With its new EP Studio City (out May 12, 2026), Reindeer Flotilla seem to have fused an inspirations from 80s synth pop and Animal Collective. This is especially effective on lead single “Chef’s Knife” where the band seems to have written a song about how one can take the poor treatment of others one has chosen to endure or had imposed upon you by a situation that may have been necessary and use that to focus one’s capacity to process and handle the static that comes your way. The way the band crafts pacing with tone and layers of rhythmic and percussive sounds and pairs it with a melancholic melody really draws you in and keeps you in the song and its evolving moods and shifts in tone through to the end. It hits the ears like something from another era but the production is fully modern in a more sound design mode with expert placing of and processing of electronic and analog sources. Listen to “Chef’s Knife” on Spotify and follow Los Angeles-based group Reindeer Flotilla at the links below.
Detroit’s The Bodies Obtained have long blurred any lines between post-punk and more experimental electronic music and its new album Bouncing Off The Curb (released May 15, 2026) offers some reprieve from the wave of toxic and destructive mundanity that plagues the world right now. The single “Utmost” comes in with a pulsing beat and maximalist layers of flowing sound and texture. It’s like mid-90s Aphex Twin processed through a modern version of techno and Big Beat. But the tonal shimmers that thread through the beat and the slightly echoing vocals lend it a sound like the more recent music from Sextile but more sinister. It’s zero chill IDM and more rewarding a listening experience because of it. The pace is urgent and insistent until the last third of the song where that energy clears up a little but the grit and the hauntedness remains until the rapid sputter out in the end like we’ve been on some kind of tour of liminal spaces and let out after some therapeutic disorientation. Listen to “Utmost” on Spotify.
Skinny Dippers stride fully into a paradoxical mood of deep reflection and emotional immediacy on hazy folk single “When You Were It.” The accented beat anchors the motes of melodic tone that illuminate and haunt the song throughout as well as the spare rhythm guitar, whistles and the tenderly wistful vocals as we’re invited into vivid memories but more so the lingering feelings of peak moments of a relationship. The title refers to the chorus “I’ll forget what you said/I’ll forget what you did/But I’ll never forget how it felt/When you were it” and how that succinctly captures one’s ability to not focus on the negatives but the essential resonance of connection. Everyone has down times in any relationship and maybe the developments and events that cause them to come apart but the feelings that drew you together and the strength of those emotions can stay with you long after without make it so that you’re stuck in the past. The song captures those moments with a precision that mere words are inadequate to on their own. The textural synth passages and the gentle flow of the song is reminiscent of Wilco’s most poetic songs that draw you back in immediately. Listen to “When You Were It” on Spotify and follow Skinny Dippers at the links below. The When You Were It EP released May 15, 2026.
Young Allies has a debut EP coming out in the near future and the lead single “Fingers Entwined” sounds like the kind of 1980s power pop that has given that music a longer shelf life than expected. The music video with its colorful characters and fantastical settings has an aesthetic like something from the 90s before too many modern digital effects became a normal thing so there is a really analog effect of the visuals that match the song’s essential appeal like a fusion of The Cars and Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians with an immediately catchy hook and lyrics that deftly depict the joys and pitfalls of relationships. And like those bands its obvious that Young Allies, the new project from Fritz Michel, are able to write upbeat and hopeful songs about emotionally complex subjects with seeming ease. Watch the video for “Fingers Entwined” on YouTube and follow Young Allies at the links provided.
Brooklyn Doran sure did pick a perfect title for “Heavy Hurt.” The song is written about being on a long tour where the parallel of the tour van breaking down and the breakdown of a relation coincided in a way that maybe makes everything feel like it could be closing in. The expansive, distorted melodic sparkle of the song with Doran’s vulnerable vocal delivery and steady, strong rhythms open up feelings that could sink your spirit if they were locked up inside your heart being denied their truth airing out. And throughout the song we get hints of how it seems obvious that the dissolution of the relationship was there all along with two people wanting different things out of their lives in a way that could never be mutually compatible and the song doesn’t try to cast anyone as a villain. It just honors the hurt on both sides and the honest acceptance of that hurt before healing and moving forward can begin. Listen to “Heavy Hurt” on Spotify and follow Brooklyn Doran at the links below.
