Critic's Notebook

72 1024×768 Normal classid=”clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D” id=”ieooui”> st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in…

French singer-songwriter Sebastien Tellier isn’t shy about talking about either his sexuality or Sexuality, his new album, throughout which he delves into matters of the flesh with great delight. But he also sees the sacred side of salaciousness, as he makes clear in a December 4 Westword profile and the…

Here’s a guide to all the great content you might have missed this week while you were eating turkey, drinking heavily, watching football or the Sarah Palin video where the guy is slaughtering turkeys behind her. Just so happens that guy’s half brother sings for Yerkish…

Lucas Field, the frontman for Low Vs. Diamond (the subject of a profile in Westword’s November 27 edition), is a Seattle native — but he spent his college years at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he played in a jam band whose music has little in common with the tunes…

Leave the Gun. Take the cannoli. All eyes — or ears, rather — in the music world, including ours, were on Chinese Democracy this week. Most of us honestly never thought we’d live to see the release of the mythical Guns N’ Roses record, and now that we had a…

Diverse, surprising albums and an explosive, inventive live show are the hallmarks of Apollo Sunshine, a trio of friends – Sam Cohen, Jesse Gallagher and Jeremy Black – who met at the Berklee College of Music the better part of a decade ago. The group’s three albums, including the brand-new…

Dead Confederate. As a band, Georgia’s Dead Confederate — the subject of a November 20 Westword profile — is very much alive. Singer/guitarist Hardy Morris and his mates were plucked from obscurity by former Capitol Records president Gary Gersh, who made the band the first recruit for his new TAO…

If his music is half as good as his acting, expect his album to be punishingly bad Here’s a round up of all the great content you might have missed this week on Backbeat Online while you were busy digging through your old CDs for Bruce Willis’s album from the…

In the November 13, 2008 issue, we printed excerpts of our conversation with Rise Against drummer Brandon Barnes, who just happens to be a Colorado Native, who’s returned here after stints living in Chicago and Austin. Barnes weighed in on the band’s success thus far, explained the appeal of recording…

Ian MacKaye. If Ian MacKaye had a different value system, he could be one of the wealthiest men in the music business. After all, he was the primary force behind Minor Threat and Fugazi, two of the most revered rock acts of the past three decades, and he co-founded and…

Rick Astley will never give this award up Here’s a handy guide to all the great content you might have missed this week while you were busy voting on Rick Astley as best act ever in the MTV Europe Music Awards. Thanks to your tireless efforts, the EMAs were successfully…

New York City practically sweats innovative bands, but it has produced few as utterly otherworldly as Gang Gang Dance (due at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, November 7, with Marnie Stern). Bandmembers Lizzi Bougatsos, Brian DeGraw, Tim DeWit and Josh Diamond utilize all manner of percussion, keyboards and electronics to…

Stephen Malkmus, left, with his band, the Jicks. Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus is an eccentric fellow, which explains in large part the idiosyncracies of this Q&A, conducted for a Westword profile published in advance of his Thursday, November 6, appearance at the Gothic Theatre. But that’s not the only…

In an indie-rock world dominated by males in their twenties and often choked with irony and self-consciousness, Marnie Stern is most assuredly an outlier. A 32-year-old woman with serious guitar chops and songwriting skills that are quickly growing to match them, Stern is unabashedly earnest about playing what she calls…

k.d. lang. Ms. k.d. lang isn’t just a woman with a fondness for lower-case letters. She’s also a gifted vocalist and songwriter whose career has taken some intriguing twists and turns over the years — and she guides readers through many of them in the following Q&A, conducted in advance…

Prepare yourself for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Rock Band Here’s a user-friendly guide to all the great content you may have missed this week while you were busy practicing singing along to all your favorite Beatles’ tunes in anticipation of the just-announced Beatles version of the popular Rock Band…

Saúl Hernández and his fellow Jaguares. Jaguares are among the most popular bands in Mexico, as well as the standard-bearer in this country of the rock en español movement. But the band’s frontman, singer-songwriter Saúl Hernández, would prefer to be seen as one of the people rather than their leader…

Enjoy a free Dr. Pepper, thanks to Guns ‘N’ Roses finally getting their shit together Here’s a guide to all the excellent content you might have overlooked on Backbeat Online this week, while you were busy dealing with the dual shocks of hearing that not only would the eternally delayed…

In the October 23 issue we posted excerpts of Tom Murphy’s recent conversation with Diplo (aka Wesley Pentz). The quotes used in that piece were taken from the following interview posted after the jump, in which Diplo Mad Decent, his record label and Heaps Decent, a program devoted to underprivileged…

Disco doesn’t suck so bad now that it’s saving your sorry ass, does it? Here’s a user-friendly guide to all of the top-notch content you might have missed out on while you were busy this week practicing your CPR skills to the beat of the disco classic “Staying Alive”…..

Christian Bland, guitarist and occasional vocalist for the Black Angels — Austin, TX’s leading psych-rock band — knows his evil ’60s rock. From the Velvet Underground to Syd Barrett to the 13th Floor Elevators, Bland and his bandmates dig the slow-churning, drone-filled jams that highlighted the darkside of the decade…

Dressy Bessy. Denver’s Dressy Bessy was first profiled in Westword a decade ago; click here to read the original piece. However, Tammy Ealom, who fronts the group, is as creatively vibrant and vital as ever. She makes that clear in “After an Extended break, Dressy Bessy’s Tammy Ealom Feels Like…