Kyle Bates is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work has most often been heard as his musical project Drowse. Founded in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, Drowse has released a few albums and numerous EPs and split releases. The music could be considered in part ambient, slowcore, shoegaze, drone, experimental folk and perhaps even transcendental black metal. But all categories aside, each Drowse recording is a journey into unique and nuanced emotional spaces exploring and living within a flow of emotions and thoughts that open the mind to new ideas and interpretations. And more so the moods, frequencies and textures on a Drowse recording, or really any of the releases in which Bates is involved, express a state of mind that one enters after having moved past a peak of anxiety or personal darkness and contain that tenderness and rawness one often needs to pull oneself out of a place of acute pain and psychological paralysis. The gentleness of the music is part of its power and appeal as Bates seems keenly aware of what it’s like to experience that period in life where you don’t feel like you can push or strive any further and you need an experience that is the opposite of that very modern and American internalized urge to keep at things to the extreme and prove yourself endlessly more and more. The core sound of Drowse is that of the musical equivalent of acceptance of one’s human limitations and of being open to what will nurture your well being and spark your imagination into nudging you toward fulfilling experiences.
Throughout his work as Drowse Bates has collaborated with Maya Stoner (Floating Room), Thom Wasluck (Planning for Burial), Madeline Johnston (Midwife), Taylor Malsey, Amulets, Daniel Schmidt and others. In 2023 Bates released an album as Kyle Bates and Lula Asplund called A Matinee that expands upon the format of his songwriting and production with two extended tracks that sound like an improv session one might have stumbled into in cutting room floor recordings of Alan Hankshaw and/or Brian Bennett had they been asked to provide music for a forgotten and mystical place. While it may sound like Bates’ work sets your mind into a different place than where it began upon listening to it, it does, but it is not escapist. Like the work of Grouper or Tim Hecker, Bates’ music has delicate immediacy that engages as it soothes and it stirs the emotions and the imagination.
Listen to our interview with Bates on Bandcamp and catch Drowse on tour now throughout the US and select dates in Europe through August including at the Hi-Dive in Denver on Monday, June 12, 2023 with Agriculture, Sprain and Palehorse/Palerider. For live dates and to hear A Matinee please visit the Drowse Bandcamp page linked below the interview and for more information on Bates’ projects and performances visit kylebates.net.
Antibroth is the kind of band that defies easy categorization even though its angular rhythms is in line with post-punk but its energy is more what you’d expect out of a hardcore band but the sonics are more experimental and the sense of humor more surreal than fits neatly into a genre. The trio formed when Jeremy Mock and Dan Switalski met in the music production program at Denver University where they also met original drummer Wesley Wolfe. But early in the band’s existence Wolfe moved on to other concerns and Hayden Bosch stepped into the role after Mock saw him play in his former emo band at a school event and was struck by Bosch’s hard hitting style. Antibroth formed with its current line up right before the 2020 pandemic but when shows started happening again in later 2021 the group was able to demonstrate how it had been able to develop and woodshed material and became a fixture in the Denver underground who as relative newcomers encountered all the odd situations new bands face in terms of shows and venues available to them but quickly encountered hardcore shows at Seventh Circle Music Collective, Mutiny Information Café and other venues where hardcore and increasingly other likeminded bands were performing. Anyone that got to see Antibroth got to see a group with a lot of energy that harnessed a math-rock-esque precision worthy of Hella and Don Caballero and channeled it into music that could sound sometimes thrillingly unhinged but always captivating for not sounding like much else you were likely to encounter in Denver music with strong hooks and memorable melodies. And now Antibroth is closing the chapter of its existence with a final EP Satan and the Dying Baby (out June 16, 2023) and a tour with Endless, Nameless from Denver out to the East Coast and back. The three members of the band are going their separate ways on good terms and in the history of music many of the best bands have two and a half albums and some singles and done. Antibroth has definitely left its mark on anyone fortunate enough to catch one of the band’s spirited shows.
Listen to our interview with Antibroth on Bandcamp and give a listen to Satan and the Dying Baby and its other releases at the link below. Also below is the tour route for Antibroth’s last hurrah of live performances.
