What you’re about to read shouldn’t make sense but listening to Jazz Funeral’s “The Fruit” brought to mind the video for Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” The pacing, the visual mood of the video. Like an alternative soundtrack to the 80s pop classic. Except that Toronto’s Jazz Funeral, musically, is more like Floodland period The Sisters of Mercy, like “Colours” and “Neverland.” The brooding melody and distorted synths, the low bass drone, the flares of tone that linger and flicker away. But Jazz Funeral’s sonic character is a little brighter while the subject matter of the song hits at the more personal and mythological. Words of the narrator’s “body breaking all the time” and of “noises heard down the block” and of escape by necessity or inclination. With the lyrics “what’s it worth to you, you know you don’t really get to choose the fruit” one can take away many things in the context of the rest of the song but one interpretation is the critical pedagogy view of education in that we go through life thinking we know what we want and what we need but we’ve all been conditioned and often our desires are shaped by outside forces internalized and until we become aware of this fact and learn to deconstruct these seemingly instinctual sides of our personality for what they are we will never be in control of our own lives from base impulses of desire and our aspirations when our dreams and psyche have been colonized and warped to serve a purpose that might even be detrimental to us and has been driving our entire lives in ways we wouldn’t choose to if we were fully conscious of what’s been going on in our heads. Do we really want what we think we want and why do we want those things? “The Fruit” dares to question such a fundamental side of our personalities. The song can also be enjoyed as simply a powerful and engrossing neo-darkwave track about fractious relationships but its composition and lyrics suggest a depth, intellect and soul searching that is rare in popular music. The group recently released its new EP The Fruit. Listen to “The Fruit” on Soundcloud and follow Jazz Funeral at any of the links below.
Phonebooks (Colin Ward and Stephan Herrera L-R) circa 2010 at Rhinoceropolis. CRFW Benefit at Rhinoceropolis on August 29, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | August 29
Cop Circles circa 2013, photo by Tom Murphy
What:DJ Fresh Kill, Earth Control Pill, Cop Circles and H-Lite When: Thursday, 08.29, 8 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: This is a benefit show for the CRFW Fund which supports the body of work of the late Colin Ward and which “assists artists via grants and other means of support.” Ward would have turned 29 on this August 29 and the artists on the bill were friends and creative comrades of the artist and musician. A lot of high energy electronic dance music from DJ Fresh Kill and H-Lite, conceptual No Wave afrobeat post-disco from Cop Circles and the chill soundscaping of Earth Control Pill.
What:The Sugar Hill Gang w/Furious 5 and White Fudge & The Antagonist When: Thursday, 08.29, 7 p.m. Where: The Oriental Theater Why: For a lot of people The Sugar Hill Gang was the first rap band. But hip-hop pre-dated that by some years beginning with the soundsystem parties thrown by DJ Kool Herc. The Sugar Hill Gang was probably the earliest, commercially successful rap group with its 1979 hit song “Rapper’s Delight.” Also on this bill is the Furious 5 who, with Grandmaster Flash, had been a pioneering hip-hop crew before The Sugar Hill Gang hit the charts. So this is a bit like getting to see some of the earliest days of hip-hop as we know it in one show.
Friday | August 30
Paw Paw circa 2013, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Meek, Future Scars, Kali Krone, Madelyn Burns When: Friday, 08.30, 8 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: Meek mixes live drums with 31G and-esque processed vocals and electronic beats for a result that’s somewhere between noise and industrial. But really not like much except for maybe, maybe, solo USAISAMONSTER minus guitar. Santa Fe’s Future Scars is pretty much impossible to pigeonhole except to say it’s a rock or a pop band but it has the cutting, hard hitting guitar drive of metal, the delicacy and texture of the most tender indie rock, the soaring vocals of some torch song pop and post-punk rhythmic drive. And that’s for one song. Other times, meditative, heavy drone with introspective melodies like Emma Ruth Rundle. Kali Krone’s dreamy slowcore seems about perfect for the swelter cool off. Madelyn Burns’ spooky singer-songwriter should appeal to fans of early Grouper.
What:Mutual Benefit w/Paw Paw and Card Catalog When: Friday, 08.30, 8 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Mutual Benefit’s moody, soundscape-y pop songs are like getting a glimpse into someone’s having processed some deep thinking and distilled it to the poetic essence of those collective feelings. Loosely in the realm of Americana but with some great sound collage in the songwriting. Paw Paw is the project of former Woodsman drummer Eston Lathrop. Sort of ambient, sort of organic electronic pop, experimental solo guitar and synth songs to transport you to another, better place for a half an hour or so.
