Retail Drugs is a recording project of Jake Brooks from Laveda and it dropped an album on August 2, 2024 called i love you so! These songs are almost like an alternate reality version of the kind of music Brooks does in Laveda. They feel wonderfully and charmingly rough hewn like home demos recorded to cassette with the blown out sonics left in, the distortion overwhelming the mic a little. But the vulnerability is still there and though Brooks’ vocals are behind the mix a little you can feel the raw sincerity in them especially when the heated white noise of clears in moments. Like the words sung are saying things that while heartfelt might sound to you a little too real. But on a song like “Stairs” the music is instantly reminiscent of 2000s and early 2010s bands like Times New Viking, Tyvek, No Age, Eat Skull and artists on the Siltbreeze imprint generally and how the intentionality of that kind of unvarnished sound is part of the point of the music. It would be difficult to co-opt and mass market yet has an undeniable appeal to people who can hear through it all the attempt to capture unfiltered emotion and offer that up as an experience that anyone open to it can find relatable. The relative sprawl of “Net” is intimate and gorgeous in its fragile delicacy and even its “imperfections” lend its expressions of radical vulnerability the evocative power of a confessional letter one intends for someone important in your life but which you can never bring yourself to deliver. But the album doesn’t stay lurking in the fog of overwhelming feelings and distorted atmospheres. “Sea (Fade Away)” is a more lo-fi acoustic pop song that unexpectedly veers into a moody bit of warping and bending slowcore. Did Brooks just use a 4-track to record these songs? If not he did a good job of faking it and thus giving the album’s nine songs a freshness and purity that comes from going into making music for the joy of it and not aiming for a specific audience and letting one’s creativity and instincts be the guide. A lot of music is put in the world as “lo-fi” but it’s just poorly recorded music. Brooks seems to have tapped into the creative potential of that sensibility in itself and turning the limitations into a virtue. Listen to i love you so! on Spotify and follow Retail Drugs on Instagram.
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.
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.
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.
Ex Everything is a band based out of Oakland that released its debut album Slow Change Will Pull Us Apart in 2023 The group launched in 2018 with guitarist Jon Howell (Kowloon Walled City) and Ben Thorne (Low Red Land, Tartuffi) who were seeking a vehicle for musical ideas and interests that didn’t fully fit in with their then extant and current outfits. As Ex Everything was putting together its more full-fledged lineup the pandemic hit necessitating incubating song ideas that in the long arc of how the pandemic stretched most if not all musical project timelines meant the quartet was able to hone its concepts and sounds for a record that is equal parts angular post-hardcore and caustic noise rock that fit in well with the Neurot Recordings imprint that ended up releasing the album. The record’s lyrics are scathing examination of destructive human behavior but expressed in a way that has built into the words that suggests the possibility of moving through the worst aspects of modern human civilization. This has meant that the music though intense and heavy is in the end cathartic and a decidedly not nihilistic assessment of the prospects for our collective species.
Listen to our interview with Jon Howell on Bandcamp and follow Ex Everything at the links below. The band performs on the first night of Ghost Canyon Fest on August 23, 2024 at The Skylark Lounge. Tickets for the festival can be purchased here for the second annual event showcasing left field rock and experimental music.
Friday | 08.02 What: Brotherhood of Machines (album release), Seance, Snowswept and Aloe Static When: 8/8:30 Where: Glob Why: Brotherhood of Machines is the project of Tyler Knapp who has been crafting haunted experimental electronic music for years in Denver alone. You wouldn’t call his music ambient though adjacent, not beat driven dance music though those influences are present and not noise though aspects of his compositions incorporate what often sound like field or otherwise repurposed recordings. In July 2024 he released two albums Loops From Temple Familiarity and Unknown Set and is releasing one or both at this show. Also on the bill are the ethereal melodies and ambient soundscapes of Snowswept and Aloe Staic’s more glitch and texture post-IDM environmental moods.
SUMAC, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 08.02 What:SUMAC w/Portrayal of Guilt and Trigger Object When: 7 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Why: In June SUMAC released its latest set of moody, evocative and crawling, post-metal improv The Healer. The trio channels intense passages of rhythm and sound into expressive bursts that sound like a death metal band discovered doom and utilized those musical modes to make a heavy post-hardcore designed to embody the deconstruction of the world and shedding of old ways and habits in favor of those more nurturing and open. Even more psychedelic than previous records, The Healer finds SUMAC charting new territories of of how heavy music can seem more immersive than merely monolithic. Portrayal of Guilt is the kind of hardcore band that enjoys drenching its aggressive sounds in caustic moods like it explored to the roots of he music that built where it had been and found the connections with the likes of St. Vitus, Celtic Frost and Possessed.
James Mastro, photo by Dennis DiBrizzi
Saturday | 08.03 What: Alejandro Escovedo w/James Mastro When: doors/dinner 6, show 9 Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox Why: Although Alejandro Escovedo is now rightly known as one of the great artists in modern roots rock and alt-country, he cut his teeth as a member of pioneering punk band The Nuns who were one of the two bands (including The Avengers) that opened for the Sex Pistols at the final live performance at Winterland in San Francisco in January 1978. In subsequent decades and in various bands and under his own name Escovedo has maintained more than a bit of that spirited, early punk and counterculture attitude including on his 2024 record Echo Dancing. Opener James Mastro also his his own unique place in punk and Americana as a member of The Richard Lloyd Group in his teens and later with a variety of music activities including in bands like The Health & Happiness Show. Mastro has been a staple of the rich NYC and Hoboken, NJ scenes and for this show he will be playing double bass in Escovedo’s band but prior to that he will perform liberally from his own 2024 record Dawn of a New Error with graced by the singer/songwriter’s warmly husky voice, expansive spirit and bright and vivid production courtesy engineer and mixer James Frazee and mastering by Greg Calbi.
Glissline in 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.03 What: Listening Lawn IV: Cholla, Blood Out w/Silt, Glissline, Combat Sport & DJ Ursa, Yonbre Netz and Sunswept When: 5-8 pm Where: Carpio Sanquinette Park Why: These events happen in a semi-hidden pocket in Denver at a public park with a setting like ruins of an older Denver long neglected. The perfect setting to witness innovative electronic music in the realms of techno, ambient, IDM and free jazz.
