Jeff Mangum grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, with Robert Schneider, Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart. In 1991, the four friends founded the Elephant 6 Recording Company — here in Denver, actually. The collective was influential because of its core bands: the Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and Mangum’s…

Unless you’ve been to a Larimer Lounge barbecue or perhaps an odd night when the Denver Art Rock Collective invited this band on a bill, chances are you haven’t heard of Mourning Sickness (due this Thursday, April 26, at the Oriental Theater). That’s unfortunate, because the members of this trio,…

See Also: • (Review) Mastodon at Ogden Theatre, 11/9/11 • (Photos) Mastodon at Red Rocks, 10/4/10 • (Review) Mastodon at Fox Theatre, 4/14/09 Mastodon (due tonight at the Fillmore Auditorium) formed in 2000 after meeting at a High on Fire show — at least that’s the myth, and it suits…

PIERCED ARROWS @ HI-DIVE | 4/21/12 As the last notes of “The Wait” ended, they blended into the Toody Cole’s familiar bass pulse that introduced Pierced Arrows’ epic, and much beloved, “Paranoia.” Fred Cole tapped the Bigsby on his Guild Polara to modulate the feedback before heading into one of…

New York in the ’70s was home to more than its fair share of cultural and artistic luminaries. Laurie Anderson was a graduate student at Columbia when she immersed herself in the avant-garde world and became a primary contributor to the development of true multimedia performance art. Her 1984 live…

If you were alive in the mid-’90s and half paid attention to popular music, you’ve probably heard of Garbage. The band’s left-field hit, “Only Happy When It Rains,” from its 1995 debut album, opened the gates to heavy MTV rotation for many more Garbage songs over the next handful of…

Chances are you can’t name many active bands that play original material and have been around for twenty years — much less one that has regularly evolved and experimented with its sound without always jumping on some musical bandwagon. That’s been the path of the New Ben Franklins (due this…

MOJO NIXON @ LION’S LAIR | 4/14/12 “Rick Santorum can suck my dick!” was the chorus Mojo Nixon got the crowd to chant as a line in an extended version of “You Can’t Kill Me.” But everything was an extended version out of an eleven song set. With just his…

Mojo Nixon (due Friday, April 13, and Saturday, April 14, at the Lion’s Lair) gained notoriety in the mid- to late ’80s for his irreverent songs informed by an absurdist humor with partner Skid Roper. Nixon’s exuberant, unapologetic persona won over audiences because even as Nixon would make seemingly over-the-top,…

NEON INDIAN @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 4/09/12 A little over halfway through the Neon Indian show, Leanne Macomber left her spot at the keyboards and picked up the Roland G-77 Bass Controller that had been played by Joshua McWhirter during certain parts of the rest of the show, while McWhirter,…

This split LP has Black Sleep of Kali doing something it does well on songs like “Cosmonaut,” and that’s anchor you in space somehow while a parade of burning sound drifts past you — like you’re one of the tune’s namesakes shooting toward escape velocity. Then, near the end of…

Mojo Nixon’s music and the reputation of his outrageous stage persona precede him. The hilariously wrong songs that he wrote with his then-partner in crime, Skid Roper, such as “Elvis Is Everywhere” and “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child” were songs everyone knew, even if they weren’t…

Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion met at the House of Blues in San Diego, where Follin’s older brother Richie’s band, the Willowz, had a show. The two hit it off; both happened to be leaving to study film at the New School, which is where they formed Cults. The group’s…

If its own bio is to be believed, Steel Blades of Vengeance (due at 3 Kings Tavern on Thursday, April 12) seems to have been through lineup changes worthy of Iced Earth. The two bands also share musical influences, as Steel Blades started life as Maiden Denver, an Iron Maiden…

Neon Indian (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater) got a boost early in its career by online media, and by the time of the act’s first album, Psychic Chasms was released, there was a pretty big buzz around his blend of synth-driven, R&B inflected pop songs. Alan Palomo and company…

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE @ LARIMER LOUNGE | 4/8/12 It would be a tough to pinpoint a specific climax of this show, but a true high point of feeling for the band — and probably the crowd — came with the last number of the set when Kawabata Makoto used some…

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY @ BOULDER THEATER | 4/5/12 Explosions in the Sky began the show on a high note with the familiar, siren-like guitar figure of “First Breath After Coma.” Sounds came in waves and then floods, as Chris Hrasky struck an almost martial beat with his snare and…