Music

Named after a state park of the same name in the Ozarks, Ha Ha Tonka plays the sort of Americana that would be right at home in an episode of Prairie Home Companion. Although its lyrics are focused on imagery and themes you’d expect from a poet laureate from rural…

Ah, Thanksgiving, when we gather together to give thanks for that handful of well-meaning but unbelievably misguided Native Americans who fed our ancestors through the harsh winter so that our ancestors could later slaughter them and destroy their culture by engaging in the traditional gluttonous excess for which they paved…

This debut EP from Seris sounds like the band is serious about courting label attention. And it’s not just because the sonic character of all three songs is top-notch, but also because there isn’t a subpar performance in any of them. Seris sounds a lot like Nightwish with its penchant…

Rapper and singer Moss shows diversity on his latest release, It’s Like I’m Famous. “My Zone” has an intergalactic production feel, which complements Moss’s deep vocals over a rapid snare, and he spits with confidence on lines like “My flow is hot like I rap with Satan.” Not a lot of metaphors to be…

Instant Empire hasn’t been together all that long, but that fact isn’t readily apparent from listening to the indie-rockers’ self-titled EP. There’s a certain tightness and a strong sense of dynamics on the three main cuts (there are also a brief intro and short instrumental outro), especially “Without Wires,” which…

Although Tyler Despres originally formed Science Partner in 2008 as an outlet for his acoustic material outside of his work with Dualistics, the project has developed into a six-piece. Despres already had a knack for writing moving songs on his own, but on Science Partner’s eleven-track full-length debut, Rocky Mountain…

Lilly Scott formed Varlet with her brother David when she was still in high school. In 2009, after playing some low-key local shows, Lilly decided to audition for American Idol. After spending all day at Invesco Field before her audition, Scott ended up in the hospital with appendicitis. Fortunately, she…

Full Flavor Fridays (in association with Pleasuredome) will be bringing DJ ESP (aka Woody McBride) to Denver for the second time this year — and techno legend Spacetime Continuum (aka Jonah Sharp) for the first. Sharp released solo studio albums on the Astralwerks and Virgin labels in the ’90s, and…

STING at WELLS FARGO THEATRE | 11/20/11Sting’s list of endearing anecdotes is almost as long as his lineup of inexplicably bizarre ones — which, in turn, is almost as big as his ego. The former Police frontman and pouty-lipped crooner remains fearless in the face of a staid solo career…

COREY TAYLOR at the GOTHIC THEATRE | 11/19/11This past Saturday at the Gothic, fans were treated to a softer side of Corey Taylor, the charismatic frontman of Slipknot and Stone Sour. On tour in support of his Seven Deadly Sins book, Taylor returned to Denver, which he considers a second…

TINY TITWRENCH DANCE PARTY at HI-DIVE | 11/19/11On Saturday night, the fine folks at Titwrench threw their Tiny Titwrench Dance Party at the hi-dive. Piper Rose hosted the party which featured Wheelchair Sports Camp, Biggawatt, the Haircut, DJ Pam, DJ Pyramid and DJ Time Lord. Josiah Hesse was on hand…

PLAID at the BLUEBIRD | 11/19/11 One of the most vividly enduring memories of last night’s Plaid show at the Bluebird Theater came at the end of the show, when the band performed “At Last.” The video projected on the screen and the group itself made it seem like we…

DJ PREMIER at CITY HALL | 11/19/2011The masses came together last night to pay respect to one of hip-hop’s living legends, DJ Premier at City Hall. Making his way cooly onto the stage to screams of “Preemo,” DJ Premier got right to work with “Nas is Like.” Half-man, half amazing,…

PANTyRAiD at the Fillmore | 11/20/11Well, it’s safe to say that Marty Folb and Josh Mayer successfully raided the Fillmore’s panties last night. Debuting their new stage set-up, created by a Denver based design group, the mysterious duo brought their heavy, glitched-out hip hop and bass music to Denver, showing…

ZEDS DEAD at the OGDEN | 11/18/11For the first of two nights, Zeds Dead sold out the Ogden Theatre, and introduced Denver to its new staging, which included a strobe so powerful that it wouldn’t be at all surprising to hear that everyone has “ZD” seared into their consciousness today…

Paging Alexandra Patsavas: Have you met Shel (due at the Bluebird tonight with Elephant Revival) yet? If not, you should definitely make their acquaintance. The music these lovely ladies make genuinely sounds like it was painstakingly crafted in a lab specifically to be played in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy…

For years, Barry Fey says, music fans have been needling him to write a book. “You know, people have been saying ‘When’s the book? When’s the book?’ for fifteen years,” Fey notes. “It was daily, wherever I would go out… ‘When’s the book? Come on, you’ve got to write a…

Andy Turner and Ed Handley of Plaid (due Saturday, November 19, at the Bluebird) were part of the groundbreaking electronic music project The Black Dog in the late ’80s through the earliest part of the ’90s with Ken Downie. Mixing ambient soundscaping with textured, syncopated rhythms, The Black Dog became…

Helluva weekend on deck for you before we coast into turkey day festivities next week: There’s a dual CD release party tonight at Herman’s featuring Omniism and Something Underground, Royal Bangs are at the hi-dive, Tedeschi Trucks Band is at the Fillmore, Elephant Revival’s at the Bluebird. Tomorrow night, PANTyRAiD’s…