The Ghost of Joseph Buck

This EP isn’t a collection of murder ballads so much as one of tales of misfortune collected from grandparents who grew up during and after the Great Depression in the West. “Brother Ely” is the tale of a pious figure who comes to town, doomed to sing his praise to…

Joshua Trinidad

With more than two decades of playing trumpet under his belt, Joshua Trinidad knows his way around jazz, and he’s a hell of an improviser. On BUCK, a soundtrack he wrote to accompany ten photos captured by New York-based photographer Chris Buck, he explores some different ground. While Trinidad is…

option4

Longtime Lipgloss DJ option4 brings his dance-floor creations to disc with this impressively strong collection of narcotic beats. A vital contribution to the local dance scene, Into the Night finds option4 effortlessly blending his signature flavors of house and techno on songs like “Ride On,” which features an interpolation of…

Kick Majestic

One of the great charms of Matt Sage’s musical output is that he has a real gift for seeking out, exposing and transforming his personal frustrations into song. On “Properties,” part of this new release from Sage project Kick Majestic, it feels like he is defiantly crying out for respite…

IAMTHESHOTGUN: heavy, violent…and funny

IAMTHESHOTGUN formed in 2007 when guitarist Bryan Pelle met Kareem Hendricks through an ad for bandmates. The two bonded over a mutual love of the melodic death-metal band Dead to Fall, and subsequently struck up a musical partnership that has endured numerous lineup changes. The band didn’t have a bassist…

Justin Long rides the decks at Appaloosa Grill on August 31

Justin Long has had his hands on decks longer than some up-and-comers have been alive, so it’s no surprise that by this point, his taste for tunes and his ability to mix, match and master are nigh unparalleled. Long grew up in Chicago, performing alongside the likes of Daft Punk,…

Mumford & Sons at Red Rocks, 8/28/12

MUMFORD & SONS @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 8/28/12 Mumford & Sons played the first of two sold-out Red Rocks shows last night for an exuberant audience eager to sing along with every word, and the British folk-pop quartet gave them plenty of fodder, treating fans to most of the…

Photos: Flobots Twist & Shout in-store

Last night, in celebration of their brand-new record, The Circle in the Square, which was released yesterday, Flobots gave a special in-store performance at Twist & Shout and then stuck around afterward to hang out with fans. As you’ll see below from the photos of Brandon Marshall, who was on…

Yeasayer at the Ogden Theatre, 8/26/12

YEASAYER @ OGDEN THEATRE | 8.26.12 See also: Anand Wilder of Yeasayer on being from Baltimore but making a name in New York As soon as the lights dimmed for Yeasayer’s entrance, the cheering began. Moments later, when the bizarre, sci-fi mirror-monstrosity of a stage set was revealed, the cheers…

Photos: Higher Ground Music Festival, 8/25/12

Nestled between abandoned mines, a cemetery and a towering nosebleed-worthy hill overlooking Central City, the inaugural Higher Ground Music Festival could have hardly taken place in a more atypical locale. But with forty-ish Colorado bands playing to a mostly local crowd of campers and Denver daytrippers, the fans here were…

Refused at the Ogden Theatre, 8/22/12

REFUSED @ OGDEN THEATRE | 8.22.12 From the very beginning, we knew we were in for something special when we saw the name of the band spelled out in giant, translucent white letters as members of the band were taking stage. Before the curtain dropped, a low ambient swell coursed…

For Fierce Bad Rabbit, success was not pulled out of a hat

Someone said to me, ‘It seems that on an A-to-Z journey, you guys are on N right now,'” relates Fierce Bad Rabbit frontman Chris Anderson of the band’s rapid trajectory thus far. “And I said, ‘Well, M was a real bitch.'” The members of Fierce Bad Rabbit have stuffed a…