Death Grips was in town this past weekend at the Larimer Lounge and delivered one of the more stirring sets that Tom Murphy, who’s seen and covered more than his fair share of shows over the years, has seen recently. Tom summed up the experience thusly: “More than most bands,…
There is no one in hip hop — or any genre for that matter — who has had career ups and downs like MC/Producer extraordinaire Danny! (aka Danny Swain). He was on a Grammy Award shortlist in 2006 for Charm, critically praised for 2008’s And I Love H.E.R., he was…
The Coup is a hip-hop group that makes no bones in its critique of the system, with song titles like the now infamous and powerful, “Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO,” from its classic 2001 album, Party Music — the artwork of which originally featured members Boots Riley and…
Collin and Brandon Bordeaux have been making music together since they were kids. The two brothers, better known in local hip-hop circles as H*Wood and Kid Vegas, act as each other’s business partners, musical critics, marketing team and confidants. The former, who has returned home after four years in Los…
Earth was one of the first bands to explore the inner spaces of drone and doom metal. In its earlier phase, Earth made creative use of distortion to create dense and crushing atmospheres. Since the band regrouped close to a decade ago, the focus has been more on a textured…
Dethklok may be a virtual band, but it has somehow put out the best-selling death metal record of all time. Everyone who’s familiar with Dethklok knows that it’s the live band cognate of the popular Adult Swim series Metalocalypse. In the show, the band is the world’s seventh biggest economy…
Titus Andronicus, an outfit named after arguably the bloodiest of Shakespeare’s plays, trades in an exuberant, unvarnished melodic brand of rock that’s infused with plenty of the energy you’d expect from a punk band. At the same time, the act could never be confused for a conventional punk band, and…
Roniit is a project that got started around two years ago by namesake Roniit Alkayam, who went to high school in Evergreen and studied music business at the University of Colorado at Denver. Alkayam started writing her own music in conjunction with her boyfriend Eric Brown, who keeps time for…
Recognized as one of the most important and influential figures in underground dance music today, Frankfurt’s Chris Liebing is a DJ, producer, label-boss and the charismatic host of the popular weekly CLR Podcast. A longtime player in the international club and party scene, Liebing has seen his status rise considerably…
Twenty years hasn’t done much to mellow the pure weirdness of Pure Guava, Ween’s third studio album and major label debut from 1992. Like 1991’s The Pod, Pure Guava includes plenty of sound experiments and bizarre conceptual flights of fancy. But the album – released twenty years ago today -…
We’ve got a fresh batch of hip-hop for ya, and it sounds goood! King FOE and Yonnas Abraham of BLKHRTS rap scary in “Goth Swag,” Naeem Oba and brikAbrak open eyes with “La La La” from their upcoming EP Bread and Circuses, Myrical gets dirty with his new banger, “Ass…
Even though the band has been around for five years, Metz just released its self-titled debut full-length on Sub Pop this year. Even prior to that, the Toronto-based trio only released a few seven-inches. Mostly these guys have spent their time focusing on developing as a group by touring and…
For an artist whose career has been built espousing the virtues of DIY self-reliance, it’s been a long time since Sole (born Tim Holland) has done a record all by himself with no producers or label people listening over his shoulder. And while Sole confides that this was nerve-racking at…
Gustavo D’Arthenay is better known these days as Input, an emerging rapper who’s been grinding hard for the better part of the past decade. With a half-dozen releases already under his belt and two more — including a collaboration with Broken titled Never Heard of Ya and Bomb’s Over Everything,…
A Place to Bury Strangers makes the kind of guitar rock that doesn’t just carry melody but is rather a palpable, elemental presence in the room. From early on, the act drew immediate comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, the Cure and Big Black, as critics searched…
There’s a ton of fresh music from the scene, including Colorado Crates Vol. 1, a free compilation hosted and mixed by SP Double and featuring a bunch of local favorites, including SP, Mr Midas, Innerstate Ike, Foodchain, Cola Diva, Spoke In Words and more. Speaking of Spoke In Words, he’s…
The Faint was one of the main bands among the small wave of underground artists that emerged out of the unlikely environs of Omaha, Nebraska, a wave that included noteworthy acts such as Cursive, Bright Eyes and Azure Ray, all on the Saddle Creek imprint. The Faint was one of…
When the Sonar tour (an offshoot of the prestigious Barcelona festival) hits Denver tomorrow night, the lineup is going to be killer: Die Antwoord, Azari & III, Seth Troxler, Tiga, Gesaffelstein, Nic Fanciulli and Paul Kalkbrenner. Kalkbrenner, who draws crowds numbering in the tens of thousands in his native Germany,…
Lauded Sub Pop recording artist Sera Cahoone grew up in Colorado — Littleton, to be exact. By the time she was in middle school, she was playing drums for gigging bands, and in the early ’90s, she formed the experimental-rock band Idle Mind with her friend Roger Green. Although one…
After years of building a solid, devoted following with her deeply affecting and personal songs, performing and touring frequently on her own and with a band, Angie Stevens was ready to hang up her guitar. “I needed a break,” declares Angie Stevens. “I was done. I was cooked. I was…
Although the great majority of our interviews take place in advance of a show, every now and then, we get a chance to hang out with an act when it comes through town. Such was the case yesterday with affable and intelligent Dan Deacon, who took time out of his…
Since forming nearly a decade ago, Toronto’s Cancer Bats have developed an accessible, harder-edged sound that comes across as rock shedding a hard-core shell, particularly on its latest release, Dead Set on Living. We recently spoke with vocalist Liam Cormier about the new album, his favorite rap trio, and how…
