You’ve got to love an album that begins with a song called “Bells of Saint Alcohol.” Davey VonBohlen’s matter-of-fact account of booze-as-career is somehow light and airy — or at least accepting, even reverent, of a way of life that is usually treated with more dreary concern and grimness. On…
Further proof that the digital age can make strange bedfellows: This week, the Mercury Cafe will christen the Denver Barn Dance, a monthly series of country-music performances that hark back to the days when a nice, whoopin’ hootenanny closed a day of ridin’, ropin’ and Bible reading. And while the…
Aerosmith, Saturday, January 5, at the Pepsi Center, with Cheap Trick, has been an easy target for years; the headline “Dude Looks Like a Grandpa” appeared in one of Westword’s sister papers half a decade ago. But before you start chortling at the image of 53-year-old Steven Tyler spinning around…
The 8 Bucks Experiment is still technically a local band, though its knack for crafting smart, mathematically precise blasts of post-punk aggression has earned the Denver four-piece a name outside its hometown. A touring machine driven by the three brothers O’Meara, 8 Bucks is always worth the price of admission…
The year 2001 produced its share of catastrophes: major terrorist campaigns in D.C. and New York, a widespread anthrax scare — and J. Lo’s solo debut. Fortunately, there’s plenty worth remembering about the first official year of the new millennium, as artists of every genre proved that music still matters,…
In two shows, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Sunday, December 30, and Monday, December 31, at the Bluebird Theater, will say farewell to the year 2001 as well as the state of Colorado and three members of the band: Pedal-steel guitarist John Rumley, bassist “Danny Pants” Grandbois and drummer Ordy Garrison…
The Tarmints help break in a new performance space with a triple-bill show that includes the Cool-Rays and the Fifth Utility. On Saturday, December 29, the three bands will share the stage of the newly restored Oriental Theatre on 44th Avenue and Tennyson, a space now used by the Artists’…
There’s a reason that Sound Tribe Sector 9 has a following in towns like San Francisco and Boulder. While some bands rock for a cause, like forgiveness of Third World debt, and many rock just because, Sound Tribe is among a select handful that rock for healing — though healing…
First there was Napster, which made it easy for anyone with an Internet connection to get thousands of songs for free. It was one of the Net’s true mass-market hits, landing its nineteen-year-old creator on the cover of Time while thirty million users traded nearly three billion songs a month…
As film critics everywhere have pointed out, the first Ocean’s Eleven, released in 1960, isn’t much of a movie. The assorted “actors,” led by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., look as if they’re either suffering from lingering hangovers or are still tipsy (which mostly they were), and…
Poor Yoko. Born into an elite Japanese banking family and heiress to John Lennon’s estate, rock’s most famous widow seems to have tried everything under the sun to cope with the trappings of wealth: high-rent seclusion, mink coats, primal-scream therapy, tarot cards, waging peace from the comfort of bed, catching…
Living in the land of 10,000 lakes seems to do strange things to people. Take Manplanet, for instance. Aside from assuming a name that aggressively sounds like a gay-sex Web site, each member of this Minnesota-based band once fearlessly donned a snug vinyl bodysuit for a photo shoot in a…
Gwen Stefani was everywhere this year — or at least it seemed that way. Moby’s wan “South Side” became a much better song after the No Doubt singer’s spunky appearance sparked the remix, and her cred-defining cameo on Eve’s “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” made for one super girl-power single…
On Monday night, the Denver City and County Building reeked of teen spirit. During a meeting at which they were finally to vote on a much-belabored bill allowing for a new class of cabaret license — one that would allow patrons over sixteen years of age to mix with grownups…
Gigi, at the Palace Event Center on Saturday, December 22, has helped to modernize and popularize a style of pop music that thrived in Addis Ababa, the capitol of her native Ethiopia, in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Produced by Bill Laswell, Gigi’s recently released debut album abounds in…
Though they’re unabashedly spunky and devoid of pretense, the Dinnermints’ brand of bubble-punk still has its artistic leanings: The band sprang from the obtuse, intentionally difficult ambient project called the Twins, which enlisted ‘Mints singer/guitarist Sarah Mesmer and drummer Peter Carnovale. No surprise, then, that the guitar- and hook-heavy trio…
Oscar-nominated Alfre Woodard chooses to call herself an actor rather than an actress, because “actresses worry about eyelashes and cellulite, and women who are actors worry about the characters we are playing.” Adapting that comparison for a discussion of female musicians, let’s say that a pop diva is more concerned…
This year, in particular, many of us can use the sort of reassurance that traditional music offers, which is why seasonal CDs will likely appeal to more people than ever. But all Christmas platters aren’t created equal. Several of the newest albums deserve a spot under practically anyone’s tree, whereas…
The kids, it appears, will be all right after all. On Monday, December 17, Denver City Council is expected to approve a new type of cabaret license that allows patrons under 21 — under 18, for that matter — to regularly attend concerts and shows in most clubs and venues…
Pigface is: a) a deviant sexual practice akin to the “Cleveland Steamer”; b) the newest Denny’s breakfast special; or c) a loose-knit industrial-music collective based around former Ministry drummer Martin Atkins. Well, it’s mostly c), depending on what you’re into. The rotating cast that Atkins periodically assembles has included Frank…
Brenda Harp helps ring in the season, community style, as one of the musical guests at the Colorado Music Association Holiday Celebration at the Soiled Dove on Sunday, December 16. The Denver-based Harp seems a fitting choice for such an event: As a guitarist and vocalist, she brings a probing,…
A couple of years ago, Richard Buckner’s wife was fumbling through the Toyota truck in which Buckner regularly logs 70,000 miles a year touring, when she came across a curious-looking cassette tape and popped it into the deck. The tape held five bleak, chillingly Gothic tracks sung by her husband…
