The luminous bell tones that carry the main melody of Remington super 60’s “I Don’t Wanna Wait” conveys the sense of ambivalence that runs through the lyrics. The vocalist intones wistfully about how she wanted things to be differently with someone but reconciling herself to the fact that she doesn’t really know what this person is about or their intentions and ponders if waiting to have a more solid emotional grasp of this person is worth the wait or if said person is someone who it would be foolish to think will come around and be the kind of person who gives one a sense of solidity of identity and whether or not the feelings of genuine affection and regard are returned. The elegance of the composition is striking and while the aforementioned electronic bell sounds and the resonant vocals catch one’s attention immediately, the incidental sounds that round out the melody give the song a strong sense of emotional impact by giving the resigned melancholy of the foreground music a grounding in something more vividly textural even as it rests on the edges of the song. Listen to “I Don’t Wanna Wait,” which appeared on the group’s January 2020 release, the simply titled NewEP, on Soundcloud and follow the Norwegian group at the links below.
Fragile Gods “Switch Off The Light” cover (cropped)
Fragile Gods tap into a lo-fi 80s synth pop sound for its single “Switch Off The Light.” The processed male vocals sound like something channeled from AM radio floating over spare electronic percussion and a bouncing, distorted synth line accented by playful tones and counter melody on another synth. Even when joined by female vocals, the whole song has the quality of a lost gem of a song one might find on a VHS of cable access/public television music video shows. Sonically it’s reminiscent of Pseudo Echo, Landscape and The Human League if that music was recorded in a home studio with a lead singer who is clearly inspired in part by Peter Murphy and David Bowie. The words to the song hint at supernatural themes but as a pretext for people getting together. The lines “You’re not the only who hears whispers in the night/you’re not the only one who sees things in the dark” solicit a common bond, a solidarity of uncommon sensitivity. When the vocalist sings “There are ghosts that occupy my dreams, now I fear I’m coming apart at the seams, switch off the light, it’s alright, hold me tight,” it comes from a place of not wanting to be alone amid one’s fears and anxieties, whether of the actual supernatural variety or of those that can feel like it in the moment. Perhaps an unusual and unconventional love song but one that becomes a bit of an earworm. Listen to “Switch Off The Light” on Soundcloud and follow Fragile Gods on the group’s website linked below.
On its single “Rocket Fuel” Russian trip-hop band AIST gives us a glimpse into a future when the international angst of today has been eased and everyday human life isn’t as distorted and amplified by world events in a direct and urgent way. The bright analog synths shimmer and trail off to give the song an upward drifting quality while propelling the melody forward as the female vocalist sings a song about yearning and striving for the life you want and finding the impetus to get there. Is the “rocket fuel” of the song a metaphor for the support and love everyone needs to make it far in life, to achieve their dreams? Perhaps, but either way, the way the group arranges its tones from the pulsing synths, drones, percolating tones and winsome vocals gives the song a quality of having come to us from a near future that seems impossibly relatively carefree compared to the dark intensity of the present but not one where humans still struggle with discouragement embrace inspiration where they can find it. Listen to “Rocket Fuel” on Soundcloud and follow AIST at the links provided.
Tracy Karam’s video for “Angels” by Lebanese experimental rock band Sandmoon gives a visual interpretation of a song about a 12-year-old kid who loses a parent and haunted by memory and loss, acts out in unpredictable ways as one will when trying to make sense of what seems and is deeply unfair and which unmoors your life. The youth puts some of his energy into playing drums and some of his time trying to make sense of the new reality of his life. The song’s sparkling and shimmering melodies and gently introspective but emotionally vibrant vocals are accented perfectly by percussion that sets a progressive pace like life passing you by as you feel swept along in its wake when you’re grieving. The tone of the song is one of compassion and patience even when the momentum of life’s demands would like you to move on before your heart is ready. Watch Karam’s powerful and evocative video on YouTube and follow Sandmoon at the links below.
If there was a space station in orbit around the titular planet of Comfort Level 7’s “Saturn,” the soundscape of the song is the analog of the both the endless mystery of the gas giant and the dark thoughts that might run through your mind if you were a scientist stationed there, remote from all civilization for months on end. The white noise drones and distant sounds of who can say playing about like a kind of bleak space wind you couldn’t possibly hear but which might exist like a ghost in your imagination where lie vague memories of Lovecraftian horror with the Great Old ones and their offspring colonizing not just earth but the outer planets of the solar system as well. The ululating tone that runs through the piece and the staccato arpeggiated rhythmic tone gives voice to imagined horrors out in the deeps of the planet named after an ancient Roman deity. The song isn’t easy listening but its brooding drone and spooky vibe is nevertheless entrancin. Listen to “Saturn” on Soundcloud and follow Comfort Level 7 at the links below where you can also find the project’s 2019 EP Bindrune which includes this track.
