Tony Cuchetti is a singer-songwriter based out of Minnesota who grew up playing in a family band that played malls, fairs, conventions and Vegas in the late 60s onward. For the last ten years of the band Cuchetti toured ten or eleven months of the year and garnered his chops as a performer and refined his ear for rhythm and melody. He recently released his latest album Freer Street named after the street where his grandfather lived in Detroit, Michigan. The cover bears a sepia-toned photograph of Cuchetti’s grandfather and the album filled with warm, country and folk songs is informed by the kind of storytelling tradition the songwriter learned from his family as having to have a form that would instantly engage listeners with an emotional immediacy and accessibility. The songs have an economy of composition but also have an orchestral approach to bringing together a rich array of elements that give the record a full sound but one that never seems cluttered. The album is now available on streaming and digital as well as limited run burnt orange vinyl.
Listen to our interview with Tony Cuchetti on Bandcamp and follow him at the links below. There’s a better than average chance you might be able to catch him live as Cuchetti has an active touring schedule worthy of his family legacy.
Quits is a noise rock band from Denver, Colorado that got off the ground around 2016 when some veterans of other left field and weirdo punk bands finally got together to deliver splintered and thorny yet thoughtful music into the world once again. Guitarists/vocalists Luke Fairchild and Doug Mioducki had met each other in underground music circles in the mid-90s as members of the punk-adjacent Why Planes Go Down and also punk-inspired but indiepop Felt Pilotes respectively. The two would go on to form Sparkles later in the decade, an unhinged noise rock quartet that seemed as at home playing hardcore shows as well as what might be described as indie rock shows of that time. Over the next decade Fairchild took his gift for poetic manifestation of modern anxieties and feral vocals to various projects including the still oft-spoken-of sludge metal band Kingdom of Magic and the noisy post-hardcore band Git Some which is still a going concern and includes former members of Planes Mistaken For Stars. Mioducki performed in free jazz, anti-rock group Witch Doctor before taking a break from music and moving to Pittsburgh for a time.
While Mioducki was decamped to Pennsylvania, drummer Darren Kulback was becomig active in the DIY world of Denver was a member of Hot White, a group that seemed inspired by Japanese art punk, noise and 31G and Load Records bands. The classic lineup of that outfit was fronted by bassist Tiana Bernard and included guitarist Kevin Wesley and its thrilling and confrontational sound and performances made waves within the Denver underground scene and beyond before splitting in 2011. Bernard and Kulback would continue in various bands including CP-208 for a few years with Mioducki who had returned to Denver and looking to do something well outside of mainstream music. Tripp Nasty was the band’s vocalist and it made music that brought together elements of avant-garde jazz and noise rock. But Bernard, Mioducki and Kulback were wanting to do something a little different and Mioducki had been hanging out with Fairchild more frequently at the time and the foursome started writing the foundations of the new band eventually called Quits.
Quits released its self-titled debut album in 2017 having recorded with Bart McCrorey at The Crash Pad Studio but within about a year Bernard’s academic, professional and personal pursuits took her to Portland, Oregon and friend of the band Justin Ankenbauer stepped in on bass. Ankenbauer had moved to Denver from Cincinnati earlier in the decade having a background in visual art and that city’s noise scene and shortly into his first tenure with Quits he had to focus on his work for a time and the pandemic hit putting most bands on effective hiatus for over a year. But during that time Quits recruited Sweetness Itself songwriter and guitarist Cyrena Rosati on bass and it is Rosati who performed on the recordings for the new Quits album Feeling It, again recorded with McCrorey. Now the long awaited record out now through New York City label Sleeping Giant Glossolalia run by former Denver-ite Michael Reisinger is available on vinyl and digital. The band with its reconstituted lineup with Ankenbauer back I the folk now plans to take the music more widely outside of Denver in 2024.
Listen to our in-depth interview with Quits on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below. Quits has an album release show on Sunday, October 8, 2023 at the Hi-Dive with Djunah and Almanac Man and future announced dates on October 13 at The Wolcott Galleria Theatre in Casper, WY and October 14 at Buckhorn Bar & Parlor in Laramie, WY.
