Concerts

There isn’t much of a way to approach Dredg (who play the Marquis Theater tonight with the Trophy Fire, Balance and Composure and the Dear Hunter) without talking about the band’s legacy. Retaining its original lineup since its 1993 formation, the California outfit has weathered stylistic storms with its own…

It’s like the universe knows, like it waits patiently for us to go to press and then drops the hammer. The ink is almost literally still drying on the local lineup for the 2011 Westword Music Showcase (see page 45 of this week’s issue), and already, it’s changed: Bad Weather…

Tim Browne always knew that being a talkative and outgoing drunk would eventually pay off. One night, the perfect mixture of cocktails and dreams led the Elway frontman to start up a conversation with Brendan Kelly of the Lawrence Arms, which eventually led to a recording contract. “I always like…

The Roslyn Grill was always one of Denver’s more colorful dives, both in its original home on 14th Street and the spot at 504 East Colfax Avenue where it moved two decades ago, when the Colorado Convention Center took its place downtown. When Prohibition opens in the space on Colfax…

Two years ago, Gritt Hitter (due at the Gothic Theatre this Friday, May 13) was a promising three-piece metal act that was clearly inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal, with a thrash undercurrent. Even though some of its sound was familiar, the band seemed caught up in…

Ric Ocasek has famously and repeatedly said there would never be a reunion of the Cars after his old band broke up in 1988. But in a recent NPR interview, Ocasek graciously explained that his change of heart in not just re-forming the Cars for a tour but also in…

Lucinda Williams has always been about reinvention. Starting in the country-blues space, she eventually moved on to something more rootsy, then rocking. Her newest album, Blessed, is a culmination of all of that, but where her songs were once about the ways the past has already fallen apart, this record…

On his last album, 2009’s Animals in the Dark, William Elliott Whitmore sang about the pulse of strange eyes glowing outside his Iowa farm and how closely they connected with the “malicious politicians with nefarious schemes” making his life hell in Washington. No matter what he sings about, it’s understood…

You might not have heard of the Colombia-based Bomba Estéreo, but chances are you’ve heard of a few of its collaborators, who in recent years have included DJ Rupture, Ben Frost and Brian Eno. The group’s new album, the Ponte Bomb EP, is essentially Colombia’s answer to the freaked-out electro…

The culture wars: Conservative versus liberal, pro-life versus pro-choice, anti-gay versus pro-gay, Glenn Beck versus, uh, My Chemical Romance, apparently. As further evidence that not even the most banal pop-cultural crap escapes the bitter divide of partisan politics, the aforementioned pundit and pop-punkers are currently involved in one of the…

On his latest mixtape, 24, Julox stars as Black Bauer, an obvious throw to the Fox television show of the same name. Chronicled like a long day filled with violence, drugs, getting random pussy and throwing up middle fingers to the law, 24 finds Julox spitting lyrics with convincing realism…

As founder of the Boulder Acoustic Society, Aaron Keim clearly knows his way around acoustic music. While BAS fans will probably have an immediate affinity for Keim’s solo act, the Quiet American, they may find a lot of the folk cuts on The Quiet American Vol. II (due for release…

Admittedly, not much has changed about Boldtype’s music since the band formed in 2002. It’s still pop-punk in its purest form, borrowing heavily from influences like Millencolin and Good Riddance while not really splicing in other genres. Luckily, Boldtype has gotten very, very good at this style. The group’s latest…

You have to give credit to a band writing relatively dark music that leads off its album with a song called “Clown Car Suicide.” Amid sometimes biting, melodic guitar rhythms, string filigrees and Melati Olivia’s classically inflected vocals, the music of Choke the Word often recalls Loreena McKennitt if she…

Started by childhood friends Yuzo Nieto and Mike Neff in early 2007, Pink Hawks initially explored an nearly pure jazz-improv musical route. Those early shows incorporated performance-art elements that tried to engage multiple senses, with cohorts of the band passing out items frozen in ice cubes, or live painting, or…

Bass-centric music seems to have taken center stage in the electronic world recently as dubstep has increased in popularity and DJs who used to specialize in drum-and-bass have shifted gears. Liondub is definitely a bass specialist, but he hasn’t turned his back on jungle and reggae, the genres that helped…

Making its second stop in Colorado in the last year, Broken Water (playing tonight at Rhinoceropolis with Gem Trails and MJOLNIIRDXP) is a trio that seems born to blow minds. Based out of Olympia, Washington, the group has been playing together for a little less than three years but has…

The lineup for the 8th Annual 5 Points Jazz Festival, slated to take place at various points along Welton Street on Saturday, May 21, has been announced. In addition to a discussion with Jake Adam York on jazz standards and covers at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, artists ranging…

YACHT (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater, with Light Asylum, Jeffrey Jerusalem and Bad Weather California) has existed over the last decade in many forms. Electro-mastermind Jona Bechtolt ran the show himself for several years before being joined by creative partner Claire L. Evans in 2008…