The Onion Rats wrote “Choke” in 2020 when the pandemic was new and civil unrest over a variety of issues was ambient but one branch of that really got the spotlight when the protests around the murder of George Floyd by police flared far and wide. You can hear the frustration and rage in the song and at times the words flow in distorted bursts but the contorted sonic pathways of the song contain the acute awareness felt by most people who aren’t rich that the powers that be whether in the economic of political elite cared more for maintaining the regular flow of markets at any cost and a return to the illusion and delusion of “normal” as soon as possible however that needed to be rationalized and often plenty of people rationalized that to themselves in the name of the fiction of self-perceived and false notions of liberty and freedom. But you hear none of that foolishness in this song. It is imbued with the simmering anger at a social and economic order that treats most people as expendable and unimportant. In its darkly psychedelic nightmare harmonies there is that persistent awareness that the world as it is is propped up by a contingent reality that is dependent on an austerity consensus we could snap out of and topple late capitalism if we wanted to, if there was the will to do so. Listen to “Choke” on Spotify and follow The Onion Rats on Instagram.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom MurphyYeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
The evening spring downpours in the Denver metro area took a break for the duration of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show at Red Rocks but something about the atmosphere seemed to enhance a dream-like ambiance to the performance.
Perfume Genius at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
Opening act Perfume Genius turned the stage into something of a Broadway show set with a backdrop like a large theater curtain or a massive pipe organ. But whatever the exact nature of the image it enhanced the expansive power of Michael Hadreas’ operatic and impassioned vocals and commanding presence as he and his band performed a broad selection of ten songs from his most recent four albums including ending the set with a rousing version of “Queen” from 2014’s Too Bright, one of art pop classics of the past decade.
Perfume Genius at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom MurphyYeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are no strangers to Red Rocks over the years but how would the trio, a quartet for this tour, manifest its music for this concert? As someone who had only ever seen Yeah Yeah Yeahs once in 2002 when the group opened for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion after Liars did a mind melting set opening the entire show only to put on the kind of charismatic feat of rock and roll theater that has cemented the band as one of the greatest live acts of all time I had high expectations. Until recently reading Meet Me in the Bathroom and seeing the documentary of the same name I had more or less checked out of the band for the past twenty years but when Cool It Down came out in 2022 I’d hear singles randomly in public places and really got into those songs even though what I heard felt more mellow than I had been expecting from the group that put out that debut EP and Fever to Tell. A friend had gifted me an old promo copy of Show Your Bones awhile back and listening to that it was obvious I had missed out on years of music from one of early 2000s indie rock’s best bands through my own life’s inertia and following other paths of contemporary music.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs with Michael Hadreas at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
So how did Yeah Yeah Yeahs measure up 23 years into their existence? Brian Chase, Nick Zinner and Imaad Wasif walked onto stage in the beginning to set the mood. No big props, a projection screen mostly minimal until later in the set. When Karen O walked onto the stage she had an outfit like some kind of glam rock superhero mixed with Sun Ra (but what’s the difference there, right?). Opening the set with the opening track to Cool It Down “Spitting Off the Edge of the World” was an emotionally electrifying and epic swing into a generous selection of songs going back across all the full-length albums. Michael Hadreas joined Karen O center stage for his vocal contributions as he did on the studio record and the two singer’s keyed into each other and played off each other like old collaborators. And it was in that melancholic song that a sense of sustained joy coming from the musicians that permeated the rest of the concert.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
There was a spontaneous energy to every song and you could see the band performing like they hadn’t been doing some of these songs for years, like they were playing this music at a small club but enjoying the large scale of the show and feeding off the energy of the collective moment. Karen O had the kind of on stage energy that’s impossible to resist and not be swept up into the music and share in her own excitement. You could see how the musicians all played off of one another and contributed to the momentum that coursed through from first song through the encore but in her movements and gestures and the enthusiasm she exuded, Karen channeled that to the audience and then back to the rest of the band in the kind of audience and performer interplay you hope to see but rarely experience at a large concert. So many of the songs are intimate and personal and that translated perfectly somehow to Red Rocks because Yeah Yeah Yeahs in this minimalistic stage set up put the focus on the human performance with projections like the spacescape later on and the streaming colors earlier accentuating the mood and providing atmosphere more than an inherent part of the appeal of the stage show itself.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
