Music

Although bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Timothy Kyle and his bandmates in New Hampshire’s Wild Light (who open this bill for Tapes N’ Tapes) have a way with hooks, their melancholic take on power pop initially seems a bit generic. Fortunately, a closer listen to material from Adult Nights, the band’s forthcoming debut for…

What do you get when you combine Talking Heads, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Queen and the country of Jamaica? Why, the Killers’ latest album, Day & Age. Echoes of past influences have always made it easy to evaluate the Las Vegas band’s music based on what it’s not; what…

You’ve got to admire the confidence of the Killers. After all, the band chose M83 to open for its current tour even though the French act’s most recent recording, Saturdays = Youth, does a better job of tackling many of the stylistic challenges that trip up the Las Vegas boys…

Since its inception in 1939, Blue Note has released some of the greatest albums in the history of jazz. Over the past seven decades, that blue and white logo on the sleeve has signaled some serious music etched into vinyl or CD, be it that of McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk,…

The new recording by Rhythm Angels Celeste Krenz and Rebecca Folsom — the subject of a Friday, January 16, CD-release party at the Boulder Theater co-starring Jessi Colter — has a Colorado flavor thanks to tunesmithing help from Liz Barnez and John Magnie. Still, the focus remains on the central…

This is the sound of aging hippies who never gave up the fight. It’s possible to admire their steadfast adherence to principles, but overly earnest lyrics and awkward attempts at hip references (ninjas? Really?) combine with leaden arrangements for poor results. Musically, the Poets draw on lots of folk and…

Former Raleigh frontman Bryon Parker displays his keen sense of melancholic melody on this release. Joined by Jesse Nesbitt of the sadly defunct Anti-Glacier Movement, Parker has crafted an intriguing set of seven songs, grounded in both the indie-rock tradition of slightly off-kilter sound dynamics and the aesthetics of folk…

Mirror E.P., Dualistics’ 2006 debut, issued when group frontman Jimmy Stofer served as touring bassist for the Fray, was a professional piece of work but little more, which explains why it received a middling review in these pages. But Dualistics doesn’t need to be graded on the curve; it’s by…

Adam Baumeister, aka Littles Paia, can often be seen as the pedal steel player in Bad Weather California. But those lucky enough to have seen him perform experimental folk-blues-rock know him to be a talented songwriter and sonic innovator in his own right. With a vintage reverb unit and a…

Jonathan Coulton is okay with being a geek. After all, his geekiness is the key to his success as a musician who writes about mad scientists, sad robots and being a code monkey. “I’m lucky in that the things I am interested in and the things that I write about…

If you’ve spent any time at all in the Denver dance scene, you’ve almost certainly caught a set or three from Ivy, a multiple Best of Denver award-winning DJ. From his start on a pair of jury-rigged secondhand turntables in 1996 until today, Ivy has developed his skills and style…

Jon Snodgrass, one half of the almighty Drag the River, is preparing to release his debut solo effort. The album, Visitor’s Band, which is slated for release on Tuesday, February 4, on Suburban Home Records, features a slew of guests, including Two Cow Garage, Chad Rex, Joey Erg, Chris Pierce…

Cheers to the cats (and kitten) of Frontside Five getting some killer ink in Thrasher magazine. The Q&A, put together by Jake Japanese, is pretty short, but in it, the crew talks about drinking urine, getting all bruised up in their tour van playing a game called Waffle House –…

Of all the changes technology has wrought to my listening habits and way of experiencing music, the biggest impact has come from the way my iPod destroys context.The most obvious benefit of the iPod revoution is the convenience of having thousands — even tens of thousands — songs in your…

We did a short profile of Colorado producer Frank E a while back, focusing on his work with national artists like Plies and Flo Rida. Then he hooked up with T-Pain and cooked up another a mixtape gem. But there’s still no slowing him down, as Flo Rida is dropping…

The past twelve months have been rather eventful for the Autumn Film. Last year, the act, formerly known as Tifah after its front woman, Tifah Al-Attas, changed its moniker, downsized its lineup, released an EP’s worth of material for free download and spent the bulk of the year on the…

Although no official word has been handed down, it sounds like (die) Pilot may be on its last legs. “We have had a lot of crap to deal with in the past few months,” reports frontman Eugene Brown. “And we do not know if we will continue forward in 2009.”…

Just a few weeks into the new year, and already it’s shaping up to be a good one for the Swayback. Just received word from Eric Halborg, who’s celebrating the birth of his brand-new baby (congrats!), that the band has licensed two of its songs. “All Bad News,” a newer…

In the print edition of this week’s paper, I saluted the Class of 2009, artists that I think are worth keeping an eye on in the coming year. After the jump, as promised, here’s a few more picks. This list has become something of an annual tradition around here. So…

Local DJ/producer Kostas K is climbing up the charts at Beatport with his new release “Change We Can.” It’s an Obama and MLK sampling monster of a swooshy, chugging progressive track that’s currently at number 12 on Beatport’s charts. Pretty impressive for our scene, which is awesome but hasn’t had…