Jonas Erik Altberg, aka Basshunter, began producing music under that moniker in 2002 using the ubiquitous Fruity Loops computer program, working from home and self-releasing The Bassmachine before signing with Warner Music for his sophomore effort. Unlike many producers, Altberg sings on a lot of his own tracks, and six…
Early in its career, Blonde Redhead clearly drew inspiration from DNA, whose song was the inspiration for the band’s name. But instead of solely offering up atonal squalls and musical deconstruction, Blonde Redhead’s songwriting also flirted with haunted melodies. By the time of 2004’s Misery Is a Butterfly, what would…
After being selected as the top vocalist at Longmont High School in 2006, Mandy Harvey went on to study music at Colorado State University. She began to lose her hearing due to nerve damage in her freshman year, but her limitations — she’s now legally deaf — never stopped her…
Living in the margin between the Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens is an awfully adorable business, but Freelance Whales manages to do it without being too vomit-inducing. Scant praise, and that’s about right for the Queens quintet. There’s some wonderful songcraft here, which keeps the Whales out of Owl City…
Post-punk is sneaking up on exactly no one these days, but that doesn’t stop a great album from being great. The reference points here are a (much) more muscular Yo La Tengo, a less high-pitched Buzzcocks and the Replacements — all meant as compliments, obviously. This is just to give…
After meeting at Metro State while studying under Ron Miles and Fred Hess, Three Squared formed four years ago as a quartet with a mutual love for freedom in music-making and improvisation. While 2008’s Let’s Play Ping Pong was a damn fine effort, drummer Antwon Owens, guitarist Jim Disner, bassist…
Like the album’s name itself, all of the song titles on Ishmael Asimov fall just shy of cringeworthy puns and curious statements. In fact, one has to applaud the audacity of calling a song “Slap N’ Pickle” and have it be a rather contemplative number. But mostly this release is…
Comparing the packaging for Fierce Bad Rabbit’s self-titled debut to Spools of Thread, its latest offering, perhaps best illustrates the band’s notable progression. While the inaugural release had exactly zero frills — sandwiched between two pieces of card stock the act’s members likely cut themselves, the disc came stuffed in…
Eddie Van Halen never had to make the sort of decision that Patrick Meese recently had to. EVH’s eponymous band has weathered three different singers and multiple albums. Meese, on the other hand, abandoned his namesake band after seven years due to the rigors of major-label success. Luckily, the experience…
As two-thirds of renowned noise-punk band Wives, Dean Spunt and Randy Randall not only made some of the most adventurous and blistering rock music of the last decade, but they helped put long-running L.A. DIY space the Smell on the map as a locus for innovative and exciting music, West…
If you’re looking for something to be grateful for this weekend, look no further than Gratitude, an all-night party featuring producer/songster/DJ Alexander East, the man behind Planet East Recordings. This Minneapolis-based deep-house heavyweight has laid down vocals for Jake Childs and Chicago house godfather Derrick Carter, and he’s had his…
Unless you just arrived on this planet, you know there is no Margot in Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s — but the moniker of Richard Edwards’ charming chamber pop band sure does have a nice cadence to it, as does the music the outfit creates. On tour in…
This past Saturday, we stopped by the Backyard Bang, which stretched between Lincoln and Sherman on 12th. We noticed the riders all had headphones in, so being all about the music, we asked them what they were listening to during their respective drops, rail slides and whatnot in the scary-as-hell…
One of the finest blues players to come of out of these parts, Otis Taylor has won blues album of the year awards from Downbeat for four of his albums, and he’s jammed with Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and many other legendary players. Over the years, he’s mastered…
So it looks like there’s been some interesting developments in the Chain Gang of 1974 camp. Over the weekend, Kamtin Mohager — whose band attracted a substantial amount of notice at CMJ — posted this video in which appears to be signing some sort of contract, while “Everybody Wants to…
Pictureplane’s track “Real is a Feeling” came to life in video form last night at Redline Gallery studios, complete with a girl in head-to-toe lyrca and a pinata filled with rubber organs of the human variety. Filmed by Neil Ewing and visual artist Sterling Crispin and with the direction of…
DJ SHADOW With Pigeon John 11.21.10 | Ogden Theatre See slideshow and read the interview with DJ Shadow Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow) has come a long way since his days collaborating with hip-hop icons Gift of Gab and Lyrics Born, and his skills have only gotten more sharply honed…
TJUTJUNA Woodsman • Married In Berdichev • DJ Peter Black 11.19.10 | Larimer Lounge For his set, Peter Black used an iPad to control and trigger some of the sounds he was weaving into his live remixes. This set of songs had kind of a raw, percussion heavy sound and…
NOSAJ THING With Jogger • Toro Y Moi 11.20.10 | Bluebird Theater This is not a diatribe dedicated to hating on electronic music, music made via laptop, patchy synths or anything else that involves playing instrumentation off of a card table. This is simply a timeline of Saturday night’s Nosaj…
MAC LETHAL with JDirty • Input • F. Stokes 11.20.10 | Marquis Theater Mac Lethal’s “Keep It Irish Tour” descended upon the Marquis Theater last night and brought a friendly crew of poets and rappers with it. The Midwest rapper obviously harboring a serious grudge against his ex-wife made it…
Ludacris, Carmelo Anthony, his wife, Lala Vasquez, and Sway Calloway from MTV surprised 1400 students at George Washington High School on Friday afternoon for the Get Schooled national challenge and tour, aimed at engaging students and their families to help improve high school graduation rates. GW was chosen because it…
DAS RACIST With Pictureplane • Hollagramz • DJ Synergy • Kentdub • DJ Nikka T 11.19.10 • Casselman’s Bar & Venue It really seemed like the whole thing might fall apart. It was well past midnight. Travis Egedy as Pictureplane, who followed two hours worth of dubstep, started his set…
