When Nathaniel Rateliff was fronting Born in the Flood, his voice was strident, powerful and pensive. It was impressive, but not uniquely his own. On “Once in a Great While,” the opening track of his Rounder debut, an unblemished near-falsetto croon introduces the world to the new and improved Nathaniel…
From the opening track, the comically harrowing “Cemetary,” through the playful nostalgia of “Pac-Man,” the Lust-Cats have carved a new chapter in outsider punk rock by updating riot grrrl for the current era. “Stand-up Gal,” especially the chorus (“Can’t wait to see her/Kinda want to be her/She’s a real stand-up…
Electro-pop has been zombified so badly over the past few years, it’s no wonder that futurism now sounds totally quaint. The Denver trio Take the Mickey doesn’t try to reinvent the CPU with its new full-length, Dinosaurs Now and Machines Later — but the band does make a valiant attempt…
Tommy Metz is at something of a crossroads with his main project, Iuengliss: He’s talking about going fully instrumental on the next album, and the The Blossom Frontier sounds a lot like a musical release valve. True to the form of his previous work, there are two types of songs:…
The same year the Sex Pistols broke up, John Lydon dropped the stage name of Johnny Rotten and formed what was arguably the most influential band of the post-punk era with Public Image Ltd. The band’s second album, 1979’s Metal Box, still seems brilliantly out of place and out of…
Comprising veterans of Denver’s punk-rock scene, the Pitch Invasion took its name from the phenomenon of a crowd at a soccer game getting unruly and invading the field, also known as “the pitch,” and taking events into its own hands. This weekend, the band — made up of Mike McCrory…
Megasoid got its start as a Montreal-based mobile sound system with a predilection for turning illegal and unconventional spaces into after-hours parties. The duo’s aggressive street sound is based in hip-hop beats wrapped in edgy, innovative production that blends old-school electro and new-school noise into a unique, playful, bass-heavy sound…
D’oh! We were so caught up gushing about The Pirate Signal’s stellar new album, No Weak Heart Shall Prosper, that we almost completely forgot to mention that Matt Morris’s song “Live Forever” is going to be featured on American Idol tonight during its two-hour Idol Gives Back fund-raising show. Not…
Minimalism, abstraction and a clever design combine perfectly in this week’s top flier. There’s not a lot going on here, but what little there is goes a long way. The cascading boxes are the key to the whole thing. If you were to scrub the text off this, leaving just…
By now you’ve heard about the loss of Keith “Keithy E” Elam, aka Guru, who passed away yesterday. If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably grappling with the tremendous loss and reflecting on the monumental impact Guru had on rap music — despite the fact that he never really…
Could tonight be the night that he finally does it, the night that his royal airness Magic Cyclops finally realizes ultimate air guitar supremacy? After years of vying for the title and coming up just short of earning bragging rights, Cyclops, a perennial contender, is set to once again catch…
This isn’t your daddy’s Woodstock, your hippie cousin’s Bonnaroo or your yuppie Chicago Uncle’s Lollapalooza. This is Coachella, man, and it attracts the most pretentious music fans on the planet, who all choose to gather in grassy polo fields and endure intense desert heat for the same reason. We’re here…
Them Crooked Vultures • Mini Mansions Fillmore Auditorium | 4.19.10 The rawk fist (index and pinky for horns, thumb tucked) is a tricky little bugger. It’s a totally sincere expression of rock-induced euphoria with all the subtlety of a billy club. Them Crooked Vultures earned thousands of rawk fists Monday…
Another half dozen new shows were added to the Red Rocks schedule, including John Mayer, Paramore, STS9, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Pretty Lights and Widespread Panic, who will be at the venue from Friday, June 25 through Sunday, June 27, a month after its eleventh studio album, Dirty Side Down, hits…
So this is pretty rad: Evidently, if you act quickly, you can score yourself tickets to see Jónsi of Sigur Ros at the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday for just $7. There’s no catch, near as we can tell. You just have to sign up, and then you’re provided with a…
Splendid news coming out of the Bad Weather California camp this morning: In addition to joining Akron/Family (and Woodsman, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, Widowers and the Dead Phish Orchestra) for its upcoming three-day residency at Quixotes on May 14-16, Bad Weather California is planning to head to High Bias studio…
And so here you have it. Streets of Gold, 3OH!3’s forthcoming album, now has a release date and the cover art has been revealed. According to our friends at AP, Gold, the follow-up to the act’s 2008 Photo Finish debut, Want, is due on the, uh, streets on Tuesday, June…
Retribution Gospel Choir • The Life There Is • Rubedo Larimer Lounge | 04.17.10 Rubedo, a fairly new band, opened this show, and while the three members of the band seemed to be coming from different musical directions, somehow they managed to bring it all together. It was obvious the…
Who’s Having Fun Fest 1346 Lipan Street | 4.17.10 See more photos on the slideshow page. I’ll eat my words right up front: The Who’s Having Fun? Festival was an unqualified success, completely free of drugs, alcohol, house-trashing, train-wreck technical difficulties and cops. Somehow, Casimir Bemski pulled off an all-day…
Um, yeah, so this just happened: Guess who just crashed 3OH!3’s little house party … Okay, times up. Give up? Mr. Party Hard, and he’s rocking the hell out of the remix, evidently. Yes, Andrew freaking WK! We repeat, WK? WTF?! Raise your hand if you saw this coming. Seriously?…
We would hate for you to miss out on all the awesome that happens every weekend in our fair city, so we’ve decided to run down five of the best shows in one easy-to-swallow post, with video and audio. Tell us — and the rest of the world — what…
After a day or so of speculation, it was confirmed yesterday that Peter Steele (aka Petrus T. Ratajczyk) has indeed passed away from heart failure at the age of 48. Steele, who formed and fronted Type O Negative, had once actually faked his own death in 2005 through a post…
