The year 2018 saw the release of a lot of music. The following is the second half of what this writer thought was the best of the year. Full disclosure: I don’t care about album sales. I don’t care about concert-ticket sales. If everything in the world was judged by the amount sold, you’d have a hell of a lot of chefs in high...
“Are you looking for the record swap?” a patient staffer at the Veterans of Foreign Wars asks us, likely prompted by the look of confusion slapped across our faces as we make our way through the thrift store at the VFW.
We nod, relieved that we won’t be wandering helplessly about much longer. She points us in the right...
Stephen Sellers may be the only musician in the Southwest who plays bass in an old-time bluegrass band, while also spinning his own brand of house music at events around Durango. While the two genres may seem like polar opposites – one a band ripping through a set of originals that sound like they’re 100 years old alongside...
A few years back, I received a nonchalant press release in passing from the funk, soul, and R&B independent powerhouse Daptone Records. It was announcing the formation of a subsidiary label, which was created to release rock ‘n’ roll records. This approach to label creation wasn’t wholly uncommon back when record labels...
Here’s a not-so-secret: I’m a big ol’ nerd. To me, a perfect day is writing for four hours, eating lunch, writing for four hours, eating dinner, then reading for four hours. Yeah, yeah, I know, Colorado. You like to go ice-climbing and bike-rafting and be all sportsy outdoorsy. But me? NAH! Give me a couch and a book or time...
Author Stephen Graham Jones wants you, fiends and friends, to last the eventide onslaught of a serial killer. I mean, the dead don’t cipher stories – usually – and Jones has a gorgeously grisly stack of terror texts for your reading regard. They’re dark books by a writer who has typed his keyboard bloody before. Jones’ll set...
Jazz is cool. Dig into it, and you’ll find that it’s had an influential hand in popular culture, and is a genre of music that went hand in hand with the literature of the beat generation and their aimless meandering, set to a soundtrack of bebop. It’s a style of music used regularly in film and television, and soundtracks are...
This coming Saturday marks the 20-year anniversary of the release of an era-defining album. Chicago-based Drag City Records, one of the preeminent purveyors of independent music, is re-releasing the album in honor of that benchmark. It is important to note that this is a re-release and not a remastered reissue. There are no...
Your life, like many American lives, may feel uncertain. Nah, let’s be blunt. Your life sucks, or at least, it feels like it does. You can’t quite pay for both toilet paper and the whiskey. GD white supremacists are on the rise, persons repeatedly accused of sexual assault are being appointed to political power, there’s no...
Electronic music DJ Posh Josh is trying to better himself through his music. And, while he’s bettering himself, he’s hoping to motivate listeners to better themselves, too. It’s the purpose of “Connect,” the music series happening bimonthly at Animas City Theatre, with Posh Josh, aka Josh Rosenthal, at the helm, along with...
BRE-BRE(pause)BRE-BRE! That’s me screaking Bernard Herrmann’s “Psycho Suite” at your Halloween party. BRE-BRE(pause)BRE-BRE! BRE! DOAHH DOAHH DOAHH! Don’t like it? You aren’t gonna quiet the clamor of my counter-perched gargoyle ass unless you turn on some tunes.
No, you can’t turn on the “Psycho Suite.” 1) I was just...
Last week was one heck of a week for new releases, my friends, and it’s across the board. I do believe there is a little something for everyone. Before getting into my singular record of choice, let me give you my long-winded version of the quick and dirty on a handful of albums currently available at your favorite local...
Musician Jack Cloonan is developing his own genre. A former Durango resident, Cloonan leads The Jack Cloonan Band and is developing the genre of “disco-grass.”
A fusion of festival-heavy genres, it’s one part jam-band, one part acoustic funk, and all parts upbeat party.
“It’s bluegrass fusion with Celtic and funk...