“Horsegirl” in 2021, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.03 What: A Rally For Worker’s Rights: Vegan Gore, F1sh1fty, “Horsegirl,” and Clayton Kenney When: 6-10 pm Where: Cheeseman Park Pavilion Why: This is an event to draw attention to collective efforts at promoting the interests of workers in one of the more expensive cities in America with the sprawl of that income inequality spreading everywhere. The musical portion of the gathering includes performances by techno/glitch/IDM artist Vegan Gore and weirdo performance art dream pop band “Horsegirl.”
Nox Novacula, photo from Bandcamp
Wednesday | 08.07 What:Nox Novacula w/Church Fire and Weathered Statues When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Seattle deathrock band Nox Novacular is touring in support of its newly released latest album Feed the Fire. Its brooding atmospheres and impassioned performances have made the quartet a band of choice for discerning fans of post-punk like a commanding mix of Xmal Deutchland and the spookier end of The Cramps. Weathered Status from Denver is cut from a similar cloth with clear roots in punk with standout basslines and haunted synths. Church Fire while not a post-punk band plays its electronic darkwave with an electrifying conviction.
Orville Peck, photo by Ben Prince
Thursday | 08.08 What:Orville Peck w/Jaime Wyatt and Gold Star When: 6 Where: The Fillmore Auditorium Why: Orville Peck performs his 70s cowboy country style music masked like a nod to The Lone Ranger. His songs about love and heartbreak are well within the storytelling tradition of classic country but with Peck infusing the songwriting with a queer perspective his songs have another dimension of potential resonance with fans. His latest album Stampede finds Peck collaborating with the likes of Willie Nelson, Beck and Nathaniel Rateliff among others.
Urban Heat, photo by Cathlin McCullough
Thursday | 08.08 What:Urban Heat w/Gvllow and Delores Galore When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Austin’s Urban Heat makes an appearance in Denver just over a week before the release of its latest album The Tower. The darkwave trio has mastered a reinvention of 80s moody synthpop into expansive darkwave with commanding and soulful vocals. The group’s 2023 cover of Q. Lazzarus’ classic single “Goodbye Horses” brought to the song a tonal richness and expressed the fiery intensity underneath the surface of the original. Urban Heat’s earlier releases showcased the band’s gift for EBM beatmaking akin to what TR/ST and Kontravoid have been doing by fusing techno sensibilities with emotionally-charged pop songcraft. The singles from The Tower thus far have revealed the band has been evolving its use of space to great evocative effect.
Claudzilla in 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.09 What: Keytar Fest: The Jinjas and Claudzilla When: 8pm doors/9pm show Where: 715 Club Why: Claudzilla returns for the most recent edition of Keytar Fest, an event that showcases artists that make use of that most visually iconic of 1980s synthesizer technology. Claudzilla is a little like a lo-fi weirdo outsider avant-pop performance artist that is part personae part a manifestation of inner space. Like if Klaus Nomi made indie pop. The Jinjas are a synth and drums-driven rock band that use bass synth and keytar to build a sound like a retro synth pop band with a songwriting style that’s more modern and akin to something like The Blow and Trans Am gone more pop.
Magic Sword, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 08.09 What: Magic Sword w/ESSENGER and Church Fire https://tickets.meowwolf.com/events/denver/magic-sword/ When: 7 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Why: Magic Sword is the costumed space night synthwave band from Boise, Idaho who sure do have a gimmick but its music speaks for itself with its saturated tones and science fiction epic themes like if Giorgio Moroder had been convinced to score the music for The Terminator, Children of Men or the latest Dune movies. Fresh off opening for Nox Novacula, Church Fire will be in good company here too with their own epic, emotionally vibrant, electronic dance ragers.
Plack Blague in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.09 What:Plack Blague w/God Save the Queens and Hex Cassette When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Plack Blague is the by now legendary industrial techno and performance artist whose on stage personal is like a leather daddy delivering queer themed bangers in a darkwave mode. Reliably entertaining and charismatic. So it’s only appropriate that God Dave the Queens is part of this show as a drag show with Noveli, Heavenly Powers, Neurotika Killz and Belle Fegore. Opening is the one man, occult EBM freakout and heavy darkwave dance music Hex Cassette who excels at provoking the audience with good-natured ribbing.
Sluice, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 08.11 What:Sluice w/Fust and The Milk Blossoms When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sluice aka Justin Edward Morris is an indie folk artist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina whose songs have a textured moodiness and freshness to them that gives the songwriter’s more pastoral musical impulses a tangible presence. His 2023 album Radial Gate is a deeply reflective set of seemingly autobiographical vignettes like a kinder, gentler Bill Callahan. Also on the bill is Durham, NC’s Fust whose music is similarly-minded in the mining personal history for creative illumination of everyday human experiences but in a more country rock mode. Opening the show are The Milk Blossoms whose tenderly rendered indie pop songs have some roots in folk but whose songs and performances have both a raw vulnerability and emotional intensity that powerfully manifest the group’s creatively poetic lyrics.
Brijean, photo by Swanson Studio
Monday | 08.12 What:Brijean w/Colloboh When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Brijean Murphy is known for her time serving as a percussionist for Mitski, Poolside and Toro Y Moi but this project with multi-instrumentalist producer Doug Stuart has resulted in entrancing, dance-music adjacent art pop. The saturated synths, ethereal vocals and layers of textured polyrhythms sound like something from a retrofuturist disco if the music being played dipped liberally into 70s disco and 2010s deep house. The duo’s new album Macro introduces even more organic percussion and bass to great effect marking the record as one of the most fascinating electronic pop releases of the year alongside that of Mount Kimbie’s The Sunset Violent.
Mac Sabbath, photo courtesy the artists
Thursday | 08.15 What:Mac Sabbath w/Tejon Street Corner Thieves When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Mac Sabbath is celebrating 10 years of its absurd concept of doing parody covers of Black Sabbath songs with fast food-themed lyrics and fully committed stage costumes of characters not unlike some of the most well-known of McDonald’s characters. It’s a gimmick that the band has been able to sustain for a decade without admitting to being people other than the stage personae which is an accomplishment in itself in the modern era.
Atmosphere, photo by Samantha Martucci
Friday | 08.16 What:Atmosphere w/Method Man & Redman, Deltron 3030, NOFUN! and Skratch Basitd When: 5:30 Where: Red Rocks Why: Atmosphere is of course the hip-hop duo from Minneapolis that were foundational figures in early alternative hip-hop and advocates for other underground artists in that style. Its eclectic and atmospheric beats and introspective lyrics are a consistently effective counterpoint to the group’s energetic and extroverted stage performances and Slug’s crowd interaction. The subject matter of the lyrics from Atmosphere have evolved in content and nuance over the years but always informed by a reflective and empathic sensibility paired with a sense of personal exploration of psychological and social issues. All along Slug and Ant have created a body of work with music that speaks to the artists’ innate curiosity and willingness to expand beyond where they’ve already been.
