Most acts that are part of the so-called third wave of ska promote themselves using a simple formula for success: touring, touring, touring. But Isaac Green and the Skalars, among the best of this new generation, recently discovered that the road can sometimes be rough. “We’ve only been on tour…
Veruca Salt Eight Arms to Hold You (Outpost/Minty Fresh) In my review of Veruca Salt’s much-ballyhooed debut, 1994’s American Thighs, I lamented the band’s derivative nature (the Breeders and Sonic Youth were among those paid homage via imitation) but suggested that, given some time, the players might eventually develop into…
Guitarist/vocalist John Cephas and harmonica expert Phil Wiggins, collectively known as Cephas & Wiggins, play what’s alternately called Tidewater music or Piedmont blues. And while they’re not the only ones to do so, Cephas is frustrated that more young players aren’t following in their footsteps. “You know, I can’t really…
Singer-songwriter Dan Bern is of the rather old-fashioned belief that words–as in lyrics–actually matter. Too bad most of the ones that show up in popular music are so banal. “We live in a very polite time in some ways,” he says in a halting yet intense voice that only occasionally…
Although Denver has been growing its own brand of DJs for as long as there have been clubs to mix records at, the last five years have witnessed a maturation of the scene and an explosion of urban record-slingers whose work rivals anything being done by their smug big-city cousins…
The Jeru the Damaja/DJ Shadow gig April 9 at Boulder’s Fox Theatre should have been memorable for musical reasons. Instead, what will stick in the minds of most of those who were present will be the actions of a handful of knuckleheads who helped perpetuate the impression that live hip-hop…
In its three years of existence, the Fort Collins-based Immortal Dominion has received about as much attention from the mainstream media as Tom Selleck might from ticketholders at your average Indigo Girls concert. But that doesn’t mean that the group’s members–guitarist/vocalist Ray Smith, guitarist Brian Villers, drummer Ben Huntwork and…
Denver’s Big Mike is not a man wanting for confidence. In describing the sort-of rebirth of his best-known band, Phantasmorgasm, he declares, “On a pompous, pretentious note, it’s my intention to reclaim Denver from the dregs–from how dismal the scene around here has become.” He declines to elaborate on this…
To many observers, the 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate sect who recently committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, are tragic figures. To the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, they’re something more: material. The good reverend, who specializes in comic entertainment of an especially Southern-fried sort, has already been working…
At this writing, the biggest name in country music is LeeAnn Rimes, a teenager whose handlers have managed to parlay her precocious Patsy Cline impressions into an incredibly lucrative debut album (Blue is triple platinum and still going strong), a Grammy for Best New Artist and a series of television…
“What we do could be interpreted as R&B in spirit,” explains Gregg Foreman, guitarist and vocalist for the Delta 72. “But it’s definitely not R&B in its purest form. I don’t think anybody is going to confuse us with Sam and Dave or Babyface.” Amen to that. Even though The…
Big Head Todd & the Monsters Beautiful World (Revolution) A new Big Head Todd album? Well, sort of. These are certainly new songs–or at least songs that haven’t turned up on previous albums credited to the band. (Three cuts bear 1989 copyrights.) And they’ve been produced by a new guy–the…
Since making his major-label debut in 1991, Lee Roy Parnell has been an unexpectedly fresh presence on hit country radio. With his trademark slide guitar and soulful voice, he has served up four discs of a unique brand of bluesy C&W that stands out among the watered-down country pop currently…
As you know, Boulder is a community that tends to attract unique personalities–like Heaven’s Gate guru Marshall Applewhite, for one. But Applewhite’s wide-eyed, flighty blather about UFOs and recycling your containers represents only one of the city’s many facets. Eric Stenslo of Boulder-based Napalm Records America epitomizes another, far different…
The members of Boulder’s Cabaret Diosa rarely refer to themselves as a band. Rather, they see the aggregation as a place, like a Latin Brigadoon or Shangri-La that exists as if by magic for a night and then is gone again: a luxuriant, recurrent dream. “I’m totally in love with…
Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow, is a provocateur. Plenty of hip-hop artists are dismayed by what’s happening to their chosen musical form, but most take a cautious, it’s-all-good approach to remarking about it in the press. By contrast, Shadow goes out of his way to twist his blade in hip-hop’s…
At their Saturday, March 29, concert at the DU Fieldhouse, the Samples will consist of Sean Kelly, Andy Sheldon, Jeep MacNichol and Al Laughlin. If you like this lineup, make sure to check out the show–because this is the last local concert to feature it. No, the Samples aren’t breaking…
From the looks of Agniezska Rybska, Melora Creager and Julia Kent, the three cellists who make up New York’s Rasputina, it would be easy to assume that they would be happiest at home, clad in corsets and tatted organdy in dim drawing rooms like the women of delicacy and refinement…
Putnam Murdock, guitarist and vocalist for Boulder’s Chief Broom, is not an especially earnest student, but he has learned something important during his time at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “As I grow older,” he says, “I’m realizing that there’s no real point to college.” Luckily for Murdock (and…
Never underestimate the power of a bad review. Judge Roughneck, widely regarded as Denver’s premier ska ensemble, is living proof. Before winding up on the receiving end of a particularly vituperative slam, the act was a hobby–a cover band that Byron Shaw, former leader of the Jonez, saw as an…
U2 Pop (Island) The hype, the hype, the hype. Regular reports over the course of a year about the making of U2’s latest–who was producing, who was mixing, who was standing in the spotlight, who was standing on the sideline. Internet leaks (which were probably intentional). Cease-and-desist orders (which were…
Most musicians are more comfortable talking about music than merchandising–but not Al Ferguson. When discussing Fascinating Rhythm, a group whose name he likes so much that he’s had it trademarked, the Denver-based Ferguson often sounds more like the head of an advertising firm than a creative artist. “My objective with…
