Groove is in the house this Thursday, August 7, as H Foundation (aka Eric “Hipp-E” Galaviz and Brian “Halo” Varga) come to Rise (1909 Blake Street) to promote their Astralwerks full-length recording debut, Environments. The night will be a homecoming of sorts for ex-Denverite Hipp-E, who along with Chicago-born Halo…
Late last summer, a pale, willowy young man walked into the vinyl section of a Denver-area record store. He seemed nervous. His glossy black hair fell like ink across his eyes, and he glanced around the relatively empty shop as if someone were about to run up and hit him…
The abrasive San Diego-based noise quartet the Locust receives fan mail on a fairly regular basis. In fact, the group’s press release uses the following anonymous love letter as its lead paragraph: “Go tweak yourself to death, you rich, big-headed rock stars. You are nothing but a bunch of image-concerned…
Paul Trinidad says he’s been acting as if nothing is going on; it’s business as usual. But the staccato bursts of caged enthusiasm in his voice tell me something entirely different. I get the sense that for the past few months, he and the other members of Love .45 have…
Who would have thought that in the early 21st century there’d be a glut of garage-punk bands fronted by Tina Turner-esque soul divas? The Detroit Cobras. The Now Time. Delegation. The BellRays. Well, now you can slap The DT’s at the top of that list. This senses-searing, Washington-state quartet (playing…
Last spring’s Great White tragedy might have put the kibosh on industrial grinders and all the pretty sparks that they can make indoors, but Denver’s Log has plenty of other makeshift instruments to enhance its stage show — including megaphones and an amplified two-by-four. Otherwise, two full drum kits (manned…
New York City-based turntablist DJ Empress is considered royalty in the drum-and-bass realm. Her progressive song selection and refined ear for beats has earned her repeat invites to the illustrious V Recording’s “Movement” showcase in London, an accomplishment previously unheard of for an American DJ. Purifying her style while working…
Sellout. Fake. Phony. Career killer. Catastrophe. Those are some of the words used recently to describe Liz Phair, the artist, and Liz Phair, the June-released album from Capitol Records. In the annals of the New York Times, Time magazine and Pitchfork Media, among many others, it’s been decided that the…
Watching movies was a big part of this record,” says Omar Rodriguez, guitarist and co-founder of Los Angeles-based band the Mars Volta. He’s referring to the group’s debut album, De-loused in the Comatorium. “It’s something I’m so jealous of — the medium of film,” Rodriguez continues. “There are so many…
My strength is in writing pop songs — punk-rock pop songs.” Dave Smalley, singer/guitarist of the Southern California-based quartet Down by Law, is spelling out exactly why, unlike his friends and contemporaries in Fugazi, he never tried juggling test tubes in the punk-rock laboratory. “From a spiritual side, I’ve always…
Every new disc I come across is like a blind date. I never know what to expect. Sometimes I’m taken by surprise and become excited by the chase — and sometimes I just want to run like hell. Music is the other woman, a mistress that takes on many forms…
Way back in the decade past, Patrick Park, who was raised in Morrison, played in Idle Mind, an act whose self-titled 1996 release on the sh-mow imprint sounded more commercially viable than it turned out to be. Loneliness may fare better, and not only because Hollywood, a major label, is…
Nashville native and drummer turned frontman Eric Shiveley has probably heard enough Michael Stipe comparisons to choke a horse — or any animal from Chronic Town to Dead Letter Office, for that matter. But Shiveley’s vocal resemblance to Athens’s most notoriously tortured soul is worth noting — as is his…
Chronophonic, a talented collective composed mainly of music majors from a variety of local academies, is living proof that Denver does have vital, contemporary-jazz-influenced music. The band colors outside the box on its debut, incorporating funk, world rhythms, hip-hop beats and soul-soaked vocals. Edging toward the acid-jazz tag on these…
Natalie Beal, the petite, soft-spoken program manager at the Spot, is not a fan of the misogynistic overtones prevalent in modern hip-hop. A few of her boys have spent the entire afternoon recording a tune at the center. They are eager to share it with anyone in earshot — especially…
With Terroir Blues, his second solo full-length, Jay Farrar has inched 23 tracks closer to his final destination: an image of Americana where country, punk, folk, blues and psychedelia accelerate into a single, grim gravity. In the same way that Neil Young sang folk tunes about spaceships, Farrar — who…
The Procussions, a three-man hip-hop crew consisting of Colorado Springs natives Mr. J, Resonant and Stro the 89th Key, are about to break out massive with a debut full-length, Iron Sharpens Iron, slated for release this fall on the indie imprint Basementalism records. According to Adict, label head and former…
If the words “Whip It” still make you think of Devo, then drop the pocket protector and head to Rock Island this Friday, July 25, for its annual flesh-tival. Whip It VIII pledges to be an evening full of depravity backed by hot beats, lustful libations and a slew of…
Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!” So declared the manifesto of the Symbionese Liberation Army. In 1974, this group of revolutionaries — made up of a few escaped black convicts and a dozen or so affluent white kids — kidnapped Patty Hearst, granddaughter…
Mark Oliver Everett, known to discriminating music fans everywhere as “E,” headmaster of the Eels, is the guy everyone wanted to be friends with in high school. Blisteringly smart and deadly funny, he’s cool enough for the boys to want to be near him and cuddly enough to make the…
Al Kraizer thinks he’s misunderstood. The common misconception, he tells me, is that Performance International, the non-profit that puts on the LoDo Music Festival every year, is loaded. And while it’s true that the festival can generate a healthy amount of revenue, Kraizer hasn’t personally reaped the benefits — at…
“So, which one of you guys is Rilo?” Yup, Rilo Kiley, appearing Thursday, July 17, at the Climax Lounge, with M Ward and the Golden Age, is another one of those bands with a name that sounds like a person. Pretty fucking annoying. Just as annoying as most of the…
