Concerts

Head for the Hills uses misdirection like a veteran magician on Blue Ruin. The album kicks off with “Take Me Back,” an easygoing, rambling ballad steeped in traditional bluegrass. The rest of the record, however, is a surreal, heady and innovative fusion of styles. “Never Does” offers a dark and…

“Let me tell you what it feels like,” begins Thomas Tha Franchise’s Caffeine Dreams, a reference to Hoodie Allen, a clear influence to whom Thomas also nods in “Thumbs Up.” Both Thomas’s and Allen’s songs are anthemic, suitable for bumping in cars and at frat parties. Like Allen, Thomas has…

On Westerner, Tjutjuna’s latest album, it seems as though the band is creating the musical equivalent of a moving sculpture crafted to give the semblance of life. “Mousetrap” is like a psychedelicized Neu! song, but with uncoiling whorls of bright drones and tones, while the pounding, pulsating rhythm of “Heavy…

Native Daughters was formed just before local guitarists Eddie Maestas and Thomas Chagolla wrapped up their affairs in the inventive and cathartic post-hardcore band Mustangs and Madras. The two wanted to start a heavy instrumental band inspired in part by Isis and Neurosis, so Chagolla switched to drums and they…

Wowers. The Riot Fest Denver lineup was just revealed, and if you haven’t seen it yet, brace yourself. It’s pretty stellar. Headliners include a reunited version of the Replacements, along with Iggy and the Stooges, Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Rocket from the Crypt, Superchunk, the Dismemberment Plan,Yo La…

THE DANDY WARHOLS @ GOTHIC THEATRE | 6/11/12 When Peter Holmström put on his orange Telecaster and Zia McCabe strapped on a bass guitar rather than helming the Moog she plays most of the time, you knew what song was coming: “Bohemian Like You,” of course, the band’s biggest hit…

Eric Prydz’s biggest hits so far have both incorporated famous work by other musicians — 2004’s “Call on Me” samples Steve Winwood’s “Valerie,” and his ’06 track “Proper Education” is a remix of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.” However, he released a number-one track on Beatport…

UMPHREY’S MCGEE @ RED ROCKS | 6/7/13 It didn’t take long for Umphrey’s McGee to show off its chops. The dense solos, the dizzying melodic runs and the complicated rhythms came almost immediately after the sextet took the stage, and it was a good twenty minutes before the band took…

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS @ GOTHIC THEATRE | 6/8/12 As good as the Psychedelic Furs’ records are, there is just something about seeing Richard Butler, who was all smiles on this night, and hearing his heartfelt thank yous at the end of various songs, and then seeing the collective happiness of…

DEVOTCHKA & COLORADO SYMPHONY @ RED ROCKS | FRI, 6/14/13 Teaming up with an orchestra can sometimes be a thin attempt to disguise a creative lag, but in this case, the pairing has produced an inspired, brilliantly structured melding of two aesthetics that relies less on contrast than it does…

Tonight at the Oriental Theater, Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes is sitting in again with the Dirty Femmes, the tribute act devoted to Gano’s band and led by Jen Korte. That, in itself, is reason enough to make your way to the Oriental Theater, but here’s another compelling reason:…

AUTHOR @ CERVANTES’ MASTERPIECE BALLROOM | SAT, 6/8/13 As Author, Jack Sparrow and Ruckspin — two dubstep producers that hail from the U.K. — produce haunting melodies and captivating rhythms layered with just the right amount of glitchy bass and distortion. The result is totally worth hearing live; the sets…

BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS @ RED ROCKS | SAT, 6/8/13 Twenty years ago, things were considerably different in the local scene. Denver had yet to produce any massive breakout artists on the level of the Lumineers or the Fray. Back then, Big Head Todd and the Monsters were…

Rutherford Belleview says the Widow’s Bane, his theatrical, dark, Americana-flavored, self-styled “zombie death polka” band, began sometime around 1700 A.D. “The name ‘The Widow’s Bane’ is from where we originally met, which was a ship,” the accordion player explains. “We were a house band on the Devil’s ship. We weren’t…

David Sugalski, a Philadelphia native with a business degree from the University of Colorado, has carved out a respectable career for himself in dance music. Better known in EDM circles as the Polish Ambassador, Sugalski is creating music that reflects his life while constantly evolving as an artist and finding…

“Gangsta of War” is the perfect intro to a tape that essentially sounds like a secret early recording made by a now-well-known Warp Records project. Or it could be Art of Noise doing its best imitation of gangsta rap. The hypnotic yet syncopated drum-machine-generated beats, punctuated by bass and urgent…

Although the Raven and the Writing Desk has created some richly textured songs that vary in style and tempo, when it comes to aesthetics, there’s little about the group’s new EP that’s groundbreaking. There’s no doubting the bandmembers’ musicianship on songs like “Cutting the Lime,” which impressively blends a Little…

Considering that its moniker is borrowed from a Native American term meaning “wild with madness,” it’s not surprising that Musuji is a bit unhinged musically — but the band doesn’t stray too far out there. From the get-go on this ten-song album, the quartet shows off its heavy side. On…

As a teenage guitarist, Jeff Scroggins fell in love with rock and roll, especially with players like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck — but at nineteen, he picked up a cheap banjo at a garage sale, then ended up trading in his Les Paul for a better banjo…

If you haven’t heard yet, Riot Fest, the incredibly popular festival founded in Chicago in 2005, is expanding to Colorado. There’s no word yet on the lineup, but if the roster of acts (Motörhead, Public Enemy, Bad Brains, Guided by Voices, the Dismemberment Plan, Dinosaur Jr. and Surfer Blood, among…