Dirty Rotten Imbeciles started out as a speedy hardcore band in Houston in the early ’80s. The band was renowned for its short songs, its leftist politics and the frenzied passion of its playing. D.R.I.’s appropriately-titled, landmark 1987 album, Crossover, lived up to its name by introducing a sound that…
Ethan Converse and Sam Martin started Flashlights (due Friday, December 17, at the Larimer Lounge) messing around with synthesizers and software while living in Boulder. They say their early material was rough and not as evolved as they would have liked. Be that as it may, anyone who saw any…
MIKE MARCHANT’S OUTER SPACE PARTY UNIT With Le Divorce • I Know You, Rider 12.11.10 | Larimer Lounge Le Divorce has always been good, but it seems the quartet has really honed its stage craft and sound in the past few months. Shrouded in a bank of fog, the band’s…
Julia Libassi and Scott Conroy met while attending Tufts University and played in and around Boston with their band Stop Switch before moving to Denver in the summer of 2009. Upon arriving here, the pair sought out potential bandmates on Craigslist. A terse comment to their post — essentially proclaiming…
Occasionally, an artist from in or around Denver will put out a release that captures the spirit of the moment and forever reminds you of that time. This seven-inch record from Gauntlet Hair is effectively that release for 2010. The songs echo and shimmer like spring sunshine through trees sporting…
In southern Florida, Mike Diaz has been evolving MillionYoung from a promising synth-pop project into something that doesn’t really fit into that whole “chillwave” category so much as it captures the image those of us living in colder climates have of warm nights and lazy days in tropical climates. Florida…
In 1932, the Marx Brothers released one of their classics, a movie called Horse Feathers. The music of the Portland, Oregon, group of the same name may not possess the inspired zaniness and slapstick of the Marx Brothers, but the band’s earnest pastoral sound could have been created long ago…
If you ever heard or saw the name “The Legendary Beep Beeps,” you probably — understandably — thought it was going to be something dumb. But the band wasn’t, and despite the seeming commercial-rock aspirations in some of its songwriting, there was a core of something ineffably compelling in its…
TAME IMPALA With Achille Lauro 12.04.10 | Bluebird Theater Stardeath and the White Dwarfs were originally slated to be part of this bill but couldn’t make it, so at the last minute, local band Achille Lauro was added, which is just as well, because that band shares a bit of…
NO AGE With Hot White and Lucky Dragons 12.01.10 | Bluebird Theater Hot White was first on stage and discharged its signature shards of angular, off-kilter, eruptive sound. It looked like the trio was more comfortable playing a big stage, and yet Tiana Bernard crossed over from stage right to…
The Posies (due tonight at The Gothic Theatre) had the good fortune — or bad, depending on your perspective — of being a non-grunge rock band in Seattle that came into its own during the era when, for far too many people, “alternative” became synonymous with “grunge.”…
No Age (due tonight at The Bluebird Theater) isn’t a band that has hit the mainstream yet, but it has enjoyed an unexpected rise to prominence as a noisy pop band, making art grounded in notion of doing things your own way — regardless of whether or not it’s met…
Before becoming the bassist for Queens of the Stone Age in 2007, Michael Shuman played in the bands Jubilee and Wires on Fire, the latter of which still benefits from his musical prowess. In 2009, Shuman formed Mini Mansions between obligations with Queens, and in sharp contrast to his work…
Before he became the keyboardist of the Nicotine Fits, Chris Bullock performed around the Front Range as Tall City. Part musical project, part literary vehicle, Soft Sunlight is a typical Tall City release. Bullock has found a way to fit the cadences of his poetry into the context of what…
Before entering Serbian mythology as the “Adversary of God,” the third- and fourth-century Roman emperor Diocletian saw himself as a restorer of traditional values and religion. His widespread persecution of the Christians in trying to do so earned him lasting infamy. Clearly inspired in part by the more lurid stories…
This band from Perth, Australia, started life as Dee Dee Dums before lineup changes and an evolving sound resulted in a change of name in 2007. These guys always get called “psychedelic,” and that’s fitting enough — if by that word you mean music that stretches out conventional song structures…
What do you do if you’re from Boulder and you don’t entirely buy into the town’s clean, wholesome image — or you’re just someone who prefers some real edge to the music you make instead of mellowing out, brah? If you’re a member of Black Acid Devil (due at the…
As the leader of Sepultura for over a decade, Max Cavalera helped put Brazil on the map. From the beginning, the outfit was clearly influenced by punk rock as much as it was by other metal bands, as evidenced by its socially conscious lyrics, its grassroots efforts to get its…
Based out of Queens, New York, Freelance Whales (due tonight at the hi-dive with Minature Tigers) play the kind of atmospheric, experimental pop music that is often lumped under the umbrella genre title of “chamber pop.” That’s probably because the band actually seems to take care to craft songs that…
BLONDE REDHEAD With Ólöf Arnalds 11.27.10 | Ogden Theatre With the swirling fog and twin spotlights bathing her in white light, Ólöf Arnalds seemed like a mythical forest creature manifesting springtime wherever she stands — which was fitting because her whole persona was one of an innocence and playfulness. It…
British music magazine MOJO referred to Ólöf Arnalds (due tonight at the Ogden Theatre with Blonde Redhead) as “Reykjavic’s answer to Kate Bush,” which is fair enough considering Arnalds’ gorgeously otherworldly singing and penchant for writing songs that cannot be linked directly to any particular musical genre other than the…
Early in its career, Blonde Redhead clearly drew inspiration from DNA, whose song was the inspiration for the band’s name. But instead of solely offering up atonal squalls and musical deconstruction, Blonde Redhead’s songwriting also flirted with haunted melodies…