CALAMITY began as the solo project of Kate Hannington whose journey to her current musical endeavors has been unorthodox, circuitous and in the end seemingly inevitable as a culmination of a life in creative work in various ends of that world. Hannington grew up in the Cleveland are and was involved in performing classical music as an oboe player who initially went to college to be in the sciences but found that deeply unsatisfying despite having a gift for engineering and she went on to New York City and ultimately earned a degree in music and got involved in the avant-garde music community in the city. But Hannington found herself at a life crossroads again and landed a job in Denver working on repairing musical instruments and then working in an engineering capacity for a major defense contractor near the Mile High City and discovered the local underground music world. Falling in with a circle of friends including Chris Adolf, Joe Sampson and Adam Baumeister Hannington found a group of people with whom to casually perform and exchange ideas in weekly get-togethers. Out of that milieu she started writing the songs that would form the core of the music for the early CALAMITY which she performed at the open mic at Syntax Physic Opera just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic to hit. It was around that time that Hannington had been working on her latest live film score in collaboration with a friend. The extended time off from even having performing live as an option allowed Hannington the time to refocus on her decision to make music a priority as it was the only thing over the course of a successful regular work life that felt like where she wanted to be. When shows started happening again, CALAMITY became an active project and most often during 2022. The musical style would be difficult to narrow down to something definitive except to say that it has elements of shoegaze, left field punk, Americana and all united by strong songwriting and Hannington’s powerful and expressive voice and strong stage presence. All of this can be heard strikingly on the debut CALAMITY full-length Chiromancy. From the gorgeously symbolic cover art to the vividly captured and produced recordings there is a unified intentionality that seems obvious in every detail. Hannington’s stories hit as deeply personal but also as a widely relatable set of narratives of letting go of relationships, the beliefs, the habits and associations that hold us back from a fulfilling and rewarding life and moving on toward it.
Listen to our extensive interview with Hannington on Bandcamp and follow CALAMITY at the links below. The band is having an album release show at The Skylark Lounge on Friday, October 6, 2023 with Allison Lorenzen and Soy Celesté. Also catch Hannington performing with local rock supegroup Easy Ease.
Cinema Cinema with Thor Harris (center), photo by Martin Bisi
Cinema Cinema is an art punk duo from Brooklyn, New York that has been crafting a diverse body of work since 2008. From its inception the group comprised of cousins vocalist/guitarist Ev Gold and drummer Paul Claro has perhaps intentionally crafted a body of work that embodies its name. The music is deeply rhythmic and combines cathartic sonics and deep moods. Its music caught the attention of Greg Ginn of Black Flag fame and has been invited on various jaunts with the aforementioned foundational and influential band as well as Ginn’s other projects. Cinema Cinema has performed nearly 500 shows in its career across 11 countries and its thus far seven albums seem to be coming from a place that suggests the influence of gnarly free jazz like Naked City and the heavy, improvisational soundscapes of Neurosis. The seventh album Mjölnir was written and recorded in marathon sessions with multi-instrumentalist Thor Harris at BC Studio in Brooklyn with legendary producer of post-punk and noise rock Martin Bisi who has worked with Sonic Youth, John Zorn, Boredoms and Swans. Harris of course had been a contributing and touring member of Swans for years in addition to his stints in Shearwater, Xiu Xiu, Flock of Dimes and Thor & Friends since 2015. There is a spontaneous energy and rawness of emotion to the new record that will remind some listeners of a lost The Birthday Party album had that band gone into the realm of dub and ambient and folded that into its sometimes unhinged noise rock and jazz sensibilities.
Listen to our interview with Cinema Cinema on Bandcamp and follow the group’s antics and releases at the links below. Mjölnir released on July 14, 2023 and is available on vinyl and digital.
Nuclear Dudes is the solo project of Jon Weisnewski who has a career in video game development but who some may know for his time in heavy metal group Akimbo and most recently the sludge metal band Sandrider which released its most recent album Enveletration in 2023. Nuclear Dudes came about from Weisnewski having time away from the usual band activity during he early period of the 2020 global pandemic and ample creative energy to put into a project that didn’t necessarily require the direct input of other people. The initial album Bad At Sleep (2021) sounded like the soundtrack for a bombastic science fiction action film and at times informed by a sense of humor such as the title to the song “Shitty Terminator.” The name Nuclear Dudes of course hints at a self-awareness clued into the fun of making melodramatic music for fun on your own. 2022’s Gin & Panic continued the blend of extreme metal, industrial music and electronic soundscapes and the name check of actor and director Bill Duke who many may remember for his roles in Commando and Predator for a song title established the nerd level bonafides for the cultural references built into the Nuclear Dudes aesthetic and concept. For the latest album, Boss Blades (2023), Weisnewski brought on board Dave Verellen of Botch fame for guest vocals as well as Irene Barber of Dust Moth for the same. The songs are even more of a manifestation of a sound that suggests science fiction inspirations and the heavy guitar sounds, processed sounds, synth and manipulated vocals brought together the way you will hear upon giving the album a listen should appeal to fans of Godflesh and Author & Punisher.
