Orbit Service returns with brand new music

Update: Randall Frazier has blessed us with a pair of brand new Orbit Service tracks from the new album, A Soft Note from the West, which you can stream after the jump. Evidently, David Gates was right when he sang the words, “Goodbye doesn’t mean forever.” You may have seen…

Constellations return as a “nationwide collective” with new music

So, here’s some good news for fans of adventurous music in the Mile High City: the long-quiet post-punk/dance/experimental band Constellations have announced they’ll be returning from limbo in 2010. This has got us pretty damn excited — before disappearing a few years ago, we considered Constellations to be one of…

The Swayback gets prime front page exposure on ArtistDirect.com

Don’t know if ArtistDirect.com has the same sort of cache these days as its UBL.com predecessor, which was essentially the go to site for band listings during the ’90s, a much relied upon resource much like AllMusic.com is today, but the prime exposure it’s giving to the Swayback right now…

The former Broomfield Events Center to be renamed. Again.

More breaking news from the AEG Live camp. The Denver Post is reporting that Odeum Colorado, the venue formerly known as the Broomfield Event Center, will be renamed again this March, just in time for the venue’s grand opening. Those who bristle at the mere notion of corporate branding will…

Hideous Men at Rhinoceropolis

The burbling expansiveness at the heart of this band’s soundscaping probably gives the impression that the music is all whimsical playfulness and wandering noise-collage melodies. With Ryan McRyhew of BDRMPPL as one of the minds behind the project, it could be enjoyed for the beauty of the songs, but with…

Congorock at Beta

The music of Congorock sounds like the bastard child of hard house and a coked-up, hard-partying Nintendo Game Boy. The Italian DJ/producer is quickly garnering a reputation for party-starting tracks and mixes that cross all boundaries and take no prisoners. Take his debut release, “Runark,” for example: It kicks off…

P.O.S. mates punk and hip-hop with aplomb

Combining hip-hop and heavy music can prove disastrous (Limp Bizkit, anyone?). Minneapolis rapper P.O.S. (aka Stefon Alexander), however, proves that when a punk discovers hip-hop, the results can be amazing. Combining four-on-the-floor-style house beats with the exuberance of his punk-rock past, P.O.S. exists in a world where it’s okay to…

Tjutjuna’s music takes you far beyond the mundane world of the everyday

Named after a Siberian cryptid cognate of Bigfoot, Tjutjuna emerged from the band Mothership when guitarist Brendon Schulze left to pursue a professional career in television. Rather than continue with vividly imagined, Michael Moorcock-esque tales of science fantasy, however, Tjutjuna focused on the instrumental aspect of the band’s overall sound…

28-200

The songs on Video Games & Popsicle Sticks recall a time before non-mainstream music was splintered off into increasingly hermetic subgenres. Fuzzed-out melodic guitar over insistent rhythms and dark undertones grace each track like cuts from a secret collaboration between Throwing Muses and Band of Susans. A hint of garage…

What About Pluto?

What About Pluto? sounds ridiculously polished for a band one EP into its existence. Part of that is the production, from the Hook Factory. But this is also a sure-handed group, confident in each bass groove, drum kick and vowel wail. For all its technical proficiency, however, What About Pluto?…

Naeem Oba and BrikAbrak

Everything ain’t for everybody — and Naeem Oba and brikAbrak’s You Are Not One of Us bolsters this notion. Brazen and controversial, it is offensive and meant to incite. On “Go Hard,” Oba announces himself as “The General,” with an eloquently contentious testimony, calling Barack Obama a puppet amid conspiracy…

Chris Daniels & the Bmaster

While Chris Daniels has a 25-year history in these parts of horn-based, good-time blues rock/R&B, he gets over to Holland occasionally to team up with the like-minded Dutch R&B/soul act the BMaster. We’ll Meet Again is a collaboration of the two playing live at the Q-Bus in Leiden, Holland. Early…

Panty Raid

When not performing as a member of the Glitch Mob, Ooah (Josh Mayer) sometimes collaborates with Martin Folb in Panty Raid. Not firmly entrenched in a specific style of electronic music, this project seems to freely associate and appropriate sound ideas and techniques from a wide variety of sources, including…

Hermit Thrushes

Coming on like Brian Wilson clad in the leathery hide of Captain Beefheart, the five young men of Hermit Thrushes have no problem gutting indie rock and playing gleefully with its innards. On the Philly group’s two full-lengths, Slight Fountain and Benaki, it uses a mostly conventional batch of instruments…

Telepath

A telepath is a creature that can communicate directly with the mind of another sentient being without the need for vocalization. This fact appears to inform the core of what the band Telepath attempts in its music. Because music transcends language and can communicate ideas and emotions directly, Telepath largely…