Julian St. Nightmare (L-R: Sergio Castorena, Genevieve Fulton and Tan Garren), photo by Tom Murphy
Anyone that has been paying attention to the Denver music underground beyond a very superficial for the past two years has at least heard about Julian St. Nightmare. Its five members are a force with a bit of a mystique to their live performances and its music rooted in post-punk, darkwave, surf and garage rock, synthpop, shoegaze and the various styles of music most prominent in their collective youth in the 2000s and 2010s. The group formed in 2018 among friends including current members Chico Arellanes (guitar, bass, vocals) and Rudy Morales (guitar, vocals) who by July of that year invited Genevieve Fulton into the band knowing them from shows and their interest in being in a band only to discover that Fulton had a talent for keyboards, singing and guitar. Before the group could really get off the ground the pandemic hit. Yet in that first year of the pandemic Sergio Castorena (guitar, vocals) of Los Narwhals came into the fold as did drummer Tan Garren, both adding unique musical gifts and perspective that expanded the band’s sonic palette and performance style.
Julian St. Nightmare has since 2021 been a staple of the DIY and small club scene in Denver earning the respect of its peers. Opening slots for French darkwave pioneers Martin Dupont, Chicago post-punk luminaries French Police and NYC dark synthpop duo Tempers, Julian St. Nightmare seemed like peers of the more well-known acts. The band’s most recent shows revealed a broader sonic palette with a boosted confidence in its own powers and its show in July 2023 with now defunct shoegaze band Dream of Industry and EBM solo project Sell Farm made its own inclinations toward creative soundscaping more prominent. There is as yet no Julian St. Nightmare album but its songs can be found on the various streaming platforms and there is a new single due out by late winter or spring with production by Fulton. Alas, it is around that time that the quintet will call it quits with one final show in the works ending a run of one of the most interesting, engaging and powerful of modern bands out of the broad milieu of post-punk and darkwave precisely because it never adhered to the limitations of genre.
Eddie Durkin is a singer and guitarist and songwriter in indie rock band Lazarus Horse which put out its remarkable latest album Three Birds on August 4, 2023. The album is strikingly economical in its songwriting and audacious in its bare bones production. All but one of the songs is under three minutes and the greater number of the rest in the concise two and a half-minute range. The band could have paid for some studio time and rehearsed the songs to the point of absolute precision and pristine recording condition. But the album was recorded entirely to a smart phone with a few overdubs to preserve an immediacy, an intimacy of emotional resonance and a spontaneity of spirit that reflect the influence of the kind of pop songcraft from the likes of artists on the Sarah Records imprint, Beat Happening and Sparklehorse. It’s a lo-fi affair but with an out sized impact in which the band’s multiple vocalists are given the opportunity to shine. Fans of the song “After Hours” by The Velvet Underground will find a great creative kinship throughout Three Birds.
Durkin grew up on the west side of Denver and like many people had some basic music lessons as a kid including guitar lessons which he gave up when it wasn’t about the kind of music and creativity to which he was most drawn. So Durkin ended up playing football for a short time until it became obvious to him that that wasn’t for him either. Fatefully he was able to catch an OK Go show at the Bluebird Theater in 2005 when he was fifteen-years-old but mainly to see the indie rock band The Redwalls. From then on Durkin aspired to be in a band with the wide eyed faith of youth and by his late teens he was involved in one of his early bands that played live shows in the highly experimental rock band Stupendous Sound Society with his friend Conor Black. But the latter moved on from doing much music and with him went his collection of synthesizers and Durkin formed the more pop-oriented band Sparkler Bombs. With both projects Durkin performed shows in the DIY underground after attending shows at Rhinceropolis and showing up one day to drop off a demo recording to Travis Egedy aka Pictureplane who kindly offered to book Stupendous Sound Society on a bill.
By the early 2010s, the partying and substance abuse and resulting mental health issues caught up with Durkin and he had to be away from it all for a handful of years to get his perspectives more in order and to reconnect with his authentic self. Durkin was always an intelligent and sensitive person with a lot of creativity but when Durkin came back into writing and playing music he seemed to possess a high degree of self-awareness and that informed his songwriting and imbued it with great persona insight. The early incarnation of Lazarus Horse included Hunter Dragon aka Hunter Adams and the latter’s faith in Durkin’s talent gave the project an early impetus that propelled it to its current quartet comprised of Durkin and three members of the great indie rock band Rabbit Fighter: Brooke Theis (bass, vocals), Zoya Brou (guitar, vocals) and Daniel Sayers (drums).
