Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk is more main gig than side project lately.
Born from a just-this-once gig at New Orlean’s venerable Jazz Fest, the pedigreed funk machine that is Dumpstaphunk tore the Oriental Theater to the ground on Saturday, proving they are indeed the rightful heir to The Meters’ funky throne.
Two back-to-back nights with a quick throwdown at Copper Mountain in between didn’t dampen the band’s enthusiasm for the final night as they turned a theater of spinning New Monsoon hippies into giddily grooving fools. (Not to [...]

Morcheeba proved itself more than a greatest-hits act. Photos by Julio Enriquez.
Manda faced an uphill battle.
The striking French singer with dark hair and the speaking voice of a pixie stepped in as Morcheeba’s female vocalist after the departure of the enigmatic Skye Edwards. According to the band’s MySpace page, the new singer simply used that networking site to message brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey, who together comprise one of trip-hop’s most formidable songwriting teams, and pronounced that performing with them was her professional dream.

Photos by Laurie Scavo.
Recordings often lie. Or at least, they fib. When you see a band in concert for the first time you usually judge them against the quality of their recordings, which can be unfair. Some bands don’t really care to duplicate their recordings live because it’s beside the point (mid-’90s Guided by Voices, anyone?)
Others that pride themselves on sounding exactly like their records (like Spoon) often come up a bit boring. Playing well live doesn’t always translate to the studio, and vice versa.
Whatever [...]

Nada Surf’s lengthy set thrilled a near-capacity crowd at the Gothic on Tuesday. Photos by John Moore.
Nada Surf’s music has always been a little hard for me to classify. Luckily, I think I found the answer Tuesday night at the near-capacity Gothic Theatre through contemplating the outfit of the guy that stood in front of me. His big muscles, stuffed into an overly-tight shirt, clearly said this was rawk. His plaid shirt tied around his casually ripped jeans let me know he was ready for [...]

Vampire Weekend’s Tuesday night show at the Bluebird recalled the days of yore — or at least the imagined ones. Photos by Doug Beam.
In the olden days, parents were way bigger assholes than today. At least that’s how my Grandma tells it. In her day, you would’ve never gotten away with what us kids get away with today. They had to walk ten miles to school. They had to be in a war, and eat apples with worms in them. It sucked.
Gen Xers and Millenials [...]

Bon Jovi’s unchallenging songwriting formula continues to serve it well. Denver Post photo by Karl Gehring.
Much has been made of Bon Jovi’s recent dip into country-rock on its 10th and latest disc, “Lost Highway.” Perhaps too much.
Every writer likes a hook, so it makes sense that we would want to scribble about the band’s stylistic detours. It makes good fodder for articles, and when an act still sells as many albums as Bon Jovi, it’s legitimate news (“Lost Highway” was the group’s third No. 1 [...]