Pieced together by an all-star team of producers (RZA, Raekwon, Mark Ronson) and bolstered by guest vocalists like Missy Elliott, Macy Gray and fellow Wu-Tang alumni Ghostface and Method Man, A Son Unique feels more like a posthumous tribute to the late Russell Jones than an actual ODB album. Even…
With MPs and blogs disseminating and then commenting on new music at a nearly instantaneous rate, young bands can find themselves thrust into the spotlight before the ink on their discs is even dry. The self-released debut by Brooklyn’s Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — with no label or publicist…
Fate can be a sick fucker. As a founding member of Immortal Dominion, former bassist Stephen Sherwood helped forge some of the most brutal and unflinching metal Colorado has ever seen. On August 3, he shot his wife and then himself, killing them both, after returning from service in Iraq…
Pristinely recorded at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, More Than Medium’s eponymous debut is as polished and by-the-numbers radio-friendly as it gets. If ever there was a formula for igniting a heated Love affair with broadcasters, this quartet has followed it down to the letter. In the span of…
Banjo & Sullivan, The Ultimate Collection 1972-1978 (Hip-O Records). A marketing ruse created to hype horror show The Devil’s Rejects, this amusing but raunchy novelty disc chronicles the make-believe musical ascent of two slaughtered hayseeds. Written and performed by Jesse Dayton (marinated in Jim Beam, trucker speed and nipple pie),…
Bands are like bats. They make noise, let it bounce back at them, and then use these reverberations to form a picture of their environment and their own place in it. Take, for instance the Ebb and Flow — drummer Sara Cassetti, guitarist Sam Tsitrin and keyboardist Roshy Kheshti –…
Love him or hate him, George Acosta has become a staple player in Denver’s dance-music scene. His latest mix CD, The Lost World, is a one-off of his infamous radio show of the same name. The mix is solid, starting off a bit dark and edgy and working itself into…
If Reckless Kelly were a transmission, it would be a five-speed. The Austin quintet’s latest effort, Wicked Twisted Road, captures its music in all gears, from the quiet, low-gear country folk of the title track to lilting second-gear love-song ballads, from drunk-and-stumble alt-country Irish travelogues to off-the-speedometer Allman Brothers rumblers…
Depending on cultural stigma, a person born with albinism can end up being regarded as a divine messenger or someone who belongs in a circus sideshow exhibit. For Jamaican Winston Foster, this rare pigment deficiency (estimated to occur in one in every 17,000 people) invited hostility and scorn to a…
The lead singer gets all the chicks. The lead guitarist gets all the props. The drummer gets all the mystique. The bass player getsŠwhatever’s left over. Seriously. When’s the last time somebody talked about knighting Bill Wyman? Everyone drools over Mick Jagger or the crypt- keeper formerly known as Keith…
Brothers and sisters, let’s talk about the Lord. Like many of us, perhaps your faith in the higher power(s) is lapsed, questionable, agnostic or even non-existent. My fellow wanderers in the wilderness, welcome to the flock of those who might believe but haven’t found a church or sect that feels…
The rock duo is the new quartet. The White Stripes, the Dresden Dolls, the Black Keys and many more have proven that two people with the right raw mixture of talent, originality and balls can rawk far harder than bands twice their size. North Carolina’s Des Ark is rock’s latest…
The Backstreet Boys! Yeah, we know. You’re supposed to tell the joke before you get to the punchline. In 2005, though, the Backstreet Boys are both. The mere mention of Orlando’s most popular export conjures up images of a pop juggernaut crashing under the weight of its own excess, leaving…
In a recent interview on Today, Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams described the decision to bust up Destiny’s Child following their current farewell tour/victory lap as a mutual one — and host Matt Lauer proved his professionalism by not breaking out laughing. Remember that group manager Matthew Knowles,…
The title of Jett Black’s latest disc, To Hell and Back, might as well be a direct reference to frontman Jeff Arnold’s life over the nine months. The last time we heard from Arnold (aka Jett Black) this past January, he had just watched his club, the Velvet Underground, which…
Seb Fontaine insists he never wanted to be a DJ, but it seems he was almost predestined for the profession. His mother was a DJ, and he was conceived in Ibiza, the world’s electronic-music party mecca. Although he grew up in London’s 2-Tone ska scene and still fantasizes about being…
After giving it a try for just five weeks, the Castle Nightclub, at 83 East 120th Avenue in Thornton, has pulled live music from its roster. According to booking manager Mike Crisler, the problem was partly a lack of promotion by the bands, and partly a decline in the music…
“I try to get to this point on stage where I’m totally out of my head,” says Red Sparowes drummer and former Coloradan David Clifford. “Like I’m not even physically there. What we’re going for is the same as ritual, cathartic music. I hate to use the word ‘tribal.'” Even…
The only child of country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, Waylon Albright Jennings got the nickname “Shooter” for pissing on a nurse in the hospital delivery room. His ill-mannered ways continued in Hollywood as he chased the ghost of Axl Rose, partying 24/7 and fronting the hard-rock band Stargunn…
Pity Jesse McCartney? Are you kidding? The eighteen-year-old heartthrob looks like a 21st-century update of Mattel’s time-tested Ken doll, and untold thousands of young Barbie wannabes fantasize about becoming his plastic-fantastic lover. Boy-toy status may not be fulfilling in the long run, but plenty of his peers would happily volunteer…
All hail Biggie Smalls, who loved it when we called him Big Poppa. Hail Tupac Shakur, whose thug ways made us forget he was in the Digital Underground. Some may say we are overstepping our bounds with this most serious critical fatwa against the Los Angeles Police Department, but it…
Texas music history swarms with stories of Texans who went to Nashville dreaming of fame and fortune. The most celebrated of these tales hinge on spectacular failure, followed by a return to Texas, some regrouping back on home turf, and eventual triumph. The most famous of them come from the…
