When Greg Harris went into the studio for Glass Gold, his newest record, he literally did not know what was going to be on the album. As in, hadn’t even written the songs yet. “Somehow, a bunch of the tracks on that album, they were all completely free, in the…

In what appears to be the last days of The Treehouse, the downtown warehouse where dozens of bands have formed, practiced, lived and crashed over the years, a few of the last guys are sitting around reminiscing. In six years, some good stories are bound to come out of a…

In 2006, Oblio Duo + The Archers established itself as a pillar of Denver’s hipster-country scene with The Flag, striking a just-right balance between mellow steel guitars and experimental weirdness. After a long wait, the partners are finally prepping to release a seven-inch split EP with Reno’s Flags on Fire…

Norma Jean, HORSE the Band, The Chariot, Arsonists Get all the Girls Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 Marquis Theater Better than: Seeing an actual Kenny Loggins show — this show had just the right amount of Kenny Loggins. Though, to be fair, I’ve never seen the guy play. It might be…

Determination and rock and roll run in the Avina blood. Maybe it’s a consequence of tight times and hard luck, the way families in poverty leaning on each other just to survive brings them a little closer together. Maybe it’s that relentless optimism of chasing the American dream that immigrants…

On the third floor of a giant, dilapidated Victorian mansion on Franklin Street just south of Five Points, Andy Wild and Joe Ramirez are mixing. The soft gold of the evening lights up the massive yellow structure, restoring it to a bit of its former majesty: It towers over the…

Nobunny, Thee Goochi Boiz, Lust Cats of the Gutters, Shanty Vamps, the Manxx Friday, August 21, 2009 Denver Creative Co-op Studio Better than: A persistent case of scabies I didn’t get to the show Friday night in time to catch opening act The Manxx, but I certainly didn’t leave thinking…

Burn Sand Burn, Circle Number Dot and Wetlandshi-diveThursday, August 20Better Than: more soul-killing boredom Now, my tastes generally run pretty poppy (I like Dressy Bessy), and to that end, Wetland’s prog-metal is not really my style. But like those great prog bands of yore, Wetlands, who opened the show, play…

Kyle Simmons wasted no time making things happen when she first felt the call of music. “I started writing as a solo artist when I was fourteen, released a record at the age of sixteen, and then at the age of eighteen signed with a label.” Now frontwoman of Speakeasy…

See more photos from Dazzle at westword.com/slideshow. The Culhanes, 12:00 p.m. The Culhanes may be most straight-ahead country I’ve ever seen live. This is no ironic alt-country posturing; this Longmont-based act could be Merle Haggard’s backing band, with the guitarist nailing it on the twangy leads, and the pedal-steel player…

Take Una Volta-era DeVotchKa, subtract Nick Urata’s Morrissey croon and replace it with the sometimes-Ani-DiFranco, sometimes-Sarah-Vaughan vocals of Alana Rolfe, add a little more flair for weird noises, and you might get something that sounds like this Fort Collins-based act. The band’s violin-based pop bears a broad range of influences,…

Ghost Buffalo, Eyes and Ears, Brian Hartley, Sonic Vomit Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3 Kings Tavern Better than: The death of a person — that just sucks. Out of the death of a band, at least there came a great show The night was bittersweet. And how could it not…

Houses, Elin Palmer, Ian Cooke Friday, May 1, 2009 Hi-Dive Better than: Going to bed at eight because you’re mildly narcoleptic, which is what my date ended up doing (and man, she missed out) At the Hi-Dive on Friday night, someone mentioned that the lineup should have gone in reverse…

Rachael Pollard, Doo Crowder, Spoke Shaver, Rotaree, TemplesThursday, March 19, 2009GlobGlobGlobBetter than: Not falling asleep at work, which I’m now certain to do tomorrow.In military operations, planes often fly at low altitudes to avoid radar detection. If that’s true in cliché form as well, then the show at GlobGlobGlob on…

Standing out above the army of acoustic-guitar-wielding singer-songwriters, Chris Adolf of Bad Weather California has a way of mesmerizing a crowd. In the studio, he loses the benefit of his magnetic stage presence, but he gains the freedom to build and arrange. Young Punks, his outfit’s latest effort, starts off…

Git SomeFriday, February 27Hot Topic, 16th Street MallBetter than: Going to Hot Topic for any other conceivable reason.I was there at the intersection Friday night where aggressively unwashed punk rock and its pre-torn-jeans-wearing, sterile imposter collided, and it was weird. Git Some, a band that has been compared (okay, mostly…

Broken Spindles, Born in the Flood, IuenglissThursday, February 26, 2009hi-diveBetter than: Eating chips and looking at a borrowed book of David Byrne’s weird photography of furniture, which is what I would have been doingHere’s what was weird about this show: Broken Spindles stole all the press. The band features one…

Speakeasy, Tiger and AT05 Saturday, February 14, 20091515Better than: Eating handfuls of sleeping pills and looking through photos of your ex-wife — after all, it’s Valentine’s DayGenerally speaking, I avoid clubs like 1515. It’s the kind of bar where there’s always a herd of broad-shouldered men in lime green shirts with…