Email Author Tom Murphy

2008 Stories by Tom Murphy

• Moovers & Shakers 2008: Backbeat scribes weigh in on their favorite local releases of the year

  published December 18, 2008

  Last week on Mile High Fidelity, my new show on 101.5 FM, I marveled at how we'd seamlessly segued from the station's regular... More >>

• Mercury Rev

  published December 11, 2008

  Leaving the Flaming Lips on the cusp of commercial success only to rejoin Mercury Rev — a group he was a part of in the late '80s —... More >>

• Hungry Giant

  published December 11, 2008

  The cover of this album, which depicts a group of Aborigines chained together by some corny colonial type, sitting in a sunset-colored sky over... More >>

• Dan Deacon hasn't let his education get in the way of making music

  published December 11, 2008

  Dan Deacon's name should be familiar to anyone keeping an ear to what's going on in American underground music. As one of the founders of the... More >>

• Nuts & Berries at Larimer Lounge

  published December 11, 2008

  This project has all the hallmarks of something conceived alone in someone's bedroom. And on stage, Brad Turner solo with his laptop is hardly... More >>

• Aunt Dracula

  published December 4, 2008

  If there were such a thing as a postmodern post-apocalypse, and the world existed in a kind of warping shift of dark hues, Dalí-esque... More >>

• Wet Hair

  published December 4, 2008

  Comprising members of the well-known noise-rock outfit Racoo-ooo-oon, Wet Hair dispenses with live guitars entirely, but not the former's... More >>

• Hunter Dragon

  published December 4, 2008

  There is no musical genre that can contain Hunter Dragon's songwriting, because it truly runs the gamut of styles and sounds. However, within... More >>

• Carbon Choir at Larimer Lounge

  published December 4, 2008

  Carbon Choir (due at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, December 5) is a band whose virtues compound with each song. At first you might be... More >>

• Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk

  published November 27, 2008

  Lawrence, Kansas, is an unlikely little pocket of American Bohemia tucked into the heart of the Midwest. So it should come as no surprise that... More >>

• Overcasters

  published November 27, 2008

  Kurt Ottaway has been earning praise in this publication since fronting Twice Wilted in the '80s — and why stop now? The debut by... More >>

• Rabbit Is a Sphere

  published November 27, 2008

  This followup to Rabbit Is a Sphere's fantastic debut, Laps in the Sleep Salon, is a shorter and decidedly more moody offering.... More >>

• Wetlands is awfully grown up, Babies Teeth and all

  published November 27, 2008

  From its dada-esque lyrics to its soaring, scintillating rock epics, Wetlands shows a great deal of artistic maturity for a band that has only... More >>

• Temples at the Larimer Lounge

  published November 27, 2008

  As the visionary guitar wizard in Moth Eater, Kevin Richards established a unique sound. Grounded in an understanding of jazz guitar filtered... More >>

• Castles

  published November 20, 2008

  The shimmery cymbals and distant voices in the fog of white noise that opens this album somehow recall the beginning of Days of Future... More >>

• Lizzie Borden

  published November 20, 2008

  Although essentially following the glam-metal trend of the '80s, the members of Lizzie Borden never embarrassed themselves as egregiously as... More >>

• Minimula at 3 Kings Tavern

  published November 20, 2008

  Few bass players possess the intensity and stage presence of former Cephalic Carnage bassist Jawsh Mullen. And for his part, Devon Rogers has... More >>

• Yellow Elephant

  published November 13, 2008

  If the City of Lost Children was a real place, this group would certainly hail from there. With an aesthetic that recalls Self-Non-Self-era Cranes... More >>

• Metro Station

  published November 13, 2008

  Even though Metro Station has probably been able to capitalize on the fact that its lineup includes Trace Cyrus (half-brother of Miley Cyrus,... More >>

• Yellow Elephant at Denver Zine Library

  published November 13, 2008

  If the City of Lost Children was a real place, this group would certainly hail from there. With an aesthetic that recalls... More >>

• Overcasters favor exhilarating atmospheres over utter starkness

  published November 6, 2008

  With incandescent whorls of melodic sound and synapse-tingling dynamics, Overcasters are reinventing a classic sound pioneered by bands in the... More >>

• Sunburned Hand of the Man

  published November 6, 2008

  Emerging from the remnants of experimental punk outfit Shit Spangled Banner, Sunburned Hand of the Man shambled into existence in 1997. A lot... More >>

• Gata Negra at the Lion's Lair

  published November 6, 2008

  Many bands mining classic rock for inspiration these days sound like sonic fetishists or kitschy tongue-in-cheekers. There's plenty of blues in... More >>

• Dimmu Borgir

  published October 30, 2008

  Named after a volcanic rock formation purported to be an entrance to the underworld, Norway's Dimmu Borgir came out of that country's vital... More >>

• Yuzo Nieto & the Hand That Rocks the Dreidel

  published October 30, 2008

  Superficially, this album is an exercise in dusky jazz, electro-pop, world music and whatever it is Randy Newman did in the late '70s. In spite... More >>