It’s been more than three years since Miramax released Swingers, the film that helped the swing-dance movement creep out of the underground and guaranteed that we’d all hear the phrase “Vegas, Baby, Vegas,” every time that desert city was mentioned. Then, after legions of potential Gap shoppers heard Louis Prima…
Over the course of the last decade or so, rappers have made a tradition of exaggerating the misery of their childhoods. Some emcees truly grew up in environments marked by grinding poverty, rampant crime and utter hopelessness, but plenty of others who claim to know about the mean streets firsthand…
Equal Interest, also known as the Myra Melford Trio, Friday, October 15, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, brings two legendary players, saxophonist Joseph Jarman and violinist Leroy Jenkins, together with the less well-known (but no less formidable) New York pianist for what promises to be one of the season’s…
From dreary Russian literature to rollicking vaudeville, the institution of brotherhood has seen the likes of Karamozov and Marx — everything from man’s agonizing search for redemption to a well-timed custard pie right in the ol’ kisser. Among certain fraternal orders, you’ll find varying degrees of Masonic ritual, torchlit whispers,…
ph10, Friday, October 15, at Seven South, will return to the state but not the planet at their first show in the area since relocating to New York City earlier this year. The eclectic duo — a curious collaboration between former LD-50 members Recone Helmut and Clark ov Saturn –…
Ol’ Dirty Bastard N****A Please (Elektra) “This ain’t no commercial song,” yelps everyone’s favorite Bastard on “Recognize ,” the lead track here, and the same holds true for the disc as a whole. Rather, it’s a trip to an insane asylum, with ODB as your willing — and highly entertaining…
Travel with us now way, way back…to the early Nineties. It was a time when modern rock was the popular music of the moment, and indie rock, its not-too-distant cousin, melted the hearts of hipsters everywhere thanks to practitioners such as Pavement. The band, which got its start in the…
New York’s Hell’s Kitchen is a neighborhood in flux. Despite the recent arrival of a Starbucks and gleaming new office towers fulfilling Mayor Giuliani’s Disneyfied vision of New York, Hell’s Kitchen still retains plenty of eclectic grit. So it seems fitting that the DJs known as Ming & FS have…
On the surface, it would appear that Tanger has a real thing for war. To wit: The Fort Collins band’s press kit ships with a standard-issue “survival kit,” complete with compass, binoculars, army knife and dog tags; and their Web site, www.forttanger.com, features detailed field coordinates for the band’s upcoming…
Puff Daddy Forever (Bad Boy) By christening his latest opus with a title that boasts about his staying power, the Puffster (Sean Combs) is playing into the hands of those who hope he falls flat on his ass — and many of his enemies think they smell blood. No Way…
Stephen Torres is wearing a plastic glow-in-the-dark rosary, a skull tattoo with a banner that says “Kimberly Forever” and an aquamarine jumpsuit. Both the rosary and the tattoo are easily explained. Torres is a spiritual man, he contends; the skull he received as an Army Ranger, while “Kimberly Forever” refers…
The “Incredible” Jimmy Smith, Saturday, October 9, will likely cement a contemporary adage in the jazz world when he caresses the keys of the Hammond organ on stage at the Gothic Theatre. From purist circles to the smoky environs of El Chapultepec, you can hear an oft-whispered philosophy: “There ain’t…
DJs Kurt “Big K” Ohlen and Tim “Dog Boy” Wieser, Saturday, October 9, at 9th Avenue West, will spin tunes as part of “The Death of Swing,” an evening dedicated to what the club owners perceive as the fad’s passing into hype heaven. The club will cease to host its…
If there’s any doubt that something strange and terrible has happened to the good, old-fashioned love song, consider this fact: Barbra Streisand, who once sang that love was as “soft as an easy chair,” just released an entire album of love songs inspired by hubby James Brolin. If the album…
Before there was a band of the same name, the Hemi Cuda was an automobile that Chrysler manufactured in the mid-Fifties. At first the car’s appeal lay in simple economics: A new engine design offered jacked-up power but didn’t require fancy gas. By the early Seventies, though, the car had…
For the unwitting punk-rock aesthete, happening upon Sweep the Leg Johnny in a crowded dive bar can be startling. The four unassuming lads from Chicago who make up the band crank out an intense, immense saxophone-fueled brand of post-punk that doesn’t lend itself to immediate comprehension. Even for those who…
It’s a lucky thing so many rockers die young, because a big chunk of the music industry is dedicated to making money off past greats presently residing in pine boxes or decorative vases. And right now, it’s Janis Joplin’s turn to be resurrected. This summer, VH1 placed Joplin, who perished…
A person could get worked into a state trying to find something new on the commercial radio dial in this town. After all, how many times a day does a person really need to hear the Joy Drop’s “Beautiful”? (Many local programmers place the number at about thirty.) And while…
If you’re afraid of getting your ass charred and whupped by a gang of guitar-wielding, fire-breathing profane women from Southern California, you’d better stay away from the 15th Street Tavern on Friday, October 1, when the gals in Betty Blowtorch come to town. Listening to them, you might wonder if…
Armchair Martian, Friday, October 1, at the Bluebird Theater, is one band that has drawn comparisons to Hüsker D more times than it would care to admit — yet the Fort Collins-based trio’s dynamic, fuzz-fucked pop does at times bear a striking musical resemblance to the fabled Minneapolis trio. But…
Phil Urso holds a letter that trumpeter Chet Baker wrote to him in 1971. “I have always felt you were and are the most underrated of America’s jazz players and composers,” Baker begins. His letter continues for a few pages, telling Urso about his experiences abroad, and then concludes, “Well,…
Pinetop Perkins is a man of priorities. Sure, there’s a writer on the phone waiting to talk music, but the 86-year-old piano legend has important stuff to do. “I can’t talk right now,” Perkins says in a gritty, down-in-the-bottoms voice. “I’m gettin’ ready to go fishin’.” A moment later Perkins…
