Mike Marchant to host a songwriter’s workshop at the Meadowlark

Ah, now here’s an idea we can co-sign. Just received word from Mike Marchant (Widowers, Houses) alerting us to a rad new idea he’s about to execute, a songwriter’s workshop at the Meadowlark. Dubbed as “Dissecting and Perfecting the Pop Song – A Songwriter’s Workshop,” the sessions are slated to…

Omens go European

Ah, Europe. Home of tiny mustaches, hot yet unshaven women and an entirely too-forgiving stance toward child rapists with artistic achievements. And, of course, a firm appreciation of American-style garage rock, which we assume is the reason that the Omens are headed over there for a ten-day whirlwind tour (well,…

Breaking news: Bianchi brothers sell Cervantes and Quixotes

The leaves in the trees aren’t the only thing changing in Denver. We received late confirmation that Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom and Quixotes True Blue next door have indeed been sold. Rumors have been swirling for a few weeks that a deal was in the works, and last night it was…

“Add It Up” and Get Your Irish Up at Scruffy Murphy’s

The only time I saw the Violent Femmes was when the Milwaukee-based trio played a short, energetic set on the counter of Wax Trax Records in the mid-’80s. People were stuffed in the aisles of the store for the entirely acoustic set; I’m pretty sure the drummer banged on a…

Andy Monley and the High Horses at Meadowlark

Andy Monley isn’t exactly a household name, but maybe he should be. He’s definitely made the Denver music scene a lot more interesting for more than two decades. As a guitarist for pioneering local bands Jux County and Velveteen Monster, Monley showed an impressive range as a guitarist and songwriter…

Hope Sandoval

Most artists hope to develop an indelible personal style — but achieving that goal can produce both negatives and positives, as Hope Sandoval (joined on this bill by Dirt Blue Gene) has learned over the course of her come-and-go career. She first moved the pop-culture meter in the late ’80s…

The Dear Hunter

It’s important to take note of Boston’s the Dear Hunter, if for no other reason than to not confuse the group with Deerhunter, the Atlanta-based art-rock outfit. Fans of the latter’s jagged yet atmospheric awesomeness are likely to run screaming from the former’s pompous, overwrought, Danny Elfman-on-steroids spasms. Wielding emotive…

Sian Alice Group

Sian Alice Group’s dusky, contemplative songwriting is intense and vibrantly electric, with layers of percussion, non-traditional and otherwise. Although this avant-garde soul outfit borrows liberally from the aesthetics of electronica, jazz and experimental rock, it has crafted a sound all its own — like a band of the recent past…

The Intelligence

Like a jerkier, dirtier version of avant-rockers Clinic, California’s the Intelligence hijacks indie rock with an arsenal of skin-peeling distortion, jackhammer repetition and oxymoronic moronism. And that’s a good thing: On its latest full-length, this summer’s Fake Surfers, the group accordingly mutilates reverb-slathered surf riffs using post-punk nihilism, garage-rock rawness…

The Postmarks

Miami has more than its share of nice Jewish girls — but few of them can sing like Tel Aviv-born Tim Yehezkely, who consistently delivers as frontwoman for the Postmarks, currently touring with Brookline. Memoirs at the End of the World represents the players’ fourth release in as many years:…

Ivory Drive

Nearly half the cuts on Ivory Drive’s debut album sound as though they were ripped from the pages of the Ben Folds Five songbook, only with sax and trumpet added on top. What’s more, Van Wampler’s vocals and piano playing bear an uncanny resemblance to Folds’s. That’s not a bad…

Accordion Crimes

Before nerds took over the world, they weren’t so meek. Watch almost any ’80s nerd-centric movie, Revenge of the Nerds included: Some were mild-mannered, but just as many were horny, twisted and even downright aggressive. Denver’s nerdy Accordion Crimes — featuring former members of the defunct Hot IQs and the…

Black Sleep of Kali

Tracing the lineage that Black Sleep of Kali evokes on this record isn’t all that difficult. Listen closely and there’s some of that hard-edged sludginess of Black Sabbath, the razory psychedelia and inexorable sway of Sleep and the progressive drive of Isis across these five songs. But Kali makes it…

Maree McRae

“Urgency,” this album’s title track, was inspired by the chronic illness of Maree McRae’s youngest son, so it makes sense that her performance is sincere and heartfelt. But her delivery of lines like “Baby, I’m just burstin’ at the seams” doesn’t match their content. Her relaxed, honeyed vocals are best…

Meet Coles Whalen, a burgeoning Nashville Star from Denver

Four year ago, Coles Whalen moved out of her apartment and into a pickup truck with a camper. She says she decided if she was going to make anything work, she had to be on tour. She set up shows at Borders bookstores around the country, sold enough copies of…

The Endotrend Festival has some great ideas worth latching onto

Jeremy Gregory had some innovative ideas for this weekend’s endOtrend Festival — such as silk-screening T-shirts for admission rather than issuing hard tickets. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a little while longer for some of those ideas to take flight. Just a week before the event — billed as the…

Daedelus at Bluebird Theater

The music of Daedelus sounds like steampunk IDM, chock-full of strange boops and loops that would sound right at home recorded on wax cylinders. Perhaps it’s only appropriate that an artist who looks like a foppish dandy from the Victorian era would produce dusty, antique tunes from a make-believe time…

Chad Price shaves, embarks on daylong brew tour

Trying to decide which is more noteworthy — Chad Price playing ten breweries in one day, or Chad Price, clean shaven? (Seriously. We didn’t know dude came without a beard. Cleans up pretty nicely, doesn’t he?) We’re guessing you’re more interested in the latter. To that end, on Saturday, October…

Flier of the Week: Paper Bird at the Boulder Theatre

It’s not always artful images or striking use of typography that catches our eye for a flier of the week. No, sometimes it’s just something simple, comforting and downright inviting — something like this grade-school arts-and-crafts flier for Paper Bird’s upcoming date at the Boulder Theatre this Friday, October 2…