Ghost Canyon Fest – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E24: Cloakroom

Cloakroom is a shoegaze band from Northwest Indiana that got off the ground in 2012. The group’s association with heavy bands since its inception is fitting since it’s own crafting of atmospheric rock has built into it a physicality of tone that is as electrifying as it is weighty. In moments it’s like hearing Holy Mountain-period Sleep working with Fantastic Planet-era Failure in how the sounds can sound like they’re cutting through time and space and immersively transporting at once. This quality was in high form on the 2022 album Dissolution Wave, a concept album about saving the human race from a phenomenon that threatens to wipe out humanity’s art and abstract thought. In 2025 Cloakroom issued its latest album Last Leg of the Human Table, an effort that showcases the band proving itself capable of writing whatever style it wishes without losing its essence of creating entrancing atmospheres. It is also evidence of the band’s gift for pop songcraft and memorable melodies. For years Cloakroom has been one of the bands of choice for connoisseurs of modern shoegaze.

Listen to our interview with bassist Bobby Markos of Cloakroom on Bandcamp and follow the outfit at the links below. Cloakroom performs at the Hi-Dive on Sunday, August 24, 2025 as the headlining act of the final night of Ghost Canyon Fest.

Cloakroom on Instagram

lastlegofthehumantable.com

Cloakroom on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E23: Buildings

Buildings is a trio from Minneapolis that spawned in around 2006. Over the next decade the group gained a bit of a cult following in underground circles among those that appreciate the kind of challenging but thrilling noise rock one heard out of labels like Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go. Buildings seemed to learn further into the chaos and industrial aspects of that music and by the time of its 2017 album You Are Not One Of Us there was a touch of ambient tonality in the songwriting like a band that wouldn’t have been out of place on the GSL imprint or a more brutal version of a later era Butthole Surfers record. The experimental streak continued with the 2019 album Negative Sound. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the band drifted apart some and the demands of adulthood meant operating full time as a band wasn’t as possible as previously. Drummer Travis Kuhlman and bassist Mike Baillie formed DUG and have enjoyed some success as darlings of modern noise rock. But in 2024 members of the band including vocalist/guitarist Brian Lake started hanging out again as friends do and Buildings became a going concern again playing its first public show at the Caterwaul festival, the flagship noise rock festival in the country, in 2025.

Listen to our interview with Brian Lake on Bandcamp and follow Buildings at the links below. Buildings performs at Ghost Canyon Fest on Sunday, August 24, 2025.

Buildings on Facebook

Buildings on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Brief Guide to Ghost Canyon Fest

Ghost Canyon Fest, Denver’s DIY music fest showcasing left field music of various stripes, runs August 21-24, 2025 at venues in Colorado Springs in Denver and here is our modest rundown of what’s in store each day. For more information and to purchase tickets please visit ghostcanyonfest.com.

Th 08/21/25 What’s Left Records doors 7 PM

Scorplings
Noise rock jazz post-punk collage post-pop. If you’re into both Yo La Tengo and Shellac you’ve come to the right band.

Silver West
Tender cosmic folk avant-country psychedelia.

Viewfinder
Indie emogaze tapped into healing the bruised psyche of those crushed under wheels of the failed American dream.

Church Fire
“Equal parts industrial synth pop, hyperkinetic dance punk and dreamlike ambient 8-bit EDM doom.” Also with the new lighting rig like a revolutionary dance party every show.

F 08/22/25 Wax Trax 3 PM (free show)
The Destructor’s Club
New York dub post-punk aimed at rattling Babylon to dust.

Denver Vintage Reggae Society
Veteran DJ crew bringing the legit reggae sides to liven up a late summer sidewalk.

F 08/22/25 Skylark Lounge doors 7 PM
Safekeeper
Maximalist lo-fi slacker rock from Fort Collins for fans of early Built to Spill and Jonathan Donohue-era Flaming Lips.

Honduh Daze
Where harsh noise, post-punk and Situationist-esque anti-commercial culture humor intersect.

The Milk Blossoms
Dream folk indie pop poetic portraits of collages of dreams, heartfelt memories and aspirational futures yet manifest.

Neptune
A mini-chamber orchestra of industrial post-punk assembled from found objects and repurposed instruments, the stylistic offspring of Neubauten, Lightning Bolt and Caroliner Rainbow.