Antibroth Spring/Summer 2023 Tour with Endless, Nameless June 9 – Denver, CO @d3artswestwood w/ @rosevariety @wrathofthelamb
June 11 – Lincoln, NE Rancho Rodeo w/ Säbo
6/12 – Ames, IA @theaholeames w/Moscow Puzzles and Perfect Strangers
6/13 Chicago, IL @subtchicago w/ @tenmonthsummerband
6/14 Dayton, OH @blindrageshop SUPPORT TBA
6/16 Queens, NY @barfreda801 w/ @fallofthealbatross @voicemail.bandcamp @_mineshaft
6/17 New Brunswick, NJ Mum’s House w/ @pyre_screamo @hysteria_the_band
6/18 Philadelphia, PA @breadboxphilly w/ @mtworry @queasy.does.it
6/19 Pittsburgh, PA @mr_roboto_project w/ @fficus_pgh
Ivan Julian is a guitarist, singer and songwriter who many may know as a founding member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. He has also contributed to music by as well as performed with the likes of Isley Brothers, The Clash (for instance he played on “The Call Up” from 1980’s Sandinista!), Matthew Sweet (with whom he toured for a number of years in the 90s), The Bongos, Shriekback and others. The child of a Navy officer, Julian spent a great deal of time living in other parts of the world including Haiti and Cuba but ended up in Washington D.C. as happens with families who have jobs with the federal government. Julian began playing guitar in his early teen years and was a touring musician at age 17 as a member of The Foundations. In his 20s Julian was part of that influential CBGB’s scene and crossed paths with a broad swath of the punk world and No Wave scenes and formed a group called Lovelies in 1988 with his then life Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras. In February 2023 Julian released his new album under his name called Swing Your Lanterns, an album about the nature of character in a time of troubles and how that overlaps with the human condition, it’s an album about timeless themes of love and loss, dreams and contemplating the deeper meaning of it all. Musically it brings together the sounds of Julian’s long career with elements of punk attitude, blues, R&B, pop and art rock. It finds Julian in an imaginative mode with poignant commentary on our current era.
Listen to our interview with Julian on Bandcamp and give a listen to Swing Your Lanterns on Bandcamp where you can also purchase the album on digital, CD and pre-order the limited edition 160 gram vinyl.
Rue Bainbridge at Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival, April 21, 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Rue Bainbridge is the duo of Gryphon Rue and Benton C. Bainbridge who fuse an expanded practice of cinematic and sonic art. Using a hacked game console and other electronic devices to generate imagery and synth and musical saw to shape unique tones and frequencies in a way that generates what the project calls “electric calligraphy.” In the live setting the duo use a mesh screen upon which to project the minimalist yet intricate visuals improvising together with the sounds/music in a dynamic interplay unlike much of anything else in the realm of experimental music and visual art. The visuals and the sounds invite those present to engage in a mutual act of imagination and interpretation and in the live setting Rue and Bainbridge play off the reactions and responses of the audience in a way that makes each performance unique as each takes place in a different environment geographically and emotionally/psychologically.
Though initially getting off the ground in New York City and crafting performances in unconventional spaces and those more so, Rue Bainbridge have presented their shows on five continents in art museums, outdoor venues, for broadcast and a wide range of spaces inspiring the creative expansion of the project. In 2022 and 2023 Rue Bainbridge performed at the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival and for the 2022 event they employed a large wall as part of an impromptu canvas for the visuals and in 2023 it was indoors at the Center For Musical Arts. The wide ranging visual expression with stylized geometric shapes and luminous sketches in sync with composed and improvised drones, field recordings and other samples and textural and harmonic tones felt like being witness to and immersed in a nonverbal yet deeply emotionally communicative act of a shared experience alive for those moments like a collective performance art piece. It had an effect that struck one as intimate and cosmic at once and one that you knew was ephemeral and more poignant because of it.
Rue Bainbridge at Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival, April 21, 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
After the show I got to speak with the duo in one of the other performance spaces in the venue and we discussed a bit of their background and approach to their craft and performance and the heady ideas that have informed what they try to do with their art.
