Review: Sleigh Bells at the Ogden, 04/13/12

SLEIGH BELLS @ OGDEN THEATRE | 4.13.12 Ever heard of the loudness wars? Doesn’t matter. War’s over. Sleigh Bells wins. Decisively. Right now, there’s a roomful of people banging their heads in unison, in the kind of scene that makes dollar signs appear in the eyes of chiropractors. It’s so…

Review: Dom Kennedy at the Bluebird, 4/11/12

DOM KENNEDY @ THE BLUEBIRD THEATER | 4.11.12 Maybe it was the monitors and he couldn’t hear himself, maybe it was excitement at rocking his tracks to an adoring packed crowd at the Bluebird, maybe he was trying to scourge our memory of the awful performance by Tommy Hilfiger’s son…

Mariposa

With the new EP Arroyo, Mariposa has delivered an emotionally mature record with rich, expansive instrumentation. Although previous releases contained a great deal of sensitivity and beauty, those elements were locked away inside a fragile song structure. Now performing with a few new musicians, Madeline Johnston has blossomed, and her…

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…