Music

The first show was petrifying,” Ira Kaplan confides of Yo La Tengo’s live debut. “We had a party and played at it, and we learned — not that quickly — that it’s much easier to play for strangers than it is for your friends.” When they formed Yo La Tengo…

In August 2009, Ryan Galbraith and Chris Stinson rode 49cc Pocketbikes from south of Denver to Sturgis, South Dakota, covering 445 miles at an average of 20 miles per hour. Over three days, the two set a Guinness World Record for the longest journey on a mini-motorcycle. “We’re overly motivated…

Few people not close to the band would ever have suspected that four of the guys from the pop band Fellow Citizens would do music like this. Not because Fellow Citizens doesn’t have an experimental edge in its songwriting; it does. No, it’s because Kevin Costner Suicide Pact (due Friday,…

With early-’90s bar-room memoirs both funny (“Bubba Shot the Jukebox”) and not so funny (“Too Cold at Home”), Mark Chesnutt was one of the last in the George Jones line of bona fide honky-tonkers to find real major-label success (Chesnutt’s dad was actually one of Jones’s running buddies). These days,…

While the influences of Prince and New Order are more than apparent in Miami Horror’s work, the Australian four-piece has built its own sturdy electronic legs on which to stand — as evidenced by its debut effort, last year’s Illumination. Instead of regurgitating the ghosts of electronic music’s past, the band…

If artists like England’s Mumford and Sons continue to produce some of the best music of the genre, the term “Americana” may eventually have to be replaced. Using classic American folk-rock ingredients like banjo, dobro and good old-fashioned misery, the band has become an increasingly growing musical phenomenon. Its debut…

The sales pitch for cell phones that do a ton of other shit has always been about connection: Buy this phone and be connected to everything all the time, because you are a social animal and this will make you happy. That’s partly true: For you, the user of the…

When people classify the music that Cannons is making, they have a tendency to be grossly inaccurate. Boasting members from some of Denver’s most established metal acts, the band often gets a metal designation assigned to it. A closer listen, however, makes it apparent that this is far from an…

As a teenager, Jonathan Tiersten got a taste of fame in the cult horror flick Sleepaway Camp. Since then, he’s gone on to act in more films, including 2008’s Return to Sleepaway Camp, while also working on a music career. With hands in both music and film, it’s not surprising…

Flight Risk is a mixtape of what are essentially leftover joints from Mr. Midas’s album Son of the Crack Era, with several new concept-driven collaborations thrown into the mix. Chock-full of posse cuts and interludes supporting the “flight risk” theme, the rap is exceptional, and not just from Midas. “Make…

Beginning with a sample of waves coming in off the ocean, Curse All Summers conjures the kind of day where low-hanging clouds gray the sky from horizon to horizon. Akin to an even more low-fi Elliott Smith, the Transformations make no bones about their melancholic tone, but there’s less desperation…

You can draw a couple of likely conclusions upon hearing the band name Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. First, that it’s a group of punk-rockers, as punk bands like Abe Vigoda, Burgess Meredith, Ronald Raygun and the Fabulous St. Knicholas Cage have been re-purposing celebrity monikers for years. Also, that the…

When two groups known for throwing epic parties combine their efforts for a summertime series, you can bet it’s going to bring great things to the city lucky enough to host it. That’s exactly what will happen with Inception, a collaboration of Afterhours Anonymous and Mahesh Presents. The two groups…

BRIGHT EYES at THE FILLMORE, 6/5/11″It was a bit bittersweet to think that this might be the last time Bright Eyes plays Denver.”…

Now into its third decade as a band, Front Line Assembly (due at Summit Music Hall tonight with Dismantled, Cyanotic, DJ Acucrack and Harwire) has been a group to stick to the confines of its initial industrial label…

DISPATCH at RED ROCKS | 6/3/11″Dispatch fans came for a good time — the first they’ve shared with this band in a while — and let’s just say they got what they came for.”…

SLEIGH BELLS @ OGDEN THEATRE | 6.14.11 As a mid-level band headlining a place the size of the Ogden and charging 25 bucks a head, how do you justify playing a set that’s barely as long as your opener (we’re talking thirty minutes and some change here — it will…

It’s a slower weekend in dance music than this city has seen quite a while, but don’t despair: We still found several options for your booty-shakin’ pleasure this weekend. First up: The ever-dependable Forever Fridays at Beta will feature Zodiac Nights (it’s your turn, Gemini!) with DJ Shares vs. DJ…