Music

When John Roderick was a member of Harvey Danger, few would have predicted that he would go on to do bigger and better things. But after leaving Danger, he did just that by forming the Long Winters, which turned out to be the perfect vehicle for his considerable songwriting talents…

Of all the great songwriters rock has produced, Paul Simon may be the most self-conscious. Whereas many artists embrace spontaneity, he carefully mulls over every creative decision, and when he commits something to plastic, he does so with tremendous seriousness of purpose. Take “Sure Don’t Feel Like Love,” from his…

More than twenty years and twelve albums into its career, Yo La Tengo remains one of the few vital bands that manage to release brilliant albums on a regular basis. The trio’s material is so richly varied that it defies comparison — even though the act has been known to…

Cary Brothers might be most famous as that guy Zach Braff keeps putting on all of his soundtracks (like Garden State and The Last Kiss), but these days you’ll find Brothers’s folk pop just about everywhere. From Grey’s Anatomy to Smallville to — you guessed it — Scrubs, the guy…

Celtic Frost is one of the few ’80s thrash giants that haven’t been co-opted by the forces of hipster irony. In 1988, the Swiss hellions released an excellent yet inexplicable hair-metal album titled Cold Lake. Kurt Cobain loved the disc, but you’d do better to check out 1984’s Morbid Tales…

Avant guitarist Todd Ayers has been a catalyst for some of the best and most compelling music to ever come out of Denver. He’s performed with and engineered an array of artists, including Twice Wilted, Volplane, Space Team Electra, the Emmas, Worm Trouble and the Tarmints. These days, Ayers splits…

Sandeigh Barrett never understood the Holy Trinity. Just six years old and she was already causing trouble by asking too many questions. At the time, Barrett’s devoutly Southern Baptist family was living in a trailer park in a tiny Texas village called River Oaks. While most kids her age were…

The Fray’s road to recognition was unbelievably swift. The band, which is slated to headline Red Rocks this Saturday, September 30, achieved platinum status last week, barely a year after releasing its Epic debut, How to Save a Life, which features the ubiquitous hit single “Over My Head (Cable Car)”…

Rifling through stuffed closets of musical instruments and influences, Calexico creates indie world music that has been variously described as alt-country, spaghetti-Western and desert rock. Multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino explore cultural interstices and intersections by collaborating with Mexican mariachi ensembles, Spanish singers and others from around the…

Scrubs star Zach Braff’s directorial debut, Garden State, was more than just an art-house hit about twenty-something depression. When it was released in 2004, its melancholic soundtrack was like a nursery for up-and-coming dream-pop bands and acoustic-minded artists. Braff, the album’s executive producer, won a Grammy for his efforts. Acts…

Even before Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy joined a band, women were lining up to show him body parts they usually keep under cover. McCoy served as a tattoo artist in upstate New York for several years, and during that time, he inked designs and illustrations on or near…

TV on the Radio’s latest effort is a tad overwhelming at first. But after taking the time to fully absorb the layers and layers of incredibly dense textures woven by guitarist/producer David Andrew Sitek, it’s clear that the baby justifies the labor. Wading through the fractured, shape-shifting aesthetic is made…

Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson is a hot, eager and totally empty vessel. On The Dutchess, she displays an affinity for the sort of mainstream pop that would put most Black Eyed Peas fans to sleep faster than a Blizzard with Tylenol PM sprinkles — but if acting like a hip-hop ho…

Big-budget bands, on average, take anywhere from two to five years to produce a full-length album. Wolf Eyes takes about a week. The act is a record collector’s nightmare, with an extensive discography that stretches far into the annals of self-produced cassette tapes, CD-Rs and the occasional etched vinyl record…

The Faceless Werewolves should — if the gods of good taste have their way — be the next Austin band whose hot, raw licks will get down the pants of America. Singer Baldomero Valdez has a certain Thurston Moore mumble in the way he has to fight for air underneath…

It’s kind of refreshing to hear a Denver hip-hop act not trying to emulate the latest trends. On Living on the Jib, Death Before Dishonor mates hostile, head-banging breakbeats with strings and piano interludes that recall everyone from DJ Shadow to EL-P (of Company Flow). Tracks like “Somebody Stop Me”…

Nothing to be afraid of here. Open Mouth isn’t just Fear Before the March of Flames’ best album to date; it’s also evidence that this band is only now beginning to tap its potential. Artistically speaking, the Flamers are growing like a brush fire during a drought. “Drowning the Old…

Club d’Elf, Now I Understand (Accurate). The brainchild of Boston bassist Mike Rivard, Club d’Elf is a genre-shattering collective that merges jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, worldbeat and more with the help of collaborators ranging from DJ Logic to onetime David Bowie associate Reeves Gabrels. Now I Understand is both instrumentally…

There’s a decrepit old building on St. Peter Street, in the heart of the French Quarter, with little in the way of amenities; drinks aren’t even served there. Regardless, tourists line up hours before showtime because they know that Preservation Hall is one of the few pillars of old-school New…

How to make a KMFDM album: Pair sexy-girl vocals with a frog-throated male lead spitting angry, Euro-style slow-paced raps (à la Trent Reznor on “Down in It”), synthesize every beat to the max and then cover it all up with iconic Brute! artwork. Stick the group’s acronym in a chorus…

Although thinking-man’s metal band Queensrche has a respectable catalogue of albums under its belt — including classics such as Empire and Rage for Order — its legacy was cemented by 1988’s Operation: Mindcrime, one of the greatest and most successful rock operas ever made. Mindcrime wove a tale of a…