Pink Lady Monster
Retro-futurist No Wave funk disco post-punk performance art like a soundtrack to a Pat Cadigan cyberpunk novel filled with a playful joy and sly culture jamming.

Fuubutsushi (includes Patrick Shiroishi and Chaz Prymek), photo courtesy the artists

S 08/23/25 Mutiny Information Cafe doors 1 PM
Flesh Tape
Swirling emogaze as noisy exorcisms of isolation and heartache.

Progmistress
The solo stylings of Dreadnought and BleakHeart vocalist and keyboard wizard Kelly Schilling.

Nguyen, Prymek, Shiroishi
Free jazz Zen mystics with a gift for creating transcendent spaces of expansive textures.

Flowting Clowds
A cause of celebration because Jeff Mueller and Sean Meadows of June of 44 fame performing the new they’ve been working on for over a decade.

S 8/23/25 Hi-Dive doors 6 PM
El Welk
Psychedelic garage Americana punk from former members of country post-punk band Snakes.

Cougars
Atonal mutant sleaze rock like the musical equivalent of early 80s National Lampoon and Mad Magazine.

Suicide Cages
Seething post-hardcore exorcisms of our internalized collective social nightmares.

Latter
Deeply personal, raging songs scorching civilizational neglect and the abuses it spawns.

MJ Guider
Abstract shoegaze drone emanating from the primeval places in the dreamtime.

Still House Plants
Iterative, cinematic guitar and soulful-vocal-driven avant-post-punk and R&B fusion.

Black Eyes
The equally weird and wonderfully disorienting, Can-esque DC cousin to The Rapture.

Su 8/24/25 Wax Trax 1 PM free show
Moon Pussy
Electo-convulsive noise rock and absurdist-conscious poetry set to broken jackhammer beats.

DUG
Smash punk irreverence and doom’s complete lack of regard for melody, remove the aggression and you have this band’s ability to channel the crushing bleakness of the world into inspiration.

Big’N
Jagged shocks of despair survived and carved into seething stabbing sounds pushed through a groove.

Su 8/24/25 Hi-Dive doors 4 PM
American Motors
Navigating gritty distortion and dreamlike shimmery melodies this band catalogs the haunted corridors of America’s decaying empire and fractured dreams.

Precocious Neophyte
Bittersweet bedroom shoegaze awash in fading neon lights and lingering nostalgic warmth.

Museum of Light
The new incarnation of the band indulges its gift for crushing heaviness alongside exquisitely transcendent atmospheric ambient explorations into inner space.

Evicshen
A prime experimenter in combining the aesthetics of sound, visual representation and tactile elements in crafting unique artistic experiences.

Buildings
Industrial math noise thrash with deep passages of introspective tension before the unhinged uncoiling of the pent up angst.

Glassing
Euphorically relentless post-black metal screamo.

Cloakroom
Fuzzy, shimmery, majestic space pop stoner rock stories of everyday life in the fragile and perilous present.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E22: Latter

Latter is an experimental noise rock band from Chicago with vocalist Meredith Haines and drummer Jon Alvarado at its core. The project came about when Haines moved from Philadelphia to go to graduate school and wanted to start a heavier and more confrontational kind of band and Alvarado, a member of indie pop band Beach Bunny, aimed to join something more aggressive. Originally a four piece before songs cohered the fledgling group shrank to a duo and named itself Latter. The new lineup quickly developed songs and recorded its 2024 debut album the raw and confrontational My Body Is My Sickness, an album that skewers abuse, offers incisive self-examination and exults in bold vulnerability. The album was recently reissued on vinyl following the release of the 2025 EP What Lives Inside Me, a set of songs that sets fire to misogyny and the ways culture and capitalist civilization seems to render everyone disposable in various ways. It’s gloriously ferocious noisy post-hardcore awash in caustic distortion yet not without an undercurrent of melancholic atmosphere in moments. In Spring 2025 Latter went viral when Haines shared a live version of “I Don’t Owe You” on TikTok seeming to tapped in to an experience many have shared in the aftermath of a toxic relationship by articulating those feelings with poetic precision.

Listen to our interview with Meredith Haines and Jon Alvarado of Latter on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below. See Latter at the Ghost Canyon Fest in Denver, Colorado at the Hi-Dive on Saturday, August 23, 2025.

