Pioneers of grindcore in Colorado from 1990 to 1996, Pueblo’s Fanatics inspired a generation of hardcore kids with their fun, impassioned live shows and clever, socially conscious lyrics. The band’s sole full-length album, 1994’s Better Than Fried Baloney, is a classic of Colorado punk rock filled with thoughtful, introspective songs…
The Big Pink • A Place to Bury Strangers • lo Echo • Boyhollow 04.11.10 | Bluebird Theater Boyhollow opened the show and set the stage for the rock bands that followed with a selection of songs that included some of the latter day melodic post-punk bands. He looked like…
This record sounds like the band took an eight-track recorder into a dark Birmingham dungeon and bashed out two songs in a fast, brutal and dirty session, after a late night of raising adrenaline levels by hanging out with Napalm Death. Singer Reed Bremmer sounds like the band’s very namesake…
Having both worked as producers for M.I.A., Diplo and Switch combined forces under the Major Lazer moniker, a name inspired by a fictional Jamaican commando who fought in a secret zombie war of 1984 and lost his arm, replacing it with a futuristic weapon that became his namesake. The act’s…
Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt!, led by frontman Neil Fridd, performs bedroom lo-fi pop taken to the next level of conception and execution. Signed to David Byrne’s Luaka Bop imprint in 2008, the act is something of an underground phenomenon known for costumed performances where audience participation is not only encouraged,…
A complete list of the notable bands represented in this lineup would be exhaustive. But when you have Rick Kulwicki and Matt Bischoff of The Fluid present, that’s not a bad place to start. Add in John Rumley of Urban Leash, Sam Schiel of Francis Theory, Arnie Beckman of the…
Twiztid • Potluck • Kung Fu Vampire 03.26.10 | Fillmore Auditorium Walking to The Fillmore and being accosted with, “Yo, Juggalo, can I use your phone for a minute?” should have been the first sign that the normal world was somewhere else. Opening act, Kung Fu Vampire had already performed,…
“Die Finks” sounds like the Swayback branching out from the core sound it explored so well on 2008’s Long Gone Lads. It’s a departure from the jittery punk rock of the band’s earliest days and a step away from the post-punk that defined its middle period. Eric Halborg’s vocals take…
While based in Brooklyn, the duo of Rob Barber and Mary Pearson pioneered a sound and aesthetic that melded experimental electronic music with non-Western influences. As High Places, the outfit plumbed Caribbean and African folk to create “tropical pop,” as the early phase of the band’s songwriting — which also…
Merrill Garbus is a bit of a musical polymath. Her songs could never be called strictly R&B, folk, post-punk, lo-fi pop or jazz. Nor does she merely sing, play guitar, execute unconventional percussion and hash together electronic sounds for something like a live sound collage. In that way, her music…
What Todd Novosad does is definitely not for everyone. His sound art is completely disconnected from anything resembling conventional songwriting. What he creates is not something you’re likely to put on at a party or at home to relax, because its abrasive assault and sheer volume can’t really be ignored…
Pentagram • Space in Time • Kingdom of Magic 03.17.10 | Marquis Theatre A night of exceptionally interesting hard rock that ended with ’70s metal legends Pentagram began with the new-look Space in Time. They were surprisingly confident and assured. The band’s new singer, Mike, sounded like a young Ozzy…
Seventeen years after it was founded, Quasi is touring in support of its recently released album, American Gong. Not unlike the 2003 album Hot Shit, the new record takes aim at some of the more unsavory aspects of American imperialism without exercising an uninspired heavy-handed approach, opting instead to strike…
Bridging the gap between dream pop, dark Americana and orchestral indie rock, the songs on this EP manage to be eclectic without seeming artistically overburdened. “Charred Metropolis” has an air of spiritual turmoil just shy of being melodramatic, while the down-tempo “Frontiers” shimmers with the music’s impressionistic dynamics. “Summer Rainstorms”…
Ozzy Osbourne has suggested that Ray Davies invented heavy metal with his signature guitar-riff opening on “You Really Got Me.” While that may be true, Davies’s career with and without the Kinks has shown mainly that the guy has a true knack for inventive pop songwriting and for writing incisive…
Itchy-O (due at Old Curtis Street on Friday, March 19) isn’t a band so much as a multimedia art project designed to be an all but complete sensory experience for those who witness its performances. Truth be told, though, the troupe is probably working on its being a wholly immersive…
Since 1993, Quasi has released a series of albums underscoring the fact that sad songs don’t have to sound like surrender. Instead, as Quasi’s material often displays, there can be a feisty defiance to the inner grey skies and rain. The act comprises yeyboardist Sam Coomes, who played in Heatmiser…
The Buckingham Squares • Receiver Voodoo Stingray • The Nuns of Brixton • 03.13.10 | Mercury Cafe Maybe actually wearing nun habits as part of the stage costume is a gimmick, but for The Nuns of Brixton, it left an impression. As the name implies, the Nuns are a Clash…
Had Tracy & the Plastics started out in Ames, Iowa, instead of Olympia, Washington, they might have turned out like Leslie & the LY’s. The act combines electronic pop with hip-hop and an obvious streak of playful weirdness that would make Peaches and Cindy Wonderful proud. The band’s live shows…
When most bands raid the coffers of ’60s and ’70s music, they go in for the Nuggets thing, or hard rock, or the Beatles or the Velvet Underground. Night Owl (due on Thursday, March 11, at Old Curtis Street) didn’t really do that. Instead, it followed in the footsteps of…
Walt Disney was amazing,” says Johnny Wohlfahrt of nervesandgel without a hint of irony. “His whole motto was, ‘If I want something done and people tell me it can’t be done, I’m going to figure out a way to do it.’ Everything that he did that was a milestone, everyone…
cEvin Key is one of the founding members of Skinny Puppy. By mixing the aesthetics of power electronics, noise and early industrial music with politically conscious lyrics, Skinny Puppy has had a strong, enduring influence on anyone trying to make music outside the mainstream context of basic rock arrangements (guitars,…
