke Skywalker action figure in one hand and a big, colorful, plastic coffee-mug toy of some sort in the other. “They’re the journalistic equivalent of the…
On the cover and liner of II, the latest CD by Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, singer Dallas Taylor and the rest of his bandmates portray members of the infamous “Ma” Barker gang of the 1920s and 1930s, just as they did on the Southern metalcore band’s 2005 debut…
Jose Gonzalez’s sophomore full-length album, In Our Nature, sounds like a live concert held in a run-down room in an old clapboard hotel on the outskirts of a tiny plains town along a long-forgotten highway. The folk-bent singer-songwriter glides through a collection of songs with his acoustic guitar and voice,…
Chemistry is key when it comes to being in a band. For the guys in White Rabbits, it’s everything. Since moving to New York from Columbia, Missouri, two years ago, all six members have lived together in a loft that doubles as their rehearsal space. Kindred spirits, the guys all…
It’s fitting that McRad sounds like a skateboard trick. The act has been featured on several skateboard videos, and mastermind Chuck Treece had more than a few sponsorship deals as a pro. McRad’s new album, FDR, is the group’s first since 1987; the upcoming split with Denver’s Frontside Five will…
Purchasing a Rascal Flatts CD is like going to Cold Stone and ordering a vanilla waffle cone. There are so many flavors of country music that it seems a shame to settle for the blandest of all the varieties. Still Feels Good, the trio’s fifth studio album, is a boring…
The music on 2006’s Everything All the Time, Band of Horses’ breakthrough CD, could serve as the soundtrack for the originality-vs.-inspiration debate. There was nothing novel about the disc, with most ditties overtly recalling assorted expressionistic, guitar-driven predecessors. Yet the tunes were so passionately performed that they frequently made freshness…
I’m of two minds about Dualistics’ latest disc. I know — it’s an easy, stupid play on the group’s name, but it’s also the truth. On the one hand, there are some really strong songs and likable elements on the band’s Long Tail EP. On the other, it’s got some…
In 1984, Tony Hawk was doing a Frontside 5-0 to Lipslide Revert. Here we have skate punks Frontside Five and McRad reverting back to 1984, with the former inhabiting the thrash of D.R.I. and the latter remembering the Orwellian age through archival live tracks from the era. 50/50 Split (set…
Bat for Lashes, Fur and Gold (Parlaphone). Ethereal and haunting, Natasha Khan’s songwriting echoes the best moments of Roxy Music, Sinéad and Björk without spiraling into Switchblade Symphony melancholy. Fur’s signature song, “What’s a Girl to Do?” drowns in harpsichord and heavy downbeats before grooving into a pop number worthy…
