Former TÜLIPS frontperson Taleen Kali’s latest single “Flower of Life” simmers and then blazes with an irresistible momentum. Since her former band’s split in 2016 Kali has been on different sonic trajectories than the inspired fusion of garage rock, psychedelia and riot grrrl-esque punk of TÜLIPS. This song has a focused urgency in the pace and rhythm that borders on the motorik and is hypnotic in the sense that you get swept up in its headlong energy and Kali’s commanding vocals, perhaps the only element that doesn’t distort with an incandescent heat. Immediate comparisons aren’t easy to make to give the potential listener an idea of what they’re in for other than something like Milemarker but with sonics more akin to The Beths. The cover art for the single (a portion above) looks like something out of a mysterious movie about radical politics by Olivier Assayas and that just adds to appealing aesthetic of the single. Listen to “Flower Of Life” on YouTube and follow the musically multi-faceted Taleen Kali at the links provided and perchance order the limited edition 7” lathe cut on transparent cherry red vinyl on Bandcamp which also includes the B-side “Crusher.”
The music video for Bottled Up’s “Italo Love” hits some surreal notes and not just in the music. The members of the band are depicted performing on the beach and frolicking in a beach town. And the lyrics make references to Los Angeles with houses that look like something you might see in Encinitas, California. Maybe it was filmed there or on a beach area nearer to the group’s home town of Washington, DC. The smooth jazz, funk and pop aesthetics blended together effortlessly in the song certainly gives the impression of something that might come from a band celebrating the good times and nostalgia of the laid back pace and energy of one of the California beach towns including Long Beach. When Nikhil Rao sings the line “I was born from memories of the drives through Beverly” one wonders if he had a connection to the Los Angeles area or fantasized about it from images on television and film and identifying with the vibe. The song and what has been release of the new Bottled Up album Grand Bizarre (due out May 27, 2022) has that quality of being outside usual time and geography while genre mashing in a way similar to that of King Krule and all the more interesting because of it. Fans of that final Abe Vigoda album Crush (2010) and its lush pop interpretation of glam rock will greatly appreciate this track and what Bottled Up has been going for throughout its career to date. Watch the video for “Italo Love” on YouTube and connect with Bottled Up at the links below.
When you hear Spencer Jones’s (Big Babies, Upstart Crow) character mutter something about a “twat” taking up both parking spaces as he comes back to his flat in the music video for “Blue Bones” you might be excused for thinking Billy Nomates’ lively indie rock single is about camaraderie in a relationship facing challenges. And to some extent it is. The upbeat guitar line and smoothly dynamic arrangements of the song are reminiscent of a mid-80s Talking Heads tune but the clever couplets and the resigned acceptance that the relationship is not just in trouble but has essentially faded away. When Nomates sings lines like “You just don’t turn me on like you used to” and how the bond over being miserable and downtrodden in life now simply lacks the sparkle with “Maybe we were both born blue but it just doesn’t turn me on like it used to,” the songwriter recalls some of Dolly Parton’s finer, more pointed yet somehow still classy moments. And touches like the coins on Jones’ eyes near the beginning of the interview speak to director Tia Salisbury’s gift for sprinkling scenes with poetic detail even as she depicts working class angst with such color and clarity. Watch the video for “Blue Bones” on YouTube and follow Nomates on Spotify.
“Sustain” begins with a simple guitar riff with the intimate physicality of pick on strings left intact. This textural element in this song by Denver’s State Fair grounds it even as the vocals come in hushed and the suggestion of a dreamlike atmospherics flow in the open spaces of the song. But as the song enters the last quarter, bombastic, distorted riffs burn through the comforting haze like a purging of the melancholic flavor and sentiments that informed what preceded. It hits the ears like a dream pop that picked up some strains of influence from classic indiepop and the more post-rock of the early 2000s posthardcore bands pairing an appealing delicacy with emotional heft. Listen to “Sustain” on Spotify, look for State Fair’s EP due out later in 2022 and connect with the band on Instagram.