“Osc Nova” by at her open door sounds like the soundtrack for a bizarre video game set in the universe of 80s science fiction cinema and video games. Distorted synth drones are the baseline with minimal electronic percussion pounding an descending tonal progression. Highly processed guitar sounds flare as though the representation of either intense combat or action in some kind of competitive exercise. The production is a hybrid of classic hip-hop and Herbie Hancock-esque experimental jazz and modern 8-bit giving it that touch of retro electronic musicality composed from a more modern sensibility and freeform blending of styles that would rarely have been threaded together in years past and not with the same freshness of approach in seeing all sounds and methods as fodder for songwriting. Listen to “Osc Nova” on Spotify and follow at her open door at the links provided.
Isik Kural’s enigmatically titled “The Childish Tendency to Speak of Events as Coincidences” begins with a gentle oscillating tone that increases in volume slowly before its intertwining layers vividly manifest, like an object in the distance before dawn, illuminated to reveal itself as more than another shadow of the skyline. The tone fades into melodic drones punctuated by higher pitches and textural sounds like glasses struck slightly nearly out of hearing. Toward the later middle part of the song these abstractions solidify some with what sounds like a piano figure heard from a building on another floor of a building drifting in through the window as birds greet the sun edging higher in the sky, its golden strands expressed as bright, streaming tones and a breeze through branches as white noise. Less a song than the evocation of an environment expressed through sonic analogues of that experience, the track is a great example of how music, imaginatively conceived and executed, can convey a sense of time and place better than words and visual representations alone. Take a listen to “The Childish Tendency to Speak of Events as Coincidences” on Spotify.
Yellow Rainbow’s single “Trail Through the Underbrush” sounds like a journey along the track that is the title. But a journey that takes in the rich details of the surrounding landscape, all its textures, its interweaving ecological systems, the ambient energy of the area. This deep taking in of the myriad details our conscious minds gloss over in seeking out what we usually deem the most salient data makes you aware of the mystery and the beauty in what might otherwise seem mundane. Composer Brian Lee uses field recordings taken in the Canadian Rockies to give this ambient track a concrete sense of place and texture while slow sweeping drones give an informally melodic voice to natural light, slowing it down in the listening and in the experiencing of that light as it plays on leaves and branches in the ever changing visual stimulation of the natural world paired with its full sensory experience. “Trail Through the Underbrush” conveys this taking the time to absorb what the world is giving to you in as much of a whole as possible given human limitations and in doing so it whispers into your mind a deep sense of peace. Listen to the song on Spotify and follow Yellow Rainbow at the links below.
Due to the Coronavirus-related cancellations we will include the shows we already had planned for coverage but indicate that they are cancelled as appropriate and as that information is available.
Thursday | March 12
Thundercat circa 2017, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Thundercat w/Guapdad 4000 When: Thursday, 3.12, 7 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Stephen Lee Bruner, aka Thundercat, has been the go-to bass playing genius in the hip-hop world and beyond for over a decade including performing on albums by Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Kamasi Washington and Flying Lotus. His own music is equally distinguished for its surreal creativity.
What:Harry Tuft and Brad Corrigan (of Dispatch) When: Thursday, 3.12, 6:30 p.m. Where: Swallow Hill Quinlan Cafe Why: Harry Tuft was instrumental in cultivating and fostering the folk music scene in Denver through first the Denver Folklore Center and then through Swallow Hill. He is also one of the great interpreters of that music and a talented artist in his own right and this intimate show will be a good setting to catch him in action.
What: CancelledThe Decibel Magazine Tour: Mayhem and Abbath w/Gatecreeper and Idle Hands When: Friday, 3.13, 6 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Mayhem is the legendary/notorious black metal band from Norway whose early history was the subject of the 2019 biopic Lords of Chaos. But the current band is equal parts occult rock theater and crushing black metal of devastating power.
What:Robyn Hitchcock When: Friday, 3.13, 7 p.m. Where: Daniels Hall at Swallow Hill Why: Robyn Hitchcock first came to public attention as a member of post-punk band Soft Boys in the early 80s but later in the decade through to today he has established himself as one of the most consistently creative, thoughtful and wryly humorous songwriters of the modern era. With an eclectic songwriting style that weaves in elements of jangle rock (which he helped to pioneer) and psychedelia, Hitchcock’s observational story songs articulate vividly snapshots of the core human zeitgeist of the moment through his lens of an Englishman who has remained open to the world.
Why:Concert for Indigent Defense/Death Penalty Repeal Party: Tokyo Rodeo, Cyclo Sonic and The Slacks When: Friday, 3.13, 9 p.m. Where: Skylark Lounge Why: Tokyo Rodeo is a rock band that by not tying its songwriting to a trendy aesthetic or some classic style has been able to cultivate its own voice in writing songs that delve into the personally meaningful in the musical language of a rock and roll universality. Cyclo-Sonic is a Denver punk super group with former members of Rok Tots, The Fluid, Frantix and The Choosey Mothers. But pedigree is not enough. Fortunately Cyclo-Sonic’s unvarnished rock theater and strong songwriting recommends itself.
