Alan Alda, Accordion Crimes and I Sank Molly Brown Friday, January 15th, 2010 hi-dive Opening the show was I Sank Molly Brown. When I had seen the band on previous occasions, I was never impressed. So it came as something of a surprise when the song that began Molly Brown’s…

Like the gorgeously haunted music of bands like the Horrors and Bell Hollow, the Twilight Garden’s songs are devoid of ironic detachment, which gives each one a refreshing immediacy, despite the overall melancholic tone of this album. The exquisite “I Am Echo” opens, with a perfect blend of mid-’90s Underworld…

Having veterans of the Grand Ole Opry in the lineup should be pedigree enough for a solid band. But the Grascals took things a step further in the first year of their existence when they released a critically acclaimed debut album. That release caught the attention of country-music legend Dolly…

Though its music has been referred to as “orchestral punk,” Mount Righteous, which hails from Grapevine, Texas, is more akin to sprawling indie-pop outfits like the Polyphonic Spree. Unlike the latter, however, this nine-piece plays its shows without electric instruments, which has given Righteous the ability to perform in more…

Some of their recordings conjure a straightahead blues band with a knack for mimicking surf rock, but that’s a bit misleading, particularly for a group with a name like Carnivores. You would be excused for thinking the handle was some kind of ironic moniker. But while these guys wouldn’t exactly…

Ripton Hylton became known as Eek-A-Mouse in 1979, shortly before releasing his first hit single, “Once a Virgin.” Although Eek-A-Mouse’s early work displayed a clear debt to roots reggae, he’s since incorporated the aesthetics of dub into his core sound. An early pioneer of the dancehall sound, Eek has always…

Band of Heathens is technically from Austin, but the band comes off like it might have spent a great deal of time in New Orleans learning the rich mixture of sounds that mark that city’s eclectic scene. In moments, this outfit is reminiscent of the Band circa the early ’70s…

It’s rare when true technical ability is met with imagination and tasteful restraint. But that’s exactly what you get with Amphibious Jones, a quirky trio that threads together progressive rock’s chops, psychedelic space rock’s expansive soundscapes and punk rock’s liberating aggression. Although given to lengthy instrumental passages, Jones never quite…

The Legendary River Drifters w/Tin Horn Prayer and Broken Spirits Friday, December 18th, 2009 Old Curtis St. Bar, Denver Better Than: A show where everyone was trying too hard to get that Americana sound. A judgmental person might see Tin Horn Prayer and think, “Oh boy, another band of punkers…

Starting out as the musical equivalent of an interlude from the Boulder-based noise-rock band Mansfield Ghost, Gangcharger is helmed by its lyricist and primary songwriter, Ethan Ward. Upon first hearing the band, comparisons to Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma and Set and Setting-era Bardo Pond might seem obvious. Even as…

This is the eleventh release of the year for Alphabets, aka Colin Ward. With a release corresponding to each month, Ward explored whatever musical ideas came to mind, with varying results. Nov09 is among the strongest of the 2009 releases. Hashing together white noise, abused electronic noisemakers, melodic synth lines…

Like a lot of people, James Pants is mining early R&B-inflected synth pop and hip-hop for sonic inspiration. But for all his heisting of tricks from Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, ESG and Liquid Liquid, Pants takes what some might consider a retro sound and reworks it using modern technology that…

Before Desperate Hours, Matt Turner and Todd Seres played together in Arizona indie-rock band FiveSpeed, of which the former is still a member. That band recalls the poppy, melodic punk rock that came to define emo in the late ’90s — before it began its prolonged dive into self-parody. With…

An all-local bill at the Fillmore is so rare it’s practically apocryphal. Transforming from something of a joke between college buddies into one of the hottest acts in the country, 3OH!3 is one of the few recent local acts with the draw and clout to put together such a show…

Moore, Blindfold the Devil and Born in Winter Friday, December 11, 2009 Gothic Theatre Better Than: A lot of metal shows I’ve seen. Blindfold the Devil, a four-piece with the lead vocalist also playing guitar, kicked off its set with its speed/thrash metal sound, which contains more than a dash…

Hot Congress doesn’t function as a musical collective so much as a support system between friends and compatriots in one strand of the underground music scene in Denver. Beginning in January 2009 with members of a handful of bands, the Congress convened its first meetings and discussed the vision for…

“Holodeck” begins this initial offering from experimental electronic project Hideous Men with cycling low-end white noise to suggest the thrum of distant interstellar engines. But in short order, a gently executed mixture of neo-tribal rhythms and tropical pop weaves layers on top of and within each other. The resulting three-dimensional…

Although largely unknown outside its home town of Brooklyn, Telepathe is quickly earning renown for its gorgeous, otherworldly experimental music. Conjuring an amalgamation of Broadcast, Lush and early Ladytron, Busy Gangnes and Melissa Levaudis sound like they created their music in a place isolated from immediate outside influences — a…