Music

The Horace Van Vaughn’s atmospheric sketches sound like someone in the band spent some time listening to Pink Floyd’s more obscure soundtrack work while taking a break from life and from writing more conventionally accessible music. The band’s latest opus, “The Flame” (in D Major, no less), is proof that…

Appearances to the contrary, “Colleen,” from the Heavy’s debut album, 2007’s Great Vengeance and Furious Fire, doesn’t feature the late Curtis Mayfield circa 1972 or his band at the time. That’s Kelvin Swaby singing, and along with the rest of the band, he’s managed to make soulful rock and roll…

Hip-hop producer and Gnarls Barkley member Danger Mouse may be known for dabbling with everyone from Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn to the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. But his partner in Broken Bells, James Mercer of the Shins, isn’t as notoriously adventurous. Danger Mouse outs Mercer’s latent experimentalism in Broken Bells’…

There was nothing simple about Days Away, the epic, progressive rock band that was a fixture on the post-hardcore circuit throughout the naughts. But when the group broke up in 2008, singer/guitarist Keith Goodwin and drummer Tim Arnold announced a total about-face: Good Old War. Influenced by far more basic…

The Lighthouse and the Whaler took direct inspiration for its name — as well as the guiding principle for its approach to making music — from the chapter in Moby-Dick in which the lighthouse is a symbol for doing what one should be doing, a signifier of fate. The band…

This retrospective by the Warlock Pinchers, the most deservedly notorious of Denver bands, compiles recordings from the earliest cassette-only releases, seven-inches, demos, rehearsals and an unreleased collaboration with the Butthole Surfers on a devilish cover of “Forever Your Girl,” by Paula Abdul. Clearly, these recordings are, at best, lo-fi. But…

You’re not getting the full experience until your ears are ringing. Even with markedly improved recording quality over last year’s demos, Makeout Point’s songs come through a wall of white noise on Night Moves. Turn it down too much and that’s all you’ll hear: white noise. The rewards come with…

It doesn’t get any more literal than writing a song about the moon and titling it “The Moon.” Patrick Dethlefs does exactly that on his debut CD, Stays the Same, and the unswerving earnestness of that track isn’t a fluke. The Kittredge-based teenage singer-songwriter uses his warm, homespun voice and…

As clearly evidenced by their two previous releases, vibraphonist and pianist Greg Harris and his quintet have mastered the art of the groove. While Harris and company dig in on a few tracks, such as “Two Few Minutes Dive” and Blue Heron,” on their latest effort, Glass Gold, they step…

Black Market Blood Bank,” one of the most brutal yet accomplished tracks of Identity Pusher’s debut CD, It Was Already on Fire When I Got There, kicks off with a second-long South Park sample. It’s indicative of the band’s aesthetic: Intricate, melodic, progressive death metal that takes the music seriously,…

50 Cent has avoided confrontation exactly never in his twelve-year career. His debut full-length, meanwhile, is universally hailed as a hip-hop classic. So he’s been a polarizing force for a long time. You could say that 50 took an artistic stumble with Curtis, perhaps due to an increasing involvement in…

Despite losing status as the “it” sound of dance music, trance is obviously here to stay. Just ask Armin van Buuren, who has snagged the top spot on DJ magazine’s list of the top 100 most popular DJs for three years running, from 2007 through 2009. The fact that trance…

That was quick. For those of you not eagerly lapping up every vague clue coming from the Arcade Fire camp, allow us to bring you up to speed. May 15: The band posts a virtual postcard (the front of which you see above) saying they’re just finishing pressing their new…

Twenty bands. Four stages. One day. That’s the tagline for the second annual Denver Day of Rock Concerts for Kids. Taking place on Saturday, May 29, Day of Rock, which is free and open to the public, is slated to happen on two stages at Skyline park and two others…