Music

Everyone in the audience was armed,” says Paper Bird’s Esme Patterson, recalling making that horrifying discovery on stage at a recent show. “It was like that scene in The Blues Brothers, where they play at the country bar and no one knows what to think.” While you can picture such…

The only time I saw the Violent Femmes was when the Milwaukee-based trio played a short, energetic set on the counter of Wax Trax Records in the mid-’80s. People were stuffed in the aisles of the store for the entirely acoustic set; I’m pretty sure the drummer banged on a…

Andy Monley isn’t exactly a household name, but maybe he should be. He’s definitely made the Denver music scene a lot more interesting for more than two decades. As a guitarist for pioneering local bands Jux County and Velveteen Monster, Monley showed an impressive range as a guitarist and songwriter…

Most artists hope to develop an indelible personal style — but achieving that goal can produce both negatives and positives, as Hope Sandoval (joined on this bill by Dirt Blue Gene) has learned over the course of her come-and-go career. She first moved the pop-culture meter in the late ’80s…

It’s important to take note of Boston’s the Dear Hunter, if for no other reason than to not confuse the group with Deerhunter, the Atlanta-based art-rock outfit. Fans of the latter’s jagged yet atmospheric awesomeness are likely to run screaming from the former’s pompous, overwrought, Danny Elfman-on-steroids spasms. Wielding emotive…

Sian Alice Group’s dusky, contemplative songwriting is intense and vibrantly electric, with layers of percussion, non-traditional and otherwise. Although this avant-garde soul outfit borrows liberally from the aesthetics of electronica, jazz and experimental rock, it has crafted a sound all its own — like a band of the recent past…

Like a jerkier, dirtier version of avant-rockers Clinic, California’s the Intelligence hijacks indie rock with an arsenal of skin-peeling distortion, jackhammer repetition and oxymoronic moronism. And that’s a good thing: On its latest full-length, this summer’s Fake Surfers, the group accordingly mutilates reverb-slathered surf riffs using post-punk nihilism, garage-rock rawness…

Miami has more than its share of nice Jewish girls — but few of them can sing like Tel Aviv-born Tim Yehezkely, who consistently delivers as frontwoman for the Postmarks, currently touring with Brookline. Memoirs at the End of the World represents the players’ fourth release in as many years:…

Nearly half the cuts on Ivory Drive’s debut album sound as though they were ripped from the pages of the Ben Folds Five songbook, only with sax and trumpet added on top. What’s more, Van Wampler’s vocals and piano playing bear an uncanny resemblance to Folds’s. That’s not a bad…

Before nerds took over the world, they weren’t so meek. Watch almost any ’80s nerd-centric movie, Revenge of the Nerds included: Some were mild-mannered, but just as many were horny, twisted and even downright aggressive. Denver’s nerdy Accordion Crimes — featuring former members of the defunct Hot IQs and the…

Tracing the lineage that Black Sleep of Kali evokes on this record isn’t all that difficult. Listen closely and there’s some of that hard-edged sludginess of Black Sabbath, the razory psychedelia and inexorable sway of Sleep and the progressive drive of Isis across these five songs. But Kali makes it…

“Urgency,” this album’s title track, was inspired by the chronic illness of Maree McRae’s youngest son, so it makes sense that her performance is sincere and heartfelt. But her delivery of lines like “Baby, I’m just burstin’ at the seams” doesn’t match their content. Her relaxed, honeyed vocals are best…

Four year ago, Coles Whalen moved out of her apartment and into a pickup truck with a camper. She says she decided if she was going to make anything work, she had to be on tour. She set up shows at Borders bookstores around the country, sold enough copies of…

Jeremy Gregory had some innovative ideas for this weekend’s endOtrend Festival — such as silk-screening T-shirts for admission rather than issuing hard tickets. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a little while longer for some of those ideas to take flight. Just a week before the event — billed as the…

The music of Daedelus sounds like steampunk IDM, chock-full of strange boops and loops that would sound right at home recorded on wax cylinders. Perhaps it’s only appropriate that an artist who looks like a foppish dandy from the Victorian era would produce dusty, antique tunes from a make-believe time…

Trying to decide which is more noteworthy — Chad Price playing ten breweries in one day, or Chad Price, clean shaven? (Seriously. We didn’t know dude came without a beard. Cleans up pretty nicely, doesn’t he?) We’re guessing you’re more interested in the latter. To that end, on Saturday, October…

Got a massive pile of loot burning a hole in your pocket? Yeah, neither do we. If you do happen to scrape some nickels together, however, Flobots are conducting a pair of auctions on eBay right now that might interest you. In an effort to raise funds for their non-profit,…

Have you always wanted to be b-boy? Here’s your chance. No more faking the funk! This Saturday at Cherry Creek Dance on Third and Clayton, three bona fied floor wreckers — Visa from Dance2Live, Mattlock from the Groproject and BREAKERONE9 from Lordz of Finesse — will be on hand to…

Julox has one of the most recognizable voices in the Colorado hip-hop scene and some out-of-state entities are taking notice. Julox’s Ugly Azz Entertainment has partnered with Hezeleo of UGK Records out of Houston for a new mixtape, Julox: Facially Challenged. Mixed by Desert E, the collection features contributions from…

Back in January, two locals dominated Scion’s 2008 Hypeman Contest. DJ Sabotage and Hypeman P took first and second place in the competition, respectively, showing the judges and the nation that the Colorado hip-hop scene is on the rise. (Ed: No question Sabo and HP dominated, regardless. When you see…