Music

Nearly four years after transforming the Monarck into the Oak Tavern, Lotus Concepts’ Francois Safieddine has closed the venue and his 24K club upstairs last weekend. Paulina Szafranski, president of marketing for Lotus, says that Safieddine, who owns the building at 1416 Market Street, doesn’t have any plans for the…

ERIC PRYDZ @ THE CHURCH | FRI, 6/14/13 Eric Prydz’s biggest hits so far have both incorporated famous work by other musicians: “Call on Me,” from 2004, samples Steve Winwood’s “Valerie,” and the 2006 track “Proper Education” is a remix of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.”…

DEVOTCHKA & COLORADO SYMPHONY @ RED ROCKS | FRI, 6/14/13 Teaming up with an orchestra can sometimes be a thin attempt to disguise a creative lag, but in this case, the pairing has produced an inspired, brilliantly structured melding of two aesthetics that relies less on contrast than it does…

A few months before the Alarm was to hit America for the first time as the opening act on U2’s War tour in 1983, singer Mike Peters met Big Country frontman Stuart Adamson when they joined U2 for a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” at the Hammersmith…

On the Gristle Gals’ debut, 2010’s On the Lam, the gypsy-folk-tinged songs were mostly percussion-less, fueled primarily by a trio playing acoustic instruments. In contrast, one of the most notable things about the act’s sophomore release, Sweet Pea, is that the outfit is now calling itself a band. On opener…

Head for the Hills uses misdirection like a veteran magician on Blue Ruin. The album kicks off with “Take Me Back,” an easygoing, rambling ballad steeped in traditional bluegrass. The rest of the record, however, is a surreal, heady and innovative fusion of styles. “Never Does” offers a dark and…

“Let me tell you what it feels like,” begins Thomas Tha Franchise’s Caffeine Dreams, a reference to Hoodie Allen, a clear influence to whom Thomas also nods in “Thumbs Up.” Both Thomas’s and Allen’s songs are anthemic, suitable for bumping in cars and at frat parties. Like Allen, Thomas has…

On Westerner, Tjutjuna’s latest album, it seems as though the band is creating the musical equivalent of a moving sculpture crafted to give the semblance of life. “Mousetrap” is like a psychedelicized Neu! song, but with uncoiling whorls of bright drones and tones, while the pounding, pulsating rhythm of “Heavy…

Native Daughters was formed just before local guitarists Eddie Maestas and Thomas Chagolla wrapped up their affairs in the inventive and cathartic post-hardcore band Mustangs and Madras. The two wanted to start a heavy instrumental band inspired in part by Isis and Neurosis, so Chagolla switched to drums and they…

Wowers. The Riot Fest Denver lineup was just revealed, and if you haven’t seen it yet, brace yourself. It’s pretty stellar. Headliners include a reunited version of the Replacements, along with Iggy and the Stooges, Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Rocket from the Crypt, Superchunk, the Dismemberment Plan,Yo La…