Concerts

The BellRays, Architects, The Knew, The Dicky Jaguar Band Thursday, May 15, 2008 Larimer Lounge Better Than: Bothering to get any sleep last night. So, you say you want to be a rock star, eh? Well, think twice. As the members of the BellRays can attest, the rock star lifestyle…

Two nineteen-year-old girls hold up their T-shirts to show off the matching tattoos on their lower backs. The tats are the logo for Primos, the kerosene-and-tire shop where they’ve hung out, sometimes for hours at a time, every day since they started high school. “I just showed up for a…

For Maya Arulpragasam, an MC and dance-music innovator who performs as M.I.A., creativity isn’t something that drops in and out of her life. She feels its flow constantly, leaving her to choose how best to channel it from one moment to the next. “Every day is like that,” she says…

The members of Vitamins met as students at UNC in Greeley, Colorado. Although none of the four members is a native of that town, the influence of their surroundings made an indelible mark on their music. Those early experiences as a young band in an agricultural community permeate the storytelling…

In the world of rap and hip-hop, aliases are de rigueur. When asked, however, most rappers will reveal their given names. Jay-Z is really Shawn Carter. Slick Rick’s mama called him Ricky Walters. It’s a different story for San Francisco underground hero TopR, who rolls into Denver this weekend to…

On one hand, it shouldn’t be surprising that rapper Slug is insecure, considering he’s got one song called “They’re All Gonna Laugh @ You” and another that tells the fantastical story of a woman who would rather have sex with her own tattoos than with him. Still, as one half…

Auktyon, Girls Sing (Geometriya). Guitarist Marc Ribot describes Auktyon as “punk-rockers with a kind of surrealist edge.” Ribot reached this conclusion after he flew to Moscow with John Medeski and Frank London to record this album, the avant Russian bohemian outfit’s first release in twelve years. — Jon Solomon Digital…

What was supposed to be a May 2 benefit show at the Rock & Roll Grill (1531 Champa Street), one of downtown’s two all-ages venues, ended up more of a melee that left a huge hole in the stage — and lots of hard feelings. An online shouting match broke…

A band’s pedigree is no sure sign of the quality of its music, nor is it a sure indication of the type of music it produces today. Nonetheless, the members of the Ocean Bed have a collective resumé that undermines such notions. The act features Albuquerque music-scene veterans Johnny Cassidy,…

Eddie Leader is one-third of hot production team Slum Science, an up-and-coming act that’s been making significant waves in the deep end of the house pool since forming in 2003. As a producer, his works with Slum Science have made their way into the record crates of big-time DJs such…

When you’re young, you’ve had plenty of people telling you what you should be, but you haven’t had much time to internalize those messages. That said, Valet Park This could have been an all-girl emo-core or crust-punk band had it followed recent trends. Instead, the group’s four-song eponymous release is…

Bum Kon is a name known to many Denver music fans, but only longtimers have actually heard the landmark ’80s thrash combo. Now, subsequent generations will get the chance. The folks behind the indie imprint Local Anesthetic discovered the tapes that make up Drunken Sex while compiling material for a…

The Roots’ latest has been cast as a one-way trip to Bummer Town, and that’s understandable: Thematically, it’s heavier than Jared Fogle before he realized how much money he could make crediting his weight loss to sandwiches. Nonetheless, the disc’s seriousness and smarts represent a welcome departure from commercial hip-hop’s…

Duffy is like a kinder, gentler Amy Winehouse: Her blond hair, English-rose complexion and the lack of any real edge to her music ensures marketability. Witness the use of “Mercy,” her international smash, in numerous commercials prior to her debut release. But Duffy’s story doesn’t begin and end here. There…

The music of Cloud Cult is big, exuberant and packed full of sounds, ideas and influences. With themes as weighty as environmental degradation and as intimate as familial relations, no subject is too big or too small for this cult. At the heart of its songs lies the catchy, if…

Like Guitar Wolf before it, Montreal’s CPC Gangbangs takes a primal punk-rock formula and distorts it far beyond its original shape. The result is a jagged, noisy, harried sound that hurtles forward, careering nearly out of control, then shudders with the waves of powerful emotions harnessed against its will. Touring…

Don’t let him fool you: Alex Brown Church is Sea Wolf. Sure, he hasn’t been through as many lineup changes as the Avs, but Church just likes to keep his options open. That’s the sort of thing you’re allowed to do as a musician if you have the songwriting ability…

Overtly ambitious musicians open themselves up to ridicule when they shoot for the stars and fall short — but their attempts can pay dividends anyway. Witness The Alchemy Index, a multi-part magnum opus released by Thrice, a quartet joined on this date by Circa Survive and Pelican. Dustin Kensrue, Teppei…

On Delayer, the latest CD by the Heavenly States, Ted Nesseth, who sings, plays guitar and writes tunes for the Oakland, California-bred group, doesn’t wait long to demonstrate his lyrical cleverness. The first track, “Morning Exercise,” finds him yelping “This goes on the record! And it hurts so bad!” over…

Yet another Denver band has officially been spoken for, and for once, the rumors were actually true: Breathe Carolina has indeed inked a deal with Rise Records, the Oregon-based imprint that previously released the debut recordings of Fear Before the March of Flames and Drop Dead, Gorgeous…

Classic theme songs might seem to be a thing of the past. Some shows, like LOST and My Name is Earl, don’t have them at all. And even among those that do still have theme songs, it might seem that not enough shows boast the timeless classics of Sanford and…