Music

KRS-ONE at EXTRACT HARVEST FEST at CERVANTES’ | 10/19/13 The Extract Harvest Festival took over both sides of Cervantes’ with classic hip-hop and reggae filling the place. KRS-One was the main headliner, but all of the acts, which included the Pharcyde, Mr. Vegas and Trapzillas, among others, had the house…

TODD SNIDER at BLUEBIRD THEATER |10/19/13 Todd Snider didn’t skimp on stories at his show at the Bluebird Theater. Before “Ballad of Devil’s Backbone Tavern,” he told us how his nephew is getting into singing and songwriting. Apparently he had told Snider that he didn’t sing a lot of his…

THE BAD PLUS at THE ORIENTAL THEATER | 10/19/13 After the Bad Plus opened its set with “Pound for Pound” and “Wolf Out,” bassist Reid Anderson told a packed Oriental Theater, “We have to roll out the brand tunes because it’s that time of year,” he said. “The season changes…

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 10/18/13 Naked and Famous was in total control at the Fillmore. From the first chords of “A Stillness,” every string pluck and cymbal crash had been calculated, presumably in some sort of rock laboratory. Frontwoman Alisa Xayalith appeared onstage, clad in black,…

TUES | FLATBUSH ZOMBIEZ at CERVANTES’ OTHER SIDE | 10/22/13 As if torn out of the pages of a graphic novel, Flatbush Zombies are intense and ultra-stylized to an extent that is at once cartoonish and darkly gritty. Sometimes, in the case of very exciting music such as theirs, substance…

FRI | THE NAKED AND FAMOUS at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 10/18/13 Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith formed this pop outfit in 2008 and recorded two EPs with future keyboard player Aaron Short when the three were students at the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand in Auckland. Taking its…

SAT | LOO & PLACIDO at NORAD | 10/19/13 Artists like Danger Mouse and Z-Trip have brought the art of the mash-up to the forefront, but few take it to the extremes of Loo & Placido (aka Laurent Lupidi and Jeremy Johnson, respectively), who each played in assorted French bands…

Andrew Young loves the Denver Broncos. A lot. No, seriously, he’s a fanatic. Literally. Broncos football is what this guy lives for. He says it saved his life and gave him purpose. After being hospitalized for marijuana-induced psychosis, his life lost much of its color, but orange and blue never…

KGNU has always been about variety. For nearly four decades, the Boulder-based community radio station has followed a fiercely eclectic on-air approach, offering listeners a daily mix of news, debate and, of course, music. That model is about to change, thanks to the web and a grant of about $19,000…

Throughout the history of jazz, groups have been driven by a single leader. But when the Bad Plus formed thirteen years ago, the trio made it a point to be more of a collective. The approach had worked well for drummer Dave King’s group Happy Apple, which he co-founded four…

The Fabulous Boogienauts came together in 1996, when founder Rocky Ramjett was finally able to realize his dream of creating a disco band. Rather than the Red Hot Chili Peppers brand of funk rock that was in vogue in certain circles at the time, Ramjett, who’d been relieved of his…

Based on the layered arena-rock peak of the title track of Gungor’s I Am Mountain, which opens the album, you’d think this was a radio-friendly pop effort. And while there certainly are some vibrant pop melodies to be found, the overall aesthetic is far more cinematic in scope. The arrangements…

The genre-blurring work of Fort Collins quintet Finnders & Youngberg is so seamless on the band’s newest release, I Don’t Want Love You Won’t Give Until I Cry, that it’s easy to overlook the album’s impressive diversity of sound and structures. With Rich Zimmerman’s speedy mandolin and Aaron Youngberg’s equally…