The Green Typewriters, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.16 What:The Green Typewriters, A Strange Happening and Van Death When: 8 Where: Goosetown Tavern Why: The Green Typewriters have become a bit of a psychedelic glam rock/indiepop mutant with their music but all for the better. The songwriting is as accessible and its sounds comforting yet mysterious and its live show colorful and friendly. A Strange Happening has always been a high concept indie rock band but its music has more of a raw and ragged Neil Young flavor recently.
Saturday | 08.17 What:Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary 30 year anniversary w/Kevin Devine When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Sunny Day Real Estate’s 1994 debut album Diary is one of the blueprints of the Midwest emo sound with its post-hardcore grit, raw emotional vocal style, quiet-loud dynamics and gritty melodies. Though from Seattle the band’s sound then and now was out of step with the grunge bands its label Sub Pop was known for championing. But the live band and its earnest and intense performances resonated with that realm of music and has had a lasting impact on pretty much all emo since as well as modern sheogaze and a whole swath of punk adjacent music in a way that is obvious from the moment you play a song from that first record and this show will celebrate what SDRE accomplished on Diary.
King Dunn, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 08.17 What:King Dunn (King Buzzo & Trevor Dunn) w/JD Pinkus When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: For this show King Dunn will perform the solo work of Buzz Osborne, the renowned guitarist and singer of Melvins with Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle fame on hand to provide bass duties as he did when Melvins toured as Melvins Lite a handful of years back. It’s the kind of left field move that Osborne seems to favor with Melvins always trying to do their tours a little differently and pushing into new territory in performance and songwriting. Osborne didn’t get to tour behind his 2020 solo album Gift of Sacrifice and there’s a good chance a lot of people haven’t seen the music from 2014’s This Machine Kills Artists live and the more acoustic guitar-driven songwriting from an artist perhaps most well known for some of the heaviest guitar rock in the modern era.
Barns Courtney, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 08.20 What: The Struts w/Barns Courtney When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: The Struts are a band from the UK that rode that wave of retro glam rock revival that began in the early 2010s and garnered hit singles along the way. Luke Spiller early on having done his level best to tap into that Freddy Mercury sound. More recently the band has pivoted in a more pop-oriented style of songwriting channeled through the lens of 80s glam metal. Barns Courtney started his career in bands SleeperCell and more professionally with Dive Bella Dive until that band was hamstrung by label contracts. But those didn’t limit Courtney as a solo artist whose early singles caught the attention of audiences and garnered a recording contract. Fast forward to 2024, Courtney released his third full length Supernatural on July 19 for a record that showcases the songwriter’s commanding vocals and knack for crafting sonically rich rock songs of broad stylistic touchstones fusing acoustic and electric sounds. There is the sort of blues rock foundation there but Courtney injects the classic sounds with modern pop song sensibilities.
Sheppard, photo by Giulia McGauran
Tuesday | 08.20 What: Sheppard w/Seth Beamer When: 7 Where: Moon Room at Summit Music Hall Why: Sheppard is an indie pop trio from Brisbane, Australia that formed as a duo of siblings George and Amy Sheppard in 2009 but expanded to a six-piece by 2012 including their sister Emma on bass. In 2014 the group released its debut full-length Bombs Away and the record’s second single “Geronimo” became something of an international hit for its undeniably uplifting melodies and the kinds of song elements that invite participation among listeners including choruses pretty much anyone can sing and clap along rhythms, a hallmark of Sheppard’s songwriting in general. In 2023 the group relocated to Nashville and a year later issued its latest record Zora named for the now trio’s grandmother. It’s sounds are more atmospheric but the album is the kind of life-affirming/celebrating work that could be cloying but the songwriting finds Sheppard growing beyond where it has been before and its melodies undeniably infectious.
Roselit Bone, photo from Bandcamp
Wednesday | 08.21 What: Roselit Bone w/George Cessna and Fly Janet When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Portland, Oregon’s Roselit Bone writes darkly dramatic songs like a noir version of country music with deep mood and a touch of psychedelia. So it’s a good pairing to have George Cessna on the bill with his own thought-provoking, dusky country in its own existential and cosmic mode. Denver’s Fly Janet will bring the spooky surf-spaghetti Western Americana.
Car Microwave, photo from Bandcamp
Thursday | 08.22 What: Car Microwave, The Milk Blossoms and mLady When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Kansas City-based indie folk band Car Microwave released its latest record Photo Album in 2023. Its delicately rendered musicianship and vulnerable vocals have an underlying emotional strength that gives the music a charmingly earnest quality reminiscent somehow of both 10,000 Maniacs and one of Mary Timony’s bands or even in moments of Throwing Muses. One might be tempted to call The Milk Blossoms and indie folk band but with it too there is a poetry to the lyrics that more than hint at a more experimental creativity and there is a passionate delivery of the music that imbues even its most beautifully fragile moments with a vibrant emotionality.
Acidbat in 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.23 What: Acidbat album release w/Lanx Borealis and Church Fire at Glob When: 8 Where: Glob Why: Acidbat aka Seth Ogden celebrates the release of his latest album Empty Vial (out on Witchcat records) at this show feature other Denver luminaries of electronic and dance music. The new record is a further evolution of Ogden’s sonically rich and playful, psychedelic techno and ambient compositions using almost if not entirely analog synth sources. Lanx Borealis creates what might be described as ambient pop at least as far as her 2024 EP Released It seems to reveal. But think something darker with more grit but imbued with a sense of the fanciful. Church Fire is the now legendary industrial dance band with strong political content that while polemical doesn’t lack for creativity and a healthy sense of fun and humor. It is cathartic music that doesn’t skimp on the intellectual and socially critical element either.
