With a lineup consisting solely of two bassists and a drummer, you’d be right to assume that GOP@Riot (aka Go Patriot) is heavy. While skinsman Nate Weaver frenetically abuses his kit, Ben Williams and Sean Inman visit all manner of violence on their instruments. Breaking sticks and strings, the trio…

“Maybe I could be the first rapper-slash-doctor!” As he applies to medical schools for next year, Nathaniel Motte — beatmaker and one half of Boulder crunk-rock duo 3OH!3 — is getting psyched about the cred this will win him in the hip-hop game. “Let’s put this down in ink,” he…

The light of the morning sun spreads across the horizon as you slowly awaken from a restful night’s sleep. As the fog clears and conscious thoughts begin to crystallize, you enter a state that scientists call hypnopompia — a psychological limbo between sleep and wakefulness during which you’re prone to…

In less than four years, the husband-and-wife indie-pop duo in the Rosebuds have repeatedly reinvented themselves. On their 2003 Merge Records debut, The Rosebuds Make Out, guitarist/vocalist Ivan Howard and keyboardist/vocalist Kelly Crisp made a sunny AM-pop splash with sparkling, naive love songs. The group’s 2005 follow-up full-length, Birds Make…

Gregg Gillis can’t believe all the attention his musical alter ego is getting. “The past couple months have been particularly ridiculous,” he marvels. “First you’ve got Mike Doyle talking about me in Congress. Two weeks later I’m playing a high-school prom, playing to all these seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds. The next…

Tapes ‘n Tapes wants you to put some sugar on its tongue. Or maybe it just wants you to cut your hair and be its summer babe. With one eye winking and the other twinkling in innocence, the act captures the off-kilter mania of early Talking Heads and the insouciant…

Wherever this dynamic duo plays, jaws drop in awe and butts shake in delight. Though the Mexican metalheads known as Rodrigo y Gabriela first grabbed America’s attention with fiery acoustic covers of Metallica and Led Zeppelin, theirs is no novelty act. Veterans of Mexico’s fertile death-metal scene, Rodrigo Sanchez and…

In the 1990s, DJ Shadow (aka Josh Davis) revolutionized turntablism and distinguished himself as the illest sample-slinger in the West. His subsequent contributions to film scores and supergroup projects cemented his reputation as the dark lord of ambient breakbeats and trippy electronica. Unfortunately, key parts of his musical identity got…

If the idea of an albino Muslim rapper sounds like the start of a bad and potentially offensive joke, you haven’t met Brother Ali, an MC with skills that render all biographical trivia irrelevant. Though the Minneapolis wordsmith’s introspective and occasionally self-loathing lyrics have much in common with the boohoo-hop…

When they say pride cometh before a fall, they usually mean hubris, a potentially fatal excess of pride. It was the undoing of Icarus, Narcissus and Dabney Coleman’s character in 9 to 5. It’s also what makes so many instrumental-rock bands unlistenable. Driven to abstraction by their Berklee pedigrees and…

Of God and Science, The Songs (Detach Records). Every town has a band like Of God and Science: clever, sincere and entertaining, but too much like your buddy Dave from vo-tech: medium height, medium build, no distinguishing features. Great personality, but no edge. The record’s blend of kitschy pop and…

Lesbian, Power Hör (Holy Mountain). Probably the worst band name ever, but this dense slab of psychedelic, relentlessly heavy metal redeems the Seattle quartet. With just four tracks spanning over an hour, Power Hör ranks with classics like the Melvins’ Lysol and Sleep’s Jerusalem as a hefty, ambitious and complex…

The multi-ethnic, multi-disciplinary L.A.-based tribe known as Ozomatli made its name by cutting up salsa, hip-hop, traditional Mexican music, funk, jazz and more into barn-burning, irresistible party music. Unfortunately, this followup tries too hard to capitalize on the group’s Grammy-winning success by aiming straight for the multi-culti pop charts. While…

Despite his youthful appearance, Carrick Moore Gerety has been doing this indie-pop thing for longer than some of his fans have been alive. Most notably, Moore Gerety and his brother, Finn, co-captained the Push Kings — the Harvard-hatched boy band of the international pop underground that achieved stardom in Japan…

Since turning irony-minded heads in 2002 with its debut single “Losing My Edge,” LCD Soundsystem has made a name for itself as the leading purveyor of winking dance tracks. With big dumb beats, lyrics skewering all that is hip, and plenty of a-go-go bells, the Soundsystem and its production alter…

For most musicians, the notion of putting out one album per year is daunting. Summoning the wherewithal to pen enough material (a dozen or more songs in a twelve-month period) is an arduous task, made even more difficult by the demands of dealing with promotion and being on the road…

The Canadian invasion continues. As beleaguered United States of Americans feverishly build a wall to protect ourselves from our freeloading, funny-talking neighbors to the north, Malajube amasses an arsenal of prismatic guitar riffs, irrepressible synth licks and infernally catchy tunes that get inside our heads and cause us to smile…

Lesser bands have crumbled under the weight of critical acclaim and the subsequent expectations that have been heaped upon Montreal’s Arcade Fire since issuing Funeral, its 2004 debut. Heralded as indie-rock saviors, compared to Byrne, Bowie and Botticelli, and thrown into the Colosseum for a to-the-death battle with Broken Social…

Equal parts Bernard Herrmann, John Zorn and Jim O’Rourke, Strangers Die Every Day makes cinematic, esoteric chamber punk that never forgets to rock. Bassist Stirling Myles and drummer Lawrence Armstrong thunder away like an indie-rock rhythm section that fell into the orchestra pit, while violinist Scott Wilkinson and cellist Jessie…

Wiping her nose on her sleeve, spitting a lung cookie into the crowd and grabbing the microphone stand with equal parts disgust and delight, Coco — the uni-monikered lead singer and guitarist for garage-punk power trio the Ettes — rocks the front of the stage like the demon seed of…

Listening to the Album Leaf, Jimmy LaVelle’s pet project, is a lot like taking in the dreariness of another new apartment as it quivers, buzzes and hums like a somnolent beast getting its first lungful of open air. An invigorating, intoxicating energy oozes from the off-white walls, whispering a promise…

Quick: Name three things that come from Denmark. Drawing a blank? You know, Denmark. It’s that little Scandinavian country that owns Greenland, used to reign in blood over vast swaths of northern Europe and until now has been known mostly for tasteful furniture design. Well, Danish metal quintet Mnemic (the…