Lawn Chair Kings

It’s pretty easy to get a feel for what the Lawn Chair Kings are all about from “Zombies,” the opening cut on the Durango-based act’s third release, Zombies Wake! While the band injects a fair amount of Midwest gritty rock à la the Replacements into the song’s chorus, the verses…

Ibis Giant

As an MC, Ibis Giant is quite good. His subject matter is original and, for that reason, usually interesting, and his flow is old-school rugged — reminiscent of Jedi Mind Tricks’ Jus Allah. On Fatez Relic, you get the sense that he’s making music entirely for himself, which is an…

A. Tom Collins joins Atomic Music Group roster

A. Tom Collins recently submitted its music to be considered for a support slot for Reverend Horton Heat’s show at the Black Sheep in Colorado Springs on Saturday, December 28. Not only did the act land the gig, but it ended up getting picked up by the Atomic Music Group,…

Review: moe. at Ogden Theatre, 12/7/13

MOE. at OGDEN THEATRE | 12/7/13 moe. opened its tour in Denver this weekend, and the time the guys spent in the studio really had them ready. Vocal harmonies were on point all night and the outfit played seamless transitions all night, along with offering a few moments of psychedelic…

Review: EOTO at Fillmore Auditorium, 12/7/13

EOTO at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 12/7/13 When Jason Hann sang the opening line of “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins towards the end of EOTO’s set, it seemed more appropriate than cheesy. Also a singing drummer, Hann offered a heavier dub take of the song, rather than the pounding…

The best concerts to see in Denver this week

ZZ WARD, ALICE IN WINTERLAND at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 12/12/13 Zsuzsanna Ward got her start singing classic blues and R&B in her father’s band at age twelve. The experience instilled in her a keen sense of melody and vocal expressiveness that served her well when she moved to Los…

Nelson Mandela inspired a rich musical legacy

Nelson Mandela was a pivotal agent for change who inspired a rich musical legacy of resistance. Biographer Richard Stengel describes Mandela, who passed away yesterday at the age of 95, as “the last pure hero.” And while he was all that and more, the music the iconic historical figure inspired…

The best concerts to see in Denver this weekend

FRI & SAT | MOE. at OGDEN THEATRE | 12/6-12/7 The latest studio album from moe., 2012’s What Happened to the LA LA’s, features the kind of lengthy improvisations and folk-rock structures that made the Buffalo natives such hits in the jam-band scene starting in 1989. The group’s live shows…

The best EDM in Denver this weekend

EOTO started as a String Cheese Incident side project between Michael Travis and Jason Hann, a studio musician who also played with Dr. Dre and was a member of Isaac Hayes’s band. Out of the practicality of the living situations of both musicians, EOTO began as more of an electronic…

All you need is love on Something Underground’s new EP

Music is in the Larson brothers’ blood. “It’s what we’ve known the longest,” declares Seth Larson. “I feel as comfortable on stage, maybe more comfortable on stage, then I do just walking around in life.” Seth and his brother Josh, two-thirds of Something Underground, were born to musical parents. A…

Krooked Drivers

Right Beneath Your Feet , the new six-song EP from Krooked Drivers, is packed with big-beat styles that take a hip-hop head’s sensibility for sample chopping and merge it with the kind of thick synth bass and pad washes that have taken over the post-dubstep world. The duo’s intricately layered…

4H Royalty

It’s tough to find moments on Liars & Outliers where 4H Royalty frontman Zach Boddicker takes himself and his music too seriously: As on the outfit’s last two albums, there is plenty here in the way of levity. That light mood comes in the airy titles and lyrics of tunes…

Soul School

Soul School, one of the busier acts in town, has dozens of covers in its repertoire, everything from Motown and R&B tunes to soul and funk to disco and hip-hop. On Chapter One, Soul School’s ten-song debut of original material, the group draws from the same genres it covers, opening…

Prism Waves

The title track of Courage, the new Prism Waves EP, establishes an overarching aesthetic of melancholic yearning, which can be heard not just in the plaintive singing, but in the way the guitar notes are plucked, arranged and paced. The song sounds like something the Cure might have done for…