Black and Read and Angelo's Offer Eclectic Record Store Day Shows

Record Store Day is upon us! This Saturday, April 18, live bands will play in parking lots, fans will fill the aisles of your favorite record shop and, of course, there will be insane releases you never knew you needed. We walked you through a few of your options earlier this week. But there are plenty more places to celebrate in Colorado. So today, we've got the lowdown on the lineups at a pair of Denver record store staples: Black and Read and Angelo's. 

Starting at 10 a.m., Black and Read will be open for Record Store Day. The live musical performances start at 1 p.m. In addition to the already-announced Record Store Day releases you can browse the store's regular inventory and find some unexpected surprises among its music and books. The place is a virtual labyrinth of hidden treasures and unexpected

And the performances should be interesting. Rarely will you get to see a band like Atomga in such an intimate venue. The Afrobeat group has a full horn section and really exemplifies the spirit of the music founded by Fela Kuti. The Roxy Suicide will also be on hand to perform and meet with fans. The Colorado Springs-based glam punk outfit is the latest project from Dave Mansfield, whose band the Mansfields have long been a staple of punk in Colorado.The punk band Dryer Fire is playing its first live show with guest drummer Robot from Truckasaurus. Rounding out the day's lineup is the Aquasonics — an Arvada-based surf rock band in the vein of Dick Dale.
For its Record Store Day festivities, Angelo's on Colfax is offering live performances from a mixture of hip-hop artists and experimental projects beginning at 4 p.m. Big Koast is based in Los Angeles but was born in India. His music is clearly influenced by the Southern California style but he uses a subtly wide palette of sounds and rhythms. Like many artists today, Koast has made a mixtape and started a clothing line that has been placed in Denver, and in 2015 he will release the album Never Look Back. Distance Research (also playing tomorrow at Angelo's) comprises synth expert Sean Faling and his wife Eve Orenstein. When Faling was living in Michigan, he'd been involved in a more rock and roll world, but in Colorado he assembled one of the most impressive collections of analog synthesizers around, and his experiments with those devices resulted in Distance Research. Next up is Liberiana, which features Allan Muniz, who was once a member of avant-jazz outfit Malamadre. His solo work is in a similar vein but stripped down to the bare essentials. 

Rounding out the Angelo's lineup is Night Grinder, a.k.a. Brad Schumacher, who recently relocated to Denver from St. Louis where he was a known quantity in that city's experimental music scene. For this event, he is celebrating the release of the latest Night Grinder record, Immediate Content. The mix of manipulated field recordings and seemingly free jazz prog bass lines are reminiscent of early A Certain Ratio gone No Wave. 

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If you'd like to contact me, Tom Murphy, on Twitter, my handle is @simianthinker.