Magic Cyclops is back from the dead. Again.

From the mouth of Magic Cyclops himself: The entertainer is being brought back from the dead for two nights of Halloween-inspired flashback madness, complete with (we’re assuming) his usual self-deprecating stage banter and possibility of bodily harm. Magic — who last took to the stage in August, opening for Warlock…

Surfacing: An all-ages evening of awesomeness

To call Surfacing just a rock show doesn’t really do it justice; it’s a showcase of a variety of Denver’s talents all in one place. How do we know? Well, just look at this flier. It’s got a price for food on it! We’re pretty sure it’s the first time…

The Legendary Pink Dots at the Gothic Theatre, 10/19/10

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS Munly & The Lupercalians 10.19.10 | Gothic Theatre, Denver, CO Even if you’ve seen Munly play anytime within the past two decades, nothing really prepares you for this whole Lupercalians thing. For one, it takes some chutzpah to name yourself after a now-obscure ancient Roman rite…

Ozzy Osbourne, Crystal Castles and Lucero shows announced

Ozzy Osbourne, who just launched a column in Rolling Stone called Ask Dr. Ozzy, in which he offers health and diet tips (no, really), hits the Pepsi Center with Slash on Tuesday, February 8, as part of an eighteen-month long world tour, which includes his first-ever show in Israel. Tickets…

The National at Fillmore Auditorium, 10/18/10

THE NATIONAL 10.18.10 | Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO In a New York Times piece written on the National last April, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe explained how he took his bandmate Mike Mills to see the group in London. It took half a song for Mills to say it was the…

Anthrax at Summit Music Hall, 10/18/10

ANTHRAX Cephalic Carnage • Havok 10.18.10 | Summit Music Hall, Denver Cephalic Carnage talks a lot about its love for THC-related products on stage. “Lucid Interval,” for example, is evidently about being totally stoned and sober at the same time. Just the same, most of the songs written by the…

The Oriental Theater has new owners and a new community mission

The management of the Oriental Theater (4335 West 44th Avenue) has changed hands. The owners of 3 Kings Tavern, who’d operated the historic 700-person venue for the past year, signed a deal last week with Absolutely Huge Entertainment, which will take over the place. Headed by Anna Muniz, who has…

Critic’s Choice: Ralph Gean at the Lion’s Lair on October 22

Ralph Gean’s storied life can best be read about on his eponymous website. Before that site existed, most people who knew about him probably either saw him at warehouse spaces like Monkey Mania or learned of him through those affiliated with the DIY underground. Often seen wearing a thin mask…

Curren$y

Pilot Talk, the latest album from the New Orleans-based rapper known as Curren$y (Shante Anthony Franklin), is a guaranteed smoker’s delight, taking the listener for a trip down the sonic rabbit hole with the help of his Island Def Jam labelmate Ski Beatz, the producer largely known for his production…

Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo’s Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg looks and sings like the bastard son of Wayne Coyne and Kevin Drew. Nevertheless, it’s more than just an excess of cute faces that makes his Long Beach-based band so powerful. The group’s self-titled 2009 Sub Pop debut warms up any room it’s played in with…

Bloody Beetroots

Like labelmates MSTRKRFT, Bloody Beetroots have a penchant for performing live in costume. Instead of looking like psychotic ax murderers, though, Bloody Beetroots prefer that their “Death Crew 77” looks like Spider-Man villain Venom. Although joined on stage by a variety of musicians, including a live drummer, producer Bob Rifo…

Gangcharger

If the term “industrial” wasn’t already fairly synonymous with the heavy, dark electronic music made popular in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it would certainly apply here. It’s as though Ethan Ward, while living in big cities across the country, heard the clashing ambience of construction and factory production…

Andrew Vogt

Ft. Collins-based reedsman Andrew Vogt keeps his chops sharp by playing out three or four nights a week, whether it’s with ZARO, which he co-leads, the Subterranean Quartet, or a number of other groups he performs with. On Cats Afoot, Vogt shows he obviously knows his way around both alto…

Young Cities

Young Cities, formerly Hearts Like Lions, took a trip to Los Angeles last year to visit friend and One Republic guitarist Drew Brown. Brown used his clout to open the doors of the legendary East West Studios, the place where Pet Sounds was recorded and where Brown ultimately produced the…

Denver County Death March

As a genre, metal has made an incredible amount of progress over the past decade. Denver County Death March couldn’t give a fuck. Not that the band needs to: Packing meat-hook riffs and more misanthropy than a serial-killer convention, the foursome uses its self-titled full-length as a blistering tirade against…

Three questions with Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes

Among the most popular and successful of the bands associated with the Elephant 6 collective, Of Montreal started off as a sort of indie pop band with an experimental edge. Instead of sticking to a strict formula, however, the band evolved dramatically across several records, fearlessly exploring lyrical themes of…

Six questions with trip-hop producer Emancipator

Trip-hop producer and live PA artist Emancipator (known day-to-day as Doug Appling) got his start producing electronic music in 2002 at age fifteen when he procured a copy of ACID Pro software. After dabbling as a drummer, Emancipator moved into producing trance and electro-pop before settling on his current sound…

Gaslamp Killer at the Bluebird on October 27

Adept at both production and turntablism, Gaslamp Killer — known for many years as the Motherfucking Gaslamp Killer (he’s since dropped the Oedipal reference) — is as new-school as it gets. A frequent guest on L.A.’s Low End Theory monthly podcast, the Killer’s hip-hop stylings are all over the place:…