For more than a year, the Swayback have shuttled back and forth to Los Angeles to work with revered knob turner Andy Johns. While this news is not exactly new to us, it has managed to garner the notice of Music Connection Magazine, who included a photo of the outfit…
Sixteen Candles: Are you about to turn sixteen, or do you know somebody who is? Then pay close attention to this next item: Evidently, the one and only KS-107.5 drive time mixmaster extraordinaire DJ Chonz is willing to get behind the decks for you or your loved one’s sweet 16…
Global Dance Festival 2009 (Official Video)Monolith may get more press, but of the summer’s Red Rocks festivals, Global Dance Festival is not only bigger and more well-established, it’s also a better place to see lots of gorgeous, half-naked women (see the video embedded above, which may be NSFW depending on…
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”…
Pacific Pride, Weed Diamond, Green Typewriters November 27 hi-dive What it was like: Making the most of a menu of three or four chords. The stark sounds of Pacific Pride’s CD release show at the hi-dive on Friday seemed especially fitting this weekend. Following the sumptuousness and excess of the…
Ah, man, it’s that time of year already? Time to start hearing all about how everybody’s preparing their livers for South By Southwest, yada, yada, yada? Yep. Appears so. Even though it’s still more than three months away, the shadow of Austin’s annual booze and schmooze fest looms large. And…
We would hate for you to miss out on all the awesome that happens every weekend in our fair city, so we’ve decided to run down three of the best shows in one easy-to-swallow post, with video and audio. Tell us — and the rest of the world — what…
Singing a cappella is an art — and artform that most of us would be better off not practicing at all. Ever. For any reason. (We’re not being mean here: We’ve heard you singing in the car. Really. Yikes!) Take it from us: It’s best to leave the art to…
We’re all about local. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. And so we’re all about buying local (well, aside from the American Spirit cigarettes we smoke, the Circle K coffee we drink and the Hondas we drive). So naturally, we totally appreciate and co-sign the sentiments behind the…
Determination and rock and roll run in the Avina blood. Maybe it’s a consequence of tight times and hard luck, the way families in poverty leaning on each other just to survive brings them a little closer together. Maybe it’s that relentless optimism of chasing the American dream that immigrants…
Two years ago, I made my first visit to Northfield Shops at Stapleton for the grand opening of the Denver Improv (8246 East 49th Avenue). Although Northfield can be seen from I-70 and is just a ten- or fifteen-minute drive from downtown, it still felt like it was in the…
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…
With a slip of the tongue, the name CunninLynguists can change from a description of one of the most respected hip-hop acts in the game to an act that, if performed without discretion, could get you kicked out of most places. CunninLynguists’ Kno and Deacon the Villain have, with very…
Referencing everyone from Silver Apples to Suicide to Young Marble Giants, Iowa City’s Wet Hair takes the keyboard-smeared, minimalist-art-rock-duo shtick to a new extreme of awesomeness. Granted, the sub-subgenre isn’t broad enough to brook much fakery — and frontman Shaun Reed (along with collaborator Ryan Garbes) carves a singular niche…
Hailing from the state that brought you Mastodon, Georgia’s Baroness is likewise a critically lauded metal outfit that seems to have sprung fully formed with the release of its 2007 debut, Red Album. But where Mastodon traffics in massive conceptual gestures and passages of ping-pong prog, Baroness reins in the…
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…
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…
The Blackout Pact’s demise was a highly scrutinized one. A fellow touring band’s laptop went missing, and a quick search found it nestled among the Pact’s personal possessions. Blame was placed, and the band fell apart. More than two years after that fateful day in Las Vegas, the Pact is…
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…
The name Faces of Radio is fitting for this band, because it seems like the players are aiming for the airways — or at the very least, enticing people to make their way to the dance floor. With that in mind, the act relies on a somewhat safe and formulaic…
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…
Rachael Yamagata released her critically acclaimed debut disc, Happenstance, in 2004, only to be dumped by her record label, RCA, shortly thereafter. Last year the singer-songwriter and pianist finally resurfaced, on Warner Bros., with the wonderfully ambitious double album Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart. Richly textured ballads dominate the first disc,…