There was no skimping on the energy, everyone in the band put their all into what they were doing and it was obvious that they wouldn’t rather be doing anything else but this thing they love that fortunately for them lots of other people love as well. When you’ve seen some of modern music’s greatest frontpeople for over 20 years it was perhaps more obvious this time out than it was in 2002 that Karen O and her combination of humor, exuberance and imaginative and unconventional style is one of the greats and that without the context of Zinner’s and Chase’s own passion and ability to sync with each other and connect with the people that showed up with such immediacy and affection none of this might have had the same impact. Evidently nine years after the previous Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, these now legends of NYC indie rock have plenty of new ticks up their sleeves and the ability to deliver the goods with one of the most captivating sets in a large venue in a decade.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom MurphyYeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom MurphyYeah Yeah Yeahs at Red Rocks 6/5/23, photo by Tom Murphy
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Set List for June 5, 2023 at Red Rocks Spitting Off the Edge of the World Cheated Hearts Pin Shame and Fortune Burning Zero Wolf Soft Shock Lovebomb Blacktop Sacrilege Turn Into Gold Lion Maps Heads Will Roll
La Sécurité’s video for “Anyway” and its lo fidelity imagery and lack of color correction looks like an alternative section of V/H/S/99 but instead of a more straight ahead punk band called R.A.C.K. in the “Shredding” story line it’s a band traversing a hybrid of Goth and New Wave. The retro melodies and sound is like of a band took a lot of inspiration from Missing Persons, B-52s and a sassy, irreverent, neo-death rock band. Except in this short film there are no murderous ghosts and instead we see the life of a band on the road or playing around town, in the practice space, playing video games and performing at the kinds of small clubs most bands do and making the most of it and not looking like Goth fashion victims but rather with a joyful exuberance and sense of humor that gives some context to a song that seems to be about the petty dramas many people get into when they’re operating from an inflated sense of their own tragedies and ego but not getting dragged into it all because scene or social circle drama, who can make much time for that? Watch the video for “Anyway” on YouTube and follow La Sécurité at the links below.
Vessel on its “Telephone” single truly puts the essence of a song into every moment. Like something out of an old hardcore tune, it dispenses with an intro, minimizes or eliminates a traditional outro and keeps the song lean, concise and imbued with a rare clarity. The song isn’t even two minutes long but in that time it conveys a message of yearning but not wanting to seem clingy but not shying away from genuine feelings and affection and how separation can feel like forever with your loved ones. The guitar line is minimal, like a single note melody more like a pulse, the bass line ascends and carries with it a swing heard in the emotive vocals and saxophone accents, all seeming to work in perfect tandem without overwhelming any of the elements until the end when everything comes together for a rich and full conclusion. It’s post-punk for fans of 99 Records artists and perhaps Essential Logic and Grass Widow. It’s a gentle song that is striking in how its sheer economy of songwriting can contain multiple emotional resonances. Listen to “Telephone” on Spotify and follow Atlanta’s Vessel on Instagram.
Boko Yout envisioned the seven tracks for the new EP AS SEEN ON TV (which released on May 12, 2023) as different channels of a fictional TV network called Boko Communications. Teleprompter sounds like something that was recorded, mixed and played on some old technology and on the verge of glitching out. Like some 1980s children’s toy technology with the electronics distorting slightly. But the vocals seem to trace an informal rhythm that’s more intuitive yet syncs up with the light splash percussion beats in the end. The lyrics sound like something an underworld hustler would say to a potential rival or up and coming underling who has gotten a little too big for their britches. But set to the swirl of otherworldly non-verbal vocals like cybernetic birds or anime faerie folk singing as a chorus for the main vocals, languid bass line and cascading dynamic the whole song has a more playful tone than one menacing. Maybe this channel on the album is one showcasing the grimier side of life but one with distinct style for which Yves Tumor might contribute theme music. Listen to “TELEPROMPTER” on Spotify and follow Boko Yout at at the links provided.