Pity+Fear (a travesty) is the latest original work from Grapefruit Lab the performance group that brought us the fantastic production 2018 JANE/EYRE, a queer interpretation of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel. This new performance piece is, according to the Grapefruit Lab press release, “an intimate and darkly-comedic modern Greek tragedy, exploring what it means to be alive, to tell the truth, and to change over time. It was written by founding Grapefruit Lab member Miriam Suzanne (of JANE/EYRE and 10 Myths on the Proper Application of Beauty Products) who will also perform with live music by Josie Cool (An Antiquated Bluff, The Better Selfs). You will see Suzanne and Cool tell the story through three “incompatible myths of a Greek princess Agraulos” with personal stories from the performers. As with JANE/EYRE the performance promises to be utterly unique and imbued with meaning, humor and of course the tragedy one would expect given the genre vehicle of what you’ll witness on stage. But rather than summarize the Grapefruit Lab’s excellent synopsis of the performance and the ideas informing it, here’s is a bit more of what the group has to say about this current production:
“I’ve been trying to write about Agraulos since I first encountered her myths in 2010,” says Miriam Suzanne. The character has become a sort of worry stone for Suzanne, according to director and Grapefruit Lab collaborator Julie Rada. “This piece wrestles with both the mythical character and also Miriam’s ongoing obsession with her three lives and three deaths.” Those stories are framed by the two performers, who use the myths as a starting point to reflect on their own lives as queer and trans women through song and direct address.
Pity+Fear premiers on Friday, May 13, at Buntport Theater (717 Lipan St) in Denver, and runs for three weekends with shows every Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm. In order to make this production accessible, regardless of ability to pay, tickets are all name-your-price. “Buntport has been kind enough to lend us the space, and we want to pass along that generosity, especially as we’re still in the middle of a pandemic,” says Kenny Storms, the third member of Grapefruit Lab.
Grapefruit Lab is a performance company founded by long-term collaborators Suzanne and Rada, along with Kenny Storms, a sound designer for theaters around Denver. The three met in 2009, working on a LIDA Project production. Since then, they’ve collaborated under various names — finally forming Grapefruit Lab with a vision for mixed-media shows that engage the community. “We want to make art without assumptions,” Rada says, “Art that humanizes, and entertains, and challenges, and brings you into conversation.”
WHEN: Friday, May 13, 2022 7:30pm Saturday, May 14, 2022 7:30pm Friday, May 20, 2022 7:30pm Saturday, May 21, 2022 7:30pm Friday, May 27, 2022 7:30pm Saturday, May 28, 2022 7:30pm All tickets are name-your-own-price.
WHERE: Buntport Theater 717 Lipan St Denver, CO 80204
ADULT. at Larimer Lounge 10/13/18, photo by Tom Murphy
ADULT. is an electronic duo from Detroit that has been evolving its blend of dark techno, noise and post-punk since forming in 1998. Early releases displayed the project’s affinity for early techno and around the time of its 2007 fourth album Why Bother? you could hear the experiments in production and soundscapes with beats that yielded fascinating results on the 2005 album Gimme Trouble turn into almost set pieces in an album with an almost cinematic aesthetic, like dynamic visual design translated directly into sound design and songwriting. Since then ADULT.’s releases have been more overtly political and commenting on aspects of culture and society that have been corrosive to human culture and civilization in an accelerating way that has also more or less made cataclysmic climate disaster in our lifetimes a foregone conclusion. Since signing with Dais, the hip experimental music imprint, ADULT.’s output has seemed even more intentional and focused in its critique starting with 2018’s This Behavior, to the 2020 album Perception is/as/of Deception and now to the 2022 album Becoming Undone. Nicola Kuperus and and Adam Lee Miller both have a background in the visual arts and punk and both come through in striking visuals for the album covers and promotional material as well as the composition of the music and certainly in the band’s confrontational live performances. With the current underground popularity of what is called darkwave ADULT. seems to have enjoyed a bit of a renaissance after spending more than a decade pioneering some of the modern style of the more electronic wing of that loose movement while also showing what the music can do when there is a unity of aesthetic vision brought to bear with strong concepts and creative commentary on important issues of the day and personal impact of things like the commodification of all areas of life, misogyny, environmental destruction, societal complacency in the face of rising fascism in what were once some of the most democratic nations on Earth. Though the music is accessible it is also challenging and the opposite of dissociation in a time of global crises. In this interview we discuss the band’s early days and its development, its visual elements and the ways in which the new record has delved in novel sonic areas for the project in line with what the title would suggest as the world as we know it seems to be coming apart or certain in a state of perilous flux.