Harmony Rose of The Milk Blossoms at Titwrench, October 3, 2021, photo by Tom Murphy
Harmony Rose is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in indie pop band The Milk Blossoms. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rose’s family moved to rural Colorado during her elementary school years and she attended high school in Durango. It was there that she met and befriended her future bandmate Michelle Rocqet. Right out of high school Rose moved to Portland, Oregon for about a year and began her initial forays into songwriting before ultimately landing in Denver where she lived with a friend at a house show venue putting her in the right place at the right time to be involved with one of the peak periods of DIY music culture in the Mile High City. As circumstance would have it Rocqet was looking for a place to live shortly afterward and moved into the same house where the two formed the foundation of the band that would come to be called The Milk Blossoms. Initially calling their collective project Architect, the band became something of a staple in the DIY music world and as their music and songwriting developed they changed the name to The Milk Blossoms. With the addition of multi-instrumentalist Blair Larson, The Milk Blossoms definitely made their mark on the local scene and their unique and emotionally rich melodies and vulnerable songwriting struck a chord well beyond the DIY music world with the then trio having been a featured artist on live radio shows and the Sounds on 29th program in 2016 on Rocky Mountain PBS.
To date, The Milk Blossoms have two albums Worrier (2015) and Dry Heave The Heavenly (2018) with a third featuring the new lineup due out in 2024. The immediacy of the songs The Milk Blossoms has been striking in both the music itself and the thoughtful and emotionally resonant lyrics from the beginning but with the new set of songs, Rose feels like she has focused more on the discipline of her craft in singing to a click track to bring more consistency to the recording process. Although Rocqet stepped away from the band in 2023 to focus more on her academic pursuits and professional opportunities in New York City, she had been active in the production of the new album which includes contributions from current members William Overton (keyboards, formerly of Loanword), David Samuelson (bass, member of Church Fire and formerly of Bangtel and Culture Pig) and Tyler Lindgren (drums, engineering, formerly of Holophrase and True Aristocrats). Whatever the configuration at the heart of the music of The Milk Blossoms is a delicacy of feeling and unexpectedly powerful emotional impact on the recordings and especially in the live setting.
Listen to our interview with Harmony Rose on Bandcamp and catch The Milk Blossoms at The Black Buzzard on Friday, September 15, 2023 with Isadora Eden and Bell Mine. For more information regarding The Milk Blossoms, visit one of the links below the interview.
DJ Tower aka Tim Alexander has been a fixture in the Denver music scene since the 90s. With early gigs and residencies in the Goth scene, Alexander has gone on to be one of the resident DJs with Lipgloss, the nation’s longest-running indie dance night run by founder Michael Trundle. As a teenage fan of heavy metal and synthesizer music it seems inevitable that Alexander would become fascinated with the nascent synthwave movement that emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s in France and Western Europe. The fusion of analog synth composition and bombastic rock guitar was also inspired by 1980s film soundtracks in the realm of action, science fiction and horror where artists like John Carpenter, Vangelis, Jan Hammer, Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre and Giorgio Moroder reigned supreme. Modern synthwave perhaps came to prominence outside of niche musical circles when Kavinsky’s song “Nightcall” appeared on the soundtrack to Nicolas Winding-Refn’s 2011 action noir film Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. It cemented in many people’s minds the American past time of night drives and their attendant sense of romance and freedom. The track made its way onto Kavinsky’s 2013 classic album OutRun, a title that became a term closely affiliated with the genre. Alexander himself borrowed the name for his monthly synthwave night Outrun which has been a regular event every first Saturdays for nearly a decade.
Alexander also tried his hand at making synthwave music of his own as a member of the musical trio TetraKroma for a handful of years but has gone back to focusing on his ability to explore the art form and other styles of music and share his passion for the music with others via his DJ gigs. In 2023 Alexander lanched his inaugural synthwave festival Synthbanger’s Ball (a clear nod to MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball program) to be held Saturday, September 2, 2023 at The Oriental Theater in Denver, Colorado with Los Angeles-based headliner Droid Bishop as well as local synthwave stars Elayarson, Star Farer, Patternshift, Jacket, Bob Sync with between music pre-recorded music sets from DJs Tower, Jay, Eric and Niq V. In this interview we dive deep into Alexander’s roots in music, his entry into the world of being a regular DJ and how his fascination with synthwave came to be as a youth in the 80s when epic, popular heavy metal and synthesizer music were developing into the forms that would directly influence synthwave as well as the modern form and how it has evolved and continues to grow and thrive.
