Music

“Instant Empire, to me, really reflects — at least from the band-name perspective — how, in America, everybody wants everything all at once,” declares Instant Empire frontman Scotty Saunders. “Everybody wants it instantly. To me, Instant Empire is the perfect descriptor for sort of this modern time that we’re living…

Jacob DeRaadt has been the sole constant member of Sterile Garden (due Tuesday, January 22, at Seventh Circle Music Collective). To file the project, which originated in Fort Collins, under “noise” simply doesn’t take into account the preparation and conceptualization involved in its performances. DeRaadt and his collaborators make extensive…

The music of Railroad Earth isn’t easy to classify, although most people are happy to label it “jam band” and move on. Still reading? Good, because while there’s definitely some “jamming” going on in the live show, this is not some guitar-noodling Phish knock-off. Bluegrass lies at the heart of…

For Bloc Party, the smashing success of 2005’s Silent Alarm could have sealed its fate, time-stamped it as a post-Strokes dance-rock band strapped tight to an expired decade. But the U.K. quartet pushed through, continuing to find subtle triumphs, its catchy post-punk style shining through on two more stylistically steady…

Whether it’s surrealistic horror movies and literature, esoteric knowledge or atmospheric music and death rock, God Module’s output reflects a certain fascination with the dark side of the psyche — a mosaic of interests, perhaps even obsessions, held by founding member Jasyn Bangert. The act is rooted in edgier EBM…

Ben Folds is probably most vividly remembered for his work in the ’90s, when he seemed to come out of nowhere with his impassioned piano-based pop and a string of hits including “Brick.” But by then, Folds was a veteran musician who had honed his skills as a multi-instrumentalist before…

If you’ve been around underground punk and rock shows in Denver in the past two years, chances are you’ve run into twin brothers Seth and Spencer Stone. You could have seen them in the crowd or performing with their bands — Wombmates, a defunct group made up of two sets…

Fans of experimental techno know that Pan-Pot is not a reference to something that comes out of a kitchen; rather, it’s a German techno duo that’s named for a panoramic potentiometer — a switch that splits audio signals into left and right channels — and has been taking the production and…

From the opening track — “Never Know We’re Coming” — forward, it’s obvious that Il Cattivo has gotten to where it needed to go. Cohesive songwriting has emerged from the original inspired chaos and forcefulness of the band, as though it had harnessed and directed Matt Bellinger’s free-flowing and eruptive…

A-L’s Future Classic Music would be best enjoyed in a smokey lounge, perhaps with a dry martini or a fine cigar, amid electric light from neon tubes. The album blends classic jazz and golden-age hip-hop samples with elements of futuristic hip-hop and house, so the title rings true, even if…

Qknox’s self-titled beat tape is an extravaganza of skills: finessing keys, chopping samples and programming tight rhythms. The producer effortlessly blends jazz and hip-hop, fusing them with more experimental, post-Dilla wonky futurism to create something that’s equal parts chill and bouncy. While his passion for crate-digging is evident on cuts…

Otis Taylor My World Is Gone Telarc “My world is gone,” Indigenous frontman Mato Nanji once told local bluesman Otis Taylor, in reference to his people, the Nakota Nation. The heaviness of those four words inspired Taylor to make this album, which, for the most part, deals with Native American…

A lot of memories have gone down at Dazzle Restaurant and Lounge over the past fifteen years, not the least of which feature a series of well-respected, agenda-setting shows. (For proof, look no further than our recent conversation with owner Donald Rossa.) To celebrate it all, the club hosted a…

Fans of experimental techno know that Pan-Pot is not a reference to something that comes out of a kitchen; rather, it’s a German techno duo that’s named for a panoramic potentiometer — a switch that splits audio signals into left and right channels — and has been taking the production…

QUICKSAND @ BLUEBIRD THEATER |1/15/12 In the moments before Quicksand took the stage last night at the Bluebird, the room lights dimmed and floor lights on stage came on to the sound of Basil Poledouris’s theme from Conan the Barbarian. Quicksand frontman Walter Schreifels looked pleasantly surprised at the enthusiastic…

As the winter chill finally thaws (work with us here — we know it’s still below freezing right now) and gives way to the hopefulness and fertility of spring, the upcoming concert season is likewise bursting with promise. Coming off one of the best years for live music in recent…

Gateway Acts is a new ongoing series on Backbeat in which we examine the music that served as an entry point for our burgeoning musical obsessions, a gateway drug that tuned us in and turned us on. Today, Josiah Hesse gives up the goods on his Beck jones. There is…

So What is Denver’s longest running club night. While there’s been a few hiatuses here and there over the years as the night transitioned from venue to venue, for the most part, So What has been an ongoing concern for twenty years. Twenty years! On the surface, that might not…