At this point, John Gross and John Rasmussen are the godfathers of the Denver noise scene. Since starting their long-running noise project Page 27 in 1994 while still in high school, and running their old zine, Lady in the Radiator, Gross and Rasmussen have worked with various collaborators, including, in…
Vitamins has never sat idle for long, and this EP is proof of that. At first, “No Notion of Anything Only Whatever Is What” sounds like the kind of breezy indie pop that the group did so well on its last album, 2008’s Calliope — except it also appears that…
Crank Sturgeon sounds like one of those band names that came out of a classic episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. But this act isn’t really a band at all. It’s a guy who wears a fish-like costume with contact microphones hidden (or not so hidden) all over. When he…
If you’ve seen Tyler Despres play around town, on his own or with Dualistics, you’ve been exposed to his cleverly sarcastic sense of humor; it’s one of his hallmarks. That sardonic persona is on display, at least partially, with Science Partner, his latest endeavor, whose most recent effort is humorously…
Mike Watt is a legendary musical figure. He’s also the type of guy who would never embrace such a designation if you passed it his way. Rather, he would thank you for the kind words and then make you feel like you’re old friends hanging out at a show. And…
Rory Block (due April 21st at Rock and Soul Cafe in Boulder and on April 22nd at Swallow Hill in Denver) was fortunate to be at the epicenter of the roots music explosion of the late ’50s and early ’60s as a child in Greenwich Village. Block rubbed shoulders not…
Erik “Ripley” Johnson first came to prominence in the rock underground with his San Francisco-based band, the Wooden Shjips. That project’s hypnotically dark, droning psychedelia became a favorite of fans and critics alike. In 2009, Johnson teamed up with Sanae Yamada to form Moon Duo (due at The Hi-Dive on…
Although it’s often referred to as a “chamber folk” band, Dark Dark Dark (due tonight at The Walnut Room and tomorrow, April 16, at Odd Fellows Hall in Boulder as part of Communikey) from Minneapolis is a horse of a different color. Yes, its seven members all play acoustic instruments,…
It should come as no surprise that this band did a cover of Uriah Heep’s classic “Easy Livin'” from, appropriately enough, 1972’s Demons and Wizards. What is surprising is that Space in Time’s version is superior to W.A.S.P.’s 1986 take on the same song. Sure, this collection of tunes might…
If you grew up in the Midwest during the ’80s and ’90s and you were a little different, chances are you had a brush with all that groundbreaking electronic and experimental music that came out on Wax Trax Records. Mingo — due at Art Network (878 Santa Fe Drive) on…
Philadelphia’s Ryat (due tonight at Rhinoceropolis) started as a solo project for multi-instrumentalist avant-garde songwriter Christina Ryat before Tim Conley joined the sonic adventure that is making music in this unit. With both Ryat and Conley benefiting from backgrounds in improvisational and experimental music, their collaboration has produced a richly…
Somewhere along the line, Jonny Woodrose & the Broken-Hearted Woodpeckers transformed into Woodrose. Along with the change in name came a marked shift in sound. Rather than the poetic Americana of Jonson Kuhn’s previous efforts, this album comes straight out of a run-down honky-tonk frequented by Woody Guthrie and Pete…
LeVar Burton, the man most readily associated with the children’s program Reading Rainbow, is probably unaware of this Reading Rainbow, which presumably lifted the name of that show for its musical experiments. Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia built this project out of the pieces of their old band, Forensic Teens,…
With a name like the Shrapnelles, you might expect a reverb-drenched garage-rock band with a penchant for all things Phil Spector — and you wouldn’t be too far off the mark. This all-female outfit from Calgary plays shimmery guitar pop with one foot firmly planted in classic R&B, as evidenced…
At the end of the ’90s, before almost every form of music had been completely compromised, colonized and commercialized, the Pauline Heresy formed and wrote emotionally raw, lyrically confessional music that might have been lumped in with emo two years later. But before that could happen, two of the band’s…
In the late 1970s, Tesco Vee was an elementary-school teacher in Michigan who led something of a secret life, first as a fan of punk rock and then as the frontman of one of the most notorious and hilarious bands of that era: the Meatmen (due this afternoon at Twist…
THE INACTIVISTS With Little Fyodor & Babushka Band and The Skivies 04.01.11 | Walnut Room This show didn’t turn out to be a April Fool’s Day joke of some kind — although that was certainly a possibility given that the Inactivists are jokers with a wickedly mischievous sense of humor…
Depending on what you think the proper role of a real musician might be or what a real musician is or looks like, the Inactivists (due at the Walnut Room tonight) might either be the ultimate novelty act or an inspired conspiracy of talented artists with a shared love of…
Henry Rollins (appearing at the Soiled Dove Underground this Sunday, April 3) began his career fronting Black Flag, an endeavor he won a Grammy for chronicling in the audio book Get in The Van. He went on to front The Rollins Band and appeared in numerous films…
San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries may be essentially a pop band, but the lushness of the act’s songwriting and the ability to evoke and articulate complex emotions with poetry and intensity is a rare talent these days. The group’s latest album, 2010’s Panorama, lived up to its title as a…
St. Vitus (due tonight at Summit Music Hall) were one of the pioneers of a style of music that took its direct inspiration from the first four, maybe even the first six, Black Sabbath albums. The band’s aggressive guitar work flirted with psychedelia but was too heavy to ever be…
PURE SUNSHINE Overcasters • the Buckingham Squares • the Purple Fluid The Omens • The Geniuses • Git Some 03.26.11 | Bluebird Theater Git Some kicked off night two of Pure Sunshine last night at the Bluebird Theater. The act’s lyrics are often washed out by the torrent of guitar…
