Last night, I was bellied up to the bar next to Jason Cain at Sputnik, and he was telling about this show that his band, Astrophagus, has coming up on Saturday, April 4, at the hi-dive. If you look on the hi-dive’s calendar, it’s billed like any other show –…
Colorado’s very own outright zany and just plain weird torchbearers of the Dead Milkmen school of punk rock, Little Fyodor and Babushka, celebrate their twentieth anniversary as a band this month. Frontman Little Fyodor also celebrates his 25th year as a radio DJ at longstanding public-radio station KGNU, headquartered out…
Just got word that Elitt Beat, a new house-music act incorporating live instrumentation, is debuting its act at the Funky Buddha. The brainchild of Casablanca-born DJ Elitt (aka Simo Fellah, pictured), Elitt Beat incorporates violin, percussion and saxophone into its international house stylings. Joining DJ Elitt tonight will be David…
It’s basically the metal we wish would have happened after ’86,” says Tauntaun guitarist Ian O’Dougherty of his band’s music. “After ’86, metal went in crazy ways, everywhere, and we didn’t like anywhere that it went. This is the record that we thought should have come then. If we were…
Halfway through my senior year in high school, I got a call from a military recruiter, who said something about how the Marines would pay for college if I enlisted. The offer sounded so promising that I actually went to his office and took a written test, which I aced…
Taking their odd name from a bit by Mitch Hedberg, the Missing DuFrenes write good old-fashioned rock and roll with a dash of tomfoolery. While many bands mining similar territory opt for some kind of blues thing, Jonathan Snyder and Peter Higgins crib from the shambolic rock of the Replacements,…
When you first hear this duo — if you’re old enough to remember this — you might think someone took the music that HBO used to introduce movies in the 1980s, increased the BPMs, filled out the low end and added lyrics to the results. As it turns out, that’s…
A performer can’t work at exuding effortless charm. It’s fortunate, then, that this quality comes naturally to Charlie Brand, lead singer of Miniature Tigers, who’ll prowl the Marquis alongside Dear and the Headlights and Reubens Accomplice. Tell It to the Volcano, the band’s just-issued full-length, opens with “Cannibal Queen,” a…
New Zealand has been home to some of the greatest pop bands of the last few decades. Lately, bands like Die! Die! Die! and Cut Off Your Hands have been touring internationally and reminding us that Kiwi acts always seem to bring an impressive degree of imagination and creativity to…
Bands from Los Angeles are typically thought to be slicker, trendier and more cravenly commercial than acts from less showbiz-oriented cities. Yet such stereotypes don’t apply to the Broken West, which shares this bill with Blind Pilot and Magic Mice. On Now or Heaven, released last fall on the Merge…
Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski know something about getting back to basics. Before they put together their brilliant debut full-length, 3 Rounds and a Sound, the two men who make up Portland-based Blind Pilot conducted a strictly human-powered tour of their home coast. The same austere spirit that had the…
Hip-hop is all about flow — and that’s precisely what much of A Safe Place lacks. Granted, there are plenty of positive elements here. The sound is warm and open-ended, and supplemental singers Bianca Mikahn and Kiev Nubine add a beguiling flavor to standout tracks like “MOVE!” and “Blame U.”…
For Mr. Anonymous’s 2005 debut, former Samples drummer Jeep MacNichol went down to Kingston, Jamaica, and teamed up with Sly & Robbie, the English Beat’s Dave Wakeling, Brando and a bunch of other reggae superstars to record an album fused with reggae, dancehall, dub, hip-hop and electronica. On this followup,…
This debut album from Loveland’s Mourned by Flies is clearly a mélange of thrash, death metal and grindcore. However, the band’s decision to infuse songs like “Eviscerate” and “Dying Circuit” with moody atmospherics using tasteful synth lines sets it apart from so much other heavy music. Sure, the guitarists shred…
Standing out above the army of acoustic-guitar-wielding singer-songwriters, Chris Adolf of Bad Weather California has a way of mesmerizing a crowd. In the studio, he loses the benefit of his magnetic stage presence, but he gains the freedom to build and arrange. Young Punks, his outfit’s latest effort, starts off…
At 29, the Game (aka Jayceon Terrell Taylor) is a battle-scarred vet. After getting shot five times in 2001, he recuperated by studying the styles of rap’s finest and coming up with a West Coast meets East Coast flow that attracted the attention of Dr. Dre, who produced his 2005…
Rock history is marked by plenty of wrongheaded tour combinations — the most famous being Jimi Hendrix and the Monkees. But few can compare in terms of sheer disastrousness with the 2007 pairing of Dethklok, a real-life approximation of a fictional death-metal band featured on a Cartoon Network series, and…
Matthew Dear is one of the most exciting things to happen to dance music in a long, long time. Under his own name, he’s released a series of pop-inflected electronic albums full of excellent songs and clever beats and is gaining a reputation as a top-notch live performer. Under aliases…
Just a week after we found out that Marie Litton and Matt Bellinger had their place broken into, it seems another local musician has found himself on the business end of a break-in. Tickle Me Pink frontman Sean Kennedy’s home was recently burglarized, and he’s offering a substantial reward to…
There’s no question my love of horror movies influenced my affection for this week’s top flier, but even non-fans have got to appreciate the New Ancient Astronauts’ cheeky take on this iconic image. At first glance it might look like they simply copied the original poster image, but a closer…
These Are Powers, Extra Life, Bad Weather California, Zach Kahn, Masculine, Neon KnightsTuesday, March 3, 2009RhinoceropolisBetter Than: A show that doesn’t feature gratuitous nudity on the rooftop of the venue. Ah, another chaotic night at Rhinoceropolis. The first of six groups to take the, uh, floor was The Masculine, a…
Yesterday afternoon, the members of Savage Henry and Chris Blochinger from Potcheen Folk Band were involved in a bus accident in Lee Summit, Missouri. According to Samantha Hanson, Savage Henry’s booking agent and former manager, the band, who was in between dates on a six-date Midwest tour, was on its way to…
