Many punk-rock purveyors of musical mayhem spout lyrics that make them sound like a bunch of idiots who are only in it to get drunk and maybe score with some equally soused groupies. There’s nothing dangerous about a buffoon that advertises his or her own stupidity in song. Primasonic (due…
James and its luminous folk pop certainly fits in sonically with the rich tradition of great rock music from Manchester. Although the outfit was initially lumped in with the whole Brit-pop movement of the 1990s, this act’s roots go back to the early ’80s, when guitar rock of surprising immediacy…
Runway Estates refuses to wallow in any particular musical genre, which may throw some folks. As the group moves effortlessly from sun-dappled, impressionistic, hushed minimalist psych folk to deeply layered dream pop, it leaves behind a rich array of textures that shimmer and drift. On No Good Horse Thieves, singer-songwriter…
Ponytail didn’t come together like most bands. The original five members were randomly chosen by poet Jeremy Sigler to collaborate on music. Since that time, the act has become one of the stars of the burgeoning new American indie underground, spiritual kin to sublimely noisy, neo-tribal acts like High Places,…
Chrome was one of the most influential experimental bands, presaging the harsh, angular, mechanistic songwriting that would become industrial music. The act’s paranoid vision of a dystopian world expressed itself in sounds that recalled the late-’60s psychedelic rock of the 13th Floor Elevators shot through with a dark, sinister electricity…
It’s refreshing to hear a band that’s not trying to be clever or more innovative than its peers. That said, the straightahead power pop of the Fire Drills (featuring former Westword scribe Jason Heller) is a breath of fresh air. Cheap Lies, with its bouncy rhythms and sharp riffing, disproves…
Punk rock hit the musical world like a bomb in the mid-’70s, and the reverberations of that artistic eruption were felt even in places like Aurora, Colorado. In 1978, Aurora was an incredibly boring town, so it comes as no surprise that a few pioneering young men put together a…
With its fusing of the best of analog and early digital synth-based music with a modern aesthetic, Baltimore’s Future Islands might seem like a contemporary version of new wave to an uninformed listener. Really, though, the act is a closer musical cousin to Architecture and Mortality and Dazzle Ships-era Orchestral…
There’s no right way to make a splash in the world of music, and Portland’s Slants definitely didn’t take the route one would expect of an electroclash-glittered post-punk band. Touring the U.S. on the strength of its draw at anime conventions, the band has reached a broad fan base most…
On this latest To Be Eaten release, the band proves once again that it can play razor-precise riffs and rhythms while infusing each song with a level of nuance and atmosphere not often heard in anything this heavy. The guitar and rhythms interlock for a savage, almost stridently brutal sound,…
A lot of former emo-turned-indie-rock kids take a bad turn when they get bored with the artistic limitations of punk rock’s bastard child. Fortunately, Young Coyotes (due at the Bluebird Theater on Friday, September 12) didn’t slide into slackardly alt-country or half-assed neo-classic rock. Rather, these guys wisely chose to…
Some of the best rustic music being made today is coming out of Portland, Oregon, by groups such as the Builders and the Butchers, who lend an infectious exuberance to a form of music that’s been performed ad nauseam since before folk was an actual genre. Many bands perform folk…
With the recent spate of poseurs copping classic-rock poses, it’s easy to dismiss anyone even remotely following those musical instincts as an artistic reactionary. However, when an act’s songs are as great as anything from times past but informed by contemporary aesthetics and performed with visceral and bracing immediacy, that…
Some of the best rustic music being made today is coming out of Portland, Oregon, by groups such as The Builders and The Butchers, who lend an infectious exuberance to a form of music that’s been performed ad nauseam since before folk was an actual genre. Many bands perform folk…
If there’s one thing that can be said for Lil’ Slugger, it’s that these guys don’t sound quite like anyone else. The closest cousin to Slugger’s side of this split might be Captain Beefheart, if he teamed up with lo-fi Lou Barlow on a comeback record produced by Chris Adolf…
Jam bands playing Boulder are a dime a dozen. But once in a while, a group comes into town whose imaginative compositions are rich enough to burst the bounds of self-indulgent musicianship. Taking worldbeat to its logical conclusion, Global Noize combines elements of jazz, rock and funk in a way…
For a band that performs live music with such fun-loving, reckless abandon, teamAWESOME! always seems to put out well-recorded, tightly played albums. At the same time, the act manages to preserve the sense of playfulness and fun that accompanies its shows — and Burnt Siena is no exception. Chuck Potashner…
Sometimes the most brilliant musical minds come in the most unassuming packages. This is certainly the case with Tom Metz. His project, Iuengliss, is a one-man affair that consists of Metz and his laptop. While this setup might seem boring in the live setting, Metz takes on an intense yet…
Anyone who’s been paying attention to Denver music for the last several years has probably seen or heard of Voices Underwater and Streamlined. The latter’s Luke Goodhue had written memorable space-rock riffs, while Chris White had been the impressively talented bass player in the former. For his part, White was…
The state of Texas has sure given us some interesting and innovative musical figures over the years, including the likes of Roky Erickson, Gibby Haynes and Randy Turner. Erika Thrasher and Brandon Davis are certainly sound pioneers in their own right, and whether performing under the name of Indian Jewelry…
Inevitably, this band gets lumped into the post-rock category thanks to that whole notion that any epic instrumental music with energy and drive must be post-rock. But San Francisco’s Beaten by Them has more in common with modern classical music and minimalist German bands like Kraftwerk and Neu! than it…
With enough breakneck shifts in tone, style and pacing to confuse and confound anyone looking for more conventional songwriting, Action Friend’s debut clearly has its roots in the wildly experimental guitar music of John Zorn. This can be disconcerting to anyone not willing to follow the band’s sharp turns through…
