Music

Common’s memoir, One Day It’ll All Make Sense, begins rather dramatically. The prologue reads: “When I was eighteen months old, my mother and I were kidnapped at gunpoint. My father held the gun. At least that’s one side of the story.” Common, with help from co-author Adam Bradley, a University…

Sketch comedy is the best way to describe it,” says Nathan Wright, discussing the process of composition within the Kevin Costner Suicide Pact. “It’s not verse, chorus, bridge,” adds Carson Pelo. “It’s more of a flow chart. Things don’t necessarily have to go somewhere, but they can lead into something…

Casselman’s Bar & Venue has been a strong addition to the Ballpark neighborhood since it opened two years ago at 2620 Walnut Street, and got stronger with recent sound and light upgrades. Now, prompted by overwhelming demand from promoters and bands alike, Casselman’s has applied for and been approved by…

Big suprise that a bunch of guys who might have been gamers formed a metal band and named themselves after one of the denizens of Hell in Dungeons & Dragons. Even bigger surprise that this foursome decided that “Pitsix” was less suitable than naming their project after a demon. Biggest…

File this one under any press is good press. So if your band is the background music to yet another excruciatingly long fight between characters (yes, they’re characters) Ronnie and Sammi from Jersey Shore, you should be thankful…

Much like pantsless subway rides and flash mobs involving dancing in public places, the phenomenon of the “silent disco” — wherein dozens of people, mostly white people (sorry, fellow crackers, it’s true, we’re dorky) dance around — has come and hung around longer than maybe it should have. But that…

Called the Mob when it first started out in Seattle in 1981, Queensrÿche quickly developed what would later be called a “progressive metal” aesthetic — which really just meant that these guys played with great precision and experimented freely with the structures inside each song. In that same era, outfits…

As Active Child, Pat Grossi assembles atmospheric compositions that are equal parts organic instrumentation and synthesized sound. Grossi’s harp blends seamlessly with a bevy of electronic layers, creating a primed canvas for his pitch-perfect falsetto. And this church-choir-trained voice acts as an instrument all its own, carrying a gender fluidity…

J. Cole is a fresh-faced young man from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who first exploded onto the scene as Jay-Z’s protegé. Shining on Jigga’s fittingly titled “A Star Is Born,” Cole has amassed a devoted following without even releasing a full-length album. So far, his notoriety has come courtesy of a…

It’ll be déjà vu all over again when the Psychedelic Furs share a bill this week with Tom Tom Club, a fellow hallmark band of the new-wave era. The Furs, who crawled out of England’s punk scene, leavened their roiling, tempestuous rock with touches of pop, with Richard Butler’s blustery…

Extra Kool and Satyre once worked together as Optik Fusion Embrace, and the two recently teamed up again for this album full of wry observations and playful musical experiments. It opens with “Optik Fusion Is Dead,” a Danny Elfman-esque recounting of the duo’s history since the breakup. “Everyday Living” is…

Neil Haverstick is well known for pulling musical experimentation out of the realm of theory into practice. For more than twenty years, the guitarist has explored 19- and 36-tone tuning structures, expanding his instrument’s vocabulary beyond its traditional 12-tone confines. While past releases like 2009’s Spider placed Haverstick’s style in…

The name AuntEaters seems apt for a punk band — so when this Pueblo-based quartet opens Marionette with the Ennio Morricone-tinged instrumental “Rabbit Ears Pass,” fit for the opening credits of a spaghetti Western, it’s a little disorienting. But once the disc kicks into gear on the second track with…

Joy Division made an immediate mark on the world of music with its two full-length albums, 1979’s Unknown Pleasures and 1980’s Closer. The desperation, anger and psychic torment of those records is all but unparalleled in the annals of rock music. Singer Ian Curtis’s tragic suicide, two months before the…

When the members of TV on the Radio announced they were taking a hiatus in the fall of 2009, they did what anyone would have come to expect of them: They stayed plenty busy. Kyp Malone released his first solo album, while Dave Sitek moved to L.A. — and also…

We all know Denver’s got a sick dubstep scene, and the fact that underground players have taken bass into the streets before just serves to prepare dubstep lovers for the two-day Bass Invasion 3 festival at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom — because this time, two stages and four walls won’t be…