Now known more for his political activism and writings on subjects as diverse worker cooperatives, animals liberation, environmentalism, prison abolition, police brutality, anarchism and general alternative economic models to capitalism including mutual aid and disaster relief, scott crow was also a member of political industrial dance acts Lesson Seven and Audio Assault. One might compare Lesson Seven’s music to EBM and electronic industrial groups like Skinny Puppy, with whom the project toured on the latter’s 1988 VIVI Sect VI tour sharing a similar political ethos. At the time most of those industrial and adjacent bands, a good number with whom Lesson Seven shared the stage with over the years, had an outlook critical of a political and social order that had become entrenched in the USA and more or less globally starting in the mid-1970s and dramatically throughout the 1980s with the Reagan and Thatcher regimes in America and the UK respectively: a crypto-authoritarian and austerity policy agenda that has worked to dismantle environmental, labor and civil rights laws and regulations hard won by over a century of grassroots struggle and a brief window of relative political openness to change. The music crow and his bandmates and likeminded artists made commented on this state of affairs with insight and gave it an accessibility that dance-oriented music can, perhaps echoing the famous words of Emma Goldman from her 1931/1934 autobiography Living My Life: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of your revolution.” Meaning the austere and joyless, inhuman and uncompassionate, revolutionary culture she observed regularly throughout her lifetime that missed the point of human and non-human liberation broadly.
As an author crow reflected on his life and work in his first book Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective (2015) and published selections of his work in Emergency, Hearts, Molotov Dreams (2016). The record label Emergency Hearts crow started to release new music with a similar ethos to that of his own early time in music that resonates through to today and to reissue some of the older albums that have been neglected for decades. Releasing work and collaborations between artists such as Dead Voices on Air, Laibach, Lee “Scratch” Perry, the recently passed Mark Stewart (The Pop Group), Del The Funky Homosapien, Angelo Moore, Mark Pistel, Time (the Denver-based rapper and political writer), Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire), MDC, Sole and a host of others has brought crow and not only his sense of the fusion of music, culture and politics but his ear for music that is and can be impactful to a modern era of music at a time when it can spread more rapidly and not merely serve as background entertainment due to its vital content.
Listen to our interview with crow on Bandcamp and for more information on the artist, writer, filmmaker, father and organizer, please visit scottcrow.org and for Emergency Hearts releases, take a look at the label’s Bandcamp.
Alt-pop artist Julia Wolf dropped her debut full length album Good Thing We Stayed in January 2023 via BMG. Wolf grew up in the North Shore part of New Jersey as a shy and quiet young woman who was evidently observing the world around her with keen social and psychological insight because her body of work as a songwriter has a striking depth that brings to every song on at least the new album an unexpected resonance regardless of your background that invites repeated listens. Wolf headlined her own tour in the wake of the release of the album and is now supporting Quinn XCII on his national tour with a concert at Red Rocks on June 6, but with her own solo headlining show at Meow Wolf Convergence Station on June 5 with YaSi. We had a chance to ask Wolf some questions via email.
Tom Murphy: Good Thing We Stayed is your debut full length but it comes after some strong early releases including the Girls in Purgatory EP. Were there themes and subjects you felt more free to include in the songwriting for these new songs?
Julia Wolf: Yeah, I definitely felt more freedom to story tell the journey of where I started to where I am now through an entire album versus trying to squeeze it into a single here or there. It really runs through the highs and lows of working towards your dreams which is a way more discouraging road than people realize. This album highlights the good, the frustrating, the anxiety whilst all being written through the lense of someone on the shyer side.
TM: I read that horror films are a bit of an obsession of yours and might have been an influence (directly or indirectly) on the new album. How so? What is it about them that resonates with you creatively? What are some of your favorites older and newer?
JW: Since I was little I’ve always gravitated towards horror (we can thank my mama for that one)! And so it’s always been the genre to really capture my eye and allow for a full escape from reality verses a fiction or romance piece. Back in the day I was a real loner, didn’t have friends really, ate lunch alone that kind of thing. And horror was the only thing that helped distract me fully. When it comes to my visuals I do try and implement it as much as possible especially for songs like “Dracula” or “Hot Killer” where I bring references straight into the lyrics. Some of my favorites are Insidious, Skinamarink, The Rental, Barbarian, and of course any of the Scream movies (literally have a Ghostface tattoo)!!
TM: The album seems to follow something of a loose story arc. Was that something you planned or perhaps sequenced after writing the songs?
