Dead Confederate carries the flag for a new variation on Southern rock

When he’s asked to describe his home town of Augusta, Georgia, Dead Confederate singer/guitarist Hardy Morris responds with a single word: “Golf” — a reference to the Masters, a tournament that’s defined the community since the 1930s. Still, Morris admits that even in his youth, the competition never interested him…

AC/DC

Everybody knows AC/DC doesn’t change much; it tweaks its basic sound from album to album, and that’s about it. This time around, producer Brendan O’Brien makes the group sound like live humans playing music in a room rather than gods hurling riffs like thunderbolts from the sky. They’re funkier and…

Pink

Her Pinkness likely had no idea that the Stooges used Fun House as the moniker for a genius 1970 album — but the fact that this possibility can’t be entirely ruled out demonstrates why she’s several cuts above the average popster. She’s grown increasingly confident with each passing album, and…

AC/DC

Reliability. It’s underrated. Who even thinks about a car that starts every time? Until the one time it doesn’t. AC/DC is like that. The band rocks. And that’s all it does. The music isn’t complicated. It’s Phil Rudd’s simple drumming. It’s Cliff Williams’s straightforward bass lines. It’s Malcolm Young’s utilitarian…

Apollo Sunshine

Diverse, surprising albums and an explosive, engaging 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 has drawn comparisons to artists…

Lizzie Borden

Although essentially following the glam-metal trend of the ’80s, the members of Lizzie Borden never embarrassed themselves as egregiously as many of their contemporaries. Instead of draping simperingly saccharine pop in faux-gender-bending rock-satyr guise, the group opted for the harder-edged rock and visually engaging live shows embodied by bands like…

Ben Kenney

Incubus bassist Ben Kenney isn’t letting the band’s year-long hiatus keep him out of the studio or off the road. The former Roots guitarist is keeping himself plenty busy pushing his latest solo album, Distance and Comfort, on which he wears all the hats as producer, mixer, writer and performer:…

Castles

The shimmery cymbals and distant voices in the fog of white noise that opens this album somehow recall the beginning of Days of Future Passed, by the Moody Blues. While musically the work shares little with the high-end production of that ’60s classic, artistically it’s equally as ambitious, with a…

Invisible Orange

Although Invisible Orange’s previous release was called Valium, the long-player hardly qualified as a depressant — and that’s true of the band’s latest, too. “Run,” the opening cut, is a thundering stampede of rawk obnoxiousness, with Adrian Moore hammering out bottomless guitar tones like a hyperkinetic blacksmith and Donovan Breazeale’s…

Living and loving New Kids on the Block

For photos from Adam’s reunion with his favorite boy band, go to westword.com/slideshow. Dude, I totally swear to God, at the New Kids on the Block concert, there was a moment during the song “My Favorite Girl” when Joey McIntyre pointed directly fucking at me! I know it sounds ridiculous;…

The Fray to preview new songs live at Snow Daze in Vail

This just in, the Fray, who, as previously reported, will be premiering its new single, “You Found Me,” tomorrow night on its website, after parts of the track appear in a promo for Lost that will air during Grey’s Anatomy, will be pulling back the curtain on its new album…

Twist & Shout annouces free Matisyahu show

Twist and Shout will host a free performance and autograph signing with Matisyahu on Friday, November 28, at 1:30 p.m. at the 500-seat Colfax Event Center (1477 Columbine Street). The Brooklyn-based reggae/hip-hop star is slated to appear at the Ogden Theatre the following night, Saturday, November 29 and at at…

Chinese Democracy reviewed by Chuck Klosterman

Hot on the heels of the news that Chinese Democracy has been leaked (see the blog directly below this one) comes what I assume is the first review of the years-in-the-making album from noted rock scribe Chuck Klosterman. The review is full of his usual overblown, overwritten hyperbole, but that…

Chinese Democracy leaked. Axl can’t be stoked.

Senator, we knew GN’R. GN’R was a friend of ours. You’re no GN’R. Less than a week before its official release date, Chinese Democracy has reportedly leaked been posted on Guns N’ Roses’ MySpace page. Yep. The full album. Yesterday Today. After a bazillion years of build up, that’s it…

A Shoreline Dream’s video short

Presumably in anticipation of its next release, Recollections of Memory, due out on February 10, 2009, the stunningly prolific members of A Shoreline Dream have posted a short — and we do mean short; its running time is one minute and thirteen seconds — clip of themselves performing “Hypermode” at…

Danava at the Larimer Lounge

Danava, Space In Time and Outer Neon Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Larimer Lounge, Denver Better Than: A good bulk of the neo-classic heavy rock of late. Opening the night was the mighty, sludgy psych-rock duo Outer Neon from Denver. For someone not paying attention, it might be easy to carelessly…

Q&A with Apollo Sunshine’s Sam Cohen

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…

Q&A with Hardy Morris of Dead Confederate

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…

This Just In 11/20-12/3

John Legend visits the Paramount Theatre January 8. There’s a bit more action this week with concert announcements, including John Legend’s January 8 show at the Paramount, Galactic’s Valentine’s Day show at Fillmore and a bunch of good shows at the Bluebird. Celine Dion’s show originally scheduled for tomorrow (Nov…

MP3 Freeloader: Low Budget Soul

Just received word from Dent that he’s made the entire Low Budget Soul comp, one of my favorite local hip-hop releases to date, available for download. While the hip-hop scene has evolved considerably since then, Soul, released in 2005, provides a great snapshot from the scene at that time and…