Concerts

Want to own a piece of music history? Suburban Home Records is selling off a number of rare — essentially unique, actually — vinyl test pressings they’ve amassed over the years. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, test pressings are basically just what the name says, a limited run…

To get ready for the orgy of musical drunkenness that is the Westword Music Showcase (June 19), we staged a pre-orgy of musical drunkenness at City Hall, with a performance by Big Gigantic. See more photos by Aaron Thackeray at westword.com/slideshow…

I’m feeling pretty fortunate these days,” declares Nathaniel Rateliff, sitting on the front porch of his Baker neighborhood home. The singer-songwriter is still buzzing from the string of shows he just finished on Daytrotter.com’s Barnstormers Tour. He’s been home just long enough to run a few errands, pour himself a…

Colorado has certainly had its fair share of bands with sprawling memberships. Fortunately, most of those groups have brought us some of the better music of the past several years. Boulder’s Fellow Citizens (due at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, May 14) are no exception. Somehow all nine Citizens manage…

Don’t let the veneer of Americana fool you: Akron/Family is a weird band. Mixing folk with a broad palette of experimental pop and avant-garde improvisation, the act’s songs are reminiscent of the darker, more hushed yet blissed-out moments of Sun City Girls. It’s not that this outfit is overtly inventive;…

Here’s a plot line no one could have predicted two years ago: Canadian teen drama star turns into singer/rapper whose most famous freestyle involves reading lines off a BlackBerry. Buoyed by his association with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, he attains such massive success that he does a single for…

If melodic, anthemic pop music is a crime, then these guys are guilty as charged. Hailing from Tallahassee, Florida, Look Mexico signed to Suburban Home Records last spring on the strength of its early releases. Like Sunny Day Real Estate without the dark side, Look Mexico resembles a pop-punk band…

It’s safe to say that legendary punk bands like Jawbreaker and Hot Water Music wouldn’t have existed — at least not in the form we know them — without Leatherface. In fact, it was the band’s 1999 split with Hot Water that introduced many Americans to Leatherface, although the veteran…

Often brutally confessional, this latest release from David McGhee features some of the songs he used to perform before he disappeared for a few years. And if they’re any indication, McGhee must have been processing more than his fair share of personal demons, crippling loss, intense confusion and social rejection…

A little girl starts this two-song EP by saying, “I’m apologizing in advance for what you’re about to hear.” It’s meant to be self-deprecating, obviously, but that only makes sense if you follow it with death metal or something equally badass. Instead, Be the Ant follows it with nine minutes…

Since drifting into Denver from parts east a couple years back, Emily Frembgen has been busy making a humble yet profound mark in town. Besides being a member of the lush indie-rock project the Language of Termites, the singer-songwriter crafts solo material that’s twice as ethereal at half the volume;…

In five short, slashing songs, Lion Sized has created a classic punk-rock release for people who hate punk rock — or hate what it’s become, anyway. It’s tempting to call it post-punk as a nod to its intelligence, but that’s just because we’ve (mostly) forgotten how fucking smart punk can…

As musicians, the members of Kinetix have stellar chops. That much is clear just from hearing the band even once: These are some monster players. And the band’s latest album, Let Me In, recorded at the Blasting Room with Jason Livermore and produced by Flobot Andy Guerrero, does a great…

The conversation in Saratoga Springs, New York, is mostly about turf conditions at the local racetrack, the winners of the last big race and the other finer points of horse racing. It’s been nicknamed “Spa City” for its abundance of natural mineral springs, which help make it a favorite tourist…

Before striking out on his own, Pezzner put in sixteen years as half of the duo Jacob London. As interesting as that act’s take on house and breaks was, though, Pezzner’s solo work has quickly surpassed it. His mesmeric take on deep house has quickly gained the attention and admiration…

You excited for Showcase? Yeah, us too. So excited, in fact, we can’t wait. June 19 seems a long way off, so we’re throwing a free Showcase preparty called Get Your Pink On starting at 9:30 tonight at City Hall, 1144 Broadway. DJs A-Ray (grab his latest mixtape) and Mu$a…

If this new fangled Internet machine has proven one thing to us, it’s that we wasted our youth smoking pot and reading comic books. It seems like every damn day there’s a video of some little turd doing some amazing music thing and we’re left trying to find someone to…

If you haven’t got on the Savoy bandwagon yet, perhaps the video embedded above will help you make the jump. As we told you in our recent feature on the act, this is an electronic dance act with the soul of a rock band — and the show to go…

The second single off Drake’s upcoming blockbuster finds him with some 808s and orchestra, courtesy of (who else?) Kanye West, doing his Casanova thing. The reaction was sort of neutral — it’s not terrible, but it’s also not “Forever.” Something of a holding pattern. But then the video came out…