Listen to our deep dive interview with Eddie Durkin on Bandcamp and follow Lazarus Horse at the links below.
Foghat is an English blues rock band that formed in 1971 initially featuring three former members of Savoy Brown with guitarist and vocalist Dave Peverett, bassist Tony Stevens, guitarist/slide guitarist Rod Price and drummer Roger Earl. Throughout the 70s Foghat enjoyed great commercial success garnering eight gold albums, one platinum and one double-platinum. Perhaps best known for its singles “Fool for the City” and “Slow Ride” both from the 1975 album Fool for the City, Foghat became a staple of the airwaves and later classic rock radio with its music appearing on multiple soundtracks over the past few decades. Its sound on recording and live has been noteworthy for the balance of sounds with the rhythm section as prominent as guitar and vocals, not always the case in the classic rock era and pop music of its heyday. The band split in 1984 but re-formed in 1993 and has been recording and performing live since. The sole founding member of the band these days is Roger Earl and the current line-up includes Bryan Bassett former guitarist of Wild Cherry (most famous for 1976 hit “Play That Funky Music”), bassist Rodney O’Quinn and lead vocalist and guitarist Scott Holt. In 2023 Foghat released its latest album, its first studio record in seven years, Sonic Mojo, a showcase for the group’s chemistry and facility with performing blues classics by Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, B.B. King as well as its own finely crafted material.
Listen to our interview with Roger Earl on Bandcamp where we discuss a bit of the history of Foghat, his time auditioning for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and his continued engagement in performing music. Foghat links below.
SORROWS is a dark pop duo based in Denver, Colorado comprised of singer Glynnis Braan and drummer Lawrence Snell. The project came together over the course of a few years when Braan and Snell were performing and experiencing music in similar circles, Braan catching alternative rock band Meet the Giant (in which Snell still performs) one night and hearing the group do a Massive Attack cover and wanting to meet them and Snell witnessing Lady of Sorrows, Braan’s former solo project, and feeling like he could contribute to Braan’s already captivating performances. The two formed DA’ANS, an electronic dance pop group, that performed briefly with its final show being two days before the COVID lockdowns. And over the course of the extended period when shows weren’t happening Snell and Braan came to work together on music as both had ideas for production and songwriting that complemented each other well.
Snell is from a small city between Coventry and Leicester in the middle of England and experienced the flourishing of acid house and trip-hop firsthand and played in various alternative rock bands throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Braan was born in Denver and came of age when downtempo and trip hop gained a foothold of popularity in the USA as well. So that mutual love of a certain kind of deeply atmospheric, emotionally rich and soulful, sonically immersive music has been a driving force in the songwriting of SORROWS. Snell moved to the US in 2003 with his wife who has a medical job the prospects for which seemed best in Denver and he soon came to appreciate life in the city and came to be involved in the vibrant indie rock scene in the 2000s as a member of the great shoegaze Americana band Colder Than Fargo and then in the long-incubating Meet the Giant that spent nearly a decade developing its music and songwriting before debuting in the late 2010s. Braan attended Denver School of the Arts and went through the art and music programs but didn’t join a band until years later when she met and came to work with Avery Fantom in Angel War which was a unique fusion of conscious hip-hop, operatic vocals and darkwave until he relocated out of state.
SORROWS debuted both its self-titled album and live band performances in 2022 and it was immediately obvious the level of creative development and focus Braan and Snell put into their new band paid off. Braan’s commanding and expressive vocals and Snell’s ability to accent rhythms and bring an attention to percussion tonality were are a strong foundation to the imaginative soundscapes and entrancing melodies that is the hallmark of the project’s sound. Fans of darkwave and downtempo will appreciate SORROWS’ creative evolution out of those sounds but even more how it’s something markedly different.
Listen to our interview with SORROWS on Bandcamp and follow the duo at the links below. Its next live show is on Saturday, December 9, 2023 at Glob in Denver, Colorado.