Lung, photo by Rachelle Caplan
Friday | 08.23 What: Ghost Canyon Fest Night 1: Noun, Lung, BleakHeart, Ex Everything and Cherry Spit When: 6 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Every night of Ghost Canyon Fest features some of the best weird and experimental rock and not-rock bands/artists operating today. This night kicks off with post-hardcore, thorny shoegaze locals Cherry Spit. Ex Everything will provide scathing and thrilling critiques of the prevailing order of things with its angular noise rock. BleakHeart’s dark, epic dream pop will provide the paradoxical chill and vibrant emotional expressions for the night. Lung’s fusion of punk, blues and classical sensibilities delivered with its raw energy will be a good pairing to come on the stage before Noun closes the night as the vehicle for former Screaming Females frontwoman Marissa Paternoster’s solo songwriting. The project dates to before Screaming Females formed in 2005 and over the years the songwriter has released Noun albums including the gritty and entrancing dream pop of the 2021 album Peace Meter.
Lake Mary in 2013, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.24 What: Ghost Canyon Fest Matinee Show: Flaming Tongues Above, Lake Mary and Matt Talbot When: 1 Where: Mutiny Information Cafe Why: Flaming Tongues Above is the solo project of Amos Helvey who has been in various local bands over the years including American Culture, Destiny Bond and Angel Band. This is more a kind of cosmic bluegrass thing with exquisitely intricate musicianship. Lake Mary is the long-running project of Chaz Prymek whose compositions solo or with various collaborators is an embodiment of the spirit of improvisation and the pastoral sides of the American landscape and consciousness. Matt Talbot’s introspective, ambient slowcore minimalism is elegantly composed slices of tranquility in practice. Some may know him better as the lead singer and guitarist of Hum.
Wolf Eyes in 2014, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.24 What: Ghost Canon Fest: Replica City, Stress Palace, Nightosphere, Ghostlike, Aseethe, Jaye Jayle, Wolf Eyes When: 6 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Replica City is an angular post-punk band from Denver whose atmospheric shimmer contains as much urgency and menace. Stress Palace is a noise rock band from Kansas City, the kind with caustic and desperate vocals and seething, suspended guitar when it’s not gouging the air alongside pummeling percussion. Nightosphere also from KC is a darkly slowcore project that some may be tempted to call dream pop but it’s a little too gloomy and noisy for that and more for fans of the likes of Flooding and Unwound’s more atmospheric moments. Ghostlike hails from Lincoln, Nebraska and its dense drifts of tone are in the region of shoegaze but more slow-moving like a post-metal band with unconventional melodies. Aseethe’s brooding, crushing doom metal sounds like colossal weather patterns struggling with each other until the vocals come in and then it’s like a possessed person for an effect akin to Neurosis gone more grindcore. Its 2024 album The Cost is brimming with the purge of negative emotions transformed into transcendent heaviness. Jaye Jayle is the solo project of Young Widows’ Evan Patterson who brings to this project a sensibility of mystical, experimental, tribal folk. Wolf Eyes is of course the legendary noise improv band from Detroit who have been prolifically exploring the possibilities of the use of sound since 1996. Now a duo of Nate Young and John Olson Wolf Eyes has always bucked the perception of noise being just harsh noise and mere chaos for the sake of putting off normies. There is an odd accessibility to the work of Wolf Eyes that is more like an unpretentious art that live has always been compelling and unlike anything much else even of previous performances and thus more in the vein of early Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle.
Alvvays, photo by Eleanor Petty
Saturday | 08.24 What: Alvvays w/The Beths When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Something about Canadian pop band Alvvays has always set it apart from being just an indie pop band or shoegaze or psychedelic. Its melodies drift and warp in sometimes unpredictable directions off so that Alvvays consistently has a quality of unpredictability and inspired imperfection though its tone is coherent and entrancing. Out the gates with its self-titled debut the band started garnering a bit of a cult following for its emotionally rich vocals and layered, atmospheric guitar and poetic and sharply observed lyrics. The most recent Alvvays album Blue Rev proved that the quartet is as capable of captivating twee sounds as robust guitar rock and live something about the band seems to exude a kind of mystique most bands can’t muster.
Oruã in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 08.24 What: Dad Bod w/Oruã and Totem Pocket When: 5 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Dad Bod is a psychedelic pop band from Salt Lake City that seems steeped on folk rock of the 70s. Oruã is like if a great modern jazz band decided to start doing a garage rock version of krautrock and came off a little like a bedroom version of a psychedelic rock band from Texas but just a little weirder. Totem Pocket rides the line well between 2010’s psych rock and shoegaze.
Nina Nastasia, photo courtesy the artist
Sunday | 08.25 What:Ghost Canyon Fest: Animal Bite, Fainting Dreams, Bear Claw, Missouri Executive Order 44, Nina Nastasia and Young Widows When: 6 Where: Hi-Dive Why: The final night of Ghost Canyon Fest begins with a set from Casper, Wyoming’s mutant, heavy, psychedelic noise rock quartet Animal Bite. Fainting Dreams is now like the opposite image of its more dream pop beginnings, more thorny, more sonically pointed yet also moody and an intense release of tangled emotions. Bear Claw is a two bass and one drum set outfit from Chicago whose jagged and clipped dynamics range widely and akin to the likes of Mclusky and yet one gets the impression that at least one person in the band is into Failure. Missouri Executive Order 44 may or may not be based out of the Missouri side of Kansas City. But its post-hardcore, math-y riffs and mischievously surreal song titles suggest metalcore roots before the members discovered the Butthole Surfers.
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.
Young Widows from Louisville, Kentucky formed following the dissolution of influential post-hardcore band Breather Resist. Young Widows’ own music was in a post-hardcore vein with roaring guitar sounds and crushing rhythms. But its musical ideas stretch out the sounds into unpredictable shapes a little more and its lyrics often depict the world as we know it, not inaccurately, as a place of great perils and challenges.
Khruangbin, photo by David Black
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday | 08.26, 08.27 and 08.28 What: Khruangbin When: 7 (each night) Where: Mission Ballroom (08.26) and Red Rocks (08.27 and 08.28) Why: Houston’s Khruangbin is a trio that may have absorbed the surf and garage psych influences that were shaping a good swath of rock music in the 2010s but all along the group also employed non-standard rhythms and elements of dub, funk and non-western musical forms into its sound. Its latest album A La Sala (2024) is more mellow than one might have expected and yet it’s perfectly in line with the energy Khruangbin has tapping into for years with the mood of a chill disco lounge in a retrofuturist cosmopolitan city near the beach.
