Plenty of people have fantasized about the young, virile, mid-Fifties Elvis Presley. But Wanda Jackson, who can make a persuasive claim for being the first female rockabilly singer, is one of the few who actually dated him. “I know that you’ve read that he was a true gentlemen, and he…
The bar crawlers gathered at Herman’s Hideaway this brisk Friday night in October know exactly what they want: accessible funk grooves, catchy melodies, good-time lyrics and the steady thump-thump-thump-thump associated with the evening’s headliner, Furious George and the Monster Groove. But when the members of the opening act, Fort Collins-based…
Since the mid-Seventies, hardcore British music has been linked to messages of rebellion. But if you think the multiracial quartet Skunk Anansie is upholding traditions established by the Sex Pistols and the Clash, lead singer Skin suggests you think again. “We don’t do any of that bollocks, to be quite…
If Joan Armatrading had the power to do so, she would change one thing about her fans: their number. “They’re very hardcore, and they don’t give up on me. It’s fantastic,” she notes. “But I would like, as an artist, for more people to know about what I do and…
Brutal Juice, with Neurosis and GWAR, Sunday, November 19, at the Ogden Theatre, is not what you’d call a good date band: The name of the quintet’s debut for the Interscope imprint–Mutilation Makes Identification Difficult–provides a fairly accurate indication of their not-so-tender sensibilities. The disc is filled with secretion-spattered lyrics…
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Smokin’ Uncle Rumley and the Pork-Boilin’ Po’ Boys, Thursday, November 16, at the Bluebird Theater, are a one-two punch aimed straight at people who love country music but fear that admitting it puts them just below Pat Buchanan on the hipness scale. The members of…
The changing nature of rock and roll is mirrored by shifts in its lexicon, and no term associated with the genre exemplifies this characteristic better than “rock and roll” itself. Blacklisted disc jockey Alan Freed is credited with concocting the slogan, but variations on it can be heard in blues…
The ‘Vengers, Boulder’s premier ska group, don’t do much soul searching when it comes to their music. “I think the bottom line is, it’s not an attitude thing,” says bassist/vocalist Chris “Limey” Welsh. “You get a lot of musicians who stand there and say, `Right, we’re technically brilliant. Look at…
The New Bomb Turks, Saturday, November 11, at Mammoth Events Center, with Lag Wagon, Samiam, No Doubt, Pietasters, Teengenerate, Strung Out, Buck-O-Nine, Slapstick and the rest of the participants in the Board As Usual ’95 festival, hail from Columbus, Ohio, a sleepy university town known primarily for being, well, home…
Jux County, with Jonny Rocket, Friday, November 10, at the Bluebird Theater, stars Andy Monley, a performer who understands how the rock-music game is played but chooses to operate by his own set of rules anyhow. And that’s good, because his singular approach to music has made the Denver scene…
For decades the USSR officially denied its citizens the small pleasures afforded by “decadent” Western rock and roll. But in recent years, pop-culture-starved Russians were subjected to something worse–visits from bland stars such as Billy Joel and UB40. Now, however, residents of the land of the czars are at last…
The last time Mercury Rev guitarist Jonathan Donahue saw Denver, it was in the rear-view mirror of a bus speeding out of town. Flash back to summer 1994 and Mercury Rev’s appearance on the second stage at Fiddler’s Green as part of the annual Lollapalooza festival. At first the combo’s…
Hugh Swarts, one fifth of Oakland, California’s Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, is having a tough time adjusting to the digital age. In fact, the guitarist/vocalist/percussionist hasn’t even purchased his first compact disc player yet. “I’m kind of atavistic in that way, I guess,” he concedes. “I don’t really like…
The music made by the eclectic quintet Laughing Hands can’t be confused with that of most other Denver-area groups: Its folk-meets-worldbeat sound is like an exceedingly enjoyable course in ethnomusicology. But string bassist Tim Cross, who’s been part of the band since its inception over five years ago, points out…
At most record stores, Eagle Dances With the Wind, the Canyon Records debut by the Denver-based Native American duo Red Tail Chasing Hawks, is filed in the new-age section. And that’s too bad, because, as Hawks pianist James Torres points out, there’s nothing particularly new-agey about it. “We try to…
“A lot of motherfuckers are like me–they listen to old shit,” says the 21-year-old soulster who calls himself D’Angelo. “That’s my music, those are my jams. Because a lot of the new music that’s coming out, it isn’t cutting it on an artistic level. Some of the new songs will…
Bjork Gudmundsdottir insists that she has her down moments, but her claim is unconvincing. After all, she makes this statement from an airport in Reykjavik, Iceland (her hometown), that’s being pounded by a massive snow storm: “You look out the window and all you see is white,” she reports. Rather…
Hazel Miller, Saturday, November 4, at the Beacon Grill, may look like somebody’s kindly aunt in this photograph, but put a microphone in her hands and she’ll belt out a blues mean enough to peel the skin off your arms. A sizable percentage of Denverites understand this already–she received more…
Supersuckers, opening for White Zombie and the Toadies, Thursday, November 2, at McNichols Arena, began making tuneful, relentless punk rock back when the members of Rancid had to ask their moms to drive them to the arcade, and they still do it better than practically any other current band. Sacrilicious,…
Many professional musicians feel that music instructors teach because they’re not adequate performers. In some instances this is true–but not when it comes to Lynn Baker. The director of Jazz Studies and Commercial Music at Denver University’s Lamont School of Music is also a daring saxophonist and composer who stands…
Yeah, every performer with vocal chords and half a clue talks about artistic integrity–about making music that quenches his or her creative thirst without regard to the marketplace, which by its very nature dilutes and diminishes the purity and impact of one’s aesthetic. Living up to these words is quite…
Spiritualized, Wednesday, October 25, at the Mercury Cafe, works in textures: oscillating notes or aural phrases piled atop each other or blended together until they beget a fuzzy, moody sound deep enough to wallow in. Jason Pierce, aka J. Spaceman, first worked this territory while piloting the cult favorite Spacemen…
