Music

Carbon Choir (due at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, December 5) is a band whose virtues compound with each song. At first you might be drawn in by the music’s delicate atmospherics and expertly measured pacing, because the band’s sound is definitely made for reflective moments and thoughtful observation. But…

This weekend, you can get down with your bad self and do something good for little kids at United: A Toys for Tots Benefit Show, featuring a bunch of top local talent spinning all varieties of dance music. It’s a great chance to sample some of what our vibrant scene…

Back in 2004, French singer-songwriter Sebastien Tellier released Politics, an album that took on what most people see as a critical topic. But with the release of Sexuality, his latest recording, Tellier says he’s found a more important one. “I have no more interest in politics, because politics is not…

Noel Gallagher has returned to his roots. For the Oasis helmsman, the homecoming has not involved laborious genealogical research or reuniting with childhood friends. Instead, it’s meant ceding control of production duties on the band’s latest album, Dig Out Your Soul, setting out on a worldwide tour and getting drunk…

The Haunted Windchimes paint an evocative and compelling musical picture with familiar hues of folk, blues and Americana. The best tracks are the first few, particularly the opener, “Don’t Be Afraid,” a haunting, mournful dirge, and its polar opposite, “Leaving Here,” a bouncy, up-tempo effort that skews toward pop territory…

Anyone amazed by the amount of racket the White Stripes can generate with just two members will be positively flattened by Adai’s latest — an EP recorded and self-released in 2006 that’s now getting national distribution. With assistance from producer Kurt Ballou (whose credits include work with Genghis Tron), guitarist/vocalist…

Remarkable things can happen during musical improvisation when there are no preconceived ideas, no preparation or discussion. In fact, part of the magic is not knowing what will happen, especially when you have guys like Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker, Nels Cline drummer Scott Amendola and cornetist Ron Miles along for…

There is no musical genre that can contain Hunter Dragon’s songwriting, because it truly runs the gamut of styles and sounds. However, within each release, there is a sonic consistency. This time out, Hunter opted for a duskier, lo-fi sound and treatment for each song. In the live setting, a…

Comprising members of the well-known noise-rock outfit Racoo-ooo-oon, Wet Hair dispenses with live guitars entirely, but not the former’s intense drones and emphasis on rhythm over melody. Still, the electronic sounds are resonant and expansive rather than abrasive; at times the band sounds as though it’s playing a tape of…

Aaron “Shwayze” Smith and Cisco Adler began climbing the ladder of success several rungs higher than most new artists thanks to MTV. Buzzin’, a limited-run series on the network, brought the duo straight into the living rooms of their prime demographic, and their laid-back demeanor turned out to be likable…

Kim Fowley didn’t just launch the Runaways, the ’70s-vintage jailbait group that gave us Joan Jett and Lita Ford. He also created an effective formula — the all-bad-girl band — that’s still capable of hitting male listeners where it counts: the ears, and someplace lower. For proof, check out Civet,…

If there were such a thing as a postmodern post-apocalypse, and the world existed in a kind of warping shift of dark hues, Dalí-esque imagery and Technicolor, Philly’s Aunt Dracula is the band that would write its surf music. Whorls of twisted, reverby guitar, trippy, demented vocals and shifting paces…

For a lot of hip-hop fans in Denver, DJ Chonz is only known as the afternoon and weekend DJ on the city’s “hip-hop” radio station, KS107.5. They don’t know he cut his teeth hustling mixtapes at Cinco De Mayo, competing in Regional DMC Championships, and opening up for national artists…

Our sister paper LA Weekly has an excellent story up this week about photographer Peter Beste’s work with the gruesome, scary and highly theatrical leading figures of Norwegian black metal. Accompanying the story is an entertaining, and very, very NSFW slide show of selected photographs from Beste’s book. These photos…

Chances are better than good that if we asked you right now to guess which Denver band was name-dropped in the current issue of Spin, Bum Kon would probably be the last name you’d come up with. Not that the group doesn’t merit a mention, mind you; it’s just that…

Monolith Festival co-founder Matt Fecher kicks off the first of his New Music Mondays tonight at the Larimer Lounge (2721 Larimer St.). Fecher, who hosts the night as DJ Hot to Death, will be bringing in local artists, media, tastemakers, DJs and friends every Monday. In addition to having two…

So, what have the Hot IQs been up to? The answer to that question will apparently be revealed on Friday, December 19, when the new video is premiered and the act’s 7-inch is released at an all-ages show at the Bluebird with local-scene luminaries the Chain Gang of 1974, Young…