HIDE, photo by Tom Murphy
Monday | 08.26 What: HIDE w/Mirrored Fatality, Bent and aeonexit When: 7 Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: HIDE is the industrial noise punk duo from Chicago that has been releasing some of the most pointed and cathartic music of the past several years critical of the worst aspects of our culture and civilization. Its live performances are confrontational and not for the faint of heart or the easily spooked. And just from the raw intensity of the the band especially vocalist Heather Gabel’s seeming embodiment of the collective outrage of the oppressed and of the abused world challenging the foundations of power. Bent is an industrial noise project from Colorado Springs with a similar aesthetic and ethos. Mirrored Fatality is a brilliant, darkwave industrial hyperpop duo that produces scathing yet danceable critiques of late capitalism and its corrosive effects on us all. And aeonexit has long been producing experimental electronic music in forms that are as cohesive as they are eclectic, as structured and as coherent as they are intuitive and amorphous. Its in the realm of noisy ambient but even at its most darkly menacing has a gentleness that renders the music inviting rather than forbidding.
Bikini Kill circa 1995-1996, photo by Lisa Darms
Tuesday | 08.27 What:Bikini Kill w/Sweeping Promises When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Bikini Kill is the legendary feminist punk band originally from Olympia, Washington that in part inspired the riot grrrl movement and a branch of third wave feminism. The group was part of a community of like-minded artists of various types and not just musical and often lost in the projected hype is how Bikini Kill’s music while a vehicle for an important perspective was also thrilling and exciting with performances that helped show other women how you could be a member of a powerful band or something else cool and important and reclaim and own your power regardless of your role in life without having it be contingent upon what a man would have to say or the conventional social mores of mainstream society with its baked in misogyny. That was an important message and example to set even when the band split in 1998 but oddly just as relevant when the band reconvened in 2019 at a time when the then president’s influence on society seemed to expose deep currents of American racism, misogyny and xenophobia. Bikini Kill had to cancel its 2020 tour for obvious reasons but making up for it at a time that feels like yet another too soon cultural crossroads for the USA.
Lamb of God, photo by Travis Shinn
Thursday | 08.29 What: Lamb of God & Mastodon w/Kerry King and Malevolence When: 7 Where: Red Rocks Why: Lamb of God formed in 1994 and Mastodon in 2000 in Richmond, Virginia and Atlanta, Georgia respectively. That was a time when metal other than Metallica and “nü metal” was largely relegated to the underground. But both groups evolved and built up a strong following that has all but broken into the mainstream. Lamb of God has generally written music in a groove metal vein but its 2022 album Omens leans into the harder-edged and at times sounds like its members have been influenced by crossover thrash with lyrics reflecting the state of the world seemingly on the edge of environmental collapse and the rise of global authoritarianism. The band has teased the release of a new album and you may hear some of the new material at this show. Mastodon tends to be more psychedelic and melodic in its sound with progressive rock structures and diversity in rhythms. Its own most recent album Hushed and Grim is like a anthology of haunted and spooky stories utilized to discuss personal struggle in a way accessible and more creative than something more straightforward. Kerry King is one of the former guitarists of Slayer who released his debut solo album From Hell I Rise in 2024.
Tsunami Bomb, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 08.30 What:Alternative TentaclesFEST hosted by Jello Biafra: Tsunami Bomb, Kultur Shock, Wheelchair Sports Camp and Dead Pioneers When: 6 Where: Levitt Pavilion Why: Legendary record label Alternative Tentacles headed by former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra is having a festival in Colorado featuring various acts on the label. Tsunami Bomb from Petaluma, California is a pop punk band with keyboards so it’s sound is decidedly different from other bands in that vein. Seattle’s Kultur Shock is a self-styled gypsy punk band that sounds more like Grazhdanskaya Oborona and its eclectic and experimental leanings than Gogol Bordello. Wheelchair Sports Camp is the great hip-hop group from Denver with the charismatic Kalyn Heffernan as the MC and contributors who are most often musicians with serious jazz chops. Dead Pioneers is a heavily political punk band from Denver but with a wry sense of humor that keeps the music from feeling didactic.
Friday | 08.30 What: Daniel Rachel Appearance Promoting Too Much Too Young: The 2Tone Records Story When: 6 (start time) Where: Tattered Cover (Colfax) Why: Acclaimed and prolific writer and journalist Daniel Rachel saw the 2024 US publication of his 2023 book Too Much Too Young: The 2Tone Records Story, a non-fiction history of the influential but relatively short lived record label that helped launch modern ska into international consciousness and the careers of the likes of founders The Specials as well as The Selecter, Madness, The Beat and others. It is part oral history and part narrative and a compelling read particularly since Rachel was able to interview or find quotes from almost all of the major figures in the history of that music and movement. This event will be hosted by Queen City Sounds and Art writer and editor Tom Murphy whose own work has appeared in publications such as Westword, The Onion A.V. Club, Dagger Zine, Birdy, Denverse and Tidal HIFI.
Daniel Rachel, photo courtesy the authorX in 2016, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.30 What:X When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: Influential Los Angeles punk band X is doing one final tour in conjunction with the release of one final album so if you’ve ever wanted to see the pioneering poetry, punk and Americana band definitely make it to this show. They may swing back through before retiring the band but maybe not.
Isadora Eden, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 08.30 What:Isadora Eden, Pill Joy and May Be Fern When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Dark dream pop band Isadora Eden has a rare headlining show at the Hi-Dive ahead of taking some time off to work on its next record. Also on the bill are all non-male funk band May Be Fern and the excellent slacker pop shoegaze group Pill Joy.
Pleasure Prince, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 8.31 What:Pleasure Prince w/Sunstoney, DeEt ta Jain When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Pleasure Prince is releasing its new album General Pallor at this show. The project is the duo of Lilly Scott and William Duncan whose eclectic background and musical chops prior to this project has yielded a strong body of creative work that blurs the line between avant-garde electronic music and ambient, techno, hip-hop, jazz, downtempo and dream pop. The new record further reveals the band’s knack for innovative songwriting with hazy atmospheres layered with those more vivid. As vocalists both Scott and Duncan complement each other well in delivering thoughtful lyrics and a deep sense of tranquility. The songs from the new album is like a fusion of neo soul and krautrock-flavored chillwave and a welcome respite from living in interesting times.
The Burrito Brothers is the current incarnation of the musical legacy of of a band whose roots began with The Flying Burrito Brothers who helped to pioneer country rock with a touch of psychedelia in 1968. Across its decades of an evolving membership with keyboardist and vocalist Chris James, a former music journalist with industry experience, taking up the de facto reigns of leading the band around 2010 the group has turned in finely crafted music with impressive musicianship. In 2023 The Burrito Brothers released its latest record Together reflects the eclectic influences that have shaped the sound with some atmospheric shimmer and warm melodies that render the songs both pastoral and expansive. Album closer “History Suite” ties together how the record embraces where the band has been and the contributions of its vast membership while looking forward to where it will go next through the metaphor of how personal relationships change across time.
