LOCALS ONLY In 2006 The Pirate Signal, consisting of rapper-producer Yonnas and DJ A-What, released a self-titled EP that brought a breath of fresh air to the Colorado hip-hop scene. But because the stagnation most hip-hop artists face here in the Mile High, Yonnas moved to Brooklyn, New York, with…
An out-of-state friend of mine just asked me to pull together some recommendations of good music that has emerged from colorful Colorado in recent years. I’m looking at the playlist in iTunes right now and can’t believe my eyes…
Slide Show X Tuesday, March 25 Bluebird Theater Better Than: Seeing X two decades ago. An hour before heading to the Bluebird I met a friend of mine who saw X in East St. Louis a few weeks ago. He said it was a great show, but he also mentioned…
B-52s Funplex Astralwerks 01:15-02:00 of “Pump” What the heck? Um, no seriously, what the heck? What made the B-52’s decide to release a record and, more importantly, why did they decide on the absolute stupidest album cover? You know, “Rock Lobster” is a great song that totally appeals to both…
Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Sate your nostalgia for the Aquanet-fueled halcyon days of hair metal with a look at this collection of vintage show ads from Minneapolis. My favorites are the many appearances by the oafishly named…
Diplo and Justice Saturday, March 22, 2008 Ogden Theatre Pulling off electronic music live is very tricky. The same tracks that can absolutely rock a dancefloor, a party or your headphones can fall completely flat when all there is to watch is a nerdy dude lit by his laptop. You…
Slide Show Beach House, Papercuts, Future of the Ghost, Bad Weather California Saturday, March 22, 2008, Hi-Dive Better than: not much. On the frigid, sloppy walk to the Hi-Dive, my friend John asked a question that had been renting some space in my mind of late. “When was the last…
Slide Show De Novo Dahl, the Jimi Austin and Vanessa Peters & Ice Cream On Mondays Thursday, March 20 Hi-Dive Better than: Watching the Grand Ole Opry on TV I was floored by De Novo Dahl’s set at Monolith last year, especially the Nashville-based band’s closer “Shout,” which I’m still…
Dent has been putting in work in the Denver scene for close to a decade. He’s been a freestyle battle champ, he’s appeared on a variety of local albums, and has put together a compilation album featuring some of Denver’s finest hip-hop artists. He released six-track EP called Platinum in…
Sometimes, things happen that make you question all of your assumptions. We all operate within a framework of misunderstood half-truths and well-understood falsehoods. We know what we know, and we can extrapolate from what we know to understand things we don’t really know, if only within the limited confines of…
Things for a lead vocalist to avoid when performing at a high-profile, multi-day music festival: 1) Cigarettes, 2) Booze, 3) Landing on your throat after attempting to do a flip from a low-hanging tree branch into a shallow river. You don’t have to be an otolaryngologist to deduce that it’s…
When music scenes turn moribund, tastemakers desperately flail about for something, anything, to fill the void — and a band that’s anointed as the Chosen One under these circumstances often goes from obscurity to ubiquity with quicksilver speed. Too bad even the strongest among them can drown while undergoing their…
In “Unthinking Majority,” from Elect the Dead, Serj Tankian’s first solo album, the longtime System of a Down lead singer declares, “We don’t need your hypocrisy/Execute real democracy” — and unlike knee-jerk provocateurs for whom sloganeering is an end in itself, he’s actually thought about what he means by this…
Long before Steve Bug became a master of the deep, sleek, techno-infused realms of house music, he was popping, locking and maybe even doing the Robot. “The first time I recognized feeling music as something special,” Bug remembers, “was when the street-style breakdance stuff got big. “But I may have…
In the late ’70s, there was a power forward on the University of Toledo basketball team who was known more for the giant black growth on his shoulder than for his dominating ball-handling skills. That man’s name? Harvey Knuckles. As a kid growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Mike Wing was…
Blood on the Wall, Liferz (The Social Registry). On Liferz, siblings Brad and Courtney Shanks carve solid bricks from late-’80s and early-’90s indie rock to build a comfortable little abode. The architecture here might not be groundbreaking, but the hearth, warmed by “Lightning Song” and “Hibernation,” provides a welcoming haven…
Four years ago, club owner Regas Christou transformed the former Jonas Brothers building at 1037 Broadway into the jungle-themed Serengeti, which then became the Shelter. On Friday, March 28, the space will reopen as Bar Standard, an Art Deco-themed, modern-day speakeasy — think Roaring ’20s and ’30s with a twist…
Nick Houde has made consistently interesting and innovative music since he came to Denver from Montrose a few years ago. Transistor Radio Sound, with its ultra-sincere indie-pop vibe, is the project for which he was most well known. When he put that act to rest, Houde formed the free-jazz outfit…
Jungle aficionados need no introduction to the work of Ed Rush and Optical. Over the past decade, the two have blazed a trail of far-out freak funk as DJs, producers and heads of the seminal jungle label Virus. Their heavy-duty, brutal take on jungle has been hugely influential, giving rise…
Just as his former band (Band of Horses) en-dured countless comparisons to other groups, Mat Brooke’s Grand Archives will undoubtedly be likened to other indie-pop luminaries. On songs such as “Index Moon,” for instance, Brooke’s voice resembles that of the New Pornographers’ A.C. Newman, while “Torn Blue Foam Couch” evokes…
The Snoopster uses his ultra-cool stoner persona to make up for a multitude of sins — and Ego Trippin’ will only enhance his increasingly cuddly image. Thanks to his charming obliviousness, he generally gets away with lyrics and arrangements that range from timeworn to ridiculous. Despite his current reality-show stardom,…
Trends come and trends go, but the power trio remains. Trouble is, the prevalence of this approach means that acts must offer truly unexpected twists to transcend it. But while Something Underground’s name promises such a detour, We Came to Get Down, a mostly live recording that will be unveiled…