Queen City Sounds Podcase S5E21: Suicide Cages

Suicide Cages is a band from Denver whose sound draws on various strands of heavy music and punk into a seething maelstrom of channeled outrage and raw emotion. More less a product of the social and civilizational wrecking ball of the COVID-19 pandemic, Suicide Cages came together among friends who knew each other prior and finally came together for a project that could express ideas about society, culture and the fragility of life with focus and integrity. Some might hear the music and take away that it’s an imaginative take on math-y metalcore with the kind of momentum and controlled chaos that that music manifests so well. But anyone that takes a listen to the group’s new EP Live Without there is a lot of pain and despair given air and room to breath and to let it drift some out of the psyche through the sheer release of performance and for the audience sharing in the energy of those moments. Suicide Cages also refreshingly and explicitly, according to its Bandcamp page, “stands against white supremacy in all its forms.” It’s a stance that has become increasingly brave with the rise of racist fascism and all that descends therefrom.

Listen to our interview with Devin Rombough and Mhyk Monroe of Suicide Cages on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below.

Suicide Cages on Instagram

Suicide Cages on Twitter

Suicide Cages on Facebook

Suicide Cages on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E20: Scorplings

Scorplings is a noise rock/post-punk trio from Denver that started in 2023. The group quickly wrote and recorded demos it uploaded to Bandcamp beginning in June 2024. Along with its subsequent demos it was recorded at Scorplings’ rehearsal space and studio the Spaghetti Warehouse The band jokes about how its members met via music classified ads and longtime Denver indie rock musician and songwriter Bryon Parker (Accordion Crimes, Raleigh, Simulators) seemed to find his future bandmates out of a mutual interest in math-y post-rock band Slint as well as like-minded artists. Andres had recently moved from Los Angeles and drummer Dan had come to Denver from Chicago while Parker from the East Coast in the early 2000s but all finding a community in Denver for a type of left field punk rooted in jazz and angular song structures. At the same time one hears an instinct for informal atmospheric elements in the vein of a slowcore band and the unconventional pop song structures and melodies reminiscent of Yo La Tengo. There is a cinematic aspect to the songwriting like it’s inspired by the pacing and dynamics of classic movies. Fans of classic Chicago noise rock and DC post-punk will find a great deal to appreciate about Scorplings’ core sound.

Listen to our interview with Scorplings on Bandcamp and follow Scorplings on Instagram. Catch them live at Ghost Canyon Fest on the first night, Thursday, August 21 at What’s Left Records in Colorado Springs.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E37: Nina Nastasia

Nina Nastasia, photo courtesy the artist

Nina Nastasia is the critically acclaimed songwriter currently based in Seattle who grew up in Hollywood but moved to New York before making a name for herself as a gifted musical artist who worked throughout much of her career recording with Steve Albini. Due to years of abuse by her then partner, Nastasia left music in 2010 before returning to writing and releasing songs Her return to releasing music was the 2022 album Riderless Horse, an album or tender sounds and textures but whose subjects are a rich tapestry of the evocation of love, despair, loss, and finding moments of joy and humor in the great sprawl of life especially when you’ve been suppressing your creative gifts and now finding your vehicle of expression once again free of former limitations. The album charts the aftermath of the death of Nastasia’s former partner in 2020 and her own rediscovery of being able to write music with integrity after around a decade of finding herself unable to do so. It’s a record of rare beauty and deep personal insight that while bearing the hallmarks of going through periods of personal darkness ends up being an uplifting record and a declaration of self-empowerment. While writing and recording that record, Nastasia was simultaneously crafting the songs that would comprise the 2023 self-titled debut album by Jolie Laide, a duo with Nastasia and Jeff MacLeod. Both records have a noir quality in the nuance of emotional expression and entrancing moods that have a cinematic quality that one might compare favorably to Lana Del Rey and Cat Power.

