Music

Dunn the Signtologist is a Denver artist known for taking your average street sign and converting them into pieces of art.But what folks may not know is that Dunn is an avid supporter of the Colorado hip-hop scene. So much so that he’s done portraits of some of the scene’s…

If you don’t have plans Friday, how about an extra-spooky evening with the Silver Cord, who promise “shattered glass, sex and tears” for the show? The neo-goth/industrial band is releasing its Conflicting Emotions EP at the Old Curtis Street Bar and for the low, low price of $5 you not…

So we’ve been raving about A Shoreline Dream since first hearing the act and speaking with Ryan Policky almost two and a half years ago, and we continue to be impressed by these guys as whole. We absolutely love the music, and we sincerely admire their truly DIY approach to…

Before Gregg Stone quit drinking nearly five years ago, playing metal was just “something to do while I got drunk,” he declares without the slightest hint of irony. These days, the Horse frontman is far more focused. He’s got to be: His former lifestyle nearly cost him what could be…

I’d been to Bushwacker’s Saloon (1967 South Broadway) many times, but I’d never before noticed that the sunken bar was shaped kind of like a penis — or at least like half an erect one and a ball. The gal who pointed this out to me also explained that the…

We don’t know if the members of this quartet were imagining what it must have been like to be inside Noah’s head as he built the Ark, or if they were having a private giggle at the cosmic joke of the journeys of Odysseus following the Trojan War. Whatever inspired…

As one third of seminal dance act Underworld, Darren Emerson was a key player in creating some of the best, most memorable dance anthems of all time. Tracks like “Born Slippy,” “Cowgirl” and “Push Upstairs” not only set dance floors worldwide on fire, but they also made it onto soundtracks…

It’s been just over a year since rapper A.V.I.U.S., producer Es-Nine and DJ Cysko Rokwel came together to form 3 the Hardway. On the strength of their first leaked single in 2007, “Wild Style West,” the three have created a buzz that’s stretched statewide. Now they’re gearing up to drop…

Near the end of 2007, the guys in the Photo Atlas were ready to record the followup to their full-length debut, No, Not Me, Never, but on Christmas Eve, most of the staff at the Stolen Transmission label was fired. Around the same time, Nick Miles filled the drumming chair…

Appropriately enough, Noble Beast, the latest recording by Chicago’s Andrew Bird (on tour with Loney, Dear), boasts some notably avian moments: “Fitz and the Dizzyspells” is among the tracks that feature whistling, and “Masterswarm” includes simulated birdsong that may or may not have been created by a theremin. But Bird…

On “Country Star,” the centerpiece of the recently released What I’m For, Texas singer-songwriter Pat Green croons about “ridin’ shotgun with Kenny, Faith and Tim” and “breakin’ all the young girls’ hearts like Keith Urban” in an ironic tone, as if he thinks such a possibility is about as likely…

Jessica Lea Mayfield, whose music has been featured on such shows as Gossip Girl and CSI:NY, has been turning heads with both her haunting voice, which hovers like a vulture circling a dying calf in a dimly lit, frost-covered field, and her own unique brand of “ghost country.” Discovered by the…

Hailing from Albuquerque’s avant-garde noise scene, Sabertooth Cavity takes the stage and looks like any other noise-rock band you see making the rounds of the underground music circuit. As soon as the group gets going, however, any such notions are immediately dismissed. Like Expo ’70 and the Late Severa Wires,…

On its debut album, Terrific Seasons, These Are Powers — vocalist/guitarist Anna Barie, bassist (and former member of Liars) Pat Noecker and drummer Bill Salas — craft a thick, fetid stew of no-wave post punk and drone that the group dubbed “ghost punk.” Silly descriptor, perhaps, but Barie’s otherworldly howls…

The Fray’s commercial breakthrough has provided Colorado acts with a template for success, and plenty of them are following it closely — although generally with less slickness and skill than Fort Collins-based Roe. The players are committed to guitars, but they do love them some keyboards, too, as the introduction…

This EP opens with “Deep Hole on a Gold Throne,” which sounds a bit like Dio if Michael Schenker had been his guitarist and the fantasy-fiction imagery didn’t come off as melodramatic and adolescent. Inevitably this band and this release will invite the term “stoner rock,” but there’s nothing sludgy…

The first time I saw Rob Drabkin perform, a few years ago, I think I must have worn an expression similar to the one Drabkin is wearing on the cover of his latest album: brow furrowed, one eyebrow cocked, looking a tad annoyed yet curious, thinking, “Man, this dude still…

Improv shows himself to be something of a hip-hop auteur on Omotion, which he wrote, produced, recorded and mixed largely on his own. His skill as both a producer and rapper are obvious from the opening minutes. The disc opens with a sound-collage intro that morphs into a pleasantly pushy,…

According to Billboard, the best selling act in America this week is still Taylor Swift, who moved 62,000 copies of her latest disc, Fearless, followed by Charlie Wilson, who was good for 71,000 copies of Uncle Charlie, his latest, and the Fray, which sold another 53,000 copies of its self-titled…

Remember last year when gas was like ninety bucks a gallon and the roadways in Denver were littered with gangs of unscrupulous opportunists roving the streets all Mad Max style, armed with rubber hoses (and not much common sense), in search of the next vehicle to commandeer and subsequently siphon?…