Concerts

Shea Boynton’s love of music is all over the map. But as he’ll tell you, that kind of wanderlust is just in his genes. “My grandfather was a touring jazz musician for years,” says Boynton, leader of the upbeat, hard-to-peg Denver outfit the Gromet. “He was a saxophonist. He played…

When Vicky Wagner took over the defunct Trail Dust Steak House at 7101 South Clinton Street in Centennial, she knew that she didn’t want to open another steak joint. “When Trail Dust first started it was a unique concept,” she says, “but it just ran its course.” After a thirty-year…

The Getdown! didn’t channel the ghost of James Brown so much as the would-be love child of frayed garage-rock psychopaths the Sonics and the arch post-punk of the Blackouts. But while superficially this band’s music could be lumped in with garage rock, it goes further into droning atmospheres with its…

For a rootsy duo, the Black Keys have proved themselves far more open to experimentation and collaboration than the tradition would dictate. From opening for Radiohead to being covered by Kelly Clarkson to working with a variety of MCs on the hip-hop project Blakroc, singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick…

Seattle based singer-songwriter Damien Jurado is reluctantly moving into the digital realm after a storied love affair with the analog world. Jurado, who once ran a cassette-only label during the ’90s called Casa Recordings that brought him to the attention of Sub Pop, recently released a track a day from…

The Flock of Seagulls hair, the David Bowie androgyny, the Depeche Mode synths — you’ve heard (and seen) it all before. But there’s still something compelling and genuine about the flashy and fashionable throwback electro-pop of La Roux. Where highly sexualized fetish imagery is central to the music of modern…

A journalist once made a prediction about Rooftop Vigilantes: “In a few years, they’ll make big waves, sign to a major label and then precipitously decline.” Looks like he might have been at least partially correct. The Lawrence, Kansas-based act’s latest album, Carrot Atlas, features enough hipster posturing and catchy…

Chris McGarry was born on the Mississippi, raised on hymns and ballads and is currently living in the Internet age on Capitol Hill — that much we know. And sure enough, his debut full-length reflects this: It’s rootsy, full of banjo and lap steel and twang, but there’s also some…

Songs in Alphabetical Order is a bit of a departure for Will Baumgartner, former Action Figure 8 frontman and new-wave affiliate. Beginning with a bossa nova rhythm and an Americana-meets-early-R.E.M.-jangle-rock sound, Baumgartner steers clear of the funk and jazz of his earlier endeavors on this short EP, instead favoring a…

It takes a lot of balls to put the word “hearts” in your band name — especially in these post-emo days, when wearing your emotions on your sleeve makes songwriters walking, whining targets for derision. But Randall Buckland has never had a problem wearing that particular muscle on his sleeve;…

Otis Taylor calls his music “trance blues,” and that sounds about right. On his new record, Clovis People Vol. 3 (there is no volume one or two, by the way), Taylor sounds a lot like the next link in a chain that started with John Lee Hooker, who employed similar…

Much like Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Natural Selection songwriter Samuel Glover works with professional musicians to craft pristine funk grooves that sparkle with musicianship. The catch? He and his bandmembers all live in different states. In time for a somewhat rare live show, where Natural Selection will release its…

For over five years, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire has been cultivating a sound that combines the darkness and brutality of grindcore and death metal, resulting in a seething cauldron of outrage and tortured despair. Amid the often atonal clangor and pummeling rhythms, vocalist Ethan McCarthy’s feral…

France’s DJ Falcon has been around for more than a decade, but you can be forgiven if you’ve managed to overlook him. He’s not the most prolific of producers, but the few tracks he’s put his stamp on are notable. His remix of Cassius’s “La Mouche” is a near-classic, and…

Cole Rudy is something of a guitar auteur. He’s played jazz in big bands and ensembles, pretty indie pop with Lilly Scott’s band Varlet, psychedelic prog with Wetlands and plenty of thrash metal, first with his former project Elucidarius, and now Barnacle, an effort that pits Rudy’s shredding against that…

As you’ve probably heard by now, Andrew’s On Lincoln, one of our Westword Music Showcase venues, unexpectedly and inexplicably went dark last week. Bummer deal, but the Showcase must go on. As such, we’re moving the lineup that we had originally slated for Andrew’s down the block to HUNKS at…

Just received word that Mighty 4 Denver, the B-boy gathering put together by the Lordz of Finesse crew, Paulskeee and Master Culture, is set to go down on Saturday, July 10. Launched in 2008, Mighty 4 Denver — celebrating the four-elements of hip-hop culture its named after — is now…

Paper Bird have been hinting at big news in the last few days and big news they delivered today: The group’s second full-length album When the River Took Flight — recorded by Bob Ferbache and mixed by John McVey at Coupe Studios — is slated to be released on July…

It was yet another glorious and glamorous weekend in the Mile High City, and we’ve got pictures to prove it. Lots of ’em. We sent our boy Aaron Thackeray out armed with his fancy, schmancy soul-stealing machinery to capture the various nightlife scenery, and he sent back flix of Insane…