Photos: DJ Cobra at Suite 200, 7/30/10

Hollywood-based Andrew Bagg, aka DJ Cobra, touched down in Denver around 9 p.m. Friday night and was spinning records at Suite 200 downtown a few hours later. Photographer Aaron Thackeray brings back these photos from the party…

Minature Tigers get all sorts of interactive at the Larimer Lounge

Miniature Tigers • Sprinto Band • The Dont’s and Be Carefuls 07.30.10 | Larimer Lounge, Denver At this point, the Dont’s and Be Carefuls’ “new” keyboardist, Dane Bernhardt, formerly of the Silver Cord, is fully integrated into the band. At least that’s how things sounded this past Friday. These guys…

Reverend Deadeye turns Paris Wine Bar into a revival

Reverend Deadeye 7.31.10 | Paris Wine Bar It just takes one glance at the Reverend Deadeye’s rig to get a good idea of what’s in store for his gigs. There’s the washtub snare with a tambourine attached to it, a kick drum, hi-hat with a mannequin hand on top, an…

Michael Franti at Red Rocks captivates a sold-out crowd

Michael Franti & Spearhead with Brett Dennen 7.31.10|Red Rocks Amphitheatre Since 1986, Michael Franti has been making music with a social conscience — from his industrial punk days in the Beatnigs to the hip-hop leaning Disposable Heroes to his current (and most commercially successful) project, Michael Franti & Spearhead, which…

Nathaniel Rateliff gets four stars in MoJo

Growing up in rural Missouri, it’s doubtful that the prospect of being written up in the pages of prestigious publications like the New York Times ever crossed Nathaniel Rateliff’s mind. That said, you’ve gotta think that the thought of one day having his music reviewed in the pages of Mojo,…

Lady Gaga at Pepsi Center: Best. Show. Ever.

LADY GAGA Monster Ball Tour, with Semi-Precious Weapons 7.28.10 | Pepsi Center, Denver, CO Before last night’s show, I wasn’t a fan of Lady Gaga. I liked her, mind you. I enjoyed her bizarro-world take on pop, her outlandish videos, the way she she combined all of that and her…

Conspiracy Assassins slow down the thrash but pledge not to sell out

First there’s the noise — the random, free-form fiddling musicians do at practice, waiting for everyone to get set up, dial in their tone. Bassist Dave Lierman slaps out a funk line while drummer Victor Acquilla pounds out a few rolls and adjusts a pedal. In terms of cohesion, it’s…

Sunset Curse at the hi-dive

Fusing electronics with rock music is hardly the most original thing a band can do these days. But Sunset Curse does so with a complete immersion in both musical realms. The insistent beats are straight out of dance music, but the forceful rhythms and soaring guitar leads sound like these…

“Weird Al” Yankovic

“Weird Al” Yankovic’s zany parodies of hit songs like “Beat It” (“Eat It”) and “Like a Virgin” (“Like a Surgeon”) catapulted him to infamy in the ’80s, back when pop culture was in dire need of some deflation. He never got critical props for his oddball iconoclasm, though, and after…

Miniature Tigers

Originally based in Phoenix, Arizona, Miniature Tigers relocated to Brooklyn in the past couple of years. The band’s charmingly confessional debut full-length, Tell It to the Volcano, is full of catchy pop songs clearly influenced by post-“White Album” Beatles and the Beach Boys. On the outfit’s latest release, Fortress, the…

The Toadies

With 1995’s Rubberneck, the Toadies became radio mainstays across the country and hard-rock icons at home in North Texas. But somehow they couldn’t keep the attention of label Interscope Rec­ords. As was the plan, the band went into the studio, but the Interscope higher-ups didn’t approve of Feeler, the disc the…

Tokyo Police Club

Bands like Tokyo Police Club are drastically changing the definition of the term “indie rock.” Sure, the group possesses the shrill, lightly distorted guitars and cutesy nice-guy vocals that have become synonymous with the genre, but when you’re a band as big as this one, the term “independent” really no…

Paper Bird

A good chunk of Paper Bird’s new album has already been released. In the Internet age, this may not seem uncommon, but in the case of Paper Bird, it’s because five of the songs on When the River Took Flight (due to be issued on Friday, July 30, at the…

Chie Imaizumi

Chie Imaizumi knows a few things about new beginnings. After studying piano in Japan, she studied composing at Berklee College of Music, assisted legendary Miles Davis/Thelonious Monk producer Teo Macero, spent time in Denver, and recently moved to Los Angeles to work with hero and mentor John Clayton. So it’s…

Weather Maps

They come a dime a dozen: singer-songwriters, toting acoustic guitars and an array of well-worn clichés. Fortunately for Weather Maps, leading man and singer-songwriter Jimmy Stofer is working from the same palette as some of the best in his game. Bearing the clear influence of Bon Iver, particularly in his…

Yerkish

A combination EP and video, Quality! is something you wouldn’t play in your car unless you had a DVD player. “Jovian,” the first video, starts off like a late-’90s party-band video, but as the song goes on, it’s clear that it’s about the ways in which we ritualize and rationalize…