Music
Do-it-yourself album
After Page Hamilton broke up his band, Helmet, in 1998, he thought not only might he never bring back Helmet, he might even set aside his signature instrument...
Vintage sheen: Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside
Sallie Ford says that growing up, she was more comfortable singing in groups than by herself. (Her sister, after all, was the one with the performance flair.) Ford was never one for the spotlight, she says...
Punching back in
When she moved from San Diego to Boulder in 2007 my partner, Irene, was hoping to discover Colorado musicians who moved her as much as the reggae-tinged San Diego-based alt-folkie Beth Preston had. So one can imagine Irene’s surprise when she went grocery shopping at...
Intrigue and murder mystery wrapped up in a requiem
A reclusive count living in a remote castle...
Electronic musician Pretty Lights: Mapping the sun
Right now, electronic music is more than a trend. It’s a tidal wave. Stars like Tiesto, Skrillex and David Guetta are filling arenas, and according to multiple media reports, cashing checks totaling tens of millions each year...
Cultural chasms and 90 miles of ocean
Though separated by a cavernous gulf of ideological and political differences, the distance between the United States and the island of Cuba is just 90 miles...
Keen sensibilities
Robert Earl Keen has long made his own rules. He’s also willing to break them...
Pretty Lights Music clowns around at the Fox
Pretty Lights Music is loaded with solo electronic acts, so it’s refreshing to see that as lead man Derek Smith (Pretty Lights) has shed drummers over the years, Pretty Lights Music as a label is increasingly inclusive...
Professor turns virtuoso
Getting a touring musician on the cell phone for a few minutes isn’t exactly rocket science these days, unless their GPS has taken a dive rolling through Sasquatch country or the van has blown a sidewall in a granite-lined mountain pass tunnel someplace, but it ...
Mother of reinvention
While he was growing up in Athens, Georgia, nobody in Kevin Barnes’ immediate family played music. They had a piano in the house and his sisters took piano lessons briefly, but his parents never listened to music unless they were in the car. Fortunately, the Of ...
Johnny O’s blues sky
Someone once said that the relative dearth of blues musicians around here is actually a weather thing; who can sing the blues under 300 annual days of sunshine...
