Never satisfied with trying out just one sound, Sleeping in the Aviary started out as a lo-fi pop band with a quirky live energy like that of Eat Skull before quickly evolving into something a bit more nuanced and delicate. Although the name of the group’s sophomore effort — Expensive…

Anyone who has been around the Denver underground scene for the past decade or so has run into Ezra Darnell cheering on bands with an open, unaffected enthusiasm. Now the guy has put together a band of his own, called Hearts in Space (due at the hi-dive on Wednesday, February…

“I’m just interested in DIY culture and the whole aesthetic and idea behind creating your own existence,” says Trevor Peterson. “Especially in the creative world — not relying on outside corporate interests to fuck things up.” Peterson’s words echo a sentiment that has informed the efforts of acts from Black…

KING MOB Modern Witch • Married In Berdichev • Hideous Men 02.05.11 | Meadowlark Most people who have seen Ben Martin perform have probably seen him as a guitarist and singer in experimental rock band Lil Slugger. But last night, he teamed up with his brother Sam for a duo…

A new band featuring Bobby Jamison and AJ Hathaway — who used to be in the ferocious and fiery Tarmints and the final incarnation of Twice Wilted — Downwire released this debut album as a recording project. The dirty, brooding guitar over the top of expressive yet heavy tribal drumming…

Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw used to be members of the acclaimed indie-pop group Page France, and what was once called the Cotton Jones Basket Ride was a side project. When the members of Page France parted ways in 2008, Nau and McGraw continued as a duo, making music that,…

It’s probably no surprise that a Christian metalcore band hails from Tampa, Florida. Sure, a quick and superficial listen to the band’s songs will prompt eye rolls from anyone who hates “screamo” and its offshoots. But at least these guys seem to care about being taken seriously outside the context…

A handful of years ago, it seemed as though bands lumped into the so-called post-punk revival category were dominating the listening diet of trendy bohemian types everywhere. At first listen, Force Publique can sound like a latter-day version of the same, except that the band expertly blends the kind of…

LADY PARTS With Doo Crowder, Samantha Doom Blows Up the Band, Maudlin Magpie 01.28.11 | Mercury Cafe Lady Parts hosted its CD-release party over the weekend amongst a group of musical friends, including Doo Crowder, who opened the evening’s proceedings with a further evolution of his solo act. He had…

As the backing band for Bob Marley during the years that the great man wrote the music that catapulted him to international fame, the Wailers may not have been direct contributors to the reggae giant’s vision of a better world, but they certainly created the sound that made that vision…

Katie Gold and Becky Christian were introduced by a mutual friend and didn’t know much about each other until a few months after they started working together. Their creative chemistry, though, was immediately evident. With a shared background in literature, Gold and Christian wrote songs without making reference to anything…

On its debut, Fingers of the Sun delivers songs that are sunny and upbeat without ever seeming superficial or trite. Lyrically, there is an uncommon level of sensitive observation and deep reflection that’s easy to miss when you’re caught up in the beauty of the album’s three-and-four-part harmonies — not…

Leave it to the guy who sang on the Black Flag Nervous Breakdown EP to come up with a name like Circle Jerks. These guys take swipes at authority like any punks would, but they’ve done so with a humorous zeal in songs like “World Up My Ass” and “When…

It’s been three years since Red Cloud last graced Denver stages with its inspired mélange of dusky country, sad-bastard rock and vitally unfiltered emotional displays from frontman Ross Etherton. This latest project, Ross Etherton & the Chariots of Judah — due at the Dikeou Collection (1615 California Street) on Friday,…

CROCODILES With Hearts In Space and Overcasters 01.22.11 | Larimer Lounge With the stage bathed in shifting hues provided by Shane Williams, Overcasters opened its set with a new song — something a little more on the bluesy and noisy side of the band’s repertoire. While the rest of the…

LIZ PHAIR With Le Divorce 01.18.11 | Bluebird Theater As Le Divorce got things going last night, the room was pretty crowded, a nice change from the typical turnout for opening acts. It was entirely appropriate that Le Divorce opened for Liz Phair, seeing as how frontwoman Kitty Vincent has…

For the past few years, Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk has traversed the country on multiple tours, often from its base of operations at a house called The Bandit Teeth in Lawrence, Kansas. Without making a conscious effort to do so, Baby Birds helped to build a loosely defined regional…

Much as Brian Eno’s Apollo was the breathtaking soundtrack to the visual grandeur of the film For All Mankind, Decay may have been conceived as music for the current state of American society and its power and influence in the world. “Mayflies (for strings and pedals)” is an eerie mesh…

Guitarist George Lynch auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne before hooking up with Don Dokken to form Dokken in 1980. Throughout that decade, the band’s output was lumped in with the kind of hook-laden hard rock that some derisively called “hair metal.” However you viewed that musical milieu or the songs of…

San Diego’s Crocodiles aren’t from New Zealand, but they seem to share an aesthetic kinship with a number of the classic Flying Nun bands of the ’80s and ’90s like Straightjacket Fits and the Clean. But the members of Crocodiles have also clearly absorbed their share of sunny psychedelia by…

Trees pushes a lot of air when it gets on stage with its bank of nearly wall-to-wall amps issuing forth colossal, crushing, menacing, loping sounds that recall Neurosis circa The Eye of Every Storm without that band’s essential weirdness, or Wolves in the Throne Room minus the more ridiculous black-metal…