Listen to our interview with Chris James on Bandcamp and follow The Burrito Brothers at the links below.
Late Slip released its debut full-length record I Love You on June 7, 2024 via Party Mermaid Records on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and on streaming platforms. Lead by singer, songwriter and guitarist Chelsea Nenni the retro-pop group offers tightly crafted songs reminiscent of 60s girl groups, 70s period Dolly Parton and Josie Cotton. Nenni was East Coast born but grew up in California a fan of Elvis Presley and Tom Petty and studied opera in college. But it was Gwen Stefani that inspired Nenni to finally try to start a band. She moved to NYC in her mid-20s in pursuit of that goal and during a particularly bleak winter taught herself guitar and wrote the musical foundations of the earliest Late Slip songs. Before fully developing the project Nenni moved to Los Angeles and almost immediately found herself working at the legendary Amoeba Music record store where she made friends and connections that helped her more fully achieve her creative goals. The group recorded its first EP Other Men (2016) at Barefoot Studios with Cian Riordan (who has worked with Sleater-Kinney, St. Vincent and others) and through Amoeba Nenni met with store regular Bobb Burno of Best Coast fame (and Polar Goldie Cats renown to those more underground and experimentally-minded). Bruno connected Nenni with Lewis Pesacov who produced the new record. Although the sounds and visual aesthetic of yesteryear inform the music of Late Slip there is a warm spiritedness to the performances that anchor it very much in the vital present.
Listen to our interview with Chelsea Nenni on Bandcamp and follow Late Slip at the links below.
Singer / Songwriter Steve Dawson, photo by Matthew Gilson
Steve Dawson is a Chicago-based songwriter who released his most recent, and sixth, solo album Ghosts on June 7 via Pravda Records on CD, LP vinyl, digital download and streaming. Though perhaps best known for his membership in alt-country band Dolly Varden, Dawson’s solo work on the new record infuses his songwriting with power pop sensibilities, fitting for ten songs that explore ideas of how the past weighs on the present and influences how we live life and understand the world around us as well as the people we’ve lost along the way whose presence lingers in our hearts whether they have passed on to the great beyond out simply out of our lives. Dawson also examines times in his life that he remembers vividly that impacted the course of his own path as a human as an artist. For instance “Leadville” which so accurately captures life in various small towns in America that it could be about some place you’ve lived and not the songwriter’s hometown in Idaho. Dawson doesn’t romanticize that time in his life even as the country rock song has a touch of nostalgia to its sound. Each song is a poignant portrait of a space and time and the people that make up where we come from, where we’ve been and to some extent guide where we’re going.
Listen to our interview with Dawson on Bandcamp and follow the songwriter and musician at the links below.
Blushing, photo by Eddie ChavezBlushing in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Monday | 07.01 What:Blushing w/Wave Decay and Cherished When: 7 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Austin-based shoegaze band Blushing recently released its latest album Sugarcoat with its blast of melodiously gritty and ethereal pop. Its flares of tone and anchored rhythms lend the group a dynamic that has an undeniable power on its recordings but even more so in the live setting where the band seems to have a an expansively friendly energy. Opening the show are krautrock/shoegaze band Wave Decay from Denver and the emotionally charged dream pop of Cherished also from the Mile High City.
The Church, photo by Hugh Stewart
Tuesday | 07.02 What: The Church and The Afghan Whigs w/Ed Harcourt When: 6 Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: Both The Church and The Afghan Whigs could headline a tour of their own. The Church made its initial splash in the 80s with records that infused post-punk with psychedelic guitar rock color and thoughtful lyrics anticipating in its songcraft dream pop and shoegaze. Fortunately The Church continued to evolve as artists with records going into its later era that are among its most creatively fascinating including the twin albums The Hypnogogue (2023) and Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars (2024), concept albums about a future not so far in which the struggle to find meaning persists in human society and the psyche despite developments in technology and the evolution of human culture in an age of techno-globalism. The Afghan Whigs seamlessly melded R&B and post-punk for a hybrid sound that predated and helped to define alternative rock in the 90s but with a sound and songwriting style that has aged better than a lot of music of the era. Greg Dulli has seemed able to write songs about love and relationships and his own inner turmoil with passion and poetic insight since the band’s early days. Live both bands seem very capable of bringing you into a heightened emotional space shakes off the regular world for the duration. Listen to our interview with The Church’s Ian Haug here.
Winnetka Bowling League, photo by Paige Sara
Tuesday | 07.02 What:Winnetka Bowling League w/Emi Grace When: 7 Where: Meow Wolf Why: Winnetka Bowling League recently released its debut full-length Sha La La. Nevermind that for some listeners will be reminded immediately of The War on Drugs’ sweeping Americana psychedelia and the warm low end and ethereal melodies of first wave chillwave it’s a set of songs that has some poignant commentary on life in America with vivid set pieces in the lyrics that will be familiar to anyone that has lived through America since the 2010s and paid attention either because you were growing up in that time or observant and aware of the psychological climate of the time. It’s sonically rich indiepop for the time we’re in and its nostalgia-tinged lyrics honor both a flickering yet irrepressible sense of hope for the future and the wry acknowledgment that we could all be doomed given the political, ecological and cultural climate of the world.
King Rat, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 07.04 What:King Rat 30 Year Anniversary w/Black Dots, These Kids Today, Anti-Formula and Terror Attack When: 5 Where: EastFax Tap Why: King Rat has had a bit of a storied existence across its three decades as a band and its melodic punk and dabbling with roots rock has remained consistently worthwhile with well crafted lyrics and a compelling live show. They play at 10 so all the “adults” in attendance can make it to the show after family obligations and home early enough in case they have to work one of those jobs that don’t give adults the day after a national holiday falling on a Thursday, Friday off.
Cherry Spit, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 07.04 What:TV Star, Angel Band, Cherry Spit and DJ Ryan Wong When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: TV Star is a jangle psych pop band from Seattle that sounds like it is tapping into 70s power pop and late 80s college rock like the later period of Paisley Underground acts like Game Theory, Let’s Active and Opal. Angel Band is coming from a similar sonic cauldron and indie pop. Cherry Spit, though, is a gouge the lightning from the skies noise rock outfit that includes former members of Quits and Endless, Nameless.