Mike Marchant is a singer-songwriter from Denver who left an indelible mark on the indie rock scene of the late 2000s and 2010s. His first band that garnered real attention was Widowers whose imaginative and darkly heartfelt songs had what might be described as a haunting accessibility. The group’s shows were passionate performances in which the considerable gifts of its membership contributed to something greater around Marchant’s simple yet sophisticated songwriting and thoughtful lyrics. It was a band that was birthed in the Denver DIY scene but found popularity in the then Denver indie rock scene before splitting around 2010. Marchant never had an ambition for the band commercially and aimed mainly to put out the band’s sole record in 2008. Widowers didn’t break up so much as drifted apart. These days keyboardist Mark Shusterman plays in Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. In the band were talented weirdos who played experimental music and very much with ears open for the new sounds of that time. Guitarist Davey Hart moved to Chicago and has been active in various bands. Guitarist Zack Brown and bassist Mark Weaver who were also in Constellations with Shusterman drifted out of music as did the late Cory Brown. But Marchant was still writing music and performed some solo shows and then joined indie rock band Houses for a period as kind of a sideman with Andy Hamilton take more the lead in that project. At some point Marchant was asked to perform a show with some of his own music but then assembled a band with some of Denver’s finest musicians including Cole Rudy (now in Dragondeer), Grant Israel (formerly of technical death metal legends Elucidarius), Fernando “Fez” Guzman (now of Kiltro, formerly of Fissure Mystic and Fingers of the Sun among others), Crawford Phileo (formerly of Vitamins and Manos and briefly in Widowers), Maria Kohler (Kitty Crimes, Mercuria and the Gem Stars) and other musicians as the occasion presented itself. He dubbed it Mike Marchant’s Outer Space Party Unit in tongue in cheek fashion.
Then in 2012 Marchant was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and getting treatment for and living with it turned his life upside down for some years as overcoming it (which has has) became central to his life as did finally getting clean from drugs with the help of EMDR therapy. While recovering Marchant relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico to be away from the temptations of the big city and its music scene and got into a job helping in art sales. But being in Santa Fe put in him the right circles to meet film maker and scoring composer Luke Carr and the two struck up a creative partnership beginning in 2015 with a project they called Lightning Cult. It was an altogether more experimental project than most of which Marchant was until then known though Marchant had an appreciation for plenty of weird and avant-garde music coming up as a fledgling musician. It was an entirely recording project with limited if any live performances. But up to this time Lightning Cult has released two full-length albums and two EPs. In 2020 Marchant debuted his solo project Steady Circuits which focused more on electronic composition and sound design and graced with Marchant’s signature introspective and melodic vocals, yielding two full length albums and an EP thus far. Marchant hasn’t performed Steady Circuits live as yet but we may see either or both projects on stages in the coming year or two.
Listen to our interview with Marchant on Bandcamp and follow his work and that of Bernlore Studios at the links below.
J. Wilms is releasing his third album as s singer-songwriter The Fighter on digital download, stream and 12” LP vinyl through Cart/Horse Records. Jeremy Williams came of age in the Atlanta, Georgia area and got a BA in Music from Georgia State University before going on to get a Master of Music at CUNY Queens College in NYC. His diverse career as a musician led him to jamming with Ornette Coleman at his loft, a brief stint in Chico Hamilton’s band on guitar, played bass on Broadway for a production of the musical Fela! which turned into the opportunity to play with Fela Kuti’s son Femi Kuti at venues around the world including The Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria. He has recorded with Bebel Gilberto, Beyoncé, TV on the Radio, arranged strings on Run the Jewels’ 2020 album RTJ4 and after moving back to Atlanta still works as a sideman in both his hometown and NYC, writing scores for film and other forms of media and as an educator. In addition to his singer-songwriter output Wilms is the leader of progressive metal band NOMOTO. With the new record Wilms gives us a set of songs about self-rediscovery and connecting with his roots without being limited by them. It’s a journey of an album with production that renders every song up close and personal, intimate, and thus vulnerable. It’s a open and deeply personal work with music that’s reminiscent of older rock groups like The Band and more modern indiepop of the 90s vintage and imbued with a freshness of spirit that makes for a set of songs that is immediately accessible and relatable to anyone that has ever had shake off the dust of life and reinvent oneself yet again while trying not to lose oneself.