Josaleigh Pollett grounds her single “The Witness” in a spare guitar line and her warmly intimate vocals but all of it is awash in streaming drones and hazy atmospheres that seem to be in a headlong rush over a steady beat. The layered sound suits a song that seems to navigate social dynamics in the modern era of overstimulation, casual digital overexposure and endless demands on our time and our very psyches. The song’s lyrics express the desire for being present and being seen and truly seeing others when we can break free of distractions and actually connect without the leech on our energy and attention trying to fit expectations of mediated existence and the psychology that feeds it. The song’s sounds spiral upward and outward without losing an emotional core and an intuitive essence of self that anchors where the song lands with the realization that too many things are artificial and a template we may impose on ourselves that doesn’t really suit us even if it may be functional in some ways in our lives. Its a modern take on embracing one’s true self and authentic experiences. To sonically augment this mood the songwriting and soundscaping blurs the line between experimental indie pop and shoegaze. Fans of Japanese Breakfast and the more psychedelic end of Cat Power will appreciate the single and the forthcoming album If I Let It Quiet out 7/24/2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming via Audio Antihero. Listen to “The Witness” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. Josaleigh Pollett is on tour starting July 28.
For the new single “A Game of Wait and See,” Seattle’s Jupe Jupe give us a video where it looks like the band has infiltrated an office building after hours to film in the backrooms (reference intended) where the industrial infrastructure of the building is maintained out of sight. At the beginning of the video the four members of the band check their phones before getting to it. Which is fitting for the subject matter of the song which seems to be a commentary on the attention economy seemingly mandatory for anyone trying to make more of their art or even of their own lives than simply sharing it with their immediate circle of friends. But for bands in the current era it’s not like anyone is trying to promote what you do unless you’ve already made it big outside of simply playing small venues or house shows. Which is fine enough in reality but there is a pressure to be on the grind to get attention for your efforts and how that can warp how you present yourself and think about what you’re doing in a way that prioritizes platforms and methods regardless of whether it actually resonates with people beyond a surface level.
The song itself is a moody and introspective with pulsing synth rhythms, spidery guitar, expressive saxophone and vocals that provide the emotional hook that questions the dynamic many of us in the modern world find ourselves drawn into as a matter of engaging with each other when we’re not connected by proximity. It addresses the whole issue of waiting to see if anyone has in fact engaged with your “content” and yearning for that low level affirmation and wondering if you’ve been buried by the algorithm or deemed not worthy of the moment it takes to acknowledge what you’re putting out there. And yet the song reminiscent of the more New Wave end of Giorgio Moroder and the pop side of The Sound feels like the hold of social media as pervasive as it is can also be elusive and unsatisfying and possibly something that loses its grip on one’s psyche. One can hope. Watch the video for “A Game of Wait and See” on YouTube and follow Jupe Jupe at the links provided.
The expanded edition of the reissue of Dustin O’Halloran’s 2011 album Lumière will be released June 12, 2026 via Splinter Records. With that fifteenth anniversary expanded presentation there are three previously unheard tracks of that era including “Fragile N.1.” The latter features O’Halloran’s gift for compositions that combine organic sounds in a modern classical mode with electronic tones and production methods. The song is both quietly majestic and filled with a sense of wonder with a touch of melancholic tone. But the whole run time one feels a sense of hopefulness, the kind expressed in the title, and one worth preserving and taking into one’s psyche. The minimal piano, textural string sounds and warm synth melody combine to great cinematic effect, fitting for a piece whose ideas were explored while O’Halloran was working on the score to Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette. It may seem counter-intuitive to say the song has a palpable gentleness but that is the salient quality of song throughout. Listen to “Fragile N.1” on YouTube and follow Dustin O’Halloran at the links below.