What:Nuancer LP release w/SSIIGGHH, Dr3aMC@$T, Larians and Andy AI When: Friday, 08.30, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Daniel DiMarchi is the genius bass player in the great dream pop band Tyto Alba and great indie rock band Oxeye Daisy. But part of what makes him a great bass player is his true ear for tonality and composition which he brings to his experimental electronic pop project Nuancer and this is the release show of I Hardly Know Her. Also on the bill is a rare show from Larians, the solo project of former Male Blonding guitarist/singer Noah Simons. Though a guitarist, Simons has long had an interest in left field and forward thinking electronic music like Burial and Larians is the manifestation of that interest. And tonight Larians releases the first EP Looming Boy. If Nicolas Jaar made trap it might sound something like that.
What:I Hate It Here, Causer, $addy, Eraserhead Fuckers and Kid Mask When: Friday, 08.30, 8:30 p.m. Where: Thought//Forms Gallery Why: The noise/heavy processed dance ambient/industrial show of the week. Granted the only one but heavy hitters like noise rapper Eraserhead Fuckers, hypnogogic environment sculptor Kid Mask and post-Goth ambient noise genius $addy alone make this a noteworthy lineup.
Saturday | August 31
The Velveteers, photo by VOSSLING
What:The Velveteers UK tour kickoff w/Boot Gun, The Kinky Fingers and Bitter Suns When: Saturday, 08.31, 7 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: The Velveteers is a rock and roll trio from Denver whose live show is surprisingly powerful, forceful and grippingly emotional. The group is headed to the UK for a tour and this is the kickoff show with some of Denver’s other great, local, non-subgenre-specific rock bands including The Kinky Fingers who may be in the garage psych vein but its songwriting so tight and poignant it’s strikingly original.
What:To Be Astronauts, Meet the Giant, The Center and Bad Britton When: Saturday, 08.31, 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Hard rock band To Be Astronauts is relasing its “Thoughts and Prayers” single tonight. Hard rock is a little generic a term. So yeah, in their sound you’ll hear a bit of industrial rock, grunge and anthemic punk without being stuck on any of that. And other like-minded bands are on the bill including Meet the Giant who, despite their ethereal and moody atmospheric rock gets heavy and driving often enough that they’ll fit in here.
Sunday | September 1
Molly Burch, photo by Dailey Toliver
What:Molly Burch w/Jackie Cohen and Bellhoss When: Sunday, 09.01, 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Molly Burch has the kind of classic pop voice that many try to imitate but few nail the cadence and tonality that she seems to do so effortlessly. Her songs are intricate and delicate but her poetic observations sharp and illuminating. Jackie Cohen taps into an earlier era of music but her sound is more like a strange strain out of ABBA and 60s girl groups. Bellhoss is in good company here with Becky Hostetler’s idiosyncratic storytelling and inventive guitar work somewhere betwixt Dinosaur Jr, Edith Frost and Joanna Newsom. Yeah, let’s go with that until a better description of this unique songwriter and performer comes to mind. Hostetler will also make all the charmingly awkward jokes on stage so you don’t have to.
What:The Wes Watkins (EP release) w/Dr3@m Ca$t and Snubluck When: Sunday, 09.01, 8 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Wes Watkins is the brilliant trumpet player and vocalist whose talents have brought grace, cool and imagination to a broad swath of Denver music including his stint in Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. But The Other Black, playing with poet, mystic, avant-garde hip-hop songwriter Bianca Mikahn, Wheelchair Sports Camp and others? His track record speaks for itself and tonight he’s releasing his new EP, a collection of jazz-inflected pop songs that seem to be streaming from a time in the future while sounding like it had to be recorded in the past putting Watkins out of time thus timeless, as seems appropriate for his soulful musical stylings.
Tuesday | September 3
Shonen Knife circa 2014, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Shonen Knife w/Me Like Bees and Sexy Pistils When: Tuesday, 09.03, 7 p.m. Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Shonen Knife is the legendary Japanese punk bands whose roots go back to the late 70s when not many women were playing music in Japan much less in a punk band. Its songs are often about fanciful and mythical things but its songwriting is sharp, powerful and uplifting.
What:Holy Grove (PDX), DØNE (SLC, ex-SubRosa), and Shepherd When: Tuesday, 09.03, 8 p.m. Where: Tooey’s Off Colfax Why: A kind of doom metal show including the latest project from former SubRosa drummer Andy Patterson, DØNE.