Listen to our interview with Jeremy Wilms aka J. Wilms on Bandcamp and follow Wilms at the links below.
Heavenly Cream: An Acoustic Tribute to Cream is a unique new set of recordings of the songs of the influential blues rock supergroup of the 1960s, the first of its kind, comprised of guitarist Eric Clapton, drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce all of whom contributed lead vocals to the project. The music that was released across four remarkable albums from the year of the trio’s foundation in 1966 to its split in 1969 combined the blues with psychedelia and jazz for a kind of early art rock. Beginning with the influential 1967 album Disraeli Gears the group had contributions in lyrics from Pete Brown. Cream had an active and impactful four years and its members, all gifted players prior to coming together for the band, went on to noteworthy subsequent, storied careers in music. The tribute album is a loving and vital re-imagining of a wide swath of Cream’s classic material with performances from the likes of the late Ginger Baker, Joe Bonamassa, Bernie Marsden, Pee Wee Ellis, Nathan James, Deborah Bonham, Paul Rogers and Jack Bruce’s son Malcolm Bruce, a gifted multi-instrumentalist in his own right. The record is now available as a limited edition, 180 gram double vinyl and on CD and digital via Quarto Valley Records.
Listen to our interview with Malcolm Bruce regarding the tribute album and the legacy of Cream on Bandcamp and to give a listen to the album and order physical copies please visit the Quarto Valley Records website.
Brian M. Clark is a writer, avocational musician and a curator of music and culture whose record label Discriminate Audio has released a handful of records from his own projects and cult artists over the past couple of decades including career-spanning compilations of and tribute albums to outsider rock and roll legend Ralph Gean and legendary punk and avant-garde pop artist Little Fyodor. Clark grew up in the Bay Area of California and as a youth played in bands and went to shows at 924 Gilman Street and went to school in the University of Oregon in Eugene and studied journalism and art before dropping and and going to school back in the Bay Area and completing a degree in art and Spanish. Around 2003 Clark ended up moving to Denver because of a book project he was undertaking and happened to find a posting for a place to live at a DIY space called Monkey Mania, the renowned venue that was at the time located in the middle and northern end of downtown Denver. Living there for a year before feeling the need for a different living situation, Clark came into contact with the wide array of the underground Denver music world and would go on to more musical projects of his own. In 2011 Clark released an album under his own name Songs From The Empty Places Where People Killed Themselves that is part punk, part noise rock, part noise and a bleakly humorous examination of situations and themes. And in 2023 under the name Unborn Ghost, Clark release the project’s debut album Airs of Contempt and Derision on LP, CD and cassette as well as digital download. The album includes contributions from Ralph Gean, Little Fyodor and others. Per Clark’s unorthodox musical proclivities the album is an eclectic blend of post-punk, psychedelic noise rock and experimental electronic soundscapes that capture some of the current American zeitgeist.
Listen to our interview with Brian M. Clark on Bandcamp and connect with Clark at the links below.
Comateens were a pioneering synth-punk band in NYC when it formed in 1978 when guitarist Ramona Jan and drummer Nicholas “Nic North” Dembling brought together the latter’s more straight ahead rock and pop musicianship and the former’s self-taught, experimental instincts. The group didn’t fit in so much with the other punk bands of the day because it was so different and it traveled in a bit different social circles so its sound wasn’t truly impacted by other groups. Jan was working at the Mediasound studio as an audio engineer as one of a very few women engineers in the world. The job would lead her to a lifetime career in audio engineering and production and working with the likes of Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Ramones (“Ramona” was written about her) and countless others. Jan left rhe band in 1980 and it continued through the mid-80s leaving behind three full-length albums. 2023 sees the release of a limited 12-inch (90 copies on orange vinyl and 200 on black on Left For Dead Records) of early single “Danger Zone” and the unreleased track “Elizabeth’s Lover” both of which feature the early lineup. The music in retrospect sounds like a more forward thinking example of early New Wave with synth used in a way in the songwriting that wasn’t as common until the 1980s placing Comateens ahead of its time. In this interview Jan and Dembling discuss the origins of the band and how it was a happy accident of not knowing or being told the proper way to make the band work as well as some of Jan’s time working with Eno.