Tuesday | 06.02 What: Lip Critic, Flatwounds, Public Opinion and Bejalvin When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Lip Critic is a digital hardcore/noise rock band from NYC that recently put out its new album Theft World. Its high energy, confrontational performance style and truly genre-bending music has already garnered it a bit of a cult following. Fans of Sleaford Mods, Gilla Band and Model/Actriz will appreciate the inventiveness, unusual and inspired sonic choices and overall energy of Lip Critic.
Ladytron, photo by Anna Levin
Wednesday | 06.03 What: Ladytron “Paradises” When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: UK experimental pop band Ladytron made a big splash early on helping to pioneer what came to be known as electroclash with inventive production incorporating retro sounds and aesthetics but with modern sensibilities and minimalism. As the band has evolved it is sometimes considered a shoegaze band for some of the guitar sounds it employed in the mid-to-late 2000s but all along the band had more in common with downtempo groups and dance music ideas. With its new album Paradises the group is well within more electronic dance territory but with rich, saturated synth tones and clear melodic lines and the usual, transporting, deeply atmospheric sounds. Like a science fiction soundtrack of a near future you’d want to live in rather than the dystopia we’re living with in the moment.
White Rose Motor Oil, photo courtesy the artists
Friday | 06.05 What: Graveyard Choir, The Milk Blossoms, White Rose Motor Oil When: 7 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Before retiring In the Whale in 2025, Nate Valdez was already using Graveyard Choir as an outlet for his more Americana songwriting. But as a full-fledged band with In the Whale drummer Eric Riley joining in the new project Graveyard Choir began after their former band folded. The two musicians had taken that project about as far as one can touring regularly and garnering a regional and even national fanbase fairly independently and by word of mouth. The new band isn’t like a garage rock Melvins, more like a bluesy alt-country band with an ear for mood and atmosphere. The Milk Blossoms are an experimental pop band that has recently expanded its own sounds to including more electronic elements and processed sounds but with Harmony Rose’s emotionally rich vocals and poetic storytelling at the center. White Rose Motor Oil is a very underrated band that plays regionally throughout the front range delivering its own vibrant brand of rockabilly-inflected Americana and a touch of punk spirit.
Yot Club, photo by Rachel Biggs
Saturday | 06.06 What:Yot Club w/Renny Conti When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: John Ryan Kaiser was perfecting his particular style of bedroom pop when he was writing music under the name Amateur Observer and releasing his songs via SoundCloud like many a truly underground songwriter of the 2010s (and even now). By 2019 he had taken on the moniker Yot Club perhaps as a play on the genre of yacht rock. His more recent music has the earnest charm and economic songwriting of the best bedroom pop but with higher end production so that his music has more tonal richness. His new album Simpleton (2026) is filled with song names as spare as the title track but each embodies a core concept of the confessional songwriting that runs through the record. Kaiser’s vocals are processed to the point of bordering on hyper pop but the production always feels just the right amount of mood and atmosphere so that Kaiser’s lyrics have maximum impact to offer catharsis for life’s melancholic moments and struggles. Opening the show is Renny Conti. The latter, according to a 2025 interview with WHUS, came up playing metalcore and punk as a teen but when he changed coasts for school from the Bay Area to New York his transformation as a musician was under way and his 2025 self-titled album sounded like he had spent more than a little time immersed in the likes of Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and maybe even the more folk end of Animal Collective. Fully blending organic folk pop with electronic production there is a pastoral gentleness to his music infused with a sense of wonder and emotional sensitivity and nuance that is sometimes reminiscent of a Phil Elverum project.
I’m A Boy, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 06.06 What:Red Tack, I’m a Band and Chef Andre When: 9/9:30 Where: Lion’s Lair Why: Red Tack is Ted Thacker who has been a prominent musician and songwriter in the Denver underground music scene first making waves perhaps as a member of experimental punk band Baldo Rex in the 90s. Also in the 90s through the 2000s he played as a member of power pop band Veronica. These days it’s more difficult to pin down any kind of style and that’s probably for the best because Thacker’s songwriting voice is unique. I’m a Band is the new incarnation of the band I’m a Boy with Jimmi Nasi as singer/guitarist. He appears to be inspired by the power of solid songwriting to inspire the musician and listener and though steeped in classic and alternative rock there is a fresh energy to Nasi’s performance and songwriting that has kept his projects worth witnessing and hearing. Chef Andre is a duo whose recent album Songs of Mehrhoff was inspired in part by the poetry of Charlie Merhoff but musically it’s more like a baroque pop and calypso fusion.
