Slight Harp w/Black Magicians From the Mountains of Mars and Pink Hawks Saturday, August 29th, 2009 Glob, Denver Better Than: Every other Slight Harp show I’ve seen. The three-piece Black Magicians From the Mountains of Mars looked like they might have still been in high school, but it was definitely…
Pictureplane, Josephine and the Mousepeople, Hideous Men Rhinoceropolis August 28, 2009 Better Than: Getting high at a planetarium. Not that I would know. This sort of feels like Travis Egedy’s shot. As Pictureplane, he’s got the national press (from Fader and Pitchfork) and a new album, Dark Rift, with some…
Kissing Party w/Bad Weather California Friday, August 28, 2009 hi-dive Better Than: What some would say of a Kissing Party show. The Bad Weather California set started off with Chris Adolf playing the recorder, making the song sound like a madrigal or a Kung Fu episode, before the band kicked…
Ian Cooke Band, Alan Alda, Tauntaun Aug. 29 Bluebird Theater Better than: Seeing three of Denver’s most dynamic and promising bands in three separate venues. It was challenging to find obvious common threads in the three performances at the Bluebird on Friday night. Separately, the Ian Cooke Band, Alan Alda…
The Black Eyed Peas’ credibility, a mainstay in the genre since 1998’s Behind the Front, died on Sunday, in a spinning class at the 24-Hour Fitness by my house. It was eleven-years-old. The credibility, once as strong as any hip-hop group’s, has been in poor health since 2003, when Fergie…
Katy Perry annoyed the hell out of us when she first came out with that damn “I Kissed a Girl” song. It was as annoying as it was inescapable. As much as we hate to admit it, though, Perry has kind of worn on us — probably because our better…
Although Xiren has never particularly struck as an artist you’d file under AC — radio lingo, evidently, for the Adult Contemporary format, which we believe from our years working at KOSI in a past life is another way of saying light rock — apparently program directors across the country feel…
The End-O-Trend Festival, due to take place on Saturday, October 3 at Auraria Campus, just announced some of the acts that will be appearing on its four stages. While there’s a few national headliners, namely the Heavenly States and Edie Sedgwick, the bulk of the bill at this fest appears…
All right, the Tauntaun contest is over. Today’s Friday, and we’ve picked the winners as promised. Thanks to everyone who entered. It was genuinely surprising to see how much everyone knows about Tauntaun, about the members past history, ie., what bands they’ve all played in (Sleeper Horse, Grace Like Gravity,…
Desolation Wilderness, M. Pyres & the Skygaze Family Band, Woodsman and Milton Melvin Croissant III Thursday, August 27, 2009 Rhinoceropolis Better Than: The previous Desolation Wilderness appearance in Denver. The show opened with M. Pyres & The Skygaze Family Band. Behind the drum kit, Logan Corcoran of Bad Weather California…
Black Pegasus is one of the few Colorado rappers that has made hip-hop his full time job. Currently he’s working on the release of his co-hort Liquid Assassin’s new album, Apocalypse, with his own album, Brass Knuckle King, slated to drop sometime later this year. But in between recording sessions…
How does one go from affable, unassuming club DJ to one of the hottest, most in-demand producers in the game in just under a year and half? Beats us. We’re pretty sure, however, that Frank E can tell you a thing or about that sort of thing. After crafting hits…
There’s been a lot of prom-themed events lately, from the Rockbar’s ’80s Nerd Prom last weekend to next weekend’s John Hughes memorial prom at Starz. But something tells me this weekend’s Very Senior Prom, which kicks off at 9 pm. Saturday, August 29 at Moe’s BBQ and Bowling, may be…
Update: Thanks to our friends at Suburban Home Records, we’ve got our hands on a track for Chad Price’s forthcoming record, which we’ve posted after the jump for your downloading pleasure.Hot on the heels of Vistor’s Band, Jon Snodgrass’s excellent solo record, Chad Price, the other half of the almighty…
Fell’s discography is a bit complicated: Although the group’s latest album, Incoherent Lullabies, was just released by the band’s Australian label, Camera Obscura, it was actually recorded before the album the act released a few months ago, a platter titled A Farewell to Echoes. As it turns out, Lullabies was…
As those who’ve spent any amount of time on the road can attest, touring can be either exhilarating or exhausting. Like anything else, there’s high points and low points. Most of the time, though, it falls somewhere in the middle. Days are spent in constant motion it seems on long,…
Few musicians can cite a specific turning point in their artistic lives. Boulder Acoustic Society bassist Aaron Keim is one of them. During a visit to rural New Mexico, the young instrumentalist — then a college student in his native Wisconsin — sat in on an honest-to-gosh, down-home hootenanny in…
Inside the Rocket Room, it didn’t take long to completely forget that I was just south of downtown Colorado Springs (at 230 Pueblo Avenue, specifically). This place could easily fit in on South Broadway, and it shares more than a few similarities with 3 Kings Tavern — including punk, rockabilly,…
The elusive Tjutjuna, the Siberian equivalent of Sasquatch, roams the highlands of eastern Russia. Tjutjuna (due at the Larimer Lounge on Wednesday, September 2) is also an experimental band from Denver that comprises four of the former members of the ambitious space-rock group Mothership. As with that outfit of cosmic…
Olympia’s Desolation Wilderness combines ghostly atmospherics with scintillating poppy guitar work, sounding as though its members learned to play music from listening to a steady diet of Galaxie 500, Big Star’s Third and Codeine. The live version of Desolation can be startlingly forceful, as the band also manages to pull…
Not all bands can excel in every kind of venue, as those who attended the August 14 Atmosphere show at Red Rocks discovered during the Eyedea & Abilities set. The Minnesota pair, whose collective moniker obscures the identity of emcee Michael Larsen and DJ Gregory Keltgen, didn’t adjust their approach…
Fruit Bats frontman Eric Johnson, who’ll take the Larimer Lounge stage following Death Vessel and Achille Lauro, joined the Shins shortly after contributing to a track on the latter’s 2007 album, Wincing the Night Away. Fortunately, though, he didn’t respond to this opportunity by shutting down his previous project. The…
