Review: Neon Indian at Bluebird Theater, 4/9/12

NEON INDIAN @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 4/09/12 A little over halfway through the Neon Indian show, Leanne Macomber left her spot at the keyboards and picked up the Roland G-77 Bass Controller that had been played by Joshua McWhirter during certain parts of the rest of the show, while McWhirter,…

Dyalekt leaves his ego behind on a new release

Everybody has self-esteem issues,” declares Dyalekt. “But you gotta work with what you’ve got.” Born to an Apache father and a Latina mother, Dyalekt — the MC, producer and self-made cultural sociologist known to his family as Justin Romero, the younger brother of rapper, producer and fellow Diamond Boi Zome…

Steel Blades of Vengeance cut loose at 3 Kings on April 12

If its own bio is to be believed, Steel Blades of Vengeance (due at 3 Kings Tavern on Thursday, April 12) seems to have been through lineup changes worthy of Iced Earth. The two bands also share musical influences, as Steel Blades started life as Maiden Denver, an Iron Maiden…

Cults

Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion met at the House of Blues in San Diego, where Follin’s older brother Richie’s band, the Willowz, had a show. The two hit it off; both happened to be leaving to study film at the New School, which is where they formed Cults. The group’s…

Sleigh Bells

Combining the former guitar player from hardcore band Poison the Well with a former Nickelodeon star, Sleigh Bells is the most aggressive, poptastic, ear-drum-splitting glamour-thrash band around. On its debut, Treats, released on M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Records, Sleigh Bells offered up songs like “Rill Rill” and “Tell Em” that managed to…

Slaughterhouse

Supergroup Slaughterhouse consists of Crooked I, Royce da 5’9″, Joe Budden and Joell Ortiz, who combined forces in 2009 to rip the hip-hop game to shreds. All street buzz and promo, the group’s first single, “The One,” from its self-titled album, was dropped on Budden’s Twitter account, and the masses responded…

Tom Petty

Tom Petty is an iconic American songwriter whose songs are easily on par with fellow legends like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Petty’s guitar-driven anthems are instantly relatable monuments to Americana that exude a certain timelessness that belies their obvious vintage. Tunes like “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” “Here Comes My Girl,”…

James McCartney toughs it out in Macca’s shadow

Greek mythology is teeming with dudes who want to murder their fathers so they can bang their mothers. Nevertheless, as compelling as it is, I don’t really buy Freud’s Oedipus theory; personally, I’ve never felt any particular urge (that I’m aware of) to take my mother to the bone zone…

Katie Glassman

Given her background in Western swing, gypsy and vintage jazz and bluegrass, it’s not surprising that all of those styles surface on Katie Glassman’s sixteen-track long-player, Snapshot. While Glassman is clearly an able singer, her fiddle playing is exceptional — which also makes sense, considering that she started playing when…

2MX2

Case Study, the new album from the outfit formerly known as 20:12, finds the act experimenting with different types of hip-hop to see what resonates. From traditional boom bap to elements of dubstep to rock, the material is all over the place. As varied as the record’s rhythm is, however,…

Mojo Nixon “un-retires” with Whiskey Rebellion

Mojo Nixon’s music and the reputation of his outrageous stage persona precede him. The hilariously wrong songs that he wrote with his then-partner in crime, Skid Roper, such as “Elvis Is Everywhere” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child” were songs everyone knew, even if they weren’t…

DJ Beufie spins at Funky Buddha on April 14

DJ Beufie, owner of Native Soul Recordings and Speakeasy, is coming in from New Mexico for another episode of Supernova’s House Revival. No stranger to Denver, Beufie has been playing shows out of his home base in Albuquerque for several years, where he’s been instrumental in shaping the city’s dance-music…

Black Sleep of Kali/Union of Sleep

This split LP has Black Sleep of Kali doing something it does well on songs like “Cosmonaut,” and that’s anchor you in space somehow while a parade of burning sound drifts past you — like you’re one of the tune’s namesakes shooting toward escape velocity. Then, near the end of…

Cake at Red Rocks, 7/28

Last year, Cake celebrated its twentieth anniversary and released its six full-length, Showroom of Compassion, on its own Upbeat Records imprint. Touring in support of the album, Cake stops at Red Rocks Amphiteatre on Saturday, July 28. Denver’s the Lumineers, who released their self-titled debut last week on Dualtone, will…

Photos: Ellie Goulding at Hot 107.1

Just one week embarking on its recent format shift focusing on electronic dance music, HOT 107.1 brought in its first high-profile guest for an interview and performance this past Saturday. Shortly after noon, Ellie Goulding stopped by the studios to play some tunes for some lucky listeners, followed by an…

Review: Deep Medi Musik at City Hall, 4/7/12

DEEP MEDI MUSIK @ CITY HALL | 4.7.12 City Hall felt the bass on Saturday night, the real bass, thanks to the Deep Medi crew coming all the way from across the pond from London to commemorate the five year anniversary of Sub.mission. The local crew put together an unprecedented…