Carrellee, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 06.07 What:CD Ghost w/Carrellee and Hex Cassette When: 7 Where: HQ Why: CD Ghost is a dream pop band from Los Angeles whose forthcoming album When The Rain Stops has some of that chillwave flavor from a decade and a half ago. The title track is reminiscent of “Eyes Without a Face” by Billy Idol but with more delicate vocals yet a similar saturated atmospheric quality that renders both songs instantly relistenable. Hex Cassette from Denver will bring his own ear worm industrial dance music to the show with a live performance that is both confrontational and highly animated as well as wickedly charming. Carrellee is a darkwave artist from Madison, Wisconsin whose moody dream pop has an impressive depth of atmospheric emotional resonance. Her song “Stay” was a standout on the soundtrack to the quasi-found footage film Frogman (2023) and in some ways elevated the movie. Her 2022 album Scale of Dreams, from which the song was borrowed, is front to back a reflection on seeking clarity in one’s own mind adrift in mixed emotions. The 2025 self-titled album seems to have some more forward momentum in its rhythms but still reaching for meaning in a world that seems to be short on that for many if not most people. Fans of Madeline Goldstein need to check out Carrellee.
TsuShiMaMiRe, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 06.09 What:TsuShiMaMiRe, The Tammy Shine and Autumnal When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: TsuShiMaMiRe started up in 1999 in Chiba Prefecture in Japan and have been fairly prolific since with its most recent album Bando wa Mizumono which celebrated its 25 years as a and in 2024. Trying to pigeonhole the band wouldn’t do justice to how it has a real knack for pop songcraft while being very much a punk band without being pop punk. Its core sounds have been eclectic yet distinctive in its exuberant performance style that also weaves in some introspective melodies. Opening is the incomparable The Tammy shine whose debut solo album OK Shine OK released in February 2026. Tammy Ealom was perhaps best previously known and rightfully still so as the frontwoman of indie pop legends Dressy Bessy. The solo album is distinct from the Dressy Bessy material but still with the exuberant charm and thoughtful lyrics for which Ealom is known. The band autumnal from Fort Collins tends to have more pastoral sounds while being well within the realm of a kind of cosmic indie pop.
The Cab, photo by Juan Flores Mena
Tuesday | 06.09 What: The Cab w/Carr When: 6:30 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: The Cab from Las Vegas, Nevada came up during a big upsurge of emo and pop punk in the 2000s and enjoyed a good deal of cache from its first chapter 2004-2015 before going on hiatus for over a decade. The band always leaned more in the pop direction and since it has reunited the band has honed its instincts for crafting songs that are more in the realm of modern R&B and electronic pop but with some instrumental kick behind the music and its signature anthemic songwriting. The Cab finally released its new album Chasing Crowns in April 2026 and is now on its “Back From the Dead Tour” to showcase its new sound and more than likely perform more than a few fan favorites from its earlier years.
Worm, photo by Doomvana
Wednesday | June 10 What: Worm w/Arkwave and Chamber Mage When: 7/7:50 Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Worm released its most recent album Necropalace in February 2026. Funeral doom, black metal, death doom, whatever genre tags you want to use the record includes spooky synths that wouldn’t be out of place in either an old Vincent Price movie or a Charles Band production. The spectral and caustic guitar work and sepulchral vocals create a unique sense of death metal theater delivered by the band’s stage presence and visual sense like one of those occult Hammer House films and the later seasons of Dark Shadows. Fantastical but inspired and clearly the product of idiosyncratic creativity.