JW: I never went into the studio with the intention of creating an album. But after more and more sessions we would put certain songs to the side like “Rookie of the Year” that felt they were a part of a bigger story. Once I felt the story was complete the album was done!
TM: The lyrics on every song seem really open and vulnerable, sensitive, even in moments of expressing confidence. That seems to suit the often melancholic mood of the music. What about that way of writing do you think is compelling for you rather than the swagger of a lot of pop music?
JW: Thank you so much!! I guess I’ve come to understand many people write over music/beats that have already been made but I find it to be too restrictive. When there’s no music to go off of I have the freedom to write without structure or boundary and can also free form a melody that doesn’t have to fit what’s already been created ahead of time.
TM: One of the most striking things about your songs is how they’re so grounded in vivid experiences and personal and cultural references. Like the mentions of the North Shore and Blockbuster countdowns. But someone that makes an appearance here and there is your sister and it seems like she’s someone you look up to and don’t want to disappoint. Whether that’s a literal reference or not what makes her an important part of your songwriting?
JW: Cami has been my entire world since I was about 5 years old. We were always inseparable but it wasn’t until my older years even in high school when I was really struggling constantly alone at school, so uncomfortable in my own skin, that I would know without a shadow of a doubt, she could put a smile on my face everyday no matter what. She has helped me become the person I am today. I go to her for everything and vice versa. I love her and therefore she is in everything I do; I’m always thinking about her.
TM: The line in “Gothic Babe Tendencies” “I always choose the dark but what if I surrender to the sun?” is so poignant. What role do you feel like exploring ambivalence and mixed feelings plays in your music?
JW: It’s been a huge one because unfortunately most people are disappointing. I’ve had to realize time and time again that just because I would do something and put the extra effort in, doesn’t mean somebody else would. But through that I find myself learning to be independent, to not hold on when someone is showing true colors, and not fear being on my own. With that I can put it into the music and hope to show someone they don’t need to settle either.
TM: We’re in a precarious time politically and socially in the USA and really the world. Why did you think it was important to publicly associate yourself with an organization like WRRAP and its mission?
JW: Even though my platform is a tiny one, I think every voice, every comment, every share still counts and opens up someone’s eyes to what’s going on. I will always try to publicly associate myself with what I feel is right and fair and in turn make people understand where I stand and know that our community is a safe space for everyone.
TM: “Get Off My” truly transforms a specific and literal expression into the more accurate if metaphorical meaning with humor. Though there are heavy subjects and sad songs and heartbreaking moments on the album, what do you think humor helps to highlight or express more realistically in a song?
JM: I think it’s just instantly relatable. A phrase like that is one everybody says all the time as it applies to so many situations in one’s life. So when you hear it you don’t have to think twice to know that on some level here you can scream those lyrics out and feel a bit better about whatever’s bugging you!!
TM: All pop music is a stylistic hybrid these days and your songs have guitar, synth/keyboard and trap beats as well as maybe some more acoustic percussion here and there. Was that approach more a product of your bedroom production? What music helped you to realize you could do that on your own with confidence even as someone who grew up shy?
JW: I think my sound is a product of what influences me today and what I listened to growing up. When I was younger it was all the alternative bands or pop punk concerts you could imagine. It was emotional and made me feel tougher than I actually was, which is probably why I loved it as a shy person so much. As I got older I started really getting into rap and loving that genre sonically so much. So yes, those days in my bedroom were just me trying to bring those worlds together. But it wasn’t until I met my producer Jackson that it finally started coming to life. Now I find myself slowly drifting more and more back into that alternative world so I’m excited to share what’s coming up next!
Water From Your Eyes at Larimer Lounge, December 6, 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
As Water From Your Eyes, Nate Amos and Rachel Brown have made a career of using an eclectic and ever evolving palette of sounds to explore ideas and concepts through what could be considered dance pop. That is if your frame of reference might be the experimental electronic and punk out of New York and Los Angeles of the last fifteen years. Its 2020 album 33:44 is something you’d expect more out of a band on the Northern Spy label with its beautifully dire, ambient and modern classical soundscapes that are almost an homage to Penderecki’s “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” crossed with Howard Shore’s work for the films of David Cronenberg. But the duo’s most recent album Structure at times sounds like what might have happened if Aphex Twin in writing Selected Ambient Works Volume II had decided to turn those into pop songs. Except that Water From Your Eyes inserts enigmatic spoken word elements that serve as a a meta narrative that re-configures traditional album sequencing and gives the whole album a non-linear quality made cohesive by reimagining the nature of how creative work is structured. In these ways Water From Your Eyes fuses the avant-garde and pop songcraft into a highly accessible form that in the live setting creates an inviting mystique. The group signed to Matador Records in 2023 which released its new album Everyone’s Crushed on May 26 of that year.
