EYEHATEGOD at BLUEBIRD THEATER | 1/26/14 A couple of people tried to heckle Eyehategod, but Mike Williams was took the flak deftly and turned it into comedy; you had to hand it to him. Someone yelled out, “I’m bored.” Williams told the guy to come down front where there was…
Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All (screenings are set for Friday, January 24 through Sunday, January 26 at 7th Circle Music Collective) is the documentary film about the beloved, pioneering pop punk band and its associated project All. Starting in the late ’70s with drummer Bill Stevenson, Descendents took the energy…
Eyehategod (due Sunday, January 26, at the Bluebird Theater) formed in New Orleans in 1988. The influential band combined its influences from the world of the blues, Black Sabbath and hardcore punk into a unique alchemy that lent itself well to dipping into the dark side of the psyche and…
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…
Andy Rourke (due at Lipgloss this Friday, January 24, at Beauty Bar) came to the attention of the world as the gifted bass player of the Smiths. Alongside drummer Mike Joyce, Rourke, with his eclectic and creative style, provided a subtle but unmistakable backbone to Johnny Marr’s inspired jangle and…
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…
John Doe (due this weekend at Lion’s Lair) is most well-known for his tenure in the influential punk/roots rock band X. That band was known not just for a fiery intensity as a live act but also for its combination of primal rock and roll and thought-provoking lyrics, which had…
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…
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,…
Atomga (due this Saturday, January 18, at Cervantes’ Other Side) was founded by three friends who shared a mutual love of Afrobeat. Early on, Atomga expanded to its current size of eleven members, and although the outfit has released live recordings in the past, it is finally releasing its debut…
Tristan Shone was a mechanical engineer before he formed Author & Punisher (due this Wednesday, January 15, at Summit Music Hall). His first album, 2005’s The Painted Army, hinted at the sound Shone would later hone five years later on Drone Machines in 2010, after having fully integrated various MIDI…
If you’re a Hawkwind fan, we’ve got a good news/bad news scenario for you: The good news is we’ve got a great interview with Dave Brock in which he talks about Lemmy. The bad news is that we did the interview in anticipation of the band’s upcoming show at the…
The psychedelia-tinged Americana and expensive spirit of Mosey West’s Bermuda evoke Green on Red’s 1985 opus Gas Food Lodging, except that these songs have an atmospheric quality that contrasts with the earthy honky-tonk vibe of that record. “The King and Queen of L.A.” offers a gritty Memphis-via-California feel without mixing…
SUN | KID MASK at SEVENTH CIRCLE MUSIC COLLECTIVE | 1/12/14 Back in 2011 and 2012, Pete Bell was the guy with the camera whom you’d always see shooting footage of shows at Rhinoceropolis. Bell was in high school then, and making a documentary about the long-running DIY venue for…
Kris Barman was one of the founding members of Innerpartysystem. Before that band split, Barman had already done some program-ming and synthesizer work on his own. On one tour, in fact, he even gave pointers to Sonny “Skrillex” Moore, when the EDM superstar was getting his start in that style…
FRI | NAKED RAYGUN at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 1/31/14 In the annals of Chicago punk, Naked Raygun was one of the longest-running and most beloved of bands. But while sharing stages with the hardcore bands of the day, Naked Raygun was always just a bit more experimental than most…
SLEEP at THE GOTHIC THEATRE | 1/3/14 Cannabis is legalized here in the same week Sleep comes back to Colorado to play a show. Coincidence? Whatever the case, this show surpassed the last time the outfit played at the Gothic in September 2010. Something just seemed more coherent and focused…
Maria Taylor (due this Sunday, January 5, at the Larimer Lounge) first came to prominence as a member of Azure Ray. Her luminous and ethereal yet strong and warm vocals and skill in multiple instruments helped to make that band stand out and resulted in Taylor being invited to collaborate…
JELLO BIAFRA & GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at SUMMIT | 12/31 As Jello Biafra strolled around the stage at the Summit, singing with real power and conviction while jumping around and gesturing dramatically, he displayed an almost superhuman level of energy and enthusiasm. A legend in his own right, Biafra…
The A-OKs met on the Internet. As frontman Mark Swan notes, “We’re pretty much the billboard band for the success of finding people on Craigslist.” But while the players linked up essentially sight unseen, you’d hardly know it, watching the natural chemistry and sense of camaraderie among them. The initial…
Jello Biafra has had an unmistakable and enduring impact internationally, both on punk and the counterculture. The iconoclast grew up in Boulder and moved to San Francisco in the late ’70s, where he formed the Dead Kennedys and established the Alternative Tentacles imprint. As an outspoken critic of the more…
STRING CHEESE INCIDENT at 1STBANK CENTER | 12/29/13 A true switch-up in the pace of the music and dynamics of the String Cheese Incident set came four songs into the set when the band called Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to the stage for a cover…
