The Flock of Seagulls hair, the David Bowie androgyny, the Depeche Mode synths — you’ve heard (and seen) it all before. But there’s still something compelling and genuine about the flashy and fashionable throwback electro-pop of La Roux. Where highly sexualized fetish imagery is central to the music of modern…
A journalist once made a prediction about Rooftop Vigilantes: “In a few years, they’ll make big waves, sign to a major label and then precipitously decline.” Looks like he might have been at least partially correct. The Lawrence, Kansas-based act’s latest album, Carrot Atlas, features enough hipster posturing and catchy…
Chris McGarry was born on the Mississippi, raised on hymns and ballads and is currently living in the Internet age on Capitol Hill — that much we know. And sure enough, his debut full-length reflects this: It’s rootsy, full of banjo and lap steel and twang, but there’s also some…
Songs in Alphabetical Order is a bit of a departure for Will Baumgartner, former Action Figure 8 frontman and new-wave affiliate. Beginning with a bossa nova rhythm and an Americana-meets-early-R.E.M.-jangle-rock sound, Baumgartner steers clear of the funk and jazz of his earlier endeavors on this short EP, instead favoring a…
It takes a lot of balls to put the word “hearts” in your band name — especially in these post-emo days, when wearing your emotions on your sleeve makes songwriters walking, whining targets for derision. But Randall Buckland has never had a problem wearing that particular muscle on his sleeve;…
Otis Taylor calls his music “trance blues,” and that sounds about right. On his new record, Clovis People Vol. 3 (there is no volume one or two, by the way), Taylor sounds a lot like the next link in a chain that started with John Lee Hooker, who employed similar…
Much like Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Natural Selection songwriter Samuel Glover works with professional musicians to craft pristine funk grooves that sparkle with musicianship. The catch? He and his bandmembers all live in different states. In time for a somewhat rare live show, where Natural Selection will release its…
For over five years, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire has been cultivating a sound that combines the darkness and brutality of grindcore and death metal, resulting in a seething cauldron of outrage and tortured despair. Amid the often atonal clangor and pummeling rhythms, vocalist Ethan McCarthy’s feral…
France’s DJ Falcon has been around for more than a decade, but you can be forgiven if you’ve managed to overlook him. He’s not the most prolific of producers, but the few tracks he’s put his stamp on are notable. His remix of Cassius’s “La Mouche” is a near-classic, and…
Cole Rudy is something of a guitar auteur. He’s played jazz in big bands and ensembles, pretty indie pop with Lilly Scott’s band Varlet, psychedelic prog with Wetlands and plenty of thrash metal, first with his former project Elucidarius, and now Barnacle, an effort that pits Rudy’s shredding against that…
With close to six months of postponed release dates under its belt, two official videos already out in advance of its supposed release on June 15, and almost every one of its tracks leaked all over the internet, Drake’s much anticipated first full-length, Thank Me Later, has generated a ton…
As you’ve probably heard by now, Andrew’s On Lincoln, one of our Westword Music Showcase venues, unexpectedly and inexplicably went dark last week. Bummer deal, but the Showcase must go on. As such, we’re moving the lineup that we had originally slated for Andrew’s down the block to HUNKS at…
Here what the area’s local-centric specialty radio shows were spinning this week. We’re currently tracking the playlists a number of different shows including, Radio 1190’s Local Shakedown*, KTCL’s Locals Only, KBCO’s Local Edition, The Colorado Sound, which originates at KRFC and is re-broadcast all over Colorado, 99.5 the Mountain’s Homegrown…
This week’s flier proves that a great flier can be fashioned from very few elements. Just have a look at this Air Dubai flier. What do we have? a stark, stenciled image. Some type. A textured background. That’s it. And it totally works. It all starts with the wise, if…
In the last few days we’ve been assaulted with tons of freeloader stuff, from singles to album previews to full blown EPs. Needless to say, we’ve had a hard time keeping up with it all, which is why we’ve decided to just gather up a few of our favorites in…
Although the National has been at for a decade, the Brookyn-based indie rock group started gaining some serious traction with the release of 2007’s Boxer. The act’s latest effort, High Violet , debuted in the top five slots around the world, so it’s no surprise that the band, who has…
The Black Keys’ latest effort, Brothers, performed strong for the second week in a row and claimed the top spots at Albums on the Hill and Independent Records, while checking in at number two at Twist & Shout. Widespread Panic’s Dirty Side Down, released last week on ATO, Hank Williams…
Just received word that Mighty 4 Denver, the B-boy gathering put together by the Lordz of Finesse crew, Paulskeee and Master Culture, is set to go down on Saturday, July 10. Launched in 2008, Mighty 4 Denver — celebrating the four-elements of hip-hop culture its named after — is now…
Cue: Gigantic lump in the throat. Heard this one on the radio yesterday and immediately wanted to hear it again — before it had even finished, a sure sign that I’d stumbled on a keeper. The other, and this is probably just the sentimentalist in me (I’m a great big…
Paper Bird have been hinting at big news in the last few days and big news they delivered today: The group’s second full-length album When the River Took Flight — recorded by Bob Ferbache and mixed by John McVey at Coupe Studios — is slated to be released on July…
It was yet another glorious and glamorous weekend in the Mile High City, and we’ve got pictures to prove it. Lots of ’em. We sent our boy Aaron Thackeray out armed with his fancy, schmancy soul-stealing machinery to capture the various nightlife scenery, and he sent back flix of Insane…
Update: This morning, the Denver Film Society announced the full lineup for this year’s Film on the Rocks. See which acts are slated to perform after the jump. The Film on the Rocks 2010 schedule has been announced. Looks like the Denver Film Society is kicking things off with a…