Listen to our interview on Bandcamp with Amos and Brown conducted in the back area of Larimer Lounge prior to its show opening for Palm on December 6, 2022 and delve into the new album and the band’s back catalog at the link below. For more information on Water From Your Eyes please visit waterfromyoureyes.com.
Matt Bischoff at The Music Hall of Williamsburg playing with The Fluid, January 17, 2009, photo by Tom Murphy
Matt Bischoff is currently the guitarist and backing vocalist for garage punk band Cyclo Sonic. But Bischoff’s musical lineage reaches back to the early days of punk in Colorado. As a teen he witnessed late 70s and early 80s punk in the Denver are including Boulder and formed his own bands as a bassist including an early incarnation of the legendary punk act Frantix whose 1983 single “My Dad’s A Fuckin’ Alcholic” recorded by prominent Denver engineer and producer Bob Ferbrache has become a classic not just in Denver but far afield with a 2003 compilation of the band’s songs issued by Australian label Afterburn Records followed by a reissue of that compilation with extra material by Alternative Tentacles in 2014. In 2023 the single and some as yet unreleased recordings was pressed onto 7” by FM Records on yellow and pink vinyl.
Frantix split in 1983 and Bischoff was a member of White Trash and Madhouse which morphed into The Fluid. The latter became one of the most influential punk and garage rock bands in Denver and one whose impact reverberated well beyond the Mile High City especially in the Pacific Northwest where it found likeminded musicians in Seattle. In fact, The Fluid was the first band based outside the PNW to be signed to Sub Pop. Its 1991 split 7” “Candy (live” b/w “Molly’s Lips (live)” by a then not yet famous band called Nirvana. Though not technically a grunge band, The Fluid’s raw power as a live band and its infectious melodies and anthemic songs were irresistible and resonated strongly with the grunge scene of The Emerald City. But not being fully in that grunge lane and being from Denver put a lot of pressure on the band which never wanted to conform to that kind of genre straightjacket (nor did the bands dubbed “grunge” for that matter) and after a major label release with 1993’s Purplemetalflakemusic The Fluid called it quits. Former Frantix and The Fluid bandmate Rick Kulwicki dropped out of music to raise his sons and the other members of the band drifted into other pursuits except for Garrett Shavlick who formed Spell and Bischoff who was a member of ’57 Lesbian for some years with a brief stint in Denver garage rock band Boss 302. But by the early 2000s the former members of The Fluid were somewhat or completely inactive in music.
But as 2008 loomed as the 20 year anniversary of Sub Pop the group was approached for a reunion and The Fluid agreed, performing at the anniversary event in Seattle with shows in Denver that same year and a handful of shows in early 2009 including gigs at the legendary now defunct small club Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey and The Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. With members living in various parts of the country The Fluid weren’t going to be a fully active band again but Kulwicki and Bischoff formed the garage and psychedelic rock cover band The Buckingham Squares with other Denver music luminaries like former Rock Tots drummer John Henry, John Rumley, former Choosey Mothers bassist Arnie Beckman and Sam Schiel formerly of Francis Theory. Rick Kulwicki tragically passed away on February 15, 2011 but the Squares continued for a couple of years further. After two or three years off of playing live music Bischoff got together with Beckman and his brother AJ on drums and former Rok Tots vocalist Jif Jipers to form Cyclo Sonic whose own songs are in line with the spirited punk that its members have all done so well for decades. The debut full length by Cyclo Sonic Everything Went Stupid dropped in 2022 on clear green vinyl through Big Neck Records.
