Music

A seedy barroom staple since the mid-’80s, when he performed solo and with a band called Luke the Drifter and the Lonesome Saddle Tramps, Joe Vasquez certainly isn’t a household name in Nashville — not that he ever aspired to be one. But ’round these here parts, the man with…

Your leader and our lapdog” is how Paul Weller describes President George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair. Blair is the youthful liberal who seems to be the only world leader dumb, or crazy, enough to back Bush unconditionally in his imminent war against Iraq. “It took eighteen…

In 1981, Hall and Oates dispatched their private eyes, Olivia Newton-John wanted to get physical, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts loved rock and roll, and Ben Lev Kweller was born in Greenville, Texas. Twelve years later, when most of his peers were primarily concerned with the weird shit going on…

Raw exuberance matched with a burning desire to change the world is the hallmark of enlightened youth, often leading to embarrassing clothing buried in attics and repressed memories of auctioned-off idealism. But on occasion, a rare alignment of planets can turn such bright-eyed passion into a more permanent contribution –…

Jonathan Bates’s claim that his major-label debut was “lovingly recorded in a bedroom” is slightly misleading: With his solo career in a fledgling state, Bates caught the attention of Tony Berg, an A&R executive who signed both Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Beck. Soon after, the magic of studio-enhanced remastering…

Having established itself as one of the most talented of an ever-expanding crop of jam bands, twelve-year-old moe. is navigating middle age just fine. The band grooves with more of its signature neo-hippie fare on Wormwood, a healthy fourteen-track effort. Low-end man Rob Derhak propels the group through a guitar-laced…

As a “content provider,” Backwash feels a moral obligation to shun reality programming on TV, and I await the day when American networks exhaust the public’s appetite for ready-made voyeurism and have to start hiring actual writers. But I gotta confess, I love American Idol, which entered its second season…

In far tougher economic times than these, American homesteaders often burned their houses to the ground just to retrieve the nails — then moved somewhere new with the hopes of rebuilding. Catherine Irwin, co-leader of the Kentucky-bred roots outfit Freakwater, borrows this idea of hardscrabble existence as a metaphor for…

With much of the world dangling over an abyss of terror and war, now may be the most tense time in recent history to be alive. As if in spontaneous reaction comes Black Black Ocean. While most indie-rock bands whimper and cringe, the Denver quartet (which appears Saturday, February 8,…

It’s tough to believe, but just ten years ago, musicians from Seattle routinely received more attention than did performers from practically any other locale. And why not? Thanks to the success of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and many of their peers in the so-called grunge movement, talent scouts looked…

“So, are you going to fuck us over, then?” Such is Coldplay singer Chris Martin’s greeting, proffered with a warm smile and a clasp of the arm. Before assurances can be offered, he’s sashayed into his Los Angeles hotel room, where clothes spew out of a suitcase and over the…

The dark constellation of singer-songwriters formed by Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and Tom Waits is no place to go poking around if you can’t stand a little self-indulgence. So pomp-averse listeners beware: Crooked Fingers may well get on your nerves. The third installment of this earnest enterprise from former Archers…

Sanity isn’t a prerequisite when it comes to making good music. Syd Barrett and Roky Erickson are only two of many performers who’ve created intriguing songs in spite of — or perhaps because of — minds that don’t operate in ways most of us regard as normal. In that sense,…

Ryan Policky is one of the very few Denverites who didn’t spend last Sunday watching football. He was too busy getting ready for a gig at the Church. Policky’s band, Pure Drama, which performs only a couple of times a year, recently added two members, bassist David Ferguson and drummer…

Bad Brains — rechristened in the late ’90s as Soul Brains to reflect a more positive vibe — has long been one of the most innovative bands to rock the planet. Influencing everyone from the Beastie Boys to Mos Def, the band burst out of the D.C. punk scene in…

This is a good year for Colorado tenor saxophonist and composer Fred Hess — and for jazz fans who appreciate harmonically adventurous cutting-edge music, impeccably played. Hess is releasing two new CDs on the Tapestry label this month — one recorded during a piano-less quartet date in Rochester, New York,…

Here’s a music-journalism secret: Interviewing performers in their second language can be more enlightening than quizzing them in their first. Why? Folks familiar with English, say, are generally adept at using the idiom to skirt subjects, spin responses or appear frank without truly unwrapping their souls in the slightest. In…

I like to find a way to pull the audience into the creative process, whether they want to go or not,” says Dr. Gregory T.S. Walker, chuckling slyly. A six-and-a-half-foot-tall violinist/composer who won’t hesitate to drench folks in the orchestra seats with a water cannon in order to include them…

Rhode Island was founded as a dumping ground for criminals, no-goods, drunks and lunatics exiled from tony enclaves like Boston and New York. Like everything else, its musical legacy has been difficult to define. What the heck is Rhode Island music, anyway? The Blackstone Valley Sinners hope to include “country”…