Music

I saw them play at the Rainbow Tavern in Seattle,” recalls Matt Cameron. “I loved Soundgarden even before I joined the group. They were my favorite Seattle band. I always tried to make their shows whenever they played. I was always impressed with Chris’s natural charisma, and Hiro was fantastic…

In the three-plus decades since Bob Engel opened BJ’s Carousel (1380 South Broadway), Denver’s longest-running gay bar has gone through a number of ups and downs, from the oil boom and bust to losing a number of customers to AIDS in the ’80s to taking a tough hit in the…

Since forming in July 2007, the Vergers (due at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, July 15) have been something of an an unknown quantity in the underground rock scene in Denver — but it’s not for lack of effort or quality material. Like most bands, the Vergers wrestled with a…

The Sleepy Jackson and Pnau might not ring any bells on this side of the pond, but both outfits are well-known in their home country of Australia — and, it would seem, have very little in common. The Sleepy Jackson is an alternative-rock group from Perth, on the west coast…

Although Goapele (pronounced Gwap-a-lay) first came to prominence with the gentle funk jam “Closer” at the start of this decade, the former Berklee music student is far from a one-hit wonder. In 2006, she returned to the charts with “First Love,” a ballad so light you hardly expected it to…

Graham Parker kicked around various bands in London before hooking up with the Rumour and recording with future Stiff Records chief Dave Robinson in 1975. The resulting 1976 album, Howlin’ Wind, yielded the outfit a Top 40 hit with “Don’t Ask Me Questions.” The song’s blend of R&B, soulful folk…

For most of the ’90s, guitarist Ian Williams was a part of the math-rock outfit Don Caballero, but in 2002 he teamed up with former Helmet drummer John Stanier, former Lynx guitarist Dave Konopka and avant-garde musician Tyondai Braxton, the son of experimental multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton. The resultant group uses…

Though the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I more or less parted ways right around the time I declined Anthony Kiedis’s invitation to fly away on his zephyr (which, for some reason, always sounds to me like a synonym for farting quietly), I will admit that there was a time…

On his last record, Pictureplane ripped the idea of teenage counterculture wide open and gave new meaning to being goth. This time around, it’s like he’s suspended himself in time; songs are rife with ambient sameness, but the tingly, synthesized feeling is one of overwhelming satisfaction. The kicky drum and…

When pianist Matthew Shipp started recording in the ’80s, he rebelled against jazz; he didn’t want to have to defend himself by saying that he came from jazz roots, like avant-garde players such as Cecil Taylor, Anthony Davis and James Newton. Shipp says he even wrote a term paper in…

Forget Detroit. Right now, Berlin is Ground Zero when it comes to innovative, boundary-pushing techno, and Sebastian Koch is right up there with that city’s movers and shakers. Koch started spinning hip-hop records in 1996, and in 1998, after he became exposed to a wider range of electronica, he started…

Earlier today, literally minutes after we posted a scene report detailing all the recent shake-ups, breakups and births in the scene, we received word about another noteworthy development — so noteworthy, in fact, that we thought it deserved a post all its own. This Saturday, Primasonic, a combo led by…

Chicago’s Alkaline Trio (due this evening at Summit Music Hall with The Gamits and Smoking Popes) are one of those bands that essentially created a genre, and then thrived in it for the better part of two decades. The band’s melodic punk came to prominence in the mid-’90s and has…

There’s been quite a bit of movement in the local scene over the past month or so. We’ve caught wind of some personnel changes and a few new bands to let you know about. In vaguely related Speakeasy Tiger news, Kyle Simmons, who previously fronted that band, has parted ways…

There is no way to stretch the word “poet” to fit into something I am even remotely interested in, but when you find yourself in the position to take a poetry/writing workshop from Thurston Moore, you’re willing to break out of your cage a little. When Moore took on the…

DJ SPOOKY at ASTROLAND, BOULDER | 7/8/11Update (7/11/11, 11:26 a.m.): Kate Lesta of CMNKY has advised us that DJ Spooky did not perform for charity, and that he was, in fact, paid to perform at Astroland, which is not a BYOB venue, as described, but stresses that “It’s a Substance…

After DJ Quik canceled on Casselman’s at the last minute due to “gang activity” and “threats on his life,” all hell broke loose, with everyone buzzing about where (and exactly who) would be performing and where. As it turned out, Bizzy Bone, fresh off the plane in a ponytail, rocked…

MANCUB at HI-DIVE | 7/9/11Nothing you’ve heard about ManCub can probably prepare you for ManCub. It would be easy to compare the duo to Daft Punk, because both make groove-heavy electronic music and have an arresting visual element to their shows, but ManCub seems more tied-in with a raw energy…

THE AVETT BROTHERS at RED ROCKS | 7/9/11Last night at Red Rocks, when Governor John Hickenlooper introduced the Avett Brothers — which he called the one of best bands in the world — he said, “If you look back into the history of music, there’s something special about people who…

Denver got a little taste of Boulder last night with Robotic Pirate Monkey nearly selling out the Bluebird Theater. At least seventeen kids missed the memo that unless you have an orange bracelet proving you are 21 years old, you can’t drink. Add this to the five or so fake…