Waxahatchee at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Waxahatchee’s most recent album Saint Cloud released two weeks into the first phase of the global pandemic in 2020 so fans didn’t get the full force of the songs in the live setting for many months and perhaps not until this 2022 tour. But that setback didn’t seem to diminish Katie Crutchfield’s enthusiasm and spirit for the music and this performance at the Ogden Theatre in Denver showcased the record in almost its entirety with some choice cuts from earlier records. But Saint Cloud was the focus of the generous nineteen song set.
Madi Diaz at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Opening the proceedings was Madi Diaz. The prolific singer-songwriter stood on the large Ogden state with her drummer Adam Popick and held your attention with her luminous and strong vocals accompanied by her spare yet expressive guitar work that conveyed a distinctive yet grainy tone. It was an effect that set her apart from many other artists operating with a similar palette of sounds. Diaz hadn’t spent a lot of time live performing for two years either and expressed a great deal of gratitude for people taking the time to give her 2021 album History Of A Feeling a listen. Her songs about the pitfalls of relationships hit with a wit and nuance of understanding that provided both a clarity and an embrace of the messy emotions that can flood your brain when you’re in the moment. “New Person, Old Place” was especially poetic and vivid in its imagery but her whole set felt very intimate and strikingly honest but not cruel and a good fit as an opener for Waxahatchee.
Waxahatchee at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom Murphy
One of the recent times Waxahatchee performed in Denver was also at the Ogden on September 30, 2018 opening for Courtney Barnett and accompanied by an electric guitar player to her acoustic and no one else. Of course the songs were good and Katie Crutchfield’s vocals strong and her lyrics personally incisive. But this time out, headlining her own show, Crutchfield had a bass player, two electric guitarists that also played keyboards and a full kit drummer. Yet with this expanded line-up the singer lost none of that intimate feel and air of vulnerability bolstered by confidence and a fluidity in the transitions between songs throughout the show.
Waxahatchee at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom Murphy
The aesthetic was reminiscent of an old country concert with Crutchfield in what might be described as a minimalist ball gown. And that little bit of theater gave the show a slightly different quality than if Crutchfield was dressed up in something less formal. The vibe seemed Memphis that combined the rustic with a touch of glamour reinforced before anyone took stage by “The Ballad of El Goodo” by Big Star playing over the sound system as the introductory music. The effect made the Waxahatchee songs seem more intimate and impactful. It also helped to bring in focus Crutchfield’s lyrics which always seem so direct in tone whether singing to someone in the song or addressing herself, a quality that gives the sense that she’s singing directly you about something you’ve experienced in your own life. The wordplay seemed even more effective as with the playful and clever couplets of “Hell.” Perhaps less obvious was the way all three guitarists, if one includes Crutchfield, synced together to create truly elegant and subtly intricate guitar melodies that created a nuanced atmosphere within which Crutchfield’s commanding voice and presence could stand out and stand clear.
Waxahatchee at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom Murphy
“Lilacs” was dedicated to Madi Diaz whose own songs of romantic mishap had a similarly poignant resonance and Crutchfield told us that “This song is a breakup song so if anybody needs that, this is before you” before performing “Never Been Wrong.” The set took us through a broad range of human emotions but always with great creativity and nuanced insight. The self-deprecating, melancholic insecurity of “Singer’s No Star,” struggles with one’s own shortcomings on several songs but definitely on “War” and existential uncertainty and coming to terms with not necessarily knowing which is the best path forward as on “St. Cloud.” Waxahatchee covered a lot of emotional territory without trying to put a try hard polish of positivity on anything with the underlying suggestion that despite how deeply you feel that you’ve got nothing left and things seem like too much to bear that you can find some thread of a reason to at least keep struggling and enjoy momentary joys and strong feelings that burn through the mundane haze of every day life now and then. So it seemed entirely appropriate that the set proper ended on the song “Fire” from Saint Cloud after beginning the show with “Oxbow” to suggest some heavy work ahead. And if that isn’t impressive set order planning it’s hard to say what would be.