If Buzzcocks dirtied up their sound a little and shot it through with buoyant synth melody and distilled a song to its essential minute thirty-six it might sound a little like “Television Funeral” by Mononegatives. There’s something gritty and lo-fit, even gloriously amateurish to the production on the song but its energy is infectious like when Wire cut to the chase on every song on Pink Flag or POW! gone even more punk but seeming to draw upon the sensibilities of another era and bringing to it some new vitality, a collision between New Wave and punk to produce a sound that was never supposed to be reconciled back in the day but absolutely can now without cultural betrayal or irony. Or not too much irony. Listen to “Television Funeral” on Spotify where you can hear the rest of the new Mononegatives album Crossing the Visual Field and follow the band at the links provided.
Mcclendon’s dusky, saturated synths on “Loving For A Season” and the relaxed pace of the song conveys a mood that captures a melancholic spirit born of an acceptance and yearning for meaningful connection. You hear a sense of loss and in its streaming atmospherics and in the lonely saxophone expressing the ache more fully than the vocals which carry the weight of what could have been. It sounds like a song set in a story of a tragic love that couldn’t last forever set in the backdrop of a time not so far from now when people are hiding from pollution reddened skies except for a rare simply hazy blue day now and then when a glimmer of hope for the future and unguarded personal connections seem more easy. One might describe it as apocalyptic synth pop but one more rooted in a realistic scenario of diminished possibilities rather than a perilously dramatic and sudden downfall and the romance of a climate like that hits more acutely. Listen to “Loving For A Season” on Spotify and follow Mcclendon at the links below.
Kyle Bates is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work has most often been heard as his musical project Drowse. Founded in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, Drowse has released a few albums and numerous EPs and split releases. The music could be considered in part ambient, slowcore, shoegaze, drone, experimental folk and perhaps even transcendental black metal. But all categories aside, each Drowse recording is a journey into unique and nuanced emotional spaces exploring and living within a flow of emotions and thoughts that open the mind to new ideas and interpretations. And more so the moods, frequencies and textures on a Drowse recording, or really any of the releases in which Bates is involved, express a state of mind that one enters after having moved past a peak of anxiety or personal darkness and contain that tenderness and rawness one often needs to pull oneself out of a place of acute pain and psychological paralysis. The gentleness of the music is part of its power and appeal as Bates seems keenly aware of what it’s like to experience that period in life where you don’t feel like you can push or strive any further and you need an experience that is the opposite of that very modern and American internalized urge to keep at things to the extreme and prove yourself endlessly more and more. The core sound of Drowse is that of the musical equivalent of acceptance of one’s human limitations and of being open to what will nurture your well being and spark your imagination into nudging you toward fulfilling experiences.
Throughout his work as Drowse Bates has collaborated with Maya Stoner (Floating Room), Thom Wasluck (Planning for Burial), Madeline Johnston (Midwife), Taylor Malsey, Amulets, Daniel Schmidt and others. In 2023 Bates released an album as Kyle Bates and Lula Asplund called A Matinee that expands upon the format of his songwriting and production with two extended tracks that sound like an improv session one might have stumbled into in cutting room floor recordings of Alan Hankshaw and/or Brian Bennett had they been asked to provide music for a forgotten and mystical place. While it may sound like Bates’ work sets your mind into a different place than where it began upon listening to it, it does, but it is not escapist. Like the work of Grouper or Tim Hecker, Bates’ music has delicate immediacy that engages as it soothes and it stirs the emotions and the imagination.
Listen to our interview with Bates on Bandcamp and catch Drowse on tour now throughout the US and select dates in Europe through August including at the Hi-Dive in Denver on Monday, June 12, 2023 with Agriculture, Sprain and Palehorse/Palerider. For live dates and to hear A Matinee please visit the Drowse Bandcamp page linked below the interview and for more information on Bates’ projects and performances visit kylebates.net.
