Music

The 14th annual Westword Music Showcase Awards ceremony is now in the books. Holy crap! What a party! We haven’t seen that many inebriated folks in one place since…well, probably since the last party we threw. In his Fluid review, Michael Roberts joked that “if terrorists wanted to rob Denver…

I’ve been thinking about getting a scooter. Quit laughing. My friends — perhaps mortified at the thought of seeing a gorilla like me straddling such an inferior vehicle — have all been urging me to buy a motorcycle. (Whatever, dudes. Badass doesn’t live here anymore, and cool quit taking my…

It was the kind of morphine-laden experience where I didn’t realize how bad it was until afterward,” says Achille Lauro frontman Matt Close, relating the story of his 2007 brush with mortality. “I was being more aggressive than I was prepared to be on a bike. I tried to beat…

At the beginning of True Romance, there’s a scene in which Clarence Worley (played by Christian Slater) is in a movie theater, eating popcorn and watching one of the flicks that’s part of a triple feature of Sonny Chiba kung fu movies. He’s alone, it’s his birthday, and he always…

Gloam’s online bio references Carlos Castaneda’s notion — undoubtedly culled from his mystical experiences and practices — that on the borderlands of night and day, magical things can be understood and effected. Indeed, the music of Gloam (due at the Larimer Lounge on Wednesday, July 2) sounds as though it…

Although he shies away from the label these days, Paul van Dyk is one of the undisputed masters of trance. His music is like the aural version of Utopian visions from the ’70s of a sterile, computer-controlled future populated by people in white jumpsuits and flowing robes, gliding from place…

Bird Names, Open Relationship (Unsound Records). Chicago’s Bird Names make freaky, folky, psychedelic rock for unhinged minds and untrimmed beards. If you gave Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett a cardboard box full of homemade instruments and unlimited use of the Little Rascals as their backup band, they might give back…

Because he spent a good portion of his life between Texas and Louisiana, you’d expect Julox to adopt the Southern-fried hip-hop funk of Cash Money Records or the Screwed Up Click in Houston. He certainly has the voice and persona to fit in that circle. But he’s forged his own…

Their moniker aside, the Lords hardly come across as aristocratic wannabes on Bruiser (the focus of a CD-release party on Friday, June 27, at the Lion’s Lair, with the Get Down). They’re more interested in garage rawk, and the dirtier the better. Oscar Ross doesn’t sing so much as whine…

Sigur Rós’s latest is positively festooned with danger signs: first album to be mainly recorded outside its home base of Iceland, first to feature a track sung in English, and the first co-produced by a big-shot dial-twister (Flood, of Depeche Mode fame). Somehow, though, this series of seemingly suspect compromises…

N.E.R.D.’s third album is the compact-disc equivalent of an ad campaign trying to appeal to the Red Bull/BlackBerry generation. “We gotta make it passionate,” you can almost hear Pharrell telling the guys in the studio. “And retro. And political. You know, some really fucked-up crazy awesome nuts shit!” And so…

The Classic Crime is perfect for those who prefer their rock slightly edgy and perfectly groomed, with soaring, uber-melodic choruses. In this way, the Seattle-based band is nearly indistinguishable from the hordes of pretty-boy MySpace acts currently littering the modern-rock landscape. If you can make it past surface-level aesthetics, though,…

Even the greatest artists have difficulty staying at their creative peak, as Stevie Wonder’s career demonstrates. During roughly a five-year period bookended by 1972’s underrated Music of My Mind, released just prior to the stage when the hits rained down in torrents, and 1976’s masterful Songs in the Key of…

Another twenty-something singer-songwriter from Los Angeles? No way? Really? For his part, Johnathan Rice is more than a cut above most. His songwriting, in fact, is strong enough to have caught the attention of Peter Buck and earn him some opening spots on R.E.M.’s recent tour. Sure, he’s had something…

The Stone Temple Pilots’ choice of Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, aka Black Francis, as an opening act for their comeback tour is mighty telling. Despite the Pilots’ success during the ’90s, the cognoscenti always saw the players as grunge-rock pretenders no matter how many times lead singer Scott Weiland…

One of the furthest edges of avant-garde underground music at the moment is inhabited by the harsh-noise-and-bent-circuit contingent and its proclivity for making interesting sounds that are more an art statement than strictly music. Oakland, California’s Social Junk incorporates elements of that aesthetic with experimental dub and ambient soundscaping. The…

Crazy,” the lead single from Gnarls Barkley’s first long-player, St. Elsewhere, wasn’t just 2006’s biggest pop song. It’s likely to be a signature track for the entire decade — a demographic-crossing, radio-format-busting phenomenon that singer Cee-Lo Green never saw coming. “‘Crazy’ is no different than any of the other things…

Look out, Tegan and Sara! Here come the Veronicas — the spunky, electro-poppy Australian quintet led by 23-year-old identical twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso. Down Under, they’re superstars who regularly sell out arenas, win awards and have their own clothing line at Target. Here they’re still trying to break…

The words to “Pleasure Ryland,” a song on Cobra Starship’s 2007 disc ¡Viva La Cobra!, are very different from the ones initially warbled by the tune’s co-author and namesake, guitarist Ryland Blackinton — and that’s fine by him, since the originals weren’t intended for public consumption. “I have a little…

Is it just us, or does papa Rupp look younger every year? Seriously. Old Bobbo must’ve made a deal with the devil or something. Unbelievable, that guy. Him and Prince, forever young, eh? Perhaps his perpetual youthful appearance is spurred by the fact that he’s constantly reinventing himself every couple…

How many times have you overheard someone in a band grumbling about having to go on first, or not being able to land a weekend slot, or having to play in front of only twenty people? Yeah, those folks would do well to sit down for a chat with the…