What:Ian Svenonius DJ set / Dream Wish of a Casino Soul Closing Party When: Tuesday, 09.03, 8 p.m. Where: Pon Pon Why: Philosopher, brilliant social commentator, media mogul and genius frontman (The Make-Up, Nation of Ulysses, Weird War, Chain and the Gang etc.) Ian Svenonius will hold court with one of his unique DJ sets for the closing party for the art exhibit Dream Wish of a Casino Soul.
Wednesday | September 4
SunnO))) circa 2016, photo by Tom Murphy
What:SunnO))) w/David Pajo and BIG BRAVE When: Wednesday, 09.04, 7 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: SunnO))) creates such intense, dense frequencies and slow dynamics with, assuming Atilla Csihar will be on hand, otherworldly vocals that run a broad spectrum of tonality that your brain may work differently after the show. Calling it “extreme metal” just doesn’t cut it as it’s a truly ritualistic experience and so engulfing you feel like you’ve really been through something by the end. David Pajo is the iconic guitarist of Slint, The For Carnation and a host of other bands including a short stint in the death metal group Dead Child. His solo material runs a fairly wide range of sounds and emotions and as Papa M he recently toured with Mogwai. Not to be missed. BIG BRAVE is a cathartic collision of industrial, drone metal and emotional exorcism.
What:Weird Wednesday: Gothsta, Dorian, Hypnotic Turtle Radio DJ, Cabal Art When: Wednesday, 09.04, 9 p.m. Where: Bowman’s Vinyl and Lounge Why: Weird Wednesday is the monthly musical showcase that lives up to its name and curated by Claudia Woodman. This time she will be performing in her persona of Gothsta and for this performance she says, “Gothsta covers goth songs on the melodica that have some link to climate change-related themes, because Gothsta is depressed about global warming. Gothsta will have some extra special content that has to do with the Amazon burning and will be joined by Hypnotic Turtle’s Diablo Montalban for dueling melodicas/improv along with noise loops generated for this performance.” It’s rare that anything lives up to hype like that but this show probably will.
“Where We Live” is the kind of song that is able to tap into the pleasure centers reached by both 80s inspired minimal synth and the retrofuturist pop of an Alice Glass. The multiple rhythms running throughout the song let each minimal layer shine and the vocals to resonate in all their melancholic glory. There is an iciness to the melody suggesting creative gestation through the winter months and fully manifesting the music as the days get longer but still in the grips of the mood that inspired the writing of the beautifully desolate arpeggios and the breathily introspective vocals that illuminate the dark hues of the song with a ray of hope. Look for the Where We Live EP out Oct 4 through Rain Heart Records.
“Blinding Light” and its layers of processed piano sounds like the modeling of leaves falling from trees in the autumn wind. Apt for a song looking back on the past of the echos of voices long thought dead or in perpetual hibernation or whose energy was transformed into something more productive, beginning as it does with an electric insect buzz, introspective, minimal, melancholic piano and a reverted echo of a Mussolini speech. Though the winds of authoritarianism have blown throughout the world once again with leaders spouting that sort of rhetoric familiar to those who lived through the first half of the twentieth century Andalou-dog’s song beckons us not to succumb to those voices much more to the despair that comes with thinking they are more powerful than they are. The song suggests that as strong and seductive as the wave of emotion and intensity can be it can dissolve into nothing nearly as easily if we do not amplify the phenomenon and deprive it of support in the various ways we can because few things are inherently inevitable in the political and cultural sphere, all things being contingent on the context for them to manifest whether fascism or inspired art and social justice movements. Listen to “Blinding Light” on Soundcloud and follow Andalou-dog at the links below.
With a languid pace and a mix of smoldering, cathartic anger, Phay Bridges imbues her song “How Do You Sleep At Night” with the appropriate level of righteous indignation directed toward an abuser. Of course we’ve heard countless stories of these people like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein who used their wealth and power to abuse women and to cover up that abuse for decades. But in our own immediate lives we probably know a few people who on a far lesser scale power trip and abuse as a boost to their own fragile egos when they have a temporary place of minor power and influence over others whether in the workplace, in a community, in social circles, in a family or in a relationship of any kind that they use to peddle “favors” or take out some sadistic outlet on whoever they can. Bridges’ voice articulates the feelings most people swallow or bury to get through those times and coupled with the expressive, fiery guitar work it does so without malice but a call to conscience without letting the abuser off the hook. Look out for her debut full-length due out in fall 2019. Watch the lyric video on YouTube and follow Bridges at the links provided.