Glass Spells, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 07.05 What:Glass Spells w/Hex Cassette When: 8 Where: HQ Why: Glass Spells is a darkwave synthpop band from San Diego that has been making music with a clear leg in 80s New Wave and post-punk but more the modern approach bringing together influences, direct or indirect, from electroclash and Nu Disco/Italo disco as well as touches of Latin music rhythms. Opening is the synthwave deathcult performance art act Hex Cassette whose high energy shows make you part of the proceedings with some friendly but intense cajoling. And it all wouldn’t matter too much if his songs weren’t also worthwhile on their own separate from the stagecraft.
The Picture Tour, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 07.06 What: The Picture Tour, CELICA, Up Yours People When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: The Denver Goth scene hasn’t embraced The Picture Tour yet but it should because Billy Armijo and his bandmates have crafted the perfect fusion of shoegaze and moody post-punk. It has too much grit to be the kind of sadcore dad rock you might expect from Denver music scene veterans including Armijo who is the former lead guitarist of Emerald Siam. The guitar tones are searing and soaring yet imbued with enough melancholic melody and atmosphere to sound like a soundtrack to autumn. Up Yours People includes former members of Boss 302 and it is a mutant version of garage punk but noisier and more grimy and aggressive than one might expect even from past projects of the members of the band.
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, photo by Harvey Robinson
Wednesday | 07.10 What: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers w/Alana Mars and DJ Jake Luna When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers have been one of the more acclaimed bands in the broad realm of Americana of the past several years. On March 29, 2024 the group released its latest album Revelations on Thirty Tigers. The record isn’t short on the charm and warmth that has made the band’s previous releases so accessible and inviting and this time there seems to be a defiant spirit to the lyrics rejecting being defined by others and engaging in active self-discovery while finding some meaning in establishing healthy boundaries.
Diles Que No Me Maten, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 07.12 What: Diles Que No Me Maten w/Wave Decay and Pink Lady Monster When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Presumably named after Juan Rulfo’s 1951 story of the same name Diles Que No Me Maten (which means “Tell Them Not to Kill Me”), this Mexico City-based band on the surface is a psychedelic folk group but he further one delves into its body of work you hear elements of dub and art rock with an ear for ambient soundscapes. More akin to the like of The Legendary Pink Dots than a modern psych rock band. Its most recent album Obrigaggi (2023) is a hushed and entrancing listening journey. Wave Decay is the Denver-based shoegaze/psychedelic rock band with far better than average tonal richness. Pink Lady Monster might be described as a No Wave-esque art rock and performance art band and a can’t miss act from Denver for the discerning music fan.
Pallbearer, photo by Al Dalmasy
Saturday | 07.13 What:Pallbearer w/Inter Arma and The Keening When: 7 Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: Pallbearer’s 2024 album Mind Burns Alive has been a long time coming and its first since 2020’s Forgotten Days. The doom metal band from Little Rock, Arkansas has always been a cut above and more interesting than many of its peers because its music has had complex melodic arrangements and particularly on the new record a widely dynamic vocal harmonies. The new album apparently represented the group being together in the same city after a prolonged time apart. The heaviness of the album taps into concept that the themes and emotional content are what makes for the heaviest of moods and its sometimes psychedelic guitar excursions resonate with what peers like Amenra have been up to of late. Opening the show is former SubRosa guitarist/vocalist Rebecca Vernon and her The Keening project and her own flavor of transcendent, ambient doom.
Kontravoid in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 07.13 What: Kontravoid w/French Kettle Station, Modern Devotion and Kill You Club DJs When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: For over a decade Cameron Findlay has been writing and release music as Kontravoid. With heavy, pulsating, industrial beats and dense and murky synths the project with Findlay performing in a white mask in theater style Kontravoid has offered a kind of dance music that draws upon the likes of classic EBM, the creative production style of Meat Beat Manifesto and techno. The latest album Detachment includes vocal contributions from Nuovo Testamento singer Chelsey Crowley. Opening the show are Denver acts French Kettle Station and his own fusion of glitch, electronic dance pop and performance art and Modern Devotion’s minimal techno.
Quasi, photo by John Clark
Thursday | 07.18 What:Quasi w/Jeffrey Lewis When: 7 Where: Marquis Theater Why: Quasi is the rock duo comprised of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss. The former some may know from his time in Heatmiser with Elliott Smith. The latter was the long time drummer of Sleater-Kinney and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and one of the truly great live drummers of the current era. After years of being inactive Quasi released Breaking the Balls of History in 2023 on Sub Pop and a set of songs that showcase the band’s gift for fusing punk and bombastic art rock. Jeffrey Lewis is the eccentric punk musician and visual artist whose songs are punk in spirit but not in the predictable way musically—just a disregard for convention of genre and expectation of subject matter like a one man They Might Be Giants.
mxmtoon, photo by Joelle Grace Taylor
Th and S | 07.18 and 07.20 What: AJR w/mxmtoon and Dean Lewis When: 6 Where: Ball Arena Why: AJR is the trio from NYC comprised of Adam Met, Jack Met and Ryan Met (thus the name, the last name truncated from Metzger) who are all vocalists and multi-instrumentalists and all are involved in the songwriting that’s a hybrid of hip-hop, indie pop and some elements of hyper pop and Americana. Opening the show is multi-media artist and folk bedroom pop artist mxmtoon who propelled herself into the public eye with her use of social media from a young age sharing her visual art and early songwriting with ukulele on a YouTube channel she started at age 13. Her soulful vocals help to set her music apart from what some may assume to be her natural peers and her songwriting demonstrates a poetically thoughtful perspective that takes on the usual subjects of the struggles of youth and looming adulthood with creativity. Add her imaginative production and free association of musical styles into a coherent one of her own and mxmtoon is easily one of the most interesting pop artists now more than flirting with mainstream success.
A Strange Happening in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 07.19 What: A Strange Happening, Plague Pitted Moon, Penny Auction When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Plague Pitted Moon is a psychedelic doom band from Rapid City that recently released its 2024 self-titled EP. Its dark, distorted drones are like a grittier, more metal-inspired shoegaze band. Penny Auction from Casper, Wyoming is similarly minded but generally more noisy and menacing like if someone that listened to a lot of Sonic Youth, Big Black and My Dad Is Dead decided to start a band that was more lo-fi than even all of that. A Strange Happening is basically an indie rock band if its members were all nerds for old radio serial programming and psychedelic garage rock but skipped on the 2010s version of that sort of thing and essentially a weird band that writes accessible music.