Listen to our interview with Nina Nastasia on Bandcamp and follow Nastasia at the links below. She performs on the final night of Ghost Canyon Fest on Sunday, August 25, 2024 at the Hi-Dive. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the fest’s website here.

ninanastasiaofficial.com

Nina Nastasia on Instagram

Nina Nastasia on Facebook

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E36: Animal Bite

Animal Bite in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Animal Bite is a band from Casper, Wyoming that has folded into its sound a hybrid of thrash, noise rock and hard-edged, industrial post-punk. It’s the kind of music that simultaneously resonates favorably with The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Jesus Lizard and Killing Joke. There’s a psychedelic aspect to the music that pairs well with the disorienting energy and intensity of the music. The group’s existence spans both sides of the 2020 pandemic but its membership has come out of the Casper underground in bands like Juice Falcon and Doggod that didn’t feat neatly into punk or grindcore or metal but featured the hallmarks of eclectic musical roots. Guitarist Brandon Schulte has been a bit of a figure in the current network of American underground music setting up shows for touring acts in Casper who might otherwise not have a place to play in the middle western part of the country as well as hosting left field music locally and otherwise. In 2021 Animal Bite released its first full length album Harsh Chemicals with visual aesthetics that remind one of Future Sounds of London’s Dead Cities or a Death album cover. It’s the kind of impression that prepares you for the gloriously post-apocalyptic music within.

Listen to our interview with Brandon Schulte of Animal Bite on Bandcamp and catch the group live at the final night of the Ghost Canyon Fest on Sunday, August 25, 2024. The fest begins on Friday August 23 at The Skylark Lounge and continues with a matinee show at Mutiny Information Cafe on Saturday, August 24 and the evening showcase at the Hi-Dive that same evening. But tickets to the fest here and connect with Animal Bite at the links below.

Animal Bite on Instagram

Animal Bite on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E35: Lake Mary

For over a decade, Chaz Pyrmek has been a prolific artist releasing recordings as Lake Mary and as a member of various ensembles including the free jazz group Fuubutsushi. Prymek has found himself in various environments over the years including his hometown, where he is now once again located, of Salt Lake City, Columbia, Missouri and Denver, Colorado but in each case the environments have impacted the composer and multi-instrumentalist in terms of the physical and cultural landscape. Prymek’s music could broadly be described as ambient improv and abstract Americana created with an intuitive, improvisational approach to the songwriting. Whether edited later or the inspired moments simply captured and released into the world, Prymek’s musical endeavors sound fresh, intimate and welcoming. In recent years Prymek has collaborated with free jazz saxophone legend Patrick Shiroishi in the aforementioned Fuubutsushi as well as on Lake Mary recordings and the 2024 album Eventually The River Rises Here Too, As It Always Has as a trio with Prymek, Shiroishi and Thom Nguyen.

Listen to our interview with Chaz Prymek on Bandcamp and follow the links below to listen to his music and keep appraised of his live performances and other adventures in music. Lake Mary will perform at the Ghost Canyon Fest the afternoon of August 24, 2024 at Mutiny Information Cafe. To buy tickets to the festival visit the website here.

chazprymek.com

Lake Mary on Bandcamp

Chaz Prymek on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E34: Lung

Lung is an experimental rock duo from Cincinnati that formed in 2016. Vocalist/cellist Kate Wakefield and drummer Daisy Caplan had both been involved in bands prior to Lung including Caplan’s stint as the bassist for glam pop band Foxy Shazam but with this musical collaboration both musicians utilize musical chops to craft a raw and commanding style of what might be called art punk that pairs Wakefield’s powerful and trained voice and cello prowess and Caplan’s creative command of rhythm. The result is imaginative and emotionally charged songs that translate well to the band’s deserved reputation as an intense and entertaining live band. One might compare the band’s music to the type of resonance evoked by PJ Harvey’s moments of waxing into the unhinged and inspired and the earnest emotional warmth and raw power of The Gits. All with an undeniable knack for rendering left fields ideas accessible. Lung tours extensively every year it’s been possible and it has garnered a reputation as fine citizens of the underground music scene. Its most recent offering as a record is 2023’s split album with Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends called Adult Prom.

Listen to our interview with Wakefield and Caplan on Bandcamp and follow Lung at the links below. The duo will perform at Ghost Canyon Fest the first night of the festival on August 23 at The Skylark Lounge. But you’ll want to catch as much of the festival as possible if you’re a fan of the different in underground music. The festival continues with a matinee show at Mutiny Information Cafe on Saturday, August 24 with the night show at the Hi-Dive with the concluding night of the fest on Sunday August 25 also at the Hi-Dive. For more information no the festival and to buy tickets click here.