Waxahatchee at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom MurphyWaxahatchee at Ogden Theatre 4/22/2022, photo by Tom Murphy
is the new EP from talker and her songwriting experiments in expressing a set of feelings and experiences with great poignancy and invention is obvious across the whole release. The song “Little Bird,” though, finds talker centering her warmly luminous vocals to relate a memory of being in a place in life where you feel like someone else or yourself conditioned by what you’ve learned to expect out of life is chipping your dignity and identity away. With your self-respect thus eroded it feels difficult to break away from that cycle of dysfunction and yet awareness of that state of affairs is a message to your psyche in itself. The song doesn’t promise some miracle rescue or some throwaway line about how things are going to get better and no cheesy sentiments about triumphing over this time in life it suggests that you have within yourself the ability to move beyond that head space simply by seeing things for what they are and sometimes hearing that in a song or, heck, writing the song is the catalyst. Which is a more creative and practical approach to conveying that content. Listen to “Little Bird” on Spotify where you can listen to the rest of the EP and follow talker at the links provided.
King Monday and Azileli, photo courtesy the artists
“Sleepwalker” from King Monday’s new EP features Azileli on a track that begins with lush, environmental ambiance that gives the impression of waking up refreshed in a room bright with morning sunlight. As the song progresses the streaming tones and textural rhythms trace the lyrics about someone who seems to be singing to herself like she’s looking in from the outside and gentle nudging herself into action after feeling like she’s been observing the world as it is but going through life like she’s powerless or passive. This after being taught that she can have anything she wants any time but what does that mean if you don’t know what you want? And this is such a common phenomenon in the world where our upbringing and culture doesn’t encourage an awareness of personal purpose much less discovering one of our own. The line “I’m so sick, I’ve been living with my eyes closed” expresses that turning point in consciousness where that state of things becomes intolerable and you push yourself into new personal territory even if you don’t know where you’ll end up but at least you can make your mistakes on your terms and learn what you want your life to be about with integrity. The song’s gorgeously composed electronic, downtempo dream pop is instantly compelling and alluring and in the process of listening it challenges in the gentlest way possible to consider where you are and where you want to be. Listen to “Sleepwalker” on the BonFire Records Soundcloud and follow King Monday on his personal Soundcloud and on Spotify.
“Dot” is A Beacon School’s first release in three years and its free flowing swirl of colorful tones promise some deeply imaginative soundscaping in the forthcoming album due out sometime in the hopefully non-too distant future. Its gentle psychedelia and expansive dynamic is an interesting choice for a song that blends a contemplation on creating a work of art and a reflection on one’s own life. The way one creates say a visual work or a song from conceptualization stage to execution in sketches and stages, parts and passages and going through life considering what paths to take, small choices that establish an overall pattern that you hope you can consciously guide or set in motion in ways that unfold to one’s satisfaction. In both cases imagining you’ve discovered a new method, a new aesthetic, a dramatic breakthrough in one’s creative work and life only to discover patterns that emerge from the character you’ve made for yourself. And yet in that realization is the consciousness of ways to work with instincts and habits and break or transform them in ways that seem viable and sustainable. And ideally through multiple iterations of these attempts we can establish more rewarding patterns in art and in life. Musically the layers of synth and flow of textures is reminiscent of the dream pop of Sound of Ceres and the main melodic line in the song strongly resonates with that of Stereolab’s “Blue Milk” so that an unconventional free jazz element provides an informal structure to the way the song organically resolves in a way that keeps your attention to the end. Listen to “Dot” on YouTube and follow A Beacon School at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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