Listen to our interview with Ramona Jan and Nicholas “Nic North” Dembling on Bandcamp and connect with Comateens at the links below where you can also find where to order the vinyl and/or digital download.
Friday | 12.01 What:Cherished w/Pill Joy, Replica City and Flesh Tape When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Cherished headlines this show with its emotionally vibrant shoegaze. Pill Joy has the kind of sound that seems to be rooted in emo but more in line with an atmospheric lo-fi slowcore band. Replica City is a shoegaze-y post-punk band in that slowcore lane as well. Flesh Tape from Fort Collins is supposedly an emo band but its favoring of noisy atmospheres places it in a realm of music adjacent to that of all the bands on this finely assembled bill.
KEN Mode, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 12.01 What: Decibel Metal & Beer Fest w/Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage, Red Chord, KEN Mode, Morbikon and Phobocosm 2-day passes available When: 5 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: The first night of this festival featuring some of the great extreme metal bands of today includes performances from Denver legends like doom band Khemmis and internationally renowned death metal outfit Cephalic Carnage playing a rare local show. KEN Mode from Canada brings its harrowing noise rock for its second time through Denver in 2023. In September the quartet issued its latest set of caustic, haunting and cathartic songs as the album VOID. A companion to the 2022 album NULL, the new record is all downbeats but delivered with a spirited resistance to life’s inevitable misfortunes.
Hiss Golden Messenger, photo by Graham Tolbert
Saturday | 12.02 What:Hiss Golden Messenger w/Adeem the Artist When: 8 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Hiss Golden Messenger is a prolific and critically acclaimed indie folk band from Durham, North Carolina. Don’t worry about the genre description so much because the group’s music is ambitious in its songwriting and sonics particularly on its new album Jump For Joy (2023). In its sounds you hear as much the influence or impact of the likes of Peter Gabriel as Palace Brothers. The group is able to navigate both crafting an intimate quality to the songwriting and orchestral arrangements. Not chamber pop so much as bringing rich arrangements to bare bones songwriting so that each composition teems with life without distracting from the emotional range of the music and its pastoral yet thoughtful storytelling.
The Keening, photo by Jared Gold and Angela Brown
Saturday | 12.02 What: Decibel Metal & Beer Fest w/Agalloch, Midnight, Primitive Man, Krypts, The Keening and Mother of Graves When: 4 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: The second night of the festival brings to you The Keening, the latest project from Rebecca Vernon who was once the lead singer of legendary cosmic/tribal doom band SubRosa from Salt Lake City. The Keening brings forward Vernon’s gift for weaving together Gothic Americana sensibilities with a detailed tapestry of atmospheric sweep and orchestral arrangements like something out of a hidden, mythical west. The new album Little Bird is a gorgeously doom-laden set of songs that would be a great soundtrack for a future film from John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser whose films Hellbender and Where the Devil Roams are right in line with the moods Vernon excels at evoking in her music. Agalloch reunited for some shows in 2023 and this is one of them. The Portland, Oregon-based band and its transcendental, folky black metal has exerted a strong influence on most of the better bands mining that sonic territory since the group’s origins in the 90s. Primitive Man will likely be the heaviest band of the whole festival with the trio’s mastery of crushing dynamics and orchestrated emotional release through colossal noise.
Rosegarden Funeral Party, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 12.02 What: Rosegarden Funeral Party w/Faces Under the Mirror and WitchHands When: 8 Where: The Crypt Why: Rosegarden Funeral Party from Dallas puts on one of the most impassioned performances in the realm of modern Goth and post-punk. Leah Lane isn’t just a front person with the commanding voice, her guitar work is a refreshing departure from the thin and minimalistic sound that has been plaguing much of darkwave and post-punk lately. Faces Under the Mirror is the long-running EBM project of Jayke Haven and one of the few projects in that particle style that seems to continue to innovate with emotionally vibrant songwriting. WitchHands is the excellent deathrock band from Colorado Springs.