Claire Rosinkranz, photo courtesy the artist
Wednesday | 06.10 What:Claire Rosinkranz w/Stevie Bill When: 7 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Persplexiplex Why: Claire Rosinkranz started writing music from at a young age having helped her composer and mutli-instrumentalist father on songs he was writing for TV and advertisements. She had her breakthrough single of her own material with “Backyard Boy” in 2020 at age 16 which went viral through TikTok. Since then Rosinkranz has honed her songcraft and become a notable artist fusing pop, R&B and rock to give life to a body of work that tackles sometimes sensitive subject matter like chronic illness on her new record My Lover (2026). The songwriter’s melodiously expressive vocals and gift for perfectly blending her singing with vibrant arrangements that lend an orchestral quality to her economical compositions seem to make each song a unique and fresh listening experience without a wasted moment.
Kerosene Ensemble, photo courtesy the artists
Wednesday | 06.10 What:Kerosene Ensemble Plays the Music of John Zorn’s Masada When: 6/7 Where: Dazzle Why: Kerosene Ensemble is a Denver-based jazz quarter that began in 2001 including notable musicians David Thomas Bailey (guitar), Mike Brown (bass), Dean Hirschfield (drums) and Troy Thill (saxophone) who have made a name for themselves in the local avant-garde and experimental music scene. Masada is a band lead by John Zorn from the early 90s assembled to perform compositions by Zorn inspired by the Radical Jewish Culture scene in New York City. Mixing free jazz, punk and exploratory rock the music often sounds like something that could have come from the outer reaches of late 60s jazz with wild flourishes that push the boundaries of established forms of music. And this set of musicians with their collective skills and experiences seem like the only group in Denver capable of attempting to perform any of Zorn’s compositions in the group’s prolific releases.
Metric, photo courtesy the artists
Thursday | 06.11 What: Metric w/Broken Social Scene and Stars When: 5:30/6:30 Where: The Fillmore Auditorium Why: This All The Feelings Tour brings together three of Canada’s finest purveyors of experimental pop music whose projects have shared members over the years with Emily Haines of Metric having been a member of Broken Social Scene and Evan Cranley of Stars currently in that band (Amy Millan of Stars has been a contributor to the Scene as well). Metric released one of its best albums Romanticize the Dive in April with songs that seem to reflect on the early period of its existence. But it doesn’t feel nostalgic so much as tapping into some of the feelings and energy of being a band discovering its identity and striving for creative and professional fulfillment while holding onto personal and artistic integrity, a quality that can be lost or diluted once you’ve experienced any level of commercial success. It contains some of Haines’ most resonant vocal performances of the past several years as well as some of the band’s most focused songwriting. Broken Social Scene dropped its first record in some nine years with Remember the Humans reuniting the band with producer David Newfeld who worked on You Forgot It in People (2002) and Broken Social Scene (2005). The record feels like a deep and affectionate meditation on times past and its impact on one’s current life and the future. It revisits some of the energy of the band’s early records as well and uses that as a vehicle to help reinvent and recontextualize the band’s sound for the current era when things seem to be dissolving on the social and cultural level partly because people have forgotten about the things we took for granted for years and the album is a reminder of those personal and close connections that reverberate beyond.
Broken Social Scene, photo courtesy the artistsCephalic Carnage circa 2009, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday and Sunday | 06.13 and 06.14 What: Flatline Fest When: 5pm start each night Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Flatline Audio is the renowned recording and production studio based in Denver out of which many of the more acclaimed records in the realm of extreme metal have come over the past twenty plus years. This debut festival showcases several of the bands with whom recording engineer and musician Dave Otero who runs Flatline Audio has worked meaning two whole evenings of some of the better metal bands operating today including local skate punk legends Clusterfux, blackened death metal outfit Glacial Tomb, deathgrind giants Cattle Decapitation, technical death metal band Archspire, Fort Collins-based melodic death metal group Allagaeon, doom metal trio In the Company of Serpents, Death-doom outfit Necropanther and jazz-death-metal greats Cephalic Carnage. For full lineup by date please visit the Flatine Fest site.
