Concerts

Julian Casablancas | Haim 04.21.10 | The Ogden Theater Being a bit of a curmudgeon about the Strokes, it was with something more than a small amount of trepidation that I approached frontman Julian Casablancas’ solo show last night at the Ogden. It’s not that the Strokes are bad (they’re…

Meet Savoy, a dance act with the soul of a rock band. “We did always want to play dance music, but we’re also fascinated with the big-time stadium-rock feel, too,” explains Ben Eberdt. “All of our music is dance-y, but a lot of it is very hard-edged and rock-y. We…

Reprise. A decade ago, Denver had dueling dueling piano bars: Sing Sing, which is still going strong at 1735 19th Street (with the slogan “LoDo doesn’t get any lower”); and, over at 1949 Market Street, the Tavern Downtown was once the piano-pushing Soiled Dove. But now Denver’s about to get…

When Kevin Wesley and Darren Kulback started Hot White, it was more of an experimental noise-rock instrumental duo, with guitar and drums laying into seemingly improvisational pieces that were as angular as the were incendiary. With the addition in the fall of 2008 of Tiana Bernard on bent circuits, Hot…

Someone should seriously kill the term “shitgaze” — but it’s not going to be these guys. Given the scatological name and the release of their 2009 Woodsist Records release, Shitgaze Anthems, it’s clear that they embrace the designation. In 2008, Psychedelic Horseshit was part of an MTV2 mini-documentary about lo-fi…

Even though this Brooklyn-based band took its name from an article in The Onion about the location of Donald Rumsfeld’s secret hideout, there’s nothing sinister about the act’s music. If anything, Fang Island, not unlike White Denim, figured out how to bring together styles that shouldn’t work side by side…

Justin Pearson has made a career out of being annoying — but it’s a brutal, funny, sublime, uncompromising and at times even groundbreaking kind of annoying. With his main band of the past fifteen years, the mighty cyber-grind outfit the Locust, on an apparently indefinite hiatus, Pearson has poured his…

B.o.B. did his time in rap’s AAA league, having brushes with success, remaining one or two degrees of separation from household-name status for three years. But that’s all over now: His proper debut full-length, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, will be in stores next Tuesday, and, more likely than not,…

When Nathaniel Rateliff was fronting Born in the Flood, his voice was strident, powerful and pensive. It was impressive, but not uniquely his own. On “Once in a Great While,” the opening track of his Rounder debut, an unblemished near-falsetto croon introduces the world to the new and improved Nathaniel…

From the opening track, the comically harrowing “Cemetary,” through the playful nostalgia of “Pac-Man,” the Lust-Cats have carved a new chapter in outsider punk rock by updating riot grrrl for the current era. “Stand-up Gal,” especially the chorus (“Can’t wait to see her/Kinda want to be her/She’s a real stand-up…

Electro-pop has been zombified so badly over the past few years, it’s no wonder that futurism now sounds totally quaint. The Denver trio Take the Mickey doesn’t try to reinvent the CPU with its new full-length, Dinosaurs Now and Machines Later — but the band does make a valiant attempt…

Tommy Metz is at something of a crossroads with his main project, Iuengliss: He’s talking about going fully instrumental on the next album, and the The Blossom Frontier sounds a lot like a musical release valve. True to the form of his previous work, there are two types of songs:…

The same year the Sex Pistols broke up, John Lydon dropped the stage name of Johnny Rotten and formed what was arguably the most influential band of the post-punk era with Public Image Ltd. The band’s second album, 1979’s Metal Box, still seems brilliantly out of place and out of…

Comprising veterans of Denver’s punk-rock scene, the Pitch Invasion took its name from the phenomenon of a crowd at a soccer game getting unruly and invading the field, also known as “the pitch,” and taking events into its own hands. This weekend, the band — made up of Mike McCrory…

Megasoid got its start as a Montreal-based mobile sound system with a predilection for turning illegal and unconventional spaces into after-hours parties. The duo’s aggressive street sound is based in hip-hop beats wrapped in edgy, innovative production that blends old-school electro and new-school noise into a unique, playful, bass-heavy sound…

D’oh! We were so caught up gushing about The Pirate Signal’s stellar new album, No Weak Heart Shall Prosper, that we almost completely forgot to mention that Matt Morris’s song “Live Forever” is going to be featured on American Idol tonight during its two-hour Idol Gives Back fund-raising show. Not…

By now you’ve heard about the loss of Keith “Keithy E” Elam, aka Guru, who passed away yesterday. If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably grappling with the tremendous loss and reflecting on the monumental impact Guru had on rap music — despite the fact that he never really…

Could tonight be the night that he finally does it, the night that his royal airness Magic Cyclops finally realizes ultimate air guitar supremacy? After years of vying for the title and coming up just short of earning bragging rights, Cyclops, a perennial contender, is set to once again catch…

This isn’t your daddy’s Woodstock, your hippie cousin’s Bonnaroo or your yuppie Chicago Uncle’s Lollapalooza. This is Coachella, man, and it attracts the most pretentious music fans on the planet, who all choose to gather in grassy polo fields and endure intense desert heat for the same reason. We’re here…

Them Crooked Vultures • Mini Mansions Fillmore Auditorium | 4.19.10 The rawk fist (index and pinky for horns, thumb tucked) is a tricky little bugger. It’s a totally sincere expression of rock-induced euphoria with all the subtlety of a billy club. Them Crooked Vultures earned thousands of rawk fists Monday…