As a trio, Cave Singers (playing tonight at the Larimer Lounge with Bare Bones) only actually employs one voice — member Pete Quirk’s, to be exact. But along with harmonica and melodica, the band creates some beautiful America-twinged folk songs perfect for singing along to…

Fort Collins-born Candy Claws (playing the Larimer Lounge tonight with Gardens & Villa and Flashlights) is like a vacation unto itself. The family-style band creates soundscapes fit for traveling from the forest to the sea with ethereal layers of vocals, bells, and traditional instrumentation. Last year’s Hidden Lands was a…

There is no denying that Madeleine Peyroux (who plays the Boulder Theater tonight with Sunny War) bears an uncanny resemblance to Billie Holiday. But while the inspiration and gilded jazz vocal similarities are there, the pain is not — Peyroux brings her own whimsical style to the genre with a…

Of Mice & Men (playing this evening at the Marquis Theater with I Set My Friends on Fire, Sleeping With Sirens and Woe Is Me) has had a tumultuous three-year run as a band. The group’s backstory reads like a daytime drama. Vocalist and founder Austin Carlile was kicked out…

This record hurts. It hurts because just when it seems like the Microdots realize the power in their dub-like rhythmic variations, Orkid turns on itself. Going from the attractive and dirty basement shakiness of “Crazy Maraca” to a tawdry slow drip like “Tangerine” seems unfair — safe, even. The quartet…

From bedroom recordings to Target commercials, Portlandian quartet Starfucker has had an interesting trip up the pop-culture ladder. In a perfect world, the group’s catchy hook-producing capabilities would make it a Top 40 shoo-in. But perhaps there’s something too deliberate in the act’s chosen moniker. A handful of earlier name…

Just one of the many acts birthed in the last half-decade thanks to YouTube, thirteen-year-old Greyson Chance — due at the Gothic Theatre tonight with Cody Simpson and Camryn — could still be considered a bit of an anomaly in his own right. Unlike his pop contemporaries, the ‘tween’s adoration…

In a music world of blog-hyped bands, Internet sensationalism and an over-commitment to the next big thing, Boldtype flourishes through the idea that there will always be a need for fast, raw and rowdy three-chord rock. Touring with Guttermouth and surviving over a decade together, the local act — due…

On his grind for almost two decades, Andre Nickatina — who at one time went by Dre Dog — has released over a dozen albums, mostly through his own imprints. On the road now in support of his forthcoming album, Khan! The Me Generation, the cocaine rapper and movie producer…

There is something about a band that looks like they want to be a band — Atlanta’s the Biters (due at 3 Kings Tavern tonight) certainly do, with Joan Jett-ish coifs and leather jackets to match. But beyond the look, there’s an equally classic sound, and the quartet takes the…

The less-is-more idea works for this three-song split between Laser Palace proprietors Kristi Schaefer and Ryan McRyhew as Hideous Men and frequent collaborator Milton Melvin Croissant III, with a quick but deep look into some gorgeous electronic landscaping. Hideous Men’s rave-ish throwback “Sirens” works off a humbleness in Schaefer’s vocals,…