Quintron and Miss Pussycat in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 06.17 What:Quintron and Miss Pussycat w/Pink Lady Monster When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: It would be a disservice to call Quintron and Miss Pussycat merely a kind of psychedelic rockabilly garage rock band. It’s a full multi-media show but with practical effects including puppets and a stage set as well as the high octane live musical performance with costumes. If there is some gimmick to the show the band backs it up with high entertainment value and actually worthwhile songs that are best experienced in person with the concentrated, inspired strangeness of the duo in their element. Opening the show is one of Denver’s best bands who have experimented with camp with aspects of the live show which is also highly energetic without a theatrical and dramatic flourish but also with songs that stand on their own in the realm of No Wave post-punk jazz funk.
Midwife in 2025, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 06.18 What:Midwife, Amulets and Devin Shaffer When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Three of the most important artists operating within the broad realm of ambient and existential folk music on one bill is a rare thing particularly when they’re based in disparate parts of the country. But Amulets has worked with Midwife and both have crossed paths with Devin Shaffer over the past several years. One thing all three have in common is the ability to channel emotional vulnerability and grace into songs of great delicacy and deep emotional resonance although each also has a different musical style. All have released transcendent records in the past year and a half and this is a rare opportunity to see them all together on the same bill.
Air Moons, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 06.20 What: Air Moons, Ripcords album release and Gila Teen When: 7pm doors, 8pm show, $10 Where: East Fax Tap Why: Air Moons is a psychedelic pop/indie rock quartet from Denver. Its membership includes current members of Salads and Sunbeams and A Strange Happening. The band hasn’t played many shows yet but the strong songwriting and performances including exquisite multi-part harmonies were there from the band’s first show last year. Gila Teen has long been one of the better bands from Denver with thoughtful and vulnerable lyrics deeply observant of personal psychology and social dynamics. Sort of a mix of dream pop, emo and post-punk with a charmingly raw quality that means the band avoids tropes ably. Ripcords are releasing their debut album You Should Not Continue In This Fashion in an official capacity with this release show. If you were fortunate enough to see recent shows you could pick up a CD as you’re likely able to for this performance. The trio is steeped in 90s grunge in a way that doesn’t feel like they borrowed some of the vibe. There is an intensity and a weaving in of thrash and heavy blues rock that gives one the impression of the same energy as early Alice in Chains but with more aggression.
Molly Tuttle, photo by Ebru Yildiz
Saturday | 06.20 What:Molly Tuttle w/Pixie & The Partygrass Boys and Mair When: 7:30 Where: Arvada Center Why: In a career that has yielded rightfully acclaimed albums in a bluegrass style, Molly Tuttle’s 2025 album So Long Little Miss Sunshine didn’t completely break with what has made Tuttle a notable artist but thoroughly leapt in new musical directions. Bits of country and pop sensibility were already part of Tuttles previous two records but the new album feels like something that doesn’t fit neatly into a box yet sounds like a natural next step forward as an artist. The title along is clever enough a nod to a shedding of a previous musical identity and the songs are like stories of that journey in short chapters as Tuttle delivers the sort of intimate yet lively songs that have garnered her an increasingly wider audience. There is even a contribution from Charli XCX on the song “I Love It” hinting at Tuttle’s embrace of pop songcraft beyond expected sources.
Sir Richard Bishop in 2013, photo by Tom Murphy
Monday | 06.22 What:Sir Richard Bishop w/Debaser, Eli Wendler and Flaming Tongues Above When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sir Richard Bishop was a member of experimental rock band Sun City Girls from 1981-2026 and though part of the same punk scene that yielded Meat Puppets and JFA, brought together free improv, poetry, surf rock, tape collage and non-Western musical styles for a unique sound that has had an impact on American avant-garde underground music since. As a solo artist, Bishop has expanded upon that early foundation and threading together non-western folk styles with American primitive guitar aesthetics. He released the album Hillbilly Raga in 2025 and is on the verge of the more Middle Eastern sounding Hillbilly Erotica in 2026.
