AOL’s music blog, Spinner.com, posted a list late last week titled “Revenge of the Rock Nerds: The 10 Biggest Geeks in Music.” Between such dorky songsmiths as Talking Heads’ David Byrne (#10) and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo (#1) lies former Dead Kennedys frontman and longtime Bay Area fixture Jello Biafra (#8),…
Akron/Family, Laura Goldhamer, Achille Lauro, Fellow Citizens Friday, Aug. 1, 2009 Bluebird Theater Better than: Attending an energetic, long-form tribal jam in the woods. Akron/Family had no problem translating their musical dynamic to a live setting. The group’s extended, hook-based don’t require the engineering resources of a studio to remain…
The Northern Way (formerly Set Forth) is getting ready to start shooting its video for the song “Crazy” on Friday, August 7 and is looking for a female lead to star in the clip, as well as a bunch of extras to stand around and act like they’re doing stuff…
Looks like the Danielle Ate the Sandwich phenomenon is continuing to spread like the swine flu in an airport smokers lounge. Just noticed that the Fort Collins-based singer-songwriter is listed as the “band of the month” on paramourfans.com. Not sure about the whole “band” thing or how much such exposure…
Read Indie3O3’s manifesto after the jump. Penned by Ralphie, it’s the radio version of the Things We Think and Do Not Say. Dig it…
On its blog last night, Denver’s oneiric, majestic A Shoreline Dream began offering a free download of its song “Departure.” Co-written with Berlin-based electronica producer Ulrich Schnauss, the song is a lush wash of shoegazing gorgeousness that first appeared on the band’s full-length Recollections of Memory, released earlier this year…
Just caught a whiff of the lineup for this weekend’s Hot IQs barbecue, and we must say it is absolutely, positively killer, friends. Besides being IQs’ very last show ever — unless, of course, the band plays the seemingly inevitable reunion show in a few years from now — the…
Update: Ticket giveaway is over. Thanks to everyone who submitted answers! Congratulations go out to Crawford Philleo. You’re the lucky winner of the last pair of tickets to tonight’s show. Two guest list spots will be in your name this evening at the Walnut Room. (The correct answer to the…
For the last decade, Bands for the Lands has used live music and other arts to further the cause of conservation and sustainability. The Denver-based non-profit will take that one step further with the introduction of the the Ticket-Tee at concert featuring Black Sheep Brigade, Primasonic, Light Travels Faster and…
In an effort to benefit their nonprofit organization, the Flobots and The Fray are coming together for a ping-pong and bowling tournament on Friday, September 4 at Lucky Strike Lanes in the Belmar Shopping District in Lakewood. Think you can beat them? Well, the two bands are giving you a…
It’s been a couple months since its release, but the double-disc Rocky Mountain Low compilation–an exhaustive overview of the Front Range punk scene of the late ’70s, including a rare pre-Dead Kennedys track by a young Jello Biafra, back when he was a long-haired Boulder kid named Eric Boucher–is getting…
Distrakt has been busy working hard on his new album, the follow-up to the well-received 2006 album, Distraktions. But he’s also put in work on a CD-ROM teaching hip-hop heads the history of hip-hop. Why would he put in so much time on a project that he basically gives away…
Black FrancisWednesday July 29, 2009The Walnut RoomBetter than: Seeing him at a much bigger venue. Black Francis (aka Frank Black aka Charles Thompson) doesn’t tour in a van. Dude’s been riding around the country in a big-ass tour deluxe tour bus, which seemed really out of place parked outside of…
You’ve heard the old aphorism that being in a band is sort of like being married, right? Only it’s not sort of like being married; it’s exactly like being married. Ask Mark Sundermeier and Chris Stake of the Trampolines. “We’re together so much,” says Sundermeier. “We file taxes together; this…
I recently stopped by Platte River Bar and Grill (5995 South Santa Fe Drive, Littleton), a good local bar and also a good local restaurant serving Mexican food and burgers. I spotted a guy and his son, who looked about ten years old, sitting at the bar, eating chicken wings…
Owing a clear artistic debt to the smoky atmospheres and muscular rhythms of Portishead, Ode to the Marionette performs the kind of music you’d expect to hear in a club scene in a Gregg Araki movie. The outfit sounds a bit like the Cranes with a grounding in jazz lounge…
When it comes to Akron/Family, expect the unexpected. The group boasts not one, not two, but three multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriters: Dana Janssen (who took part in a Q&A accessible at blogs.westword.com/backbeat), Seth Olinsky and Miles Seaton. Moreover, each member of the trio is so naturally eclectic that the tuneage on their…
Jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall has released a dozen albums in the two decades she’s been performing professionally. Her latest album, the bossa-nova-tinged Quiet Nights, might be her most romantic effort to date. She has said the album is very womanly — “like you’re lying next to your lover…
Having formed during a backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail, San Francisco’s Hot Buttered Rum is, on the surface, pretty much the embodiment of what many find so distasteful about the jam-band scene: Rum has worked with former members of the Dead, tours around the country in biodiesel-fueled vehicles…
One day, perhaps, Oklahoma psych-pop ensemble Starlight Mints will finally escape the long shadow cast by fellow Okie weird-rockers The Flaming Lips. But that day isn’t coming anytime soon. And singer-guitarist Allan Vest’s high, quirky voice, his surreal lyrics, the act’s interest in orchestral-flavored arrangements and everything-including-the-kitchen-and-bathroom-sink sonic experimentation doesn’t…
With so many bands using the musical equivalent of Mr. Peabody’s Waybac Machine, San Diego’s Donkeys are hardly alone in terms of looking to the past for direct inspiration. Often enough, Americana and country are where punk rockers end up when their anger peters out. These four may not have…
The five-song debut EP from Hearts Like Lions kicks off with “Through the Cracks,” an irresistible, luminescent monster of a track. Balancing edgy, epic guitar lines with simple synths and an unforgettable vocal, the tune references a large swath of the ’80s new wave without pointing too closely in any…
