Music

Daft Punk July 31, 2007 at Red Rocks Amphitheater Better than: A four-story-tall Light Bright The French electro/house duo Daft Punk descended on Red Rocks last night, dressed in their now-iconic robotic garb and encased in a radiant pyramid of light. The pyramid exploded with vivid imagery fueled by the…

Blitzen Trapper, Smoosh and Aqueduct July 31, 2007 The Hi-Dive Better than: You’d think three bands with such silly names would be. Blitzen Trapper started the night off with a set of deliriously giddy, loose-limbed indie pop built on a foundation of rattling drums, overdriven guitar, fuzzy synths and sunshine…

Emerge: Carnival of Shadows July 27, 2007 Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom Better than: A real circus Slide show Emerge: Carnival of Shadows was an interesting attempt to put a circus theme on the standard rave set up. It’s not an obvious mix, but it turned out that the erotic-tinged circus aesthetic…

Better than: Sleeping the rest of the night away would have been. Slide Show Due to an early evening nap and a faulty alarm clock, I missed all but the last half of the last song of Amphibious Jones’s set. By the time I was fully awake, Little Fyodor and…

Dave Beegle is a guitar virtuoso by all accounts but his own. Although widely regarded as one of the best players by some of the best, Beegle humbly deflects such praise, saying he often views his skill with the guitar as sleight of hand — so to speak. “Because I’ve…

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter crashed onto the electronic-music scene in the early ’90s with a love for Chicago house music on their sleeves and indie-rock pedigrees in their back pockets. This mixed background came through in subtle ways on early singles like “Da Funk” and “The New Wave,”…

For nearly three decades, legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti used his highly energetic music — essentially a fusion of African rhythms and American funk and jazz — as a weapon for political change in Africa. Fela’s son Femi honed his musical chops in his father’s band and then formed his…

Forget MTV. Last year, Lordi, a Finnish group whose members costume themselves as literal monsters of rock, got exposure on a slew of cable-news channels after winning the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest — the de facto World Cup of tunesmithing, which has been around for more than half a century…

As with Contraband, the first Velvet Revolver CD, Libertad is an amalgam of its influences: some good (Guns N’ Roses), others less so (Stone Temple Pilots). Still, the unregenerate retro-ness of the project — and of Slash’s axing in general — will leave those with a taste for cock rock…

With lead guitarist Graham Tyler absent, Have Mercy has but a thin tether to the Mooney Suzuki’s rawer Ramones edge, spotlighting instead singer Sammy James Jr.’s desire to sound like David Lee Roth rewriting Exile on Main Street between county fair appearances. There’s inspiration, and then there’s fellatio; Have Mercy…

Common’s second solo recording (which greets the public at a CD-release party on Saturday, July 28, at Forest Room 5) is even more uncommon than its acclaimed 2006 predecessor. The material occasionally meanders, and some destinations are more rewarding than others. Nevertheless, the aural environment Common creates is so sumptuous…

Raleigh’s Training Wheels EP is like an indie-rock artichoke: If you peel back the layers of influences, you’ll find quite a delectable core underneath. Listen closely and you’ll hear the trappings of Modest Mouse’s frayed exuberance as the outfit transmutes angst into fragmented melodies. There are also hints of Sunny…

Botch, American Nervoso (Hydra Head). Just over eight years after its original ground-shaking release, the Seattle sickos’ debut full-length gets the remix, remaster and reissue treatment to stun a whole new generation of fans of progressive metallic hardcore. This re-release, which includes demos and bonus tracks, makes crystal clear why…

For whatever reason, bluegrass purists have been reluctant to embrace the next generation of string bands crowding America’s festival circuit. The latter’s new style of fast-paced mandolin meandering leaves die-hard enthusiasts wondering exactly what they’re hearing. What should they call it? Punkgrass? Bluerock? Minnesota’s Trampled by Turtles calls itself an…

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an alarming new trend in jazz — namely, a proliferation of hot young women trying to pass off watered-down folksy pop as jazz. Unlike these divas, vocalist Jesse Palter is more of a traditionalist. The award-winning, Detroit-bred chanteuse and her band take a more…

When it comes to metal, the big new thing is the big old thing. Rather than go to the usual metal-core extremes, younger acts such as Vancouver’s 3 Inches of Blood hark back to the ’80s days of British steel, when the leather was black, the wristbands were spiked, and…

If the phrase “experimental rock” brings to mind visions of black-turtleneck-clad art-school graduates or another flannel-flocked Sonic Spoof, the Slats are about to blow your taurine-addled mind. When it comes to experiments, these three Minneapolis-based hooligans would rather see what happens when you spray Binaca into a Bunsen burner than…

For songwriters, breakups usually yield the best music. But in-band separations can be touchy — unless, of course, you’re Fleetwood Mac and you’ve got enough cocaine to cover all the tension in a thick, dusty layer. For the Lovemakers, the split between primary songwriter/vocalists Lisa Light and Scott Blonde kicked…

In hopes of cooling down at a higher altitude, a friend and I headed up to Lyons, home of Oskar Blues Grill & Brew (at 303 Main Street). Even before I set foot in the club, I was assured that it was all about the blues by a dozen or…

The musical and cultural time warp of this modern era has cultivated a flood of retro-leaning bands doing third-rate versions of the vital, foundational music that inspired their members to pick up instruments in the first place. The Nicotine Fits stand out from the countless poseurs by invoking the same…