Squid Pisser, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 06.23 What:Squid Pisser w/Victim of Fire and Cop Killer When: 7 Where: Hi-Dice Why: Squid Pisser is a mutant synthesis of grindcore, noise rock and No Wave with a gross-out aesthetic fitting considering its members include Tommy Mehan of GWAR and Cancer Christ, Michael Armendariz from Duck Duck Goose and Melted Bodies and Seth Carolina of Starcrawler. Live, it’s definitely something different like a more commited to the costume Slipknot with generally more interesting and confrontational music and performance style. Victim of Fire is a Denver-based hardcore band who don’t bother to not lean into thrash, death metal and grind influences and with superb musicianship and incisive lyrics. Cop Killer has a name bound to get it in trouble but its own version of early-hardcore-inspired punk definitely delivers the goods with a performance style that is fiery and intense the way you’d hope to witness.
Family Worship Center, photo by Sequoia Woods
Wednesday | 06.24 What: Family Worship Center w/Smoker Dad and Jesus Christ Taxi Driver When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Family Worship Center recently released its new album Only Visiting on June 12, 2026. The record is a vibrant psychedelic pop offering with a back story of a claim that the songs were recorded in 1974-1975 and recently unearthed. To be fair the songwriting is vivid with a recording attention to detail worthy of the finest songwriting of that decade like something that might have been recorded at Muscle Shoals sound studio if some kind of cult with a collective coherence had a faith band that was worth listening to steeped in R&B, funk, country, psychedelia and classic pop. This is not like Ya Ho Wha 13, the house commune band of The Source Family. Whatever the exact origins and motivations the new record is one of the best albums of its kind since the 1970s. Live, it’s a 10-member band and seeing that happen will be an event in itself especially at the Hi-Dive that actually hosted Sloppy Jane’s sprawling live band in 2022.
Soy Celesté, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.26 What: Tiny Humans EP release w/Battle Pussy, Soy Celesté, Team Nonexistent When: 6pm doors, 7 show Where: Mutiny Information Cafe Why: Tiny Humans is releasing its self-titled debut EP. The band is clearly coming from a place of the kind of punk that took the more punk end of 90s grunge more seriously in terms of its sound and spirit not to mention lyrics that don’t mince words about personal and social struggle. Battle Pussy is a politically-infused punk band that sounds like the next phase of what Riot Grrrl started with fiery vocals. Soy Celesté is similarly inspired by Riot Grrrl punk but weaves in Latin folk and a more expansive social critique with lyrics in Spanish as well as English paired with a spirited performance style from lead singer Celesté Martinez and back by Denver jazz and Latin music heavy hitters Joshua Trinidad (trumpet) and Yuzo Nieto (tenor saxophone, bass). And Team Nonexistent brings a queer punk sensibility to its own 90s-infused punk fury.
Low Cut Connie, photo by Danny Clinch
Friday and Saturday | 06.26 and 06.27 What: Low Cut Connie w/J. Roddy & The Automatic Band and The Patti Fiasco (06.26) and Queen Frog (06.27) When: 7pm both nights Where: The Aggie Theatre (06.26) and The Bluebird Theater (06.27) Why: Low Cut Connie counts among its fans the likes of Barack Obama, Elton John, Springsteen and Nick Hornby. But that distinction means little if the music itself isn’t worth the attention and in this case Low Cut Connie has been making vital, insightful, socially aware rock and roll since the group emerged out of the solo performances of songwriter and lead vocalist Adam Weiner. The band really got off the ground in Philadelphia but Weiner paid his dues playing piano in dive bars, gay bars, karaoke joints, restaurants and honky tonks. He has performed in anarchist collectives often to people who were overtly not into what he was doing. But that taught the artist to really deliver in an engaging way. The band’s debut album Get Out the Lotion (2011) was a surprise hit with critics and audiences and the group’s spirited, soulful garage rock was a standout from the then nascent modern attempt at a classic rock sound because the music stood on its own apart from obvious musical reference points. As the group’s songwriting and live shows evolved you could hear in the music a through line of compassion for regular human existence expressed with a passion, compassion and poetry that felt missing from a lot of the music of bands trying to be a new version of Led Zeppelin or evoking a Laurel Canyon vibe. From then to now the songwriting has captivated a wide audience from all walks of life. On February 13, 2025 Low Cut Connie was the first act to announce it would not perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts following President Trump’s takeover of the formerly non-partisan arts institution and, albeit temporarily as it turns out, adding his own name as well as politicizing its board of trustees and programming. In May 2025 Low Cut Connie released the single “Livin’ in the USA” which with a grace and intensity criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the tactics employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the CBP. The single garnered the band threats of violence and death threats. Coming from American fascists and their ilk the song, admittedly powerful, immediately became one of the most important protest songs of the current era and one of the most musically commanding. In 2026 Low Cut Connie releases the album from which the aforementioned became the title track and is currently touring ahead of that release. Go expecting the usual sense of rock theater and heartfelt performances.
