Music

Being blind is no laughing matter — which means that jokes about being blind aren’t funny. Still, as I waited at DIA last week for a flight to Austin and South by Southwest, I couldn’t help but snort at one overheard comment. After handing him his boarding pass, a woman…

Sam Baron fits the profile of a quintessential Gemini. Dualistic nature? Check. Contradictory? Yep. Complex? Definitely. Exuding confidence often to the point of arrogance, the MC, who answers to the name Mane Rok and is also one-third of the hip-hop trio Maneline, carries himself with an unwavering bravado that’s earned…

Despite his youthful appearance, Carrick Moore Gerety has been doing this indie-pop thing for longer than some of his fans have been alive. Most notably, Moore Gerety and his brother, Finn, co-captained the Push Kings — the Harvard-hatched boy band of the international pop underground that achieved stardom in Japan…

Country Ghetto, JJ Grey & MOFRO’s latest effort, is like a musical postcard from the South. On the front is a collage of pictures — Otis Redding, the Meters, Dr. John, Muddy Waters — and on the flip side, Grey’s spinning yarns about his life, his family, his worldview and…

Our music’s not guarded,” notes David Obuchowski, guitarist and vocalist for Brooklyn’s Goes Cube. “We’re not into irony; we’re not into being that subtle. When we get up on stage or we record a song, we have no problem saying ‘We love this,’ and we have no problem putting it…

The multi-ethnic, multi-disciplinary L.A.-based tribe known as Ozomatli made its name by cutting up salsa, hip-hop, traditional Mexican music, funk, jazz and more into barn-burning, irresistible party music. Unfortunately, this followup tries too hard to capitalize on the group’s Grammy-winning success by aiming straight for the multi-culti pop charts. While…

Definitive Jux founder Jaime Meline, who goes by El-P, has spent the millennium battering hip-hop’s boundaries, and on his first solo CD since 2002, he takes things well beyond his previous extremes. The results are intriguing but self-consciously arty, engaging the brain more often than they move the body. El-P…

Denver DIY queen Wendy Woo is hardworking and prolific; Luxury, whose release is being celebrated on Friday, March 23, at a Fox Theatre party opened by the Chris Webb Band, is Woo’s seventh CD since 1997. This time, however, the disc is credited to the Wendy Woo Trio as a…

There are half a million people in Denver, but it seems like there are only about twenty musicians to go around. The local scene is incredibly incestuous, with folks moonlighting in at least a couple of acts and the same names popping up again and again in new projects. Such…

The cover art of the Thermals’ latest, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, demands a close look. The intriguing collage features Jesus with a black bar covering his eyes, standing with his arms outstretched in a junkyard, surrounded by what look like dead appliances. So what the hell does it…

Although long in the shadow of scenemates Hüsker Dü and the Replacements, Soul Asylum ended up being the most commercially successful of the three. Early on, the act was derisively dubbed Hüsker Jr. by certain critics primarily because its early records seemed to imitate Dü’s high-trajectory melodic hardcore. But by…

Jonas H. Dahl, Arne Stöy Kvalvik, Ådne Meisfjord and Kjetil Ovesen, the four Norwegians who make up 120 Days, are too young to have lived through the nascent era of synthesized rock, and in this case, ignorance is bliss. Rather than put the spotlight on a few key elements, “Come…

By all accounts, Conner is from Lawrence, Kansas — although considering how frontman James Duft sings, with a tar-thick, faux-British accent, you’d be forgiven if you assumed the group hailed from across the pond. And ironically, the positive notices that the quartet has received thus far have all been from…

Guitarist/singer Coco Montoya started off as a rock drummer. Albert Collins walked into the club where Montoya was working, and the club owner let him use Montoya’s drum set — without asking him. Montoya blew a gasket, and Collins ended up calling to apologize. Collins phoned a few months later,…

There’s a good chance the Lord of Word is on his way to becoming the Lord of Dance. And, no, we’re not talking some Riverdance bullshit. You see, Theo Smith, who for seven years fronted the seminal Denver funk band Lord of Word and the Disciples of Bass, is trying…

In recent years, a spate of would-be synth-pop revivalists have come into the world. Some have mixed in rock instrumentals, while others have stuck to pure electronics. The resulting music — a good portion of it, anyway — has been self-consciously kitschy. Few acts, however, have pushed the art form…

The weather outside is delightful … but not in New York. The National Weather Service codes the Big Apple as a “Winter Storm Warning” area at this precise moment, and that means fans of folk legend Julie Collins are going to have to wait a week or so before they…

For most musicians, the notion of putting out one album per year is daunting. Summoning the wherewithal to pen enough material (a dozen or more songs in a twelve-month period) is an arduous task, made even more difficult by the demands of dealing with promotion and being on the road…

People are making music that sounds like ’60s rock or ’70s rock,” says Kris Anaya, the California singer-songwriter behind An Angle. “And I want to make 21st-century rock. But I’m still trying to find that sound.” Fortunately, Anaya’s attempts to achieve a creative breakthrough are interesting in and of themselves,…

In On the Download, we sort through the riffraff of the digital universe to provide you with links to the best in legitimate, artist-approved exclusives. It’s instant gratification at its finest, minus the spirit-crushing regret and premium price tag. One of the best things about attending the annual South by…