Don’t let the name throw you: Although Michael Kiwanuka’s parents are from Uganda, he grew up in the north of London and didn’t parlay his folks’ background into a career in world music. Instead, he came up hearing various forms of music that inspired him, especially folk and soul. Kiwanuka’s…
Angry Hand of God (due at Bender’s Tavern on Friday, August 3) came together in 2006, when founding members Mark Pilloud and Pat Dixon met on StonerRock.com and started jamming. They eventually recruited Brian Kennedy and Garret McGaugh and starting playing out around Denver, sharing gigs with like-minded acts such…
What we’ve found is that most people hate the name,” says Joy Subtraction’s singer and guitarist, Abe Brennan of his band’s humorous moniker, adding, “but we hate most people, so it ends up working out.” “We had a huge argument what to call the band,” interjects drummer Brian Polk. “I…
TITWRENCH 2012 @ ” target=”_blank”>GLOB | 7/27/12 It felt like the summer broke just in time for Titwrench 2012, and when things got kicked off a bit after 8 p.m. on Friday night, the climate inside Glob suited the music of opening act, Cardinal Veil. Julie Slater has played violin…
Each song on Sleepdial’s Leadpiles comes in like a dimmer switch on a slow march toward increasing illumination, but the parade stops just short of “dusk.” In the haze are glimmering guitar tones, electronic textures in processed white noise and an overall impressionistic aesthetic that’s soothing to the ears and…
After a fateful gig at Beerland in Austin, the guys in Parque Touch asked the bassist of Peach Train to join them. After another lineup change, the remaining members changed their name to White Denim. Instead of opting for one specific style or aesthetic, the band weaves together strands of…
London’s Florence + the Machine was spared the clumsy moniker of Florence Robot/Isa Machine when singer Florence Welch realized, en route to the band’s first show, that it wouldn’t work. From the start, the combination of the act’s northern soul and experimental electro-pop with melodramatic sonic flourishes proved a hit…
Mental Disintegration is the perfect title for the latest release from Death of Self (due Monday, July 30, at Blast-O-Mat), as the music evokes the human mind desperately on the brink of collapse. This on-again, off-again project includes Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire’s Ethan McCarthy, but Death…
Brian Eastin, singer and guitarist for Tango Red Tapestry, met drummer Nicholas Hureau when they were both five and their parents were musicians in the Army — but the two never really played music together as kids. In high school, Eastin met bassist Dan Snyder and the two formed a…
See Also: People of UMS 2011 Kicked off the first day of UMS by catching Bad Weather California in a very humid 3 Kings Tavern. People were packed in pretty tight in the middle of the room and mostly on the flanks. BWC played a loose, relaxed set like the…
See Also: Ghost of Glaciers at the Mouth House, 7/20/12 Ghosts of Glaciers has played a lot more shows than most bands in the two years since forming. Because the metal group’s sound isn’t just rooted in that style exclusively, the trio has been able to appeal to a wider…
Shabazz Palaces is the brain child of Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire. The two met in Seattle when Butler moved back from New York after his stint in the critically acclaimed, jazz inflected hip-hop group Digable Planets. While the Planets have occasionally played since splitting in the mid-’90s, Butler has…
See Also: Tonight: Wymond Miles at the hi-dive Wymond Miles is better known to the rest of the world for his scintillating guitar work in the San Francisco psych-garage pop band, the Fresh & Onlys. But Miles grew up in Aurora, and during the second half of the ’90s and…
No need to check your equipment if you’re listening to this record at night: Those are crickets you hear on the recording — or an electronic analog of crickets. Did John Gross and Todd Novosad sample animals for virtually all of the sounds here? Possibly. It’s also entirely possible that…
Around a decade ago, Wymond Miles was part of a core group of underground bands in Denver whose loose affiliation included the likes of 16 Horsepower, Tarmints, Space Team Electra and the Czars. In his late teens, Miles became involved in the experimental-rock band Annik, but by the end of…
In the first half of the ’90s, Ishmael Butler went by the moniker “Butterfly” as part of the rap trio Digable Planets. After the outfit’s 1995 split, the group performed one-off shows here and there, but since 2009, Butler has released music with Tendai Maraire under the name Shabazz Palaces…
David Longstreth was living in western Colorado when he befriended the Love Letter Band’s Chris Adolf. The future Bad Weather California frontman put out Longstreth’s debut album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, on his This Heart Plays Records imprint. Since then, Longstreth has released music under the name Dirty Projectors, with…
Post-rock has enjoyed a certain popularity of late — and it’s easy to see why music that loosely fits that designation often gets put under of the umbrella of instrumental rock. Ghosts of Glaciers — due this Friday, July 20, at Mouth House (2858 California Street) — doesn’t bother to…
LIARS @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 7/13/12 See Also: Liars dance to the beat of their own drum After one of many short pieces of connecting music that resembled a science fiction movie synth sound backed by a big bass pulse, Julian Gross came in with the urgent, curiously toy-like, drum…
See Also: Maudlin Magpie at Unit E, Saturday, July 14 Maudlin Magpie started out as the solo project of Jason Horodyski, but after two shows, Horodyski realized he preferred to make music with other people. The band went through different line-ups before settling with its current incarnation. What didn’t change,…
Jason Horodyski got a bit of a step up early on, playing shows with Ian Cooke and Emily Frembgen. From the onset, his literary approach to songwriting shone through, and the subtle resonance and clarity of his songs spoke to a spare style that gave the melodies and textures space…
No need to check your equipment if you’re listening to this record at night: Those are crickets you hear on the recording — or an electronic analog of crickets. Did John Gross and Todd Novosad sample animals for virtually all of the sounds here? Possibly. It’s also entirely possible that…