What:Snakes w/Colfax Speed Queen and No Gossip in Braille When: Friday, 3.13, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Snakes is a band that includes George Cessna as well as Brian Buck of High Plains Honky and Kim Baxter of several bands including Gun Street Ghost. Sharing the stage for this inaugural show is psychedelic garage rock powerhouse Colfax Speed Queen and the radically vulnerable post-punk stylings of No Gossip in Braille.
Saturday | March 14
Ned Garthe Explosion circa 2014, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Ladies Night, Ned Garthe Explosion, Slugger, Despair Jordan When: Saturday, 3.14, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Ned Garthe Explosion could have a career as a comedy band but its songwriting is too strong and clever for being a mere novelty act. Its nearly unhinged psychedelic rock is always surprisingly compelling. Slugger somehow managed to emerge over the last few years influenced by 70s rock and psychedelic garage rock without sounding like a rehash of a rehash, instead, vital and visceral.
Sunday | March 15
Ásgeir, photo by Anna Maggý
What:Bolonium, Damn Selene and Gort Vs. Goom When: Sunday, 3.15, 7 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Bolonium is part weirdo pop band and game show including a section involving audience participation. Damn Selene’s mixes underground hip-hop, darkwave, noise and industrial music. Gort Vs. Goom is like if the Minutemen fully embraced prog rock and Blue Oyster Cult.
What: POSTPONEDÁsgeir When: Sunday, 3.15, 7 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Ásgeir is an Icelandic songwriter whose blend of folk with electronic production has garnered him a bit of an audience in his home country and abroad. His falsetto combines a sense of intimacy and transcendence couched in transporting tones and grounding musical textures. Currently the artist is touring in support of his latest album Bury the Moon.
Monday | March 16
Wax Lead, photo by Kristi Fox Fräzier
What:Cancelled Wax Lead, Vio\ator, Voices Under the Mirror and Voight When: Monday, 3.16, 7:30 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Minneapolis-based post-punk band Wax Lead brews its catharsis from lushly brooding female vocals and bass-driven minimalism and a willingness to pointedly tackle social and political issues. Also on the bill is the great, Denver-based industrial post-punk band Voight and one of the few good local EBM acts Voices Under the Mirror and its emotionally rich vocals and songwriting.
What: CANCELLED or POSTPONEDKronos Quartet When: Tuesday, 3.17, 7:30 p.m. Where: Newman Center Why: Kronos Quartet has helped to make classical music cool and relevant since its founding in Seattle in 1973 through creative interpretation of foundational works and the contemporary avant-garde. The Quartet has also been known to indulge in fascinating covers of music in genres beyond its presumed wheelhouse as well as working with noted artists like Laurie Anderson and Pat Metheny.
What: CANCELLEDJonathan Wilson w/Other Worlds When: Wednesday, 3.18, 7 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jonathan Wilson (Erykah Badu, Father John Misty, Laura Marling etc.) brings a lot of skill, experience and talent to bear on his new album Dixie Blur which he didn’t record at his studio in Los Angeles, where he has produced plenty of high quality material, but in Nashville to be closer to his Southern roots as a musician who grew up in North Carolina. Whether setting matters much in an ultimate sense, the record and lead single “Oh Girl” is informed by a warmth and sensitivity that elevates songs that are already noteworthy for their diverse dynamics and broad palette of emotional coloring.
The juxtaposition of black and white cultural artifacts of media yesteryear with rich, distorted synths and electronic beats in The Great Dictators’ video for “Killing Fields” is surprisingly effective in creating an otherworldly space to explore themes of modern anxieties. Humanity has been through periods of that seemed like the end of history or at least of the world as we have, collectively, known it. And all through those times people have had to live their lives and not put everything on hold even as they tangle with the possibility of their way of life coming to an end and the march of historical events right into their lives. The lived experience is not in chapters you can conveniently analyze from a temporal distance. Honorius seeing the Visigoths march into Rome, Paul von Hindenburg appointing Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany, the days leading up to the fall of Saigon and countless other points in human history when people made fateful decisions, faced their own destruction or the end of their civilization had mundane stuff they had to deal with. The Great Dictators aren’t saying at all that it’s all going to be okay, even though the upbeat rhythm and brooding pace has some nice pop hooks. They are showing solidarity with the mundanity of even the most dramatic periods in our history like the one we face now and to suggest that many of us, if not most of us, will make it through and have to pick up the pieces as best we can. Watch the video for “Killing Fields” on YouTube, follow The Great Dictators at the links below and look out for the band’s new full length One Eye Opener due out April 17 via Celebration Records.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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