In the ’90s, Sean Tillman performed in both noise-rock band Calvin Krime and the more pop-oriented Sean Na Na while still a teenager in the Minneapolis area. Around the turn of this century, he created Har Mar Superstar, a bombastic hip-hop/R&B persona that delivers suitably single-entendre lyrics. The act is…

Half a decade ago, Speakeasy Tiger (due this Saturday, April 27, at the Marquis Theater) seemed to be in the right place at the right time, with a kind of electro-rock that was equal parts Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Gossip, only gone in a more pop direction. The group…

It’s influenced by everything I grew up on, from American traditions to the Middle Eastern traditions of my father,” says Men in Burka’s Kamran Khan, describing his group’s sound. “I didn’t grow up in a mosque. I didn’t grow up a Muslim, but I was definitely influenced by that culture…

JOHNNY MARR @ GOTHIC THEATRE |4/21/12 The moment everybody seemed to be waiting for during Johnny Marr’s set last night came at the end, when the iconic echoing guitar part rippled through the air, signaling the beginning of “How Soon Is Now?” There was just something about the vividness, the…

DANZIG @ OGDEN THEATER | 4/19/12 Before Danzig came on stage, a voice that sounded like Glenn Danzig got the crowd going by informing us that Snoop Dogg was playing down the street and so was Tesla, you know, just in case seeing Danzig wasn’t the most alluring option of…

GHOST @ OGDEN THEATRE | 4/18/12 As is customary at this point, before Ghost took the stage, Jocelyn Pook’s haunting “Masked Ball” from Eyes Wide Shut came through the P.A. and perfectly set the mood for what was to follow. At first, the Nameless Ghouls took their places and started…

“Happy” starts off Hi-Strung’s new album as though some sort of standoff were about to go down. It’s like spaghetti-Western music interpreted by Siouxsie & the Banshees working with Lene Lovich. “Weird” shifts gears with whimsical but well-composed lyrics that evoke Todd Rundgren or the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and…

When Trent Reznor dissolved his high-profile band Nine Inch Nails a few years back, there was instant speculation about what he would do next. In 2010, he scored the soundtrack to The Social Network; that same year, he formed How to Destroy Angels with his wife, former West Indian Girl…

Founded in 2008, Ghost B.C. created a bit of mystique for itself right from the start. The sextet is essentially anonymous in its elaborate costumes, with singer Papa Emeritus II decked out like a satanic pope, and his cardinals, The Ghouls With No Name, performing in uniform brown robes whose…

Johnny Marr is best known as the Smiths’ influential and inventive guitarist. Since the band’s split in 1987, Marr has kept himself busy playing with some of the more high-profile acts of the modern era, like Modest Mouse. Marr’s clean playing style and simple yet intricate melodies have made him…

For a couple of years, this band played out under the curious moniker Sew Buttons on Ice Cream. But last year, the duo of Shannon Webber and David Samuelson switched to the more ominous Church Fire (due at Herman’s Hideaway on Monday, April 22). Some may know Webber for her…

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL |4/14/13 In a fairly gutsy move, two songs into its set, Suicidal Tendencies performed its classic song, “Institutionalized,” a tune of paranoia, societal oppression and mental illness. It was a different from the version on the album. The music was a little more jazzed…

Part noise, part dark IDM, this debut album from Adam Rojo’s Diffuser project is very different from the music Rojo made previously with Ideal Fathers or with his new band, Hollow Talk. While capturing the essence of the socio-political and economic erosion of recent decades, Rojo makes no bones about…

Now, Now came together nearly a decade ago, when Cacie Dalager and Bradley Hale started writing music together while still in high school. Initially called Now, Now Every Children, the group shortened its name to its current moniker after leaving Afternoon Records in 2010. Jess Abbott, who rounds out the…

Angel Olsen grew up in St. Louis, and some of that city’s soulful, bluesy spirit evidently rubbed off on her. A self-taught musician and vocalist, Olsen honed her skills as a member of Cairo Gang, the backup unit for Will Oldham on some of his more recent Bonnie “Prince” Billy…

In the realm of local art terrorism, Tom Nelsen is probably not a name that springs immediately to mind. You wouldn’t necessarily expect Nelsen, who organizes the garage-rock-lo-fi-oriented Hullaballoo festival, to have weirdo experimental music coming from his brain. But this is also the guy who drummed for the performance-art/psychedelic-rock…

It was just before Christmas when Mike Marchant, one of Denver’s most celebrated songwriters, found out he has cancer. “Being told you have cancer — I will never, ever forget what that feels like, because it’s terrifying,” he says. After seeing a doctor for what he assumed was an infection,…