Chroma Lips, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 06.27 What: Chroma Lips album release for chromaZone w/Wave Decay, Various Blonde and DJ Kleiman When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: For the past few years Chroma Lips have garnered a following locally for its signature fusion of krautrock, post-punk, shoegaze and garage rock. And for this show the band will release its debut full-length chromaZone which is five new songs and five reworked, remastered older songs for a coherent presentation of its catalog of songs up to now. The album has some trippy edge to its sonics yet undeniable pop hooks and vibrant synth work that mean it doesn’t get stuck in some psych jam or prog groove rut. The album released digitally on June 22 but should be available on vinyl for the show. Bonus, one of the opening bands is the fantastic krautrock shoegaze trio Wave Decay.
Entrancer, photo by Tom Murphy
Sunday | 06.28 What: Blanket: Entrancer and Modern Devotion When: 1pm Where: City Park Why: The new season of the Blanket mini-concert series kicks off with the inspired techno/ambient/analog synth compositions/dance music concoctions of Entrancer and the gabber-infused industrial techno of Modern Devotion. This isn’t just some half-baked presentation of the music and the sound system brought for these shows is impressive in its richness and clarity of sound rare for an outdoors gig in general much less something as low key as these events.
Ak’Chamel: The Giver of Illness, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 06.30 What: Ak’Chamel: The Giver of Illness w/Munly & The Lupercalians When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Ak’Chamel: The Giver of Illness might perhaps be best described as a ritual folk psychedelic performance art group that puts on a show with maybe costumes isn’t the right word but garb intended to put the audience into a different headspace and something from another time, a mystical frame outside the norms of industrial civilization. The music is created from organic and often self-made instrumentation and the live show is not going to be much like anything else you’re going to see in Denver this year unless you see Quintron and Miss Pussycat except this will be radically different from that and yet resonates in that the presentation is executed with a similarly masterful expression of craft. Munly & The Lupercalians too will bring a ritualistic, occult element to its own performance of dark, avant-garde folk.
“7/9/25” is a collaborative composition between Spices Peculiar and Sunswept. The processed flute flows and perfectly swirl with the layers of synth, field recordings and textural samples to produce a singular aesthetic that evolves across the track’s twenty-five minutes. Shaken bells haunt the background, white noise wind, electronic bird sounds in the night, it feels like music designed to represent different parts of a single day, perhaps as the title suggests, a cool night in summer. Sounds echo and seem to tumble gently in the near distance and a low drone serves as a backdrop toward mid-song as the synth drifts into an eerie quality and shimmering noises resonate from an unknown source like a new type of bird resounding in the moonlit landscape. Breezes stir the surroundings and toward the fourteen minute mark we become aware of the flute back in the mix as a recognizable quantity like a signal of a more diurnal sound palette coming into aural frame and what feels like a string of shells and sparkling synth threads streak by and fade replaced by another stream of each. Clearly the product of careful production and sensitive improv the whole piece is experienced as an organic journey across time expressed in under half an hour but more fully than many days feel when you’re at the grind of a regular job and this song is much more soothing and worthy of one’s attention as an extended song that wouldn’t be out of place on a program like Hearts of Space but focused on pastoral sounds. The track is part of the Spices Pecular Ambulant that released May 1, 2026. Listen to “7/9/25” on Bandcamp and follow Spices Peculiar at the links provided.
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