John Gross at Rhinoceropolis in March 2012, photo by Tom Murphy
John Gross is one of the godfathers of the Denver noise scene since becoming active as a noise artist as a member of Page 27 in 1994 when he was still in high school. That project began as more of a trying a variety of sounds as a kind of live improvisational sound collage with a changing lineup and a wide array of instrumentation but by the end of the decade had evolved into the more electronic configuration for which it became known in the realm of noise. For a comprehensive lesson on what noise encompasses simply plug “Noise music” into a search engine and read the Wikipedia entry. Gross has been involved in making a variety of the forms of that music with analog and electronic devices and methods and as one of the most prominent practitioners of the art in Denver and beyond (primarily in Page 27 with founding member John Rasmussen but also as a member of projects such as Zoologist with Todd Novosad, Robot Mandala and doom band Burn Heavy among others) he has also been an advocate for other artists in noise in setting up shows and helping to organize the long running Denver Noise Fest. While his prolific recorded catalog can be challenging to track down as it’s often been on formats and limited editions that didn’t get transferred to streaming platforms you may be able to give a listen on performances uploaded to YouTube or on Soundcloud. After an extended hiatus with the onset of the pandemic, Gross has resumed performing under his own name and with Zoologist. Long affiliated with the DIY scene in Denver and elsewhere for pragmatic reasons as most venues don’t book noise as a kind of niche musical style that can alienate people with more conventionally-minded tastes, Gross lived in and helped to run Rhinoceropolis from 2010 to early 2020 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listen to our interview with Gross about his life and time in noise and getting into the DIY and noise scenes on Bandcamp and for more information on John Gross and his music, please visit the links below. Gross will be performing at D3 on Saturday, September 2, 2023 with Human Fluid Rot (FL), Many Blessings, Castration Pact, Whitephosphorous (TX) and Sounding and on Friday, September 29, 2023 at Seventh Circle Music Collective with Granular Breath (IA), Dead Hawk (Springs) and A Light Among Many. Doors 7pm for both shows. Typically asking $10 at door.
The Siren Project is a downtempo/dream pop/post-punk band that started in Denver in 1998 and quickly became a staple in the local Goth and alternative rock scenes for several years. When the cultural infrastructure around the Goth scene began to dissolve and being a band perceived as making music in that style and the social connections surrounding it didn’t quite line up with the ascendance of mid-2000s indie rock in Denver, The Siren Project most often performed at events and club nights that catered to the subculture. And during the course of life events that sometimes put being more active on hold the band remained the enduring duo of vocalist Malgorzata Wacht and producer/synthesist Alex Seminara throughout the 2010s and now 2020s. In 2016 The Siren Project released its debut album Denouement. The record included songs dating back to the group’s earliest days and featured the contributions of various collaborators and yet at its heart was the sense of yearning and connection, of a romance with life and its meaning. Wacht’s powerful and expressive vocals and the lush and dreamlike melodies conveyed a very European sensibility that one hears in bands that influenced the duo’s early creative efforts like Clan of Xymox, Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance and The Cure. Yet The Siren Project very much as its own sound that has set itself apart from its peers in the older Goth scene of Denver and of today. These days the style might best fall under the umbrella of darkwave seeing as its songwriting style and aesthetic has had less in common with industrial and EBM and more with modern acts like Boy Harsher, KANGA and Kaelan Mikla.
Listen to our interview with Wacht and Seminara on Bandcamp and follow The Siren Project at the links below. The band has a live show opening for Goth industrial legends Seraphim Shock at The Oriental Theater on Friday, September 1, 2023 with Faces Under the Mirror, hosted by Sid Pink and DJ sets from DJ Slave 1. For more information on the band and its goings on as well as to listen to the music please visit the links below.
Alexander Hacke and Danielle De Picciotto have been composing music together as hackedepicciotto for over twenty years. Based out of Berlin the two met in the 1980s in the same musical and art circles that included the influential industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten with which Hacke has been a member since 1981. De Picciotto was one of the founders of Love Parade in 1989, a traveling electronic music festival in Berlin dedicated to peace and international understanding and both musicians have been members of foundational post-punk band Crime and the City Solution since 2012. De Picciotto is an internationally recognized author and visual artist and creator of two graphic memoirs We Are Gypsies Now (2013) and Die Heitere Kunst der Rebellion (2020). Separately and together the artists have been involved in film making, cinematic scoring, multi-media presentations as well as finely crafted albums under the current collective moniker since 2016 (previous releases as Alexander Hacke & Danielle De Picciotto). The latest is Keepsakes released July 28, 2023 the duo’s second record on Mute. The album was recorded at the studio Auditorium Novecento in Napoli, Italy where Enrico Caruso and Ennio Morricone both recorded. De Picciotto and Hacke took advantage of the use of tubular bells and a grand piano in the studio and an array of other on hand instrumentation to craft songs in celebration of friendship and the lives of various friends with music that is as orchestral as it is intimate, imbued with subtle and surprising textures within its expressive melodies and experiments in sound and songwriting. It is arguably the duo’s finest record to date in an already remarkable career catalog.
Listen to our interview with hackedepicciotto on Bandcamp and follow the project at the links below and perhaps catch them at their always compelling live shows. Keepsakes is currently available on digital, CD and vinyl through one of the link portals below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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