Portland, Oregon-based experimental rock band RLLRBLL makes an appearance this Sunday, June 12, at Down Space in the Dona Laurita Photography and Fine Art gallery. Starting in 1994, the group, which completely resists any pat classifications, came together after Mae Starr, Monte Trent Allen and Gilles left Bozeman, Montana and…
Codename: Carter emerged from a recording project that guitarist and vocalist Steve Gray undertook in 2008. Though more known as a guitarist, Gray discovered sounds that inspired him on keyboard, and he shared demos with old friend and longtime musical collaborator, drummer Michael Behrenhausen. The two filled out the demo…
When Titus Andronicus released its conceptually ambitious triple album The Most Lamentable Tragedy on July 28, 2015, it became a landmark of modern punk. It also marked singer Patrick Stickles’ thirtieth birthday and came out the day of the end of a five-night run of sold-out shows at New York…
New York City-based White Hills are sharing several dates with Vancouver-based Black Mountain. Though from opposite coasts of the continent, both bands are considered exemplars of modern psychedelic rock while never setting out to fit into a genre, much less be torchbearers for a movement. Perhaps it’s something of a…
The annual Underground Music Showcase (aka The UMS) takes place July 28-31, 2016. Featuring a wide variety of musical artists, The UMS dominates Broadway between Sixth and Alameda avenues and offers shows from hundreds of bands. The majority of the festival’s featured acts are based in Denver, but the UMS’s…
It’s appropriate that Beach Slang is from Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, because that’s how it conducts itself with the people that come to the band’s shows. Whether it’s before, during or after the show or down the line. Frontman James Alex is known for answering letters and messages…
In its seemingly never ending pursuit of keeping things fresh for itself and fans, veteran rock band the Melvins are releasing their latest record, Basses Loaded, on June 3 through Ipecac Recordings. The record will feature six separate bass players across twelve songs. This will include Steve McDonald of Redd…
Bleached recently released its latest record, Welcome the Worms, and with it, the band took an artistic leap forward. The band worked with veteran producer Joe Chiccarelli, who has produced or recorded with Frank Zappa, Oingo Boingo, the White Stripes and Tori Amos, to name a few. But an album…
They Might Be Giants is one of the most well known bands from that pre-alternative rock era in the 1980s when there wasn’t an all-encompassing, vague umbrella term for music that wasn’t punk, wasn’t mainstream pop, not quite straight-ahead rock and yet accessible. The band’s self-titled 1986 debut album was…
Fifth Wall Productions is having its second run of The Soul of Wit 3: Sex, Religion and Politics this Saturday, March 5, at 7 p.m. at the Crossroads Theater in Five Points. The variety show, produced and helmed by Thomas Gerlick, aims to bring together the worlds of theater, music…
Eleanor Friedberger was once a member of experimental rock band Fiery Furnaces with her brother Matthew from 2000 until 2011, when it went on indefinite hiatus. In that band the Friedbergers seemed to try out any crazy, creative idea they pleased from record to record, establishing themselves as one of…
Throughout its long career, irreverent humor and compassion for the human condition is at the core of Freakwater’s alternative country music. On its latest record, Scheherazade, its first album of new material since 2005’s Thinking Of You, founding members Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Irwin explore modern myths and archetypes…
Rival Sons from Long Beach, California is the opening act on the current, and purportedly last, Black Sabbath tour including the date this Monday, February 15, at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Since 2009 the four-piece hard rock band has been honing its sound and making a name for itself,…
Afrika Bambaataa is one of the architects of hip-hop culture as we know it. He was there when DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Dee were throwing the parties that were the foundation stone of hip-hop in New York City in the 1970s. The term hip-hop was coined by Cowboy…
Arrested Development, which performs on Saturday, December 19, at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, was one of the earliest incarnations of alternative hip-hop, as it would come to be called by critics. That designation is, of course, problematic when part of the reason the group wasn’t immediately embraced by hip-hop culture was…
Agnostic Front was one of the earliest of the New York hardcore bands having formed in 1980 before that term was widely used to describe the faster and more aggressive music that characterized that movement. Toward the middle of the decade, Agnostic Front was an early adopter of the crossover…
!!! (aka ChkChkChk, if one is trying to do an Internet search) performs today, Monday, December 14, at Larimer Lounge with DJ Trundle and a Stereolab cover band called Stereolad composed entirely of members of !!!. !!! came together in 1996 in Sacramento, California, after two earlier bands, the noisy,…
Break out your studded belt and that old pair of Converse signed in marker by Bert McCracken and Kenny Vasoli, because Emo Night LA is coming to Denver. On Tuesday, December 8, twenty-somethings and former scene queens can cry their eyeliner off for Taking Back Tuesday at the Marquis Theatre…
Legendary grindcore band Pig Destroyer is co-headlining the Denver Black Sky festival with Skinless at the Gothic Theatre on Saturday, December 5. Based out of Alexandria, Virginia, Pig Destroyer began in 1997 when vocalist J.R. Hayes, formerly of Enemy Soil, and guitarist Scott Hull, formerly of Anal Cunt and Agoraphobic…
Slow Magic makes another appearance in Colorado at the Gothic Theatre on Thursday, December 3, with like-minded electronic pop artists Giraffage, Lindsay Lowend and Bollywood Life. Performing in a costume and striking mask, Slow Magic aims to direct the audience’s attention to the music and the show’s visual art. The mask…
Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein is likely best known for his stint in legendary punk band Misfits, which he joined at age sixteen to play guitar with his brother, Jerry Only, Glenn Danzig and a string of drummers. When Misfits returned in 1995 after a twelve-year break, Doyle rejoined the band…
Nik Turner’s Hawkwind will be at Lion’s Lair tonight, performing with the progressive-rock outfit Hedersleben in a show that combines music and mythology for a space-rock extravaganza. Turner is perhaps best known as a founding member of the legendary, UK-based psychedelic rock band Hawkwind. From 1969 to 1976, and then again from 1982…
