Originally conceived as part of an elaborate presentation that includes a flashing strobe to go along with elements of binaural audio, this group of seven pieces is loosely inspired by Alexander Scriabin’s great unfinished, experimental, synesthetic composition Mysterium. But while Scriabin’s piano work is sampled in the beginning, the music…

Anyone trying to guess Boris’s influences would have a hard time doing so just from listening to one song off of one album. And it’s not just because of the sheer diversity of the band’s songwriting, but rather the ways in which the trio puts together sounds in what seems…

Within a year of getting his start in the early ’80s, Howard Jones performed on Top of the Pops and subsequently garnered a record deal that resulted in the 1984 release of his debut album, Human’s Lib. While he wasn’t quite an overnight sensation, his career took off quickly, and…

Kyle Harris has lived all over this country and seen the ups and downs of personal, professional and political life. But instead of cultivating a world-weary sound, Harris, who makes music under the name Bearsnail (due at the Meadowlark on Saturday, October 15), seems to have found a certain appreciation…

JD Samson of MEN (due Thursday, October 13, at the Bluebird Theater) was once a member of Le Tigre, a band that became synonymous with the electroclash genre. For nearly a decade, Le Tigre wrote some of the most exciting, politically charged music of all time. After that band split,…

MELT BANANA at the LARIMER LOUNGE | 10/8/11Nothing can fully prepare you for the sounds coming off stage at a Melt Banana show unless you’ve seen the band before. Between the breakneck rhythms, Yasuko Onuki’s demented and rapid-fire vocal delivery and Ichirou Agata’s ability to meld noise with experimental guitar…

Andy Monley started playing live music in Denver in 1981, when he was still in high school, with his first band, the Joy Division-inspired Church and State. When that group dissolved, he formed Acid Ranch, a project directly influenced by the Birthday Party. But it wasn’t until the inception of…

From the jump, the songs on Mombi’s The Wounded Beat sound like they were written during a transitional time of day. Or perhaps during the change from fall to winter, when the cold has already sunk deep inside, inducing a period of deep reflection. These abstract yet organic tunes blur…

Michael Monroe made his name as the charismatic frontman of seminal Finnish glam band Hanoi Rocks. Before the tragic death of drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley in December 1984, Hanoi Rocks had established itself as a powerful live act. With a look and sound that would be superficially familiar to most…

Though renowned among fans of bizarro punk rock in the West, Melt Banana is still somewhat unknown in its home of Tokyo, where J-pop still reigns supreme. Early in their career, the members of Melt Banana heard the No New York compilation, and it sparked their collective interest in taking…

Cephalic Carnage, Vale of Pnath, To Be Eaten, Swashbuckle and Rainbowdragoneyes are all names that anyone paying attention to the better end of death metal and grind in Denver should recognize immediately. Some of the guys from those bands got together last year and created Collapse, an outfit that demonstrated…

Spineshank (due Sunday, October 2, at 3 Kings Tavern) started in 1996 as a band that fused industrial sounds and ideas with elements of thrash. With the release of its 1998 debut, Strictly Diesel, Spineshank caught the attention of a wide audience with its blend of melody and hard-edged musicianship…

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM at RHINO After Skully Mammoth’s set, some of us waited patiently, cracking jokes as various people brought in items needed to set up the room for the Wolves in the Throne Room performance, which was held next door at Glob as it’s a bigger room…

Since 2004, Wolves in the Throne Room (due tonight, September 30, at Rhinoceropolis) has established itself as one of the most sonically innovative black metal bands going. Rather than imitate the Viking spirit and aesthetic of its Scandinavian brethren Wolves have written music rooted in the band’s own experiences as…

From the opening track of “Dreamsong,” this latest album from A Shoreline Dream transports you back to a time when you’d hear bands like Slowdive, Ride and the early Verve plumb the melancholy depths while other rock acts were trying desperately to be Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Losing Them All…

Olympia, Washington, would seem to be an unlikely home for one of the world’s most inventive black-metal bands. But Wolves in the Throne Room manages to capture the raw and abundant beauty of that land west of the Cascades. Just as Crass turned a sophisticated, leftist critique of modern society…

More than most of this country’s musical groups, Insane Clown Posse has an American-dream backstory — but not the kind that makes for typical Hollywood movie material. Joseph Bruce had been involved with gangs; to get out, he became a professional wrestler. Disillusioned with the nonsense of that world, Bruce…

(die) Pilot was one of the most promising pop bands of the last decade. Eugene Brown’s almost pastoral lyrics painted vivid images of American life at the dawn of the new century, but managed to avoid making Americana music. But as with so many worthwhile bands, unfortunate timing and internal…

This one’s so secret, I don’t even know where it’s at,” admits Gregg Dolan. Starting with 2006’s Hold Your Hour and Have Another, he’s put secret clues about the lyrics of Kissing Party’s final release on each of its four actual albums, including the latest, Wasters Wall. “I buried it…

One of the obvious highlights of last night’s exceptional Nirvana covers celebration in honor Nevermind’s 20th anniversary was when Eric Halborg of The Swayback told us we knew the words to the third song the band played and invited anyone up who knew the words to sing along. Plenty of…