Concerts

Bridge and Tunnel East/West (No Idea). Bridge and Tunnel channel the spirit and energy of former project Latterman, without the pretense and political correctness that made that act meet its early demise. East/West features heartfelt lyrics gang-shouted over soaring, Red Sparrows-influenced melodies. The album is insightful and sensitive but will scream…

Total Sonic Annihilation. Death by Audio. Loudest Band in New York. For better or worse, these phrases have attached themselves to Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers. The words seem almost comically boastful: Although they’re meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, there is something funny about a band whose recordings break…

Canadian-born Fred Everything seems destined to take his place alongside house-music maestros like Mark Farina and Miguel Migs as a masterful purveyor of innovative and appealing deep house. His work shows a solid knowledge and thorough respect for the style’s history and roots, as well as a refusal to be…

Widespread Panic fans mourned the loss of Moon Time Bar & Grill (846 Broadway), which closed in early August, taking Widespread Wednesdays with it. Now Highland Pacific (3934 West 32nd Avenue) is helping fill the void, bringing in Eric Martinez and Tori Pater, a pair of guitarists who often played…

Mountain Dew has been working hard to diversify in 2008, and with questionable results. Along with testing out a few short-lived flavors and lending its citrusy zest to Doritos, the caffeine machine has become a platform for up-and-coming artists. The Green Label Sound has posted exclusive singles from Matt and…

In an era when most punk rock is connect-the-dots, the Amicable Splits stand out with a sound that borrows from the raw and shredded aesthetic of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or the early songs of the Slits. With rhythms that recall late-’80s Seattle bands and guitar progressions that follow…

— Michael Roberts David Berman, the singer-songwriter behind the Silver Jews, has spoken honestly and openly about subjects that cause most of us to hit the mute button, including problems with drugs and alcohol, and even a suicide attempt. Still, he only regrets being so candid when “I see it…

In a match made in piano-rock heaven, Dresden Dolls vamp Amanda Palmer teamed with fellow ivory-tickler Ben Folds to produce this strings-and-spinet stunner. Originally, the singer had planned a low-budget project, showcasing some songs she felt sounded better without Dolls collaborator Brian Viglione’s distinctive drumming. Palmer’s vocal acrobatics, dynamic pianism…

Members of the rock intelligentsia both love and hate these Kids, who headline at the Boulder Theater on Friday, October 3 — and the trio’s latest is a divider, not a uniter, too. On the positive tip, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Nathan Willett remains a fiercely intelligent storyteller, as he proves in “Every…

The members of Gritch were definitely on to something titling their debut full-length The World Was Asleep… The music presented here is perfect for an inexplicably early start on an uneventful and unexpected day off, when everything feels hazy, peaceful and comfortingly dreamlike for longer than you have any right…

Matt Huseman sang and played in the Greenberry Woods, a band that released two albums on Sire Records circa the ’90s, and his experience shows on Able Archer’s debut — the focus of a Saturday, October 4, CD-release show at the Larimer Lounge co-starring the Gromet, Eudea and Sarina Simoom…

Too artsy to really fit in with the hardcore scene, Minneapolis’s the Stnnng doesn’t even bother to try. The act’s jagged energy, sweeping dynamism and fiery intensity defy easy categorization. Driving bass drones bounce off atonal guitar hysteria. As maniacal drumming kicks up whirlwinds of angular sound, vocalist Chris Besinger…

The Yellowjackets have been around for just over thirty years, and, coincidentally, their albums have bored me for just as long. So I was surprised when “Double Nickel” and “Dreams Go,” a couple of tunes from the group’s latest album, Lifecycle, turned out to be well above average — at…

Nearly two years ago, Kayo Dot’s Toby Driver and Mia Matsumiya visited Denver with their side project Tartar Lamb, which was inspired by composer Morton Feldman and also nodded to Steve Reich. Their fondness for modern classical is also evident at times in Kayo Dot, especially on the relatively calm…

Awesome Color, which shares this bill with Eyes and Ears and Outer Neon, records for Sonic Youth maestro Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace Records — and if the imprint’s moniker were spelled just a little bit differently, it would make an even more perfect home for the group’s albums. For proof,…

Backbeat dispatched photographer Aaron Thackeray to last night’s Horse the Band show at Denver’s Marquis. Cruise to westword.com/slideshow to check out the photos…

Make room on Sunday nights for another local music show — well, kinda. While Sam Hill’s Sunday School isn’t entirely local, this past Sunday night at 10 p.m., the show’s namesake did play tracks from Jason Vigil and Vonnegut — alongside cuts from Colbie Caillat, 3 Doors Down, OAR, Nirvana…

Photo: Scott Smith Sigur Rós Saturday, September 27, 2008 Red Rocks If anyone nodded off during the first part of Sigur Rós’s set at Red Rocks this past Saturday night, I think they can safely be forgiven. The somnial sounds being churned out by the precious Icelandic quartet were lulling…

Update: Just received word that the memorial service for Sharon Rawles will take place at 11 a.m. this Friday, October 3, at Bullock Mortuary (1375 E. Hampden Avenue). ———-Original Post———- Sharon Rawles, who had recently fallen gravely ill and was placed in hospice last week, passed away late yesterday afternoon…

This just in… 3OH!3 has officially reached ubiquity, as evidenced by its appearance in the October 3 edition of Entertainment Weekly (the one with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on the cover re-creating the controversial New Yorker illustration). As if there was any doubt, Boulder’s most unlikely superstars clearly continue…

Photo: Tom Murphy James Monday, September 29th, 2008 The Ogden, Denver Better Than: A lot of the atmospheric pop rock that has come since. Emerging from an impressive field of expressive guitar bands in Manchester, England, James made a name for itself with a larger body of work than many…