Megan James and Corin Roddick started off in the Montreal experimental-pop band Born Gold. Around two years ago, while on tour with that outfit, Roddick started further exploring his interest in electronic music and formed Purity Ring. (All the downtime on the road gives you plenty of opportunity to either…

Kyle Thomas got his start making music while living in Brattleboro, Vermont. That’s where he wrote a great deal of his latest album, a self-titled affair released on Sub Pop earlier this summer. His most high-profile projects thus far have been the psych-folk band Feathers and his stoner-rock band, Witch,…

Since 1983, filmmaker Joel Haertling has been the sole continuous member of Architect’s Office, a groundbreaking and influential avant-garde project from Boulder. Early in the band’s life, Haertling and his collaborators worked with prominent experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage on soundtracks for Brakhage’s films, sometimes even acting in them; Haertling’s own…

DEAD CAN DANCE @ TEMPLE BUELL THEATRE | 8/19/12 See also: Dead Can Dance’s Brendan Perry on the trance-inducing powers of making music in 6/8 time After a mesmerizing set, Dead Can Dance came back on stage for the first encore of the night to the sounds of an organic-industrial…

When it formed in Sweden in 1991, Refused sounded like any other hardcore band influenced by the later era of that music. But by the time of its second record, 1996’s Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent, these guys made it clear to anyone paying attention that they were…

A year after forming in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981, the members of Dead Can Dance moved to London, where they came into contact with the great post-punk bands of the era, such as the Sound, Comsat Angels and Death in June. The dark urgency of that music can be heard…

If you were to put together a short list of the most interesting indie-rock bands from Denver in the past ten years, it would probably include at least one of the groups featuring either Mike Perfetti or Tyler Campo. Anyone paying attention over the years probably heard of or saw…

Brennen Bryarly is still terrified of heights. You’d think he wouldn’t be by now, but he is. For a decade, he performed the most dangerous job in America, and he spent a lot of time looking down. Now he’s soaring to new heights with his music. Bryarly, of course, is…

See also: – The 25 coolest Iron Maiden T-Shirts and fans we saw last night at Comfort Dental – Review: Iron Maiden at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre, 8/13/12 – Slideshow: Iron Maiden at Comfort Dental Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson is generally pretty talkative on stage, and last night was no…

IRON MAIDEN @ COMFORT DENTAL AMPHITHEATRE | 8/13/12 See also: – The 25 Coolest Iron Maiden T-shirts we saw last night at Comfort Dental – The six best quotes from Iron Maiden’s show last night at Comfort Dental – Slideshow: Iron Maiden at Comfort Dental The word “epic” gets bandied…

AU started off as “luc,” a solo project of Luke Wyland’s when he was attending college in Boston. The band formed after Wyland’s graduation, in 2005, when he and some friends took a trip along the West Coast. Settling in Portland, they began carving out a niche for themselves on…

This debut solo album from former Woodsman drummer Eston Lathrop reveals that Lathrop wasn’t just a talented, sensitive and tasteful percussionist in that band; he was also an active participant in creating the shimmering drones and melodies that made Woodsman so consistently fascinating. “Derail” has an otherworldly exhilaration and calm…

Andrew Bird was one of the earlier pioneers of modern chamber pop. Growing up in Chicago, Bird — a classical violinist in training at age four — worked with alterna-swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers before firmly establishing a name for himself as a songwriter far beyond the Windy City with…

A number of bands are returning to a Southern-rock sound these days, but much of the music they’re making is too derivative to be interesting. Alabama Shakes, fresh off a date warming up for Neil Young, bucks that trend. The group’s members, who met in high school and forged the…

The Kappa Cell (due this Saturday, August 11, at the Lion’s Lair) is made up of Don White — a guy best known for his stints in experimental metal band New Ancient Astronauts, outsider progressive outfit Action Friend and mutant funk phenoms the Good Grime Sound System — and James…

JOY SUBTRACTION @ HI-DIVE | 8/4/12 See Also: – Joy Subtraction? Its members just enjoy screwing with Joy Division. “This is the first song on our new album,” Joy Subtraction’s Abe Brennan announced last at the hi-dive, goofing on Cheap Trick after the first couple of songs of the set…

An unlikely cult band, Cape Town, South Africa’s Die Antwoord makes the kind of music that brings EDM and hip-hop together with an aesthetic attributed to the zef subculture; frontman Ninja has discussed the role of zef in South African society as being akin to that of the pillars of…

“No Stairway,” the opening track to this mud-flecked album, sounds a bit like a crustified version of Void’s “My Rules.” Mike Reisinger’s barely discernible vocals are sharp and animalistic, Weston Wilson uses his guitar in slashing hardcore fashion while employing noise-rock textures, and Tiana Bernard’s bass guitar seems as though…