Neil Halstead’s path toward his current incarnation as a dusty-road crooner of gentle reverie has been one long process of elimination. The hallmarks have been there since his shoegazing genesis in Slowdive, where the melancholic nostalgia of his breathy baritone was muddled by fuzz-tone guitars and sheets of white noise…
SuidAkrA has combined Irish folk music and melodic death metal for nearly fifteen years now. The act’s ninth album, Crógacht, delivers the same trademark sound heard on its predecessors: a swirling blend of keening bagpipes and thunderous double-bass drumming — plus roaring guitar riffs and screaming solos, of course. Vocalist…
Time to get nostalgic over ’90s-era electro-industrial music yet? If so, James Geist, Necrotek’s dark conjurer, is ready to capitalize. His one-man band, to be featured at a Friday, March 13, CD-release party at Tracks, uses virtually all of the subgenre’s time-tested elements: doomy melodies, snappy beats, synthetic instrumentation and…
It’s been nearly a decade since jazz pianist Marc Sabatella released an album as a leader. The guy’s had a lot going on since then: In the liner notes, he writes about how he began working with vocalist Wendy Fopeano, whom he eventually married, how he earned a Master of…
The twenty tracks on the Bocumast Instances Vol. 1 compilation cover an incredible amount of territory, from several varieties of relatively straightforward guitar rock and singer-songwriter material to outré experimental electronics. That kind of willful eclecticism can be crippling, but it works here for the simple reason that the label…
Given the fairly lo-fi recording here, it seems the Silver Cord was going for a more live sound. And while that approach has its drawbacks — namely sacrificing robust low end — it also highlights the stark tonal contrasts inherent in the songwriting. Dane Bernhardt’s spooky keyboard work is far…
One of the first production projects to team Alex Puodziukas and Jesse F. Keeler, who partner in the dance-music duo MSTRKRFT, was rejected long before anyone could hear it. The pair had known each other from the Toronto punk scene for several years when Keeler, then in a group called…
Often compared to synth-pop bands of the ’80s like New Order and Depeche Mode, Melbourne, Australia’s Cut Copy writes music that is equally inspired by unexpected sources. When they started out earlier this decade, none of the group’s members had ever played the instruments they currently employ to create their…
Carl Cox has never had the superstar status in the U.S. as some of his British peers, but don’t think for a minute that his place in dance-music history is in question. Cox’s roots go way, way back to the very beginning; this is a guy who was playing acid-house…
Remember this past November when we told you about the Young Coyotes’ Daytrotter session? We’ve been patiently waiting since then to hear the blasted thing. Well, thankfully, it looks like the wait is almost over, as next Tuesday, March 10 week*, the session will be available for download. As it…
This week’s tops-in-class flier comes courtesy of Lion Sized guitarist/vocalist Josh Bergstrand, who designed this excellent, eye-catching poster to promote his show March 26 at the hi-dive with the Ideal Fathers, who are headlining, and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, who seem to be the inspiration for the imagery. This one…
From the sounds of it, the Pirate Signal has been working overtime. Fresh on the heels of wowing crowds at this year’s Sundance film festival, preceded by a string of dates supporting 3OH!3 last fall, the act is headlining a stellar bill at the Marquis Theater this Saturday, March 14,…
The summer concert season is beginning to take shape. A lot of great shows were announced this week, including Neil Young’s show at Magness Arena on Monday, April 27, Depeche Mode’s show at Red Rocks on Thursday, August 27, and Keith Urban’s show at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday, July…
It’s finds like this that make me glad I am a pathetic, house-bound loser who spends all his time surfing the Internet. The good folks at Amazon.com got into the MP3-selling business a while back. Not only are there formats better than the ridiculous iTunes formats (for example, no DRM,…
When DJ K-Nee and Style-N-Fashion started doing So What! The Club back in 1993, at the old City Spirit Cafe on 15th and Blake, the point was to get away from the straight-up club music and hip-hop of the usual DJ scene, and focus on jazz-influenced cuts and rare grooves. I…
The Bad Plus The Soiled DoveMonday, March 9, 2008Better than: the last time I saw the trio. There’s a live recording of Rahsaan Roland Kirk where he talks about how he’s going to play two entirely separate songs on two different saxophones. One was Dvorak’s New World Symphony and the…
Tauntaun, Kingdom of Magic and Wetlands Friday, March 6, 2009 Bluebird Theater Better than: banging your head against your steering wheel Friday night’s Bluebird crowd came prepared to rock, and they certainly weren’t disappointed. As metal reasserts itself in the mainstream Denver music scene, fans of nosehair-singeing rock are lucky…
Cut Off Your Hands Sunday, March 8, 2009 Hi-Dive, Denver Better Than: Not seeing this band before they’re playing bigger venues. Cut Off Your Hands plays pretty straightforward pop rock. Just the same, frontman Nick Johnston displayed considerable amount of vigor, leaning into the mike and gyrating as though he…
As if you needed another reason to head up to Nederland tomorrow for Frozen Dead Guy Days, we just got word that Denver’s own raucous psycho/psychedelic rock pranksters deadbubbles will be playing at 4:30 p.m. as part of the frozen festivities. Word is they’ll be playing without a drummer, from…
Well, it’s finally here. Almost a year after offering up a sneak peek of the music being made by Tauntaun, the defacto supergroup profiled in this week’s issue, led by former Gamits frontman Chris Fogal and featuring Ian O’Dougherty, Matty Clark and Dave Barker, the outfit is unveiling its debut…
For those skeptical about Colorado’s hip-hop scene, the folks at the Colorado Rap Report blog have assembled some of the finest local acts on one compilation — including the Pirate Signal, ManeLine, Ichiban, Whygee, Distrakt, Dent, Deca and 3 the Hardway, among others — in an effort to showcase how…
Last night, I was bellied up to the bar next to Jason Cain at Sputnik, and he was telling about this show that his band, Astrophagus, has coming up on Saturday, April 4, at the hi-dive. If you look on the hi-dive’s calendar, it’s billed like any other show –…