Blood Club, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 12.05 What:Blood Club w/Dustbowl Champion and Floats When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Blood Club is a darkwave band from Chicago whose lo-fi production is fairly standard for a certain stripe of post-punk these days. But its ethereal guitar work is more diverse and creative than a lot of what’s going on in various corners of current post-punk. Frontman Jess Flores was once a member of French Police who have attained a bit of a cult status these days and Blood Club is not so far removed from that sound with icy synths and spindly guitar tone but more minimal and spacious. Dustbowl Champion from Fresno, California is cut from similar cloth but as a solo project with echoing guitar, vocals and synth with a spare drum machine beat like something recorded to a cassette and transferred to an iPhone for mixing. Floats is a lo-fi punk pop band from Texas that sound like its members got into some of that 2010s garage punk and indiepop and wanted do something with the same spirit but a different sound.
Soy Celesté, photo from Bandcamp
Thursday | 12.07 What:Soy Celesté, Pretty. Loud, To Be Astronauts When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: It would be a mistake to genre pigeonhole Soy Celesté but based on the debut Break Out EP there’s a bit of fuzzy lo-fi pop and the kind of socially aware and confessional indie rock that one hasn’t heard much of since the 2000s. Pretty Loud appears to be the kind of pop band that is inspired by music from theater and the vaudeville chamber pop sort of thing but live seem to be fairly animated and driven by piano/keyboard melodies and vocals. To Be Astronauts has a sound reminiscent of 1990s grunge period alternative rock bands with some blues in the mix.
SORROWS, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 12.09 What: SORROWS, Dragon Drop and Bell Mine w/DJ set by Shhadows When: 8 Where: Glob Why: This is a show featuring some of the more inventive experimental pop songwriters from Denver. SORROWS is a duo comprised of vocalist Glynnis Braan and percussionist Lawrence Snell both of whom contribute electronic production to songs that are an evolution of downtempo with soaring, melancholic vocals and deep mood. Dragon Drop centers around the hyperpop and darkwave songwriting of former EVP singer/guitarist and current member of Princess Dewclaw Amanda Baker. Bell Mine is an ethereal darkwave solo project whose music seems resonant with the sound and style of artists like Laurel Halo and The Knife.
Messiahvore, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 12.09 What:Messiahvore w/Church Fire and Moon Pussy When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Messiahvore’s eclectic heavy sound came out of its members’ collective experience with making sludge metal, doom and hard rock in the past couple of decades and more. But Messiahvore hits as more experimental, more psychedelic and with lyrics that dabble more in social commentary. And really one of the more entertaining and commanding bands in Denver’s heavy music underground. So it’s different to get to see very political, industrial darkwave dance band Church Fire on the bill with its own sense of play while delivering vital and insightful lyrics about the state of things without waxing too topical. Not to mention Moon Pussy whose irreverent humor tends to happen between songs when Crissy Cuellar gets on the mic with her self-aware dad joke routine that isn’t truly a routine because it’s always off the cuff. But the songs are some of the most cathartic, abrasive and inspiring blasts of noise rock happening anywhere right now.
Tatsuya Nakatani, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 12.10 What:The Playground Ensemble Presents: Tatsuya Nakatani When: 6 Where: Leon Gallery Why: Tatsuya Nakatani is a renowned avant-garde composer and percussionist originally from Japan who now makes Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico his home. This set will be one of the musician’s solo sets and an improvisation piece done in collaboration with Denver’s Playground Ensemble director and Conrad Kehn who is a bit of a figure in the local music scene in his own right with modern classical and the avant-garde in recent years and with industrial and Gothic rock in the 90s through the turn of the century.
Jarhead Fertilizer, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 12.10 What:Jarhead Fertilizer w/Phobophilic, Crownovhornz and Death Possession When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Jarhead Fertilizer is the influential grindcore band from Ocean City, Maryland and currently touring in support of the December 8, 2023 release of its latest album Carceral Warfare. Phobophilic is a deathgrind band from Fargo, North Dakota. Crownovhornz from Pennsylvania released an unusual hip-hop album called Appalachian Aesthetic in August 2023 that is a tale of life in impoverished America and about life in bars and jail. Definitely within the realm of alternative hip-hop. But who knows? Maybe they’ll be playing some death metal too since that’s a tag on the Bandcamp page for the record.
