Thao with the Get Down Stay Down’s latest record, Know Better Learn Faster, carries a wide menu of influences. Like the ensemble’s previous work, the album draws from traditional American folk precedents, as well as snippets of other sounds that range from old Motown to ’60s pop. The blend comes…
According to Cymbals Eat Guitars 20-year-old frontman Joseph D’Agostino, Lou Reed didn’t want a lot of cymbals on the first three Velvet Underground albums because “cymbals eat guitars,” which explains the copious amounts of floor toms on those early discs. While that might have inspired the band’s moniker, there’s still…
The Thermals new album, Now We Can See, represents more than simply a fresh recording for the Portland-based trio. After an amicable departure from the iconic Seattle label Sub-Pop, the group released their new disc on Kill Rock Stars. According to frontman Hutch Harris, the shift afforded the band the…
Often compared to New Wave bands of the early ’80s — especially the Human League –Brooklyn, New York’s Red Wire Black Wire, uses synthesizers as a primary compositional instrument. Described by the New Music Express as having an icy sound, the immediacy and sincerity of Doug Walters’s vocals helps the…
The Glitch Mob started out as a Los Angeles-based DJ collective that pooled its collective talent to make a more collaborative music with expanded sonic possibilities. As individual artists, Ooah, edIT and Boreta have released solo albums of cutting edge electronic music but it is as a team that they…
With early support from one of the country’s most important independent radio stations, KEXP in Seattle, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart — appearing at Monlith this weekend — struck a chord with fans of earnest, dreamy, lush pop music. Though often compared to C86-era and Sarah Records bands,…
New York City native Joe Bithorn plays the role of George Harrison in Rain, one of the most popular and well-known Beatles tribute bands in the country (appearing September 22 to 27 at the Buell Theater. Raised with a steady diet of classical, jazz, blues and psychedelic rock influences, Bithorn…
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are definitely one of the more buzzed about underground bands to come to Colorado this summer and deservedly so. With a briskly selling headliner show at the Planet Bluegrass Wildflower Pavillions in Lyons on Friday September 11 and a hotly anticipated appearance at Red…
The indie rock world has more than its share of rags-to-riches, flannel-to-Fendi stories – glimmering groups who seem to go from the basement to the buzz bin overnight. Bad Veins – the Cincinnati-based duo of multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Benjamin Davis and drummer Sebastien Schultz – fits the mold, rocketing from its first…
On August 29, Whygee and Sunkenstate celebrated the release of Suicide Watch 2: Sambodextrust with a show at the Walnut Room that also featured performances from Food Chain and members of the Starting Five, Naeem Oba, charleyBRAND and Gyp Da Hip. But the highlight of the evening, of course, was…
Boasting may seem like a hip-hop requirement, but it’s actually possible to play the rap game without overdosing on self-love every other line. For proof, direct your gaze to the following Q&A with Regan Farquhar, who performs as Busdriver. The subject of a Westword profile published in advance of his…
In honor Lion Sized’s show tomorrow night at the hi-dive with the Still City and the Great Panic, and thanks to our pal Lance, and, well, because it’s Freeloader Friday and we’re cool like that, we present you another sparkling edition of the Denver Boot for your downloading pleasure. After…
“This is the best ever job that doesn’t make any money” says Donny Fallgatter, frontman for Nashville’s young country rockers Kingbilly. It’s unlikely that KingBilly will be broke for much longer, though. Riding high with the popularity of its latest music video on the popular country music channel GAC and…
A native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Travis Egedy, who performs under the name Pictureplane, has been rapidly gaining the attention of popular underground bands from around the country for the last few years, most notably HEALTH who took Pictureplane on a national tour in March 2009. HEALTH was also…
Although John Eriksson, who stars in this week’s Westword profile of his band, Peter Bjorn and John, was trained to be a classical percussionist, and spent years as a member of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, he’s come to appreciate the perks of being a rock star — particularly the…
Mack Maine, is always moving. When I first meet him standing amid the ruins of the Young Money stage set he will not be still; he’s too busy and that’s a good thing — too busy crafting clever rhymes, to “build his brand.” Maine’s Doofus cum Cyrano de Bergerac verse…
As if the title didn’t tip you off, the recent Rocky Mountain Low compilation isn’t a typical attempt at whitewashing a bygone era of music. Compiled by fan Dalton Rasmussen and a Joseph Pope, a man whose old band the Instants appears on the comp, Rocky Mountain Low is an…
Arena rock is making a comeback. Thanks to bands like My Morning Jacket, Wilco and North Carolina’s the Avett Brothers, the spirit and tradition of the ’70s is swelling and helping to conjure up images of rock and roll when it was at it’s purest, most visceral and most likely…
The panoramic songwriting of Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes has gained the attention of critics and peers alike and lead to her recurring opening gigs on the 2008 Radiohead tour. Drawing on her rich imagination for inspiration, Khan’s songs tap into the language and imagery of collective myths, ancient…
Nearly two weeks ago, Achille Lauro opened up for Akron/Family at the Bluebird. Achille Lauro was dependably stellar as always. “In terms of the opening three bands, however, Achille Lauro’s set stood out,” wrote A.H. Goldstein in his review of the show. “The outfit’s meditative and eloquent guitar lines, deepened…
It’s been almost two years since jam juggernaut String Cheese Incident called it quits in 2007. Since then, things have slowed for some of the former members, while others have picked up the pace with new projects. The latter holds true for the String Cheese rhythm section of Jason Hann…
While the Warped Tour has grown up and is now it’s fifteenth summer, most of the bands and fans are as young as ever. Unlike most of the poorly selling dinosaur exhibits posing as rock concerts traipsing across the country these days, the Warped Tour year after year gets more…
