Music

Everything that defines religion is interesting to me,” declares Chris Thomas, who just finished work on his solo debut, Messiah Complex, which is being issued under the name Omniism. “I think people should think about it — basically, read the sacred texts that were written by these people as the…

When you hear an act being referred to as a “musician’s band,” it usually means the band in question has incredible technical skill, but not a lot in the way of emotional resonance when it comes to songwriting — especially if the outfit is instrumental. Panal S.A. de C.V. (due…

If you’ve ever been to Salt Lake City, you know there’s gotta be a dark underbelly of pissed-off people who rage against the prevalent cultural climate in private or in venues that are the underground of the underground. Gaza gives credence to this notion. Are these guys kidding when they…

DJ Premier is arguably the greatest hip-hop producer of all time. With a creative style that relies on jazz, soul and funk sampling and an impeccable scratch execution, Premier has crafted a style that has influenced countless producers. The instrumentalist half of legendary rap group Gang Starr, Preemo built up…

As Little Scream, Laurel Sprengelmeyer chiefly employs her voice. But the singer-songwriter is also an accomplished pianist, guitarist and violin player, and she uses this multi-instrumental power to beef up the sonic landscape for her lyrical storytelling style. Her songs twist freely, going from folk-inspired angles to experimental territory and…

Andy Turner and Ed Handley were once in pioneering British electronic group the Black Dog with Ken Downie. Between that project and Plaid, which the duo finally dubbed their collaboration in 1991, Turner and Handley have been busy writing original music and doing remixes for the likes of Björk and…

Their birthplace was discovered in 1978, when a ten-year-old boy name Xavier Roberts followed a BunnyBee behind a waterfall into a magical valley. There he found them being born and promptly rescued them from the clutches of an evil hag with a jackrabbit henchman who wished to enslave them in…

“Dionysiac” starts out as fairly straightforward technical death-metal fare, with frantically twisting passages of guitar seething around the rhythm. But with one vocalist erupting with gruff pronouncements and the other taking a higher, more black-metal pitch in distorted singing, these songs are doing more than just serving as a showcase…

While the name of the band might immediately evoke some sort of percussion-heavy, accordion-driven, Tom Waits-esque freak show, the indie rock of Mark’s Midnight Carnival Show is a far cry from any of that. Drawing more from acts like Spoon or Cursive, frontman and chief songwriter Mark Bush has a…

Beadebe’s Small Ax (a throw to the Bob Marley track of the same name) is a reggae-influenced, rap-inspired cacophony of beats, rhythms and thoughtful lyrics. Beadebe’s staccato flow oscillates perfectly between island-inflected tones and traditional hip-hop rhymes, giving the thirteen-track project an easy and listenable quality. With production entirely from Yonnas Abraham,…

While there’s still a lot of Jason Hernandez’s piano on Aloft in the Sundry’s latest effort — its second full-length and fifth release — the recent addition of second guitarist Andrew Lopez boosts the overall sound. Former Kill Syndicate drummer Adam Chiszar, the newest member of the band, helps propel…

Total Ghost began when Randy Washington and Adam Nix made a cheesy music video for a friend as a birthday present. Before long, the two came to embody the personae of Chön and Biktor, fictional German characters who travel the world in exotic jets to play shows and party. Over…

Martin Landsky’s deejaying career stretches back to the early days of rave and Hamburg’s storied Front Club. Landsky (due on Wednesday, November 23, at 2200) frequented Front in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when the legendary Klaus Stockhausen was one of the first German DJs to mix continuously and…

While the notion of giving away music these days is nothing new, My Body Sings Electric has come up with a slightly new slant on things. Rather than employing the tried-and-true pay-what-you-will method or simply giving the music away, the outfit is wisely relying on word of mouth to get…

TECH N9NE at the FILLMORE | 11/12/11Tech N9NE streaked through the Fillmore for the second installment of his Lost Cities tour and brought a slew of dance moves, rough toned vocals and ladies with bountiful breasts with him. Saturday night was a motherfucking party if we’ve ever seen one…and we…

ORBIT SERVICE at the WALNUT ROOM | 12/11/11At the end of the Orbit Service set last night at the Walnut Room, Randall Frazier and his bandmates conferred after repeated requests for an encore, and performed the first song of the set again in order to get a better take of…

TECH N9NE at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 11/11/11The only thing greater than seeing a Tech N9ne show in Denver amongst throngs of squealing, screaming, lyric reciting fans, is seeing that same show in an intimate venue like Summit Music Hall. The sound system was impeccable and the light show outstanding…

LUCINDA WILLIAMS at PARAMOUNT | 11/12/11About a halfway through Lucinda Williams’ two-hour set on Saturday night, it felt somebody hit a switch at the Paramount Theatre and all the sudden the place was electrified. For the first hour, the crowd of mostly middle-aged folks sat fairly complacent in their seats,…

SAVOY at the FILLMORE | 11/11/11In front of an estimated crowd of 3,600, Savoy took the stage at exactly 11:11 p.m. on November 11, 2011. While this is only marvelous due to the nature of wishes, everyone in the Fillmore last night, from the sixteen-year-old first timers to the electro-house…

LYKKE LI at the OGDEN | 11/11/11Lykke Li is imperfect. She has acne, patchy uneven skin and greasy hair. At last night’s performance at the Ogden, it was these facets of her physical body that made Li an even bigger, brighter star to the almost (if not) sold-out crowd. In…