Concerts

Dave Watts released the reins for the Motet’s latest album. According to the drummer and founder of the Boulder-based band, writing and recording tracks for the new record was much different from the creative process on past efforts. Whereas those featured a revolving cast of musicians led by a single,…

There’s no denying the strong sense of musical history that propels much of Back to the Country. This ragtag ensemble has clearly done its homework when it comes to making American folk, country, blues and roots music, as evidenced by the stunning acoustic solos and heartfelt pedal-steel guitar that drive…

Catholic Girls features Cole Paulson of Perspective, Tim Espiritu of Cheyenne’s Reproacher, and Andy Robbins, drummer for the now-defunct local hardcore staple Bankrobber. Although the band’s brand of punk and grind-infused hardcore takes brief detours into doomy dirges — as in the intros for “Dead Fawn” and “1996” — the…

Putting a modern twist on classic-rock jukebox favorites, Ben Samples displays a healthy application of glitch on Sex Drugs & Bass Vol. 2, offering everything a club’s sound system needs to get the party going, throwback style. Throwing up a middle finger to the bar crowd that begs DJs to…

There’s a bit of pop punk’s upbeat, defiant, hopeful energy coming off the songs on Letters From Home, the latest from Birthday Candles. But there’s also more sonic detail in the melodies than is often encountered in a lot of that music. “Otherside” and “Without a Trace” begin with a…

While the location is bound to be very familiar to folks living in Centennial — or at least northbound commuters on I-25 — the new building going in at 7101 South Clinton Street, the former site of the Trail Dust Steak House (and later Rhythms) will look completely different when…

Germany’s Andhim (due this Friday, January 24, at Bar Standard) display a humility not often seen in the DJ world. Full grace and gratitude, the duo of Simon Haehnel and Tobias Müller create house music that’s made “to uplift.” They call it “superhouse,” and although it’s not new to the…

Back with another edition of In the Mix, where we spotlight new dance tracks and mixes from local producers and DJs. We’ve got some acid, some live disco-house, some melodic soultron and deep house. There’s one frequent flyer this week, and that’s PowTron, who drops some music we can only…

This Saturday, January 25, BLKHRTS are playing their last show as denizens of Denver. Next month, the lauded local act is picking up stakes and heading for Los Angeles. Before the outfit leaves the Mile High City behind, though, it’s going to offer a special parting gift to one lucky…

MURDER BY DEATH at THE STANLEY HOTEL | 1/18/14 Most shows in Colorado are easy to get to, even if you head up to the Belly Up in Aspen. But with the flood-damaged highways leading up to Estes Park, with one particular stretch narrowed to just one lane with each…

WEDS | JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE at PEPSI CENTER | 1/22/14 Last year was a busy one for Justin Timberlake. For starters, the pop god released The 20/20 Experience, his first album in seven years, and despite its profusion of six-minute-plus songs and baroque flourishes, the album was a huge hit –…

After graduating college and moving to Denver in the ’70s, Kevin Geraghty started going to the Club 404, the bar at 404 Broadway owned for six decades by Jerry Feld, who passed away earlier this month. Geraghty, who ran Brendan’s Pub for almost ten years on Market Street and later…

SAT| JUSTIN JAY at VINYL | 1/18/14 There’s a certain freshness that newcomers bring to any scene they infiltrate, especially if they grew up in a completely different era. That’s exactly what Jay is doing for house music. The teenager, who isn’t even old enough to drink in some of…

FRI-SUN | MURDER BY DEATH at STANLEY HOTEL | 1/17-1/19 When Murder by Death first formed in Bloomington, Indiana, nearly fifteen years ago under the name Little Joe Gould, the outfit was somewhat of an anomaly, as the whole chamber-pop phenomenon hadn’t happened yet — and wouldn’t for another five…

PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 1/15/14 After the stage was cleared of any strange musical contraptions left behind by opening act Author & Punisher (more on that in a minute), Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals took the stage, and instantanly, it was strange…

Yesterday, our sister paper in New York, The Village Voice, revealed the results of Pazz & Jop 2013. For more than four decades, the expansive critic’s poll has ranked the best releases each year based upon the input of music scribes from all across the country. This year, Kanye West…

In sixth grade, Tony Furtado made a banjo out of a pie tin for a music-class project. He glued some paper to the pie tin, painted the makeshift instrument with latex paint, and then strung it up with nylon fishing string and tuned it all to one note because he…

It won’t take long for faithful Samples fans to pick up on the nostalgic undercurrent of America. “It seems like it was 70,000 years ago,” sings guitarist, vocalist and sole remaining original member Sean Kelly on “Boulder,” a slow reggae jam that nods to the group’s beginnings over two decades…

With layers of sound over heavy beats and rhythm, like washes of color streaming with eddies of evolving hues hanging prominently as a compositional piece, the songs on Entropic Advance’s Industrial Noise Control recall the darker moments of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II. “Nothing Comes of It,” meanwhile,…

On the inside cover of Dan Allen’s To the Left Will Go West, there’s a still from a scene near the end of Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law in which Nicoletta Braschi is explaining to Tom Waits and John Lurie how the road forks (“On the right will go east;…

On “Spitfire,” which opens this eponymous effort, Weapönizer sounds like some kind of early thrash band fresh from hearing Venom for the first time — or like Darkthrone, if that band had drawn even more inspiration than it did from the first wave of grindcore. But while on the surface…