This interview is a deep dive into Bischoff’s life in music and as an artist though we could easily have talked about music and his own vast well of stories as an active participant in a local and national music scene going back to the 1970s. And Bischoff’s music and his elegantly powerful guitar work and creative bass playing speaks for itself. Every release by every one of his bands is worth a listen and his story an important part of the cultural legacy of Denver. Rumor has it there is a solid remaster and reissue of the 1989 The Fluid album Roadmouth in the works. RIP former Frantix drummer Davey Stewart who passed away in Spring 2023.
Listen to my interview with Bischoff on Bandcamp and look out for upcoming Cyclo Sonic dates on the group’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. The Fluid’s Facebook page often has fantastic posts related to that band as well. Below are some photos I (Tom Murphy) shot over the years of Bischoff’s bands.
Frantix reunion, September 20, 2008, photo by Tom MurphyFrantix reunion, September 20, 2008, photo by Tom MurphyThe Fluid at Maxwell’s, January 16, 2009, photo by Tom MurphyThe Fluid at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, January 17, 2009, photo by Tom MurphyThe Fluid at Neumo’s, February 13, 2009, photo by Tom MurphyThe Buckingham Squares at Mercury Café, March 13, 2010, photo by Tom MurphyThe Buckingham Squares at The Bluebird Theater, March 26, 2011, photo by Tom MurphyCyclo Sonic at Lost Lake, August 5, 2022, photo by Tom MurphyCyclo Sonic at Lost Lake, August 5, 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform at Red Rocks on 6/5/23, photo by Jason Al TaanKiltro, photo by Julian Brier
Thursday | 06.01 What:Kiltro w/Nina De Freitas When: 7 Where: Mercury Café Why: Kiltro started as the solo acoustic project of Chris Bowers Castillo who as a Chilean-American, had moved to the port city of Valparaíso where he worked as a walking tour guide. And that job not only afforded him the time to learn the city and take in its richly diverse cultural influences but also the opportunity to write a body of work as a songwriter. After returning to Denver Kiltro formally came to life in 2017 and Bowers Castillo developed his acoustic songs with loops, pedals and percussion elements. But in 2018 the project expanded into a trio with Will Parkhill on bass and drummer Michael Devincenzi and later with Fez Garcia on board as a percussionist for live shows.
Kiltro’s 2019 debut album Creatures of Habit had been recorded after the material had been performed live and getting feedback from audiences and friends before being committed to an easily transmitted and shareable form. But the group’s new album, 2023’s Underbelly, is the product of crafting music in quarantine and working in the studio, following whatever creative paths sparked the most inspiration in the moment resulting in a more experimental set of songs which incorporates aspects of shoegaze, ambient, South American folk, psychedelia and a literary yet spontaneous form of storytelling that feels like a deeply personal experience in the listening. The record is a hypnotic and transcendent work of surprising immediacy that one might compare with the likes of Devendra Banhart, Hermanos Guitérrez and more locally to the work of artists like Midwife American Grandma. It fuses the aesthetics of electronic music with the intimacy of mythical folk music around the campfire for a truly unique record refreshing in its originality.
Kiltro is following up the release with a tour throughout the USA in June and July with other live dates in support of the album in August and September with an appearance at VORTEX festival at The JunkYard at Meow Wolf on August 25. Listen to our interview with Bowers Castillo on Bandcamp linked below.
Quits in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 06.01 What:Reptoid w/Quits and Endless, Nameless When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Reptoid is a one man, industrial noise rock freakout from Oakland. His most recent album WORSHIP FALSE GODS (2020) is a borderline, or not so borderline, nihilistic set of songs like a series of trainwrecks about how we’re all pretty much screwed in face of likely developments in the history of our species and its impact on the environment. If you’ve been into Buck Gooter or Author and Punisher this is your thing. Quits is a crushing noise rock juggernaut of a four piece from Denver whose incisive songs and eruptive energy can be startlingly scathing and heavy at once. Endless, Nameless erases the line between progressive metal, post-rock, post-hardcore, black metal and shoegaze with a forceful elegance. Its 2023 album Living Without should end up on the more discerning year end best lists.
Thursday | 06.01 What:Sorted: Surgeon & John Templeton When: 9 Where: Black Box Why: Surgeon is a DJ and electronic music composer from England whose labels Counterbalance and Dynamic Tension has been issuing some fine techno records for over 20 years. John Templeton is based in Denver whose own techno music has made a bit of a splash in the Mile High City and his Great American Techno Festival brought some of the most innovative practioners of that style of music to town for several years.
