Uberzone at the Rise festival

One of the many highlights of the sixth annual Rize urban art and music festival on Saturday, April 25, at the Paladium (1400 West 62nd Avenue), is a live laptop remix set of whiplash future breaks by Überzone. This California native, known as Timothy Wiles to his mother and Q…

Marcus Church

Here’s the plot synopsis for The Marcus Church Story: Marcus Church really likes Guided by Voices. The similarities encompass Church’s singing style, voice, lo-fi production style and, to some degree, his songwriting. Unfortunately, Church seems fixated on the mellower, more accessible side of the GBV oeuvre. That’s fine and dandy,…

Rowboat on the radio today

Today at 4 p.m. Rowboat (a project of Sam McNitt of Blue Million Miles) will be appearing live on KVDU Internet radio. He’s going to guest DJ for an hour, then play live for an hour at 5 p.m. If you’re like me and still haven’t caught this bleak and…

Locals shine at Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts

The second annual Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts, one of the nation’s biggest electronic music festivals, kicks off properly tonight. In addition to a strong lineup of national and international talent — Thomas Fehlmann, Gudrun Gut, KiloWatts, Christopher Willits, for example — it also features an all-star cast of the…

Freaky Friday: Sir Ivan – “For What It’s Worth”

For this week’s slice of the weird, I give you Sir Ivan, and it doesn’t get much freakier than this guy. He’s a fifty-something ex-financier who lives in a castle and maintains a superhero identity called Peaceman (also, Mr. Mitzvah for a short time on SciFi’s Who Wants to Be…

Flier of the Week: Hello Kavita at the hi-dive

Today I woke up thinking, “Thursday already, and no Flier of the Week to light the way?” Then I saw this delightful work and knew the gods of graphic design had seen my plight and taken pity on me. The muted color palette and sea-creature graphic seem especially suited to…

Pros and Cons

Prepare for a total nerdgasm when Starfest brings Battlestar Galactica super-hottie Katee Sackhoff, aka Starbuck, to town this weekend. But everyone’s favorite Cylon-killing sexpot is just the start of the awesome action, since this year’s Starfest is really four cons in one. Horrorfest, Gamefest and Comicfest join the usual cast…

Thomas Fehlmann at the Fox Theatre

The resumé of Thomas Fehlmann is truly awesome. It stretches all the way back to the late ’70s, when he began experimenting with synthesizers in the company of people such as Robert Fripp and fellow Palais Schaumburg member Holger Hiller. Later, Fehlmann worked with seminal techno artists Eddie “Flashin” Fowlkes,…

Taarka

Listening to the mad Gypsy sounds of Taarka’s Seed Gathering for a Winter Garden is like a temporary escape from the mundane modern world into an exotic caravan traveling a fantastic world. The instrumentals range from the frenetic bluegrass stylings of the opening track, “Artic Meltdown,” to the insistent, intricate…

Welcome to the magnificent (and unpronounceable) world of Iuengliss

Iuengliss. The name is damn near impossible to pronounce. Tom Metz, the up-and-coming electronic wunderkind who performs under the moniker, knows his handle causes fits. So there are no hard feelings if you butcher it. “It doesn’t matter how you pronounce it,” he says. “I pronounce it I-win-gliss. I put…

Free Tauntaun show Saturday at Wax Trax for Record Store Day

It’s not just big, name-brand superstar acts contributing to the orgy of dead technology, outmoded business models and rampant nostalgia that is Record Store Day. No, local acts are in on the fun, too! What that means for you is that this Saturday, April 18, you can catch Denver’s own…

Flobots’ Jonny 5 rallies the troops for higher ed

Jonny 5 of the Flobots is performing and speaking tomorrow on the Auraria Campus as part of a rally to protest $452 million in proposed cuts to higher education in the state. Like most such mass-action political events, attendance is not only free but they’d love to have you come…

Party like it’s 1998 tomorrow night

Prince told us to party like it was 1999 but those of us that were around at the time know it never really got better than 1998. That was the year tech house started to take over and Denver’s house music scene coalesced into something special. The folks of Denver…

Sneak peek the Ideal Fathers’ debut EP tomorrow

There’s an excellent show lined up for tomorrow night at the Marquis Theater. It’s the fourth installment of the Bands You Need To Know series presented by Soda Jerk and Mile Hi-Fidelity/Indie 101.5, featuring Alan Alda, 3 the Hardway, Achille Lauro and the Ideal Fathers — a nicely diverse and…

Freaky Friday: Shatner “I Can’t Get Behind That”

William Shatner. Ranting. Beatnik poetry, complete with mad bongo-drum rhythms. Henry Rollins. Puppets. Puppets in paper Colonel Sanders masks. Need I say more? Seriously, what else could I possibly say? I guess I could thank New Ancient Astronauts for turning me on to this earlier in the week (Thanks, New…

All Mixed Up

Get ready for a DJ battle like no other as Denver’s top DJs square off and switch styles. Swap Meet will pair trance and house DJs with drum-and-bass and dubstep DJs who will then exchange record bags and try to spin a freestyle set without rehearsal or preparation. For added…

Melt Your Mind

In David Cronenberg’s hallucinatory masterpiece, Videodrome, you are what you watch. Working simultaneously as horror, science fiction and media commentary, the film tells the story of mercenary TV executive Max Renn’s encounter with a brutal television program, the shadowy cabal that’s producing it and the bizarre changes that watching it…

Gui Boratto at Beta

Techno has experienced a fantastic resurgence in the past few years, with new movements within the genre and new artists pushing the previously neglected style to the forefront of the dance-music world. At the vanguard of that movement is Gui Boratto, a Brazilian-born superstar, who’s making techno history and changing…

The Hollyfelds

Listening to the Hollyfelds’ Black Heart Blue makes me wish my grandpa was still alive. See, we were always close, but I never gave his music — Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and other classic country, a little bluegrass when he was feeling spry — a chance until he was gone…

Flier of the Week: Henchmen and Royal Dead at Cervantes’

For reminding me of the Golden Age of movie lobby posters, this flier for local promoter Zombie Rock’s show tomorrow night at Cervantes’ has earned the nod for flier of the week. Its bold, stark colors, simple, line-illustrated style and suggestion of unspeakable horror proved to be an irresistible combination…

Denver KISS fans, you have the power

Pioneering clown rockers KISS just keep on pioneering. Today, the 35 year old band announced a revolutionary plan to put the tour destinations for their next tour up to a vote from the fans. That means that Denver KISS fans (and in my discussions with local bands and music lovers,…

Freaky Friday: Ukrainians love Katy Perry

I learned this week that Katy Perry must just be huge in the Ukraine. I mean, why else would a Ukrainian polka band be performing her future classic “Hot’n’Cold” on TV? And would said clip make it to YouTube, so I can bring it to you? And what exactly does…