As much a conceptual project as what can perhaps best be described as a touring collective, Ten Out of Tennessee (Erin McCarley, Andy Davis, Katie Herzig, K.S. Rhoads, Tyler James, Matthew Perryman Jones, Trent Dabbs, Butterfly Boucher, Jeremy Lister and Andrew Belle) began in the imaginings of Kristin and Trent…
With clear stylistic nods to the various projects of garage-pop luminary Billy Childish and a playful sensibility inspired by classic Denver indie-pop bands, Bluebelle (due at the Meadowlark on Saturday, December 12) writes pop songs with a bit of an edge. Fronted by guitarist Sarah Fischer, this band could be…
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…
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…
Moonspeed with Widowers Saturday, December 5, 2009 Larimer Lounge Better Than: A CD release show with an overloaded line-up. After an extended break from performance, Widowers played its first show in a few months. The sonic configuration for this show seemed cleaner and more spare than in the past, but…
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…
After solidifying its lineup in May 2008, the Don’ts and Be Carefuls started playing a string of shows along the Front Range, including a high-profile opening slot with HEALTH at Rhinoceropolis that summer. Capitalizing on the enthusiasm that guitarist and singer Casey Banker and drummer Luke Hunter James-Erickson shared for…
This debut from Crawl, which includes former members of Dethbox, is one track after another of hyper-aggressive punk that sounds like it was recorded in an indoor skate park. Just the same, the songs aren’t a full-on speed-driven assault. Whereas a hardcore band might pummel you until the end, Crawl…
In the earlier part of this decade, four post-punk-inspired bands of note from New York came to the attention of the general public: the Strokes, Interpol, the Rapture and Stellastarr*. Of the four, Stellastarr* probably received the least amount of hype, but with the release of its latest album, Civilized,…
Idaho is probably the last place anyone would expect a thriving pocket of experimental rock to exist. But that’s exactly where Finn Riggins was founded, in the small town of Hailey. Four albums and hundreds of shows into its career, Finn Riggins is hardly a household name, but it should…
A cursory listen to Sandusky’s recorded output might give you the impression that the act has been doing soundtrack work for the next Gregg Araki film. In much of the band’s music, you can almost hear sighing ambience, gentle dynamics and the sort of introspective aesthetic that comes from contemplating…
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…
Syndrome of a Down, Dugout Canoe, Talk Normal and Zombie Bite Saturday, November 28, 2009 Rhinoceropolis Better Than: A show where the experimental bands are experimental in the same way. Playing it’s second show, Syndrome of a Down was a duo comprised of two guys using the pseudonyms “Reeves Impediment”…
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…
From the opening drum clicks, this debut release from the Outfit hooks you into the headlong pace of “Towns,” a song with familiar elements. But rather than trying to mimic the manic and loud-quiet guitar work of recent dance-punk bands, the Outfit presents moments of nuanced introspection that lend a…
Alex Ebert first came to public attention as the charismatic singer of indie-rock band Ima Robot. After some drastic life-changing experiences, he came up with the idea for this project, which seems to be part creative epiphany and part artistic therapy. Teaming up with singer/multi-instrumentalist Jade Castrinos and other friends…
Embarking on a small tour commemorating its twentieth anniversary as a band, the unrelenting and ominous-sounding Season to Risk, from Kansas City, was part of the early wave of bands to mix electronics and experimental hardcore. Peers of like-minded acts Drive Like Jehu and the VSS, Season to Risk shares…
Anyone who saw Jacob Isaacs playing in the legendary Angels Never Answer probably wouldn’t have guessed he’d do music like this. The earliest incarnations of Dugoutcanoe (due on Saturday, November 28, at Rhinoceropolis) used tape samples and Isaacs’s prodigious skill with drums and guitar, looping both, and as the project…
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…
Sun Circle, Epileptinomicon, Temples, Sterile Garden and nervesandgel Friday, November 20th, 2009 Glob Better Than: A noise show comprised entirely of purist noise projects. Epileptinomicon opened the show with just Mike Reisinger feeding his vocals through a series of effects pedals into the PA. The result was an amplified white…
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…
You won’t like Vultures if you can’t get past its throaty, nearly screamo vocals or the alloy of hardcore and thrash and lyrics that read like an unabashed screed against society’s ills and personal angst. If, however, you want to hear a record in which a band displays dynamic shifts…