Digable Planets, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 07.20 What: The Roots w/Digable Planets When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: The Roots are a band that early on adopted using live jazz instrumentation into its brand of hip-hop setting it apart from most of its peers especially when it launched in 1987. Stylistically Digable Planets shared eclectic and jazz and R&B rooted sensibilities when it too formed in 1987. Both projects have roots in Philadelphia though Digable Planets first came to prominence when it was based in Brooklyn. Both outfits released their respective debut albums in 1993 on major record labels with a follow up in 1995. Digable Planets split for a decade after the release of that album, the deep mood jazz psychedelia-infused Blowout Comb, while The Roots continued to build its cult following into relative mainstream success even before it became the official house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009. Big ups for the 2011 Michele Bachman incident. Although it hasn’t released a new album in nearly 30 years Digable Planets began its latest run as a live band in 2015 and The Roots for its own part hasn’t offered a new record since 2014 but both have proven themselves as vital live bands whose sounds and ideas have helped to shape the aesthetics of much of the modern hip-hop that dares to break the mold of standard and well worn ideas with imagination and a willingness to think of their own music beyond tradition and established style.
Daikaiju, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday and Sunday | 07.20 and 07.21 What: Daikaiju and TripLip w/Pink Lady Monster (07.20) and Big Canned Ham (07.21) When: 7pm both nights Where: The Matchbox (07.20) and The Squire Lounge (07.21) Why: Daikaiju is the legendary psychedelic surf rock band with truly exciting live shows with fire and breaking the audience and performer wall by making an entire venue a potential stage. TripLip could be described as a progressive surf rock punk band but really art rock in the more playful 90s vein and truly not easily put into any genre box though a perfect band to play with Daikaiju. Pink Lady Monster is the charismatic and enigmatic No Wave post-punk/art rock band from Denver. Big Canned Ham is sort of a psychedelic art rock funk band that apparently didn’t see some reason not to fuse Pink Floyd, Primus and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
The Decemberists, photo by Holly Andres
Tuesday | 07.23 What: The Decemberists w/Ratboys When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: The Decemberists have long been one of the quintessential indie rock bands of the 2000s and beyond with its penchant for eclectic instrumentation, folkloric, literary lyrics and a sound that dips into Americana and chamber pop. Plenty of shade has been thrown the band’s way for being pretentious in its theatrical presentation, its often somewhat nerdy subject matter and the baroque aesthetic of its cover art yet it’s refreshing to see a band put that much effort into the small details of its music from its performances to the way its music greets the world separate from the live context. Not to mention the creative ambition to pull it all off and to establish a body of work with layers of meaning and nuance. The band’s latest album As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again (2024) sounds like a descendant of jangle rock and 80s indiepop as embodied by groups out of the Paisley Underground and the southeastern part of the USA like The Windbreakers, Let’s Active and The db’s.
Facet, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 07.23 What: Facet, Moon Pussy, Abandons and Wingwalker When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Facet is the Oakland-based, noisy post-hardcore band whose self-titled 2023 album is half Amphetamine-Reptile-artist-esque atonal madness and DC post-punk. Fitting Denver’s own noise rock weirdo geniuses Moon Pussy are sharing the bill along with instrumental art doom trio Abandons and heavy, angular post-punk trio Wingwalker.
Ben Howard, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 07.23 What: Ben Howard w/John Francis Flynn When: 7 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: You don’t need any kind of background on the artist or the making of the album to get something out of Ben Howard’s 2023 album Is It? The singer-songwriter whose career stretches back to the late 2000s suffered two mini-strokes in 2022 which initiated some lifestyle changes and the subsequent album which in some ways charts his creative coming to terms with and working through his life changes isn’t just introspective in expected ways the music is richly detailed and flows with a seemingly organic flow of electronic and not so electronic elements that is instantly engaging and is resonant with recent offerings from Mount Kimbie. The songs are illuminating and tender, emotionally vivid and Howard’s vocals, processed or otherwise, shine with a gentle warmth. The record is the artists magnum opus.
Easy Honey, photo by Amanda Laferriere
Wednesday | 07.24 What:Easy Honey w/Sex Wacks and Welcome Back When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Charleston, South Carolina-based Easy Honey originally started in Sewanee, Tennessee and have cultivated a sound one more often associates with the mood and energy of a psychedelic pop band from the opposite side of the country. But in its songwriting one hears threads of influence beyond obvious touchstones. There is a power pop sensibility crossed with the storytelling mode of The Kinks and the way the latter ties its captivating choruses with big, melodic hooks. There is an easygoing aspect of the music even though its wit and exuberance inform the songwriting and the performances. On July 19, 2024 the band released its new album Cupidity Unlimited and is currently on a wide touring leg in Colorado alone that began on July 7 in Buena Vista and continues through July 27 in Colorado Springs.
Mark Farina, photo courtesy OM Records
Friday and Saturday | 07.26 and 07.27 What: Mark Farina When: 8 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Why: Mark Farina is the legendary DJ who fused house, jazz and downtempo with elements of other styles in an almost free association of beats and sounds to produce his trademark sound “mushroom jazz.” The latter hit like acid jazz mutated by left field hip-hop beats. Farina explored the inner and outer edges of that aesthetic across several releases in the Mushroom Jazz series. Farina’s eclectic, mellow but vivid production has influenced at least one generation of house and electronic dance music creatives Farina performs sets Friday and Saturday at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station where the room’s spacious and spare accommodations seem like the right place to experience music provided by one of modern house music’s most significant artists/mixologists.
Street Fever, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 07.30 What: Street Fever w/MDX View, Palace Guard, Dream Compartment When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Street Fever is the performance artist and industrial techno/EBM darkwave artist from Boise, Idaho who has a bit of an underground cult following dating back around a decade when he was a completely mysterious figure whose sets were in the realm of gritty darkwave before that became more of a thing within a few years. But more recent Street Fever shows have been more intense, seemingly more focused and heavier, harder beats perhaps heard in the most realized form on the 2024 album Absolution. The record whose themes seem to explore working through religious trauma and life under late capitalism is refreshingly not stylistically monolithic and start and has moments of sublime, melodic beauty and emotionally vibrant vocals. Live, Street Fever often brings the stage into the audience and involves those who show up in his personal catharsis.
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