They Are Gutting a Body of Water, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 12.12 What: They Are Gutting a Body of Water w/Full Body 2, The Red Scare and Empty4400 When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: They Are Gutting a Body of Water brings its brand of lo-fi bedroom shoegaze jangle from Philly to Denver this night. And by shoegaze do not take that to mean conventionally pretty guitar work and maybe some melancholic vibe. It’s more the noisy, disorienting, genuinely psychedelic sound but threaded together with the kind of weirdo twee indiepop of the 90s and 2000s. Also from Philadelphia is Full Body 2 whose own shoegaze flavor is steeped in ambient breakcore soundscaping. The Red Scare from Fort Collins will provide plenty of its own hazy, distortion-sculpting post-punk. Some might call it shoegaze but those people might also think Daydream Nation is a shoegaze album. The Red Scare if it can be called post-punk is more that vein of deep, gritty, disorienting atmospheric noise with some actual song structure. Empty4400 is more on the grittier, punk/emo-rooted end of the shoegaze spectrum for this night.
Limbwrecker in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 12.14 What: Limbwrecker, Grief Ritual, Holographic American and ZEPHR When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: It’s good to know that mixed bills can happen and with this you get one of the great hardcore/extreme metal bands from Denver in Limbwrecker whose caustic yet playfully delivered sounds and cathartic and primal vocals is definitely for people into powerviolence. Grief Ritual’s own style of hardcore has plenty of math-y progressions that make the more cutting, atmospheric sounds and gruff and impassioned vocals hit a little harder with the realization that the songs are often a melancholic exploration of tragedy and a critique of an abusive economic and political reality experienced by all of us daily. Holographic American includes Caleb Tardio who plays keyboards in noteworthy Denver melodic death metal band NightWraith. But HoloAm has more in common with one of his older bands, the mathrock/progressive alternative rock band I Sank Molly Brown. But more noise rock, more in the vein of post-rock of the vintage one found in the American midwest in the 90s. ZEPHR is a trio also from Denver whose music has brought together elements of pop-punk but the kind that borders on emo, risking that noisy and not perfectly melodic yet compelling imperfection, and performed with a raw and heartfelt energy.
Cathedral Bells, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 12.15 What:Cathedral Bells, Julian St. Nightmare and Hex Cassette When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Cathedral Bells is a dream pop/shoegaze from Orlando, Florida whose 2023 album Everything at Once was released in May through eclectic Philadelphia-based Born Losers Records. Its sound is the kind of melodious, ethereal soundscape-y guitar pop that seems to draw on 80s synth pop and jangle-y indie rock of the 80s vintage as well circa C86 and Sarah Records. Also on this bill is one-human death/blood cult Hex Cassette and his energized, industrial/EBM dance music. Sometime during his set you will be asked to offer a blood sacrifice and he will come out into the audience and mix it up with the people that show up. But all in good fun. And this will be one of the final live shows you’ll get to see from Denver darkwave/post-punk band Julian St. Nightmare. In its short tenure as a live band, although it formed and started writing music in 2018, the quintet has developed its fusion of spidery post-punk, garage rock, surf and dark synthpop into an emotionally rich and powerful body of work and intense and electrifying live show. Listen to our interview with members of the group on the Queen City Sounds Podcast.
Alexandra Kay, photo by Daniel Shippey
Friday | 12.15 What: Alexandra Kay w/Haley Mae Campbell When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Independent country artist Alexandra Kay released her debut album All I’ve Ever Known on October 26, 2023. Kay has garnered a large fanbase online with millions of followers on TikTok and hundreds of thousand followers on Instagram and nearly as many subscribers on YouTube. But none of those numbers would mean much if Kay didn’t have the talent to warrant attention. Fortunately, her new album is a showcase for Kay’s diverse songwriting style with songs that seem to have poignant personal insight and lack the posi bravado that is too common in popular music. Kay’s songs shimmer with an inner light provided in part by lap steel and the perfect blend of acoustic and electric guitar working to craft the backdrop to Kay’s vibrant vocals to cinematic effect. Her music may be rooted in country but its of the kind that has inherent appeal beyond genre and crosses well over into the realm of pop and in moments even dream pop.
