Music

Inspired by the 1982 cult film Wild Style, DJ Krush became one of Japan’s first turntablists. Equally adept at breakbeats, trip-hop, blissed-out electronic explorations and straightahead hip-hop, Krush has been a pioneering force in the DJ scene since his days with the Krush Posse, a crew hailed as one of…

American performance artist Chris Burden once noted that the dwindling fan base of most bands can be attributed to changing tastes or reactionary disinterest. Xiu Xiu, however, has had the unfortunate problem of often losing fans to suicide. (Oh, how very Goethe.) The San Jose-based act sits on a bummer…

Early practitioners don’t always reap the rewards enjoyed by those who follow, as the industrialists of Nitzer Ebb understand. Drummer Bon Harris and singer Douglas McCarthy began making music with the assistance of keyboardist David Gooday back in 1982, long before most people knew what to call their dark electronic…

A hit single nearly killed Nada Surf. Too arch for its own good, the 1995 MTV favorite “Popular” doomed the New York trio to novelty status. Throughout the ’90s, the threesome continued to meld the rich guitar textures of shoegaze, grunge’s warm fuzz and sunny ’60s pop — along with…

There are guitarists, and then there are “certified guitar players.” Steve Vai, for example, is not a CGP, whereas Tommy Emmanuel is. Even though Emmanuel has recorded with Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and toured with Shania Twain, you’re probably more familiar with Vai. Don’t feel bad, though, if the name…

Few would suspect that a band like the Human League — which prided itself on using no rock instruments on its first three albums — was inspired by the first wave of British glam and punk rock. Nonetheless, that’s exactly how the Sheffield-based act came into being: witnessing the evolution…

Listening to the up-tempo early-’70s garage reverb of Deadboy and the Elephantmen, it’s hard to reconcile that lead vocalist/guitarist Dax Riggs is the same metal dude who once fronted the influential Southern-fried sludge outfit Acid Bath. Riggs’s musical ardor has developed substantially beyond the swampy drone of his past endeavors;…

Guitarist Dave Beegle has been shredding in these parts for so long that it’s easy to take him for granted. But he’s a talented player more than capable of holding his own among the acts participating in the Denver Guitar Festival, which takes place on Saturday, September 23, at the…

For most people, fishing is a quiet, contemplative pastime — but not when Sharon Jones is involved. The fifty-year-old lead singer of the Dap-Kings, a rhythm-and-blues revival group good enough to be compared with its inspirations, Jones likes to be in charge whether she’s entertaining audiences or drifting in a…

“You a faggot?” demanded a mouth-breathing redneck of diminutive Photo Atlas frontman Alan Andrews. “What?” Andrews responded, flashing a look of complete bewilderment. “Your hair and the way you were dancing,” Hoss continued. “You’re a faggot, right? You like to suck dick?” Watching this exchange unfold in the gymnasium of…

Though Mudhoney was a catalyst, victim, beneficiary and survivor of the major-label feeding frenzy that swept through the Pacific Northwest in the early ’90s, the band is surprisingly unchanged by the experience. After six years on Warner Bros.’ Reprise imprint, Mudhoney returned to Sub Pop in 2002 with the brilliantly…

Despite an endless audience for radio-friendly music, most pop-oriented artists eventually become bored with straightforward pop-music structures — a tradition that’s been carried down from the Beatles to Christina Aguilera. And really, who can blame them? Even though it’s one of the hardest things to construct, the pop hit is…

Mastodon was initially scheduled to release its third album, Blood Mountain, on August 22 — the same day Lamb of God dropped its fourth disc, Sacrament. But with Mountain’s street date pushed back to September 12 and Lamb of God’s relentless live schedule, the U.S. metal throne has been all…

In the quest for the heaviest metal in the universe, it might not occur to most folks to look to France, which is known more for heavy foods than heavy music. But it would be unwise to ignore Gojira, the Bayonne-based quartet that packs more monstrous mass per minute into…

That five-star Rolling Stone review notwithstanding, this disc is no classic; a few too many of its bluesy lopes and old-timey crooneramas are musically interchangeable. But if Dylan’s latest is a lesser variation on 2001’s Love and Theft, it’s every bit as cheeky. Instead of acting like a cranky old…

Despite her breezy R&B vocals, Dani Siciliano sings in spidery movements, bending around the beats as if controlled by Etch-a-Sketch knobs, while producer Matthew Herbert smashes together traditional soul and blues elements with forcefully inorganic electronic rhythms. “Be My Producer” crackles with insect ticks and stuttering plinks of bass, making…

While it’s tempting to compare the Hidden Cameras’ Joel Gibb with other literate gay singer-songwriters, if Rufus Wainwright or Stephin Merritt were to sing about the joys of anal penetration or swallowing urine, it would be nothing short of hilarious. When Gibb does it, though, it’s barely even ironic; rather,…

Denver scenesters have long believed that the across-the-board success of even one local band would draw A&R reps to the area in droves. Well, the Fray has finally turned this trick, and as a result, acts like Lazyface, another sensitive, piano-heavy combo, may get a sniff. But while Smile is…

Seeing Michael Reisinger without his hands down his pants is like attending a birthday party without cake. Motheater’s unabashed vocalist has made the dirty deed a staple live — one that’s immodestly hard to pry your eyes from. Reisinger says its an entirely subconscious, I’m-just-totally-lost-in-the-moment thing. Whatever the case, it’s…

Bound Stems, Appreciation Night (Flameshovel). Appreciation Night, the giddy, hopelessly awkward and delightfully messy full-length debut from unhinged indie-pop quintet Bound Stems, features snippets of samples, boy/girl vocals, twee keyboards and guitars that go from jangly to jarring without warning. There’s an all-over-the-map aesthetic at work here; even so, the…

When Kenny Rogers began promoting his latest CD, Water & Bridges, earlier this year, he was treated like a walking punchline thanks to hideously botched plastic surgery; he looked as if he’d inflated his head using a bicycle pump. Despite all the guffaws, however, the disc’s lead single, “I Can’t…