“Unease,” the latest single from avant-garde electronic/ambient artist Krikl weaves together the tactile quality of live cello with layers of synth and electronic beats. The way the elements come in and out of the track gives one a sense of open spaces but also of textures and environmental details we may otherwise ignore like the hum of an air conditioner at a house down the street or of a vending machine. The sounds that when they are gone we might experience a sense of displacement and not fully understand why. The song is called “Unease” perhaps because it was written to dispel that feeling and to make music that could calm and soothe the mind and spirit by stimulating your brain through those aforementioned analog and purely electronic sounds orchestrated in a way that hits you on multiple levels. Highly recommended as a companion to listening to “Unease” are watching Adrianna Krikl’s one minute videos on her Instagram account (linked below) as they give a visually striking and human element to the music that can seem abstract but for the artist is very much a personal statement. The single is part of a larger cassette release with six songs in a handsome package that you can acquire on Adrianna Krikl’s website. Listen to “Unease” on Soundcloud and follow Krikl at the links provided.
Adam Faulkner and Tim Stephens traveled a long way both physically and psychologically to make the music they’ve released as Total Bike Forever. The track “Kyushu” found the longtime friends making the trek from London to Tokyo (we can assume they didn’t ride their bikes the entire route seeing as large bodies of water are involved). Along the route they composted tracks of electronic music infused by local influences taking fourteen months across over twenty-five thousand kilometers and traversing twenty-six countries. The plan is to release their debut album with an accompanying documentary to screen at festivals in Europe and the UK. But for now you can listen to “Kyushu” which includes the sound of various Japanese flutes and a Nepalese women’s choir from Kathmandu. The story behind the song could overshadow the music but “Kyushu” is an engrossing downtempo song that combines the analog with the digital in a way that feels like a synthesis of methods and cultures that transcends preconceived notions of where this music must come from and where it fits in. It washes over your mind like a sonic palette cleansing for the mind. It sounds like the end of a long journey and taking some time to look back on everything you experienced before going back home to the contexts you know best. Listen to “Kyushu” on Soundcloud and follow Total Bike Forever at the links below.
Vinyl Williams’ video for the Marble Arch single “Moonstruck” is like an expanded universe of colors, imagery and shapes on a framework of sixteen bit video game graphics aesthetic. It suits the song which is a chill, downtempo song that sounds like time spent taking stock and contemplating the past through the emotional lens of childhood in order to recapture some of the magic and purity of going through life without having your perceptions and instincts shaped so much by the weight of a lifetime of mixed experiences. It’s a creative wiping away of life’s spiritual crust and rediscovering some of the magic and wonder of feeling and creating with unalloyed joy but one informed by the knowledge of how easy it is to let so many things in life let you get jaded and stunted in your natural development as a human and creative person. Pablo Picasso famously said something about taking a lifetime to learn to paint like a child, this song feels like a similar process of reconnecting with that energy in songwriter Yann Le Razavet’s life. Look for the full album Children of the Slump out on Géographie. Watch the remarkable video below and follow Marble Arch at the links provided.
Austin’s Indigo Bunting is thankfully not taking cues from modern trends in pop music and its new single “White Noise (Don’t Be a Winner)” taps liberally across decades for musical ideas to inspire something decidedly different. The choruses have a classic melodic quality and large sonics akin to the songs produced by Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in the 1960s. But the palette of sound is an enchantingly disorienting mash-up of Siouxsie-esque post-punk, warping psychedelic reminiscent of the less noisy end of Indian Jewelry and a drums that sound like they were recorded while the drummer was sitting inside an echo chamber with curiously tight reverb so that beats cascade off each other in a manner that really compliments the subculture jamming composition generally. Nevertheless, this is an accessible song that is not a send-up of possible influences so much as some cool nods amid the band’s inspired, dancing, gyering collage of sound. Listen to the song on Soundcloud and follow Indigo Bunting at the links provided.
Tacono Gate gets “It’ll All Come to Pass” going with a grittily uplifting riff that soars into an evocative, anthemic verse. The synth compliments the elevated tone of the vocals in a way that syncs nicely with what comes to be an almost hypnotic melodic drone that flows and resolves throughout the song. Fans of The Chameleons and Comsat Angels will appreciate the defiant yet melancholic progressions. Like the band is struggling against the unacceptable inevitable. Like knowing you’re going to take that okay paying job because it’ll mean that you can afford to not just survive but have something for yourself to pursue what you really care about on the side until maybe it becomes your main gig. All while taking it on with a resigned spirit knowing that you, and really everyone, deserves better than what is on offer, that this contingent reality that benefits the few at the expense of the hopes and dreams of the majority is unsustainable but for now it is what it is. And yet, the song more than hints that this and other situations in life will come to pass in the end. While cold comfort in the moment, it beats utter despair. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Tacono Gate at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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