Mindforce, photo by Oscar Rodriguez
Saturday | 12.16 What:Mindforce w/Destiny Bond, Moral Law and guest When: 7 Where: D3 Why: Mindforce is the thrashcore band from Poughkeepsie, New York touring in support of its 2022 album New Lords. Destiny Bond’s particular style of hardcore seems more steeped in anarcho punk and a more experimental, noisy yet melodic sound like some DC hardcore and early emo with a touch of the kinds of punk that would have influenced or channeled into Christian Death like Adolescents. But all with a political edge and socially critical lyrics. Moral Law is a vegan, straight edge band and its own music like a very focused yet seething hardcore at times that sounds in the realm of grind.
Wednesday | 12.20 What:The Gamits w/Bandaid Brigade and despAIR Jordan When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: The Gamits are Denver pop punk legends and influential in the local punk scene at least certainly among punk acts with roots going back before the 2010s and with vocalist and guitarist Chris Fogal living abroad these days this is a rare live performance. Bandaid Brigade is a band from San Diego who seem to have combined elements of pop punk, yacht rock and adult contemporary without it imploding into an ungodly mixture. The members of despAIR Jordan were and in some cases are members of formerly or current prominent bands in the Denver punk scene like SleeperHorse, Sugar Skulls and Marigolds and Pinhead Circus and currently releasing some finely crafted songs of its own in a more atmospheric post-hardcore vein.
Commerce City Rollers, photo from Bandcamp
Thursday | 12.21 What: Up Yours People, The Picture Tour and Commerce City Rollers When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Up Yours People is the latest band from Rich Groskopf. The Picture Tour will bring the rainy day shoegaze/dream pop sound to the proceedings and thus more than a touch of musical elegance to the evening. And yes Commerce City Rollers is the band that used to play the dive bars at punk shows in the late 90s with its melodic garage punk fronted by Maranda “MJ” Gaylord that had basically split for years until reuniting a bit before the pandemic and releasing a 2019 album Backstories.
DeVotchKa, photo from Bandcamp
Friday and Saturday | 12.22 and 12.23 What: DeVotchKa performing How it Ends (with Claire Heywood on 12.23) When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Across two nights, the legendary “gypsy punk” band DeVotchKa performs its 2004, and arguably finest, album How It Ends in its entirety including its heartbreaking title track. It was the last album the group released before garnering greater success and fame with its music featuring in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. Its orchestral arrangements and depth of feeling and stirring melodies was a big leap forward for the band that some of us got to see play shows in dive bars like 15th St. Tavern and unglamorous opening slots. But something clicked somewhere and the ambition of the songwriting expanded greatly and now while the band isn’t necessarily even indie famous it can command a sizable audience in and well beyond Denver with shows that while somewhat choreographed still pack that emotional punch that has made it worth witnessing in person.
Church Fire, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 12.23 What:Church Fire, The Milk Blossoms, Curta and debthedemo When: 8:30 Where: The Roxy on Broadway Why: This show will put you through some moods that’ll be good for you this holiday season. Church Fire will bring the energized industrial dance synth pop and all the feels. The Milk Blossoms will perform its heart-rending, gossamer tender pop songs this time in a slightly different configuration since drummer Tyler Lindgren won’t be able to perform replaced by bassist David Samuelson behind the kit. Curta’s weirdo alternative hip-hop returns to Denver for a rare engagement from Chicago and Boulder’s debthedemo will inject some beautifully crafted ambient rap house with performance art strangeness. In most ways the local show of the week for the discerning listener.
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 12.30 What: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club w/Moon Pussy and Weathered Statues When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club headlines two nights at the Hi-Dive for the New Years Eve weekend with its energetic and brilliantly executed Vaudevillian Americana post-punk. For this first night you also get to see Moon Pussy, the arch practitioners of dangerous noise rock delivered with an irreverent humor and incredibly intensity and Weathered Statues whose particular style of post-punk is more akin to the more death rock and spidery punk sound of Xmal Deutschland and Christian Death than the synth-driven style of groups more in line with darkwave.
Sunday | 12.31 What: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club w/Palehorse/Palerider and Snakes When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: This second night of the SCAC headline run for the holiday features opening acts Palehorse/Palerider whose psychedelic, deserty post-punk doom truly creates a deep sense of space and enigmatic moods and twangy garage rock Americana of Snakes. All killer, no filler.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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