Q&A with Steve Lawson and Will Duncan of Oblio Duo + The Archers

In 2006, Oblio Duo + The Archers established itself as a pillar of Denver’s hipster-country scene with The Flag, striking a just-right balance between mellow steel guitars and experimental weirdness. After a long wait, the partners are finally prepping to release a seven-inch split EP with Reno’s Flags on Fire…

Q&A with Shawn Christensen of Stellastarr*

Stellastarr* (due at the Larimer Lounge with Transfer and Le Divorce on Wednesday, December 9) emerged onto the national music scene at the turn of this past decade in the musical milieu that gave us fellow New York acts like The Strokes, The Rapture and Interpol. While clearly influenced by…

Q&A with Ten Out of Tennesee’s Andrew Belle

The Ten Out of Tennessee tour (due at the Bluebird Theater this Thursday, December 10) is the brainchild of songwriter couple Trent and Kristen Dabbs. The idea behind the tour was to find some of Nashville’s best up-and-coming songwriters and bring them together for a tour and have them serve…

Q&A with Vince Herman of Leftover Salmon

Leftover Salmon occupies a unique spot in music. The band does not adhere to any one genre, though it borrows liberally from bluegrass, Cajun, rock, swing, jug band and even Latin and Caribbean influences among others. What the band does do is whip up one hell of a good time…

Hey, DJ! Q&A with DJ Ginger

Every Friday we spotlight the hottest cats (and kittens) behind the decks in the MHC, grilling them to gain some insight on what it takes, exactly, to get the party rocking, to find out about their most treasured crate digging experiences and what they really think when we stumble up…

Surround yourself with the Normal Ones

If you don’t already have plans for Friday — or if those plans were to catch some of the last First Friday goodness of the year — here’s an intriguing option for you. The Normal Ones, an excellent act that combines elements of ambient, old-school IDM like Orbital, threads of…

Q&A with Eric Gilbert of Finn Riggins

Eric Gilbert, Lisa Simpson and Cam Bouiss formed Finn Riggins in the small town of Hailey, Idaho, in August of 2006. Since that time, the band has put out five releases. Three of those albums were released on the Portland, Oregon-based Tender Loving Empire label including the act’s latest, Vs…

Q&A with DJ Quote

In the world of hip-hop, mixtapes are the currency of the street, the vehicles that many underground artists use to create exposure and build their names outside the confines of major-label marketing campaigns. By creating a street-level buzz, such artists as 50 Cent have forced mainstream tastemakers to take notice…

Q&A with the Don’ts and Be Carefuls

In 2008, the whole dance punk phenomenon, with few exceptions, seemed worn out and irrelevant to anything genuinely exciting. But it was in the spring of that year that The Don’ts and Be Carefuls started putting together its songs and playing its first show shortly after solidifying its line-up. Although…

New I Am the Dot EP available

It’s turning out that Zach Tipton, the man behind the “apocalyptic pop” of I Am the Dot is not only crazy talented but somewhat prolific. His debut self-titled EP just came out November 4 and here, on the very first day of December, he’s released another one. This new release…

Q&A with Brikabrak and Naeem Oba

Starkville, Mississipi is known for a lot of things: the arrest of Johnny Cash for public drunkenness, which inspired the song “Starkville City Jail.” Real life American gangster Machine Gun Kelly lived there while studying agriculture at Mississippi State University. Starkville also gave us local vinyl slanging, non-request taking, DJ…

Hey, DJ! Q&A with DJ KTone

Every Friday we spotlight the hottest cats behind the decks in the MHC, grilling them to gain some insight on what it takes, exactly, to get the party rocking, to find out about their most treasured crate digging experiences and what they really think when we stumble up to them…

Q&A with Kno of CunninLynguists

There’s something to be said about a group that boldly calls itself, CunninLynguists. Since 2001, the Kentucky-bred group, which consist of rapper Natti and producers/rappers Deacon the Villain and Kno, has redefined what it means to be courageous with their music, during a time when cookie-cutter groups are getting all…

Q&A with Rachael Yamagata

Rachael Yamagata released her critically acclaimed debut disc Happenstance in 2004 only to be dumped by her record label, RCA, shortly thereafter. Last year the singer-songwriter and pianist finally resurfaced, on Warner Bros., with the wonderfully ambitious double album Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart. Richly textured ballads dominate the first disc…

Introducing the lo-fi digital weirdness of Hideous Men

Take two parts freak folk and one part New Wave, filter it through a dying Gameboy, then melt shards of sampled hip-hop into the mix and allow to congeal into something weird. That should give you some idea of what to expect with Hideous Men, one of the latest and…

Q&A with Paul Garcia and James Barone of Pacific Pride

Recalling the frayed pop sounds of New Zealand indie-rock bands of the ’80s and the angular, contorted psychedelia of Pavement, Pacific Pride has always focused more on quality over quantity. Beginning in 2004 after the dissolution of the original lineup of the May Riots, Pacific Pride played few shows and…

Hey, DJ! Q&A with DJ Low Key

Every Friday we spotlight the hottest cats behind the decks in the MHC, grilling them to gain some insight on what it takes, exactly, to get the party rocking, to find out about their most treasured crate digging experiences and what they really think when we stumble up to them…

Q&A with Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low

Sleeping with band dudes doesn’t make you famous.” The words scrawl across a closed door after the stock “band slut” walks in behind the drummer in All Time Low’s new video for “Weightless.” Just a few years back, the four Baltimore-based post-punkers wouldn’t have known anything about that sort of…

Q&A with Monolith Festival Director Josh Baker

Yesterday’s news that the Monolith Festival is in financial straits and in need of a rather large infusion of cash just to continue wasn’t completely shocking, especially given the modest turnouts and the fact that AEG Live opted out of helping produce and promote this year’s fest, which seemed to…

Q&A with Vaughn Harris of Nitzer Ebb

Nitzer Ebb, from Essex, England, helped to define the musical style called EBM with its heavy industrial rhythms and stark vocals. As with emo, another much-maligned genre, EBM started out as a vital and relevant music whose pioneers never chose to name with a blanket term to encompass a music…

Q&A with Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse

Cannibal Corpse didn’t invent death metal, but it has become one of the genre’s definitive bands. Forming in Buffalo, New York in 1988, Cannibal Corpse quickly came to prominence due to its decidedly brutal music and horrifically detailed lyrics to match. From the beginning, Cannibal’s album covers were a source…