Triad Dragons want you to pick the GDF 2010 headliners

Global Dance Festival 2009 (Official Video)Monolith may get more press, but of the summer’s Red Rocks festivals, Global Dance Festival is not only bigger and more well-established, it’s also a better place to see lots of gorgeous, half-naked women (see the video embedded above, which may be NSFW depending on…

South By Southwest 2010 preliminary list of performers announced

Ah, man, it’s that time of year already? Time to start hearing all about how everybody’s preparing their livers for South By Southwest, yada, yada, yada? Yep. Appears so. Even though it’s still more than three months away, the shadow of Austin’s annual booze and schmooze fest looms large. And…

The Weekend Showdown: Get (Pacific) Prideful

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 three of the best shows in one easy-to-swallow post, with video and audio. Tell us — and the rest of the world — what…

Flobots urge you to buy local next week

We’re all about local. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. And so we’re all about buying local (well, aside from the American Spirit cigarettes we smoke, the Circle K coffee we drink and the Hondas we drive). So naturally, we totally appreciate and co-sign the sentiments behind the…

Twisted Olive gives a new twist to nightlife in Stapleton

Two years ago, I made my first visit to Northfield Shops at Stapleton for the grand opening of the Denver Improv (8246 East 49th Avenue). Although Northfield can be seen from I-70 and is just a ten- or fifteen-minute drive from downtown, it still felt like it was in the…

Dugoutcanoe at Rhinoceropolis

Anyone who saw Jacob Isaacs playing in the legendary Angels Never Answer probably wouldn’t have guessed he’d do music like this. The earliest incarnations of Dugoutcanoe (due on Saturday, November 28, at Rhinoceropolis) used tape samples and Isaacs’s prodigious skill with drums and guitar, looping both, and as the project…

CunninLynguists

With a slip of the tongue, the name CunninLynguists can change from a description of one of the most respected hip-hop acts in the game to an act that, if performed without discretion, could get you kicked out of most places. CunninLynguists’ Kno and Deacon the Villain have, with very…

Wet Hair

Referencing everyone from Silver Apples to Suicide to Young Marble Giants, Iowa City’s Wet Hair takes the keyboard-smeared, minimalist-art-rock-duo shtick to a new extreme of awesomeness. Granted, the sub-subgenre isn’t broad enough to brook much fakery — and frontman Shaun Reed (along with collaborator Ryan Garbes) carves a singular niche…

Baroness

Hailing from the state that brought you Mastodon, Georgia’s Baroness is likewise a critically lauded metal outfit that seems to have sprung fully formed with the release of its 2007 debut, Red Album. But where Mastodon traffics in massive conceptual gestures and passages of ping-pong prog, Baroness reins in the…

Season to Risk

Embarking on a small tour commemorating its twentieth anniversary as a band, the unrelenting and ominous-sounding Season to Risk, from Kansas City, was part of the early wave of bands to mix electronics and experimental hardcore. Peers of like-minded acts Drive Like Jehu and the VSS, Season to Risk shares…

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Alex Ebert first came to public attention as the charismatic singer of indie-rock band Ima Robot. After some drastic life-changing experiences, he came up with the idea for this project, which seems to be part creative epiphany and part artistic therapy. Teaming up with singer/multi-instrumentalist Jade Castrinos and other friends…

The Blackout Pact

The Blackout Pact’s demise was a highly scrutinized one. A fellow touring band’s laptop went missing, and a quick search found it nestled among the Pact’s personal possessions. Blame was placed, and the band fell apart. More than two years after that fateful day in Las Vegas, the Pact is…

The Outfit

From the opening drum clicks, this debut release from the Outfit hooks you into the headlong pace of “Towns,” a song with familiar elements. But rather than trying to mimic the manic and loud-quiet guitar work of recent dance-punk bands, the Outfit presents moments of nuanced introspection that lend a…

Faces of Radio

The name Faces of Radio is fitting for this band, because it seems like the players are aiming for the airways — or at the very least, enticing people to make their way to the dance floor. With that in mind, the act relies on a somewhat safe and formulaic…

When it comes to heartbreak, Rachael Yamagata’s got the memory of an elephant

Rachael Yamagata released her critically acclaimed debut disc, Happenstance, in 2004, only to be dumped by her record label, RCA, shortly thereafter. Last year the singer-songwriter and pianist finally resurfaced, on Warner Bros., with the wonderfully ambitious double album Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart. Richly textured ballads dominate the first disc,…

Dave Seaman at the Church

From co-writing hit songs for Kylie Minogue to playing the biggest dance-music festivals in the world, Dave Seaman (due on Saturday, November 28 at the Church) has done it all. His mainstay is pumping, progressive house with a healthy tech influence that’s underground but easily accessible and capable of filling…