Antibroth is the kind of band that defies easy categorization even though its angular rhythms is in line with post-punk but its energy is more what you’d expect out of a hardcore band but the sonics are more experimental and the sense of humor more surreal than fits neatly into a genre. The trio formed when Jeremy Mock and Dan Switalski met in the music production program at Denver University where they also met original drummer Wesley Wolfe. But early in the band’s existence Wolfe moved on to other concerns and Hayden Bosch stepped into the role after Mock saw him play in his former emo band at a school event and was struck by Bosch’s hard hitting style. Antibroth formed with its current line up right before the 2020 pandemic but when shows started happening again in later 2021 the group was able to demonstrate how it had been able to develop and woodshed material and became a fixture in the Denver underground who as relative newcomers encountered all the odd situations new bands face in terms of shows and venues available to them but quickly encountered hardcore shows at Seventh Circle Music Collective, Mutiny Information Café and other venues where hardcore and increasingly other likeminded bands were performing. Anyone that got to see Antibroth got to see a group with a lot of energy that harnessed a math-rock-esque precision worthy of Hella and Don Caballero and channeled it into music that could sound sometimes thrillingly unhinged but always captivating for not sounding like much else you were likely to encounter in Denver music with strong hooks and memorable melodies. And now Antibroth is closing the chapter of its existence with a final EP Satan and the Dying Baby (out June 16, 2023) and a tour with Endless, Nameless from Denver out to the East Coast and back. The three members of the band are going their separate ways on good terms and in the history of music many of the best bands have two and a half albums and some singles and done. Antibroth has definitely left its mark on anyone fortunate enough to catch one of the band’s spirited shows.
Listen to our interview with Antibroth on Bandcamp and give a listen to Satan and the Dying Baby and its other releases at the link below. Also below is the tour route for Antibroth’s last hurrah of live performances.
Antibroth Spring/Summer 2023 Tour with Endless, Nameless June 9 – Denver, CO @d3artswestwood w/ @rosevariety @wrathofthelamb
June 11 – Lincoln, NE Rancho Rodeo w/ Säbo
6/12 – Ames, IA @theaholeames w/Moscow Puzzles and Perfect Strangers
6/13 Chicago, IL @subtchicago w/ @tenmonthsummerband
6/14 Dayton, OH @blindrageshop SUPPORT TBA
6/16 Queens, NY @barfreda801 w/ @fallofthealbatross @voicemail.bandcamp @_mineshaft
6/17 New Brunswick, NJ Mum’s House w/ @pyre_screamo @hysteria_the_band
6/18 Philadelphia, PA @breadboxphilly w/ @mtworry @queasy.does.it
6/19 Pittsburgh, PA @mr_roboto_project w/ @fficus_pgh
Ivan Julian is a guitarist, singer and songwriter who many may know as a founding member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. He has also contributed to music by as well as performed with the likes of Isley Brothers, The Clash (for instance he played on “The Call Up” from 1980’s Sandinista!), Matthew Sweet (with whom he toured for a number of years in the 90s), The Bongos, Shriekback and others. The child of a Navy officer, Julian spent a great deal of time living in other parts of the world including Haiti and Cuba but ended up in Washington D.C. as happens with families who have jobs with the federal government. Julian began playing guitar in his early teen years and was a touring musician at age 17 as a member of The Foundations. In his 20s Julian was part of that influential CBGB’s scene and crossed paths with a broad swath of the punk world and No Wave scenes and formed a group called Lovelies in 1988 with his then life Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras. In February 2023 Julian released his new album under his name called Swing Your Lanterns, an album about the nature of character in a time of troubles and how that overlaps with the human condition, it’s an album about timeless themes of love and loss, dreams and contemplating the deeper meaning of it all. Musically it brings together the sounds of Julian’s long career with elements of punk attitude, blues, R&B, pop and art rock. It finds Julian in an imaginative mode with poignant commentary on our current era.
Listen to our interview with Julian on Bandcamp and give a listen to Swing Your Lanterns on Bandcamp where you can also purchase the album on digital, CD and pre-order the limited edition 160 gram vinyl.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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