Concerts

Dan Deacon’s name should be familiar to anyone keeping an ear to what’s going on in American underground music. As one of the founders of the Wham City collective, Deacon is one of the pillars of the modern DIY movement in Baltimore. Deacon’s exuberantly playful electronic music bears none of…

How much do you like tasty solos and long, groove-working instrumental breaks? If that sounds tiresome, you’ll want to steer clear of Kinetix’s Talking to Faces album. If, on the other hand, it sounds like a killer time, prepare for a treat. There’s plenty of impressive instrumental prowess here, especially…

The cover of this album, which depicts a group of Aborigines chained together by some corny colonial type, sitting in a sunset-colored sky over a caricature of the Denver skyline, suggests the arch and subversive music within. Rapper Ancient Mith’s level of sonic appropriation is truly impressive on this release…

I know what you’re thinking: The world needs another sensitive singer-songwriter like it needs more layoffs and higher gas prices. But those with an affinity for the style will find some worthwhile material on Upstairs, Downstairs. The poppier numbers, such as “Twentysomething” and “Angels in the Attic,” are accessible and…

In the shadow of Five Iron Frenzy, Brave Saint Saturn seemed a quaint, tuneful distraction. With the former now laid to rest, the music of these former FIF cohorts can be assessed on its own merit. To that end, Brave Saint Saturn proves to be a viable entity on this…

Leaving the Flaming Lips on the cusp of commercial success only to rejoin Mercury Rev — a group he was a part of in the late ’80s — may have, in retrospect, seemed like a career blunder for Jonathan Donahue. That move, however, has resulted in some of the most…

When the Black Crowes first went national, around 1990, the band became a walking/talking critical argument. Were Chris and Rich Robinson inspired revivalists, introducing rock and blues verities rendered with credibility and conviction to a new generation? Or were they figurative grave defilers, cynically cornholing the corpse of rock glories…

Jeff Hamilton has quite an impressive pedigree: In his twenties, the drummer played with jazz heavies like Lionel Hampton, Monty Alexander and Woody Herman. In his thirties, meanwhile, he performed with Ella Fitzgerald, the Count Basie Orchestra and Rosemary Clooney, and has since toured with Oscar Peterson and the Ray…

It’s not easy to travel fast by taking the conscious hip-hop route, as Pharoahe Monch knows from personal experience. He earned acclaim but no platinum as half of the ’90s-era hip-hop duo Organized Konfusion, and while his 1999 solo debut, Internal Affairs, became a favorite of the rap intelligentsia (and…

There’s always an interest when like-minded solo artists come together to collaborate on a project. So when Colorado emcees Whygee and Sunken State announced they were releasing a seven-song EP called Suicide Watch, those who follow the local scene were excited to hear the results. To add to the excitement,…

The Wu-Tang Clan plays the Ogden tonight. You should go — but you should also know that Wu fans are pretty rabid, and would like to know that you are as rabid as they are. So, here, a handy guide to making yourself look like you deserve entrance into the…

The Fray’s video for “You Found Me,” the first single from the act’s forthcoming self-titled disc, made its online debut Tuesday night on VH1.com. The clip, directed by Bear Creek High School alumni Josh Forbes — who’s also worked on videos for Alkaline Trio, Metro Station, Sara Bareilles and Great…

.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } Last month, we posted a pair of folkier tunes from Mike Marchant (pictured left, photo by Andrew Segreti) that he said didn’t quite fit with the new songs the Widowers had been working on. We’ve since learned that…

It’s been a minute since we’ve heard any new music from Ground Zero Movement alum D.O. And that’s okay, because he’s been trying to get his radio thing going. But now that there’s a bit of a break from the college radio scene, D.O. is back in the booth putting…

I hate Christmas music — hate it. It’s dull, overly familiar and absolutely inescapable at this time of year. On the other hand, I’ve been moderately obsessed with so-called chiptunes, music inspired and/or made by vintage video-game machines. So, when I ran across this collection of 8-bit chiptunes versions of…

After completing two extensive back-to-back tours of the West Coast and Midwest over the summer and through the fall, the Autumn Film is back at home briefly through the holidays, taking a bit of time off to write before embarking on another series of dates. On the next jaunt, the…

In what appears to be a fairly recent development, Radio 1190’s long-running local-centric specialty show, Local Shakedown, which airs on Friday afternoons from 4-6 p.m., has begun posting past shows and playlists on the station’s website. Music director Katherine Peterson has also put out a call for fans of the…

As we alluded to yesterday in our post about Ozric Tentacles setting up shop in Fort Collins, C-Rayz Walz (aka Waleed Shabazz) is indeed in Denver. Following up several reported sightings of him around town, we have confirmed that the New York rapper, who was most recently hanging his hat…

There is so much talent in the Colorado hip-hop scene that when the community unites, it becomes that much stronger. A new super crew, The Food Chain, is emerging and they’re looking to make a big splash in the local scene. The crew consists of producers Mass Prod, MoHeat, Mic…

There is nothing I can say about the clip embedded above that would possibly prepare you for the awesomeness contained within, but I am going to try: Imagine A-Ha’s seminal “Take on Me” clip, then replace the cool animation with live-action roleplayers and production values on the level of your…