ACxDC, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 06.02 What: ACxDC w/No/Más and Berated When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: ACxDC is the infamous powerviolence/grindcore band from Los Angeles whose 2020 album Satan Is King is a seethingly uncompromising run of anarchistic political sentiment set to blast beats and oddly anthemic antiestablishment shout along songs.
M. Sage, photo by Lynette Sage
Saturday | 06.03 What:M. Sage Paradise Crick release show w/Zander Raymond When: 3 p.m. Where: TBA in Boulder Why: M. Sage has been a prolific and evolving songwriter and composer going back to at least far back as when he was based out of Fort Collins and doing early indiepop groups. But when he started writing and releasing music as M. Sage and often through his now defunct label Patient Sounds (2009-2019) it became obvious that Sage was thinking beyond standard songwriting even in the more experimental folk vein. His latest release, and first for RVNG Intl., is Paradise Crick, a collection of meditations on communing with nature as a route to a sustainable relationship with the world we all share. The pure fusion of acoustic and electronic aesthetics resonates with some of the more avant releases on the ECM label and its intuitive rhythms and informal structures ease the mind out of the standard pathways of being within one’s own mindset. This show is at unique venue and one must purchase a ticket at the link provided to get the address.
Saturday | 06.03 What:Danceportation – Justin Jay and others When: 9:30 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Why: Danceportation is an immersive dance party pulsing through the worlds of Convergence Station. Be immersed in the full exhibition while stunning live performances on several stages with psychedelic projections and sentient universes welcome you. Danceportation on June 3rd will feature a takeover from Justin Jay’s Fantastic Voyage, the Los Angeles-based electronic dance music imprint now celebrating its seventh year of exisence.
This lineup features multiple sets from Justin Jay, along with performances from Ardalan, DJ Swisha, Juliet Mendoza, Todd Edwards, Adrian More, B Goody, Blake, Coldsweat, Danny Goliger, DJ Parqués, Don Jamal, Ed Hoffman, Gusted, Keefe, Lipgloss, Massii, Mick Jeets, Mizzmegan, The Other Jon, Planet Bloop, and Taylor Bratches.
Korine, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 06.04 What:Korine w/CD Ghost, Voight and DJ Niq V When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Philadelphia-based dream pop band Korine plays a headlining show in Denver for the first time in support of the release of its 2023 album Tear. The group’s sound is somewhere between 80s New Wave groups like, yes, Tears For Fears, late 90s emo’s earnest emotional release and punk attitude. Voight will bring the dark industrial intensity with its scorching shoegaze/techno concoctions CD Ghost from Los Angeles released a set of lush pop songs called Night Music in 2022 that sounds like a a more synth driven and more ethereal Black Marble.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, photo by David Black
Monday | 06.05 What:Yeah Yeah Yeahs w/Perfume Genius When: 7 Where: Red Rocks Why: Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been delivering scrappy, uplifting pop music with punk attitude since forming in 2000 and as first put into recorded form with its 2001 self-titled EP. But the band comprised of three art school kids from New York never rested on its laurels and immediately its creative ambitions drove the band to explore new sounds and expressions to match its emotional growth as well. Its spirited live shows turn even its more melancholic songs into epic anthems that sweep you up in its always deep mood. In 2022 the band released its first album in 9 years, Cool It Down, a record that showcases the group’s gift for richly evocative songwriting and ability to surprise with its willingness to explore new directions in sound and subverting the tropes of pop lyrics while offering new ways of thinking about and feeling timeless themes of human experience with a thrilling immediacy. You also get to see Perfume Genius whose own career in crafting meaningful and engrossing synth pop isn’t short on reinvention and re-envisioning core artistic impulses.
Clan of Xymox in 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Monday | 06.05 What:Clan of Xymox w/Curse Mackey, A Cloud of Ravens and The Siren Project When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Clan of Xymox is the pioneering dutch darkwave band whose early post-punk songs has been foundational to the modern version of that music with its icily melodic synths and deep, mysterious yet emotionally resonant vocals from Ronny Moorings. Curse Mackey has been involved in a variety of electronic industrial bands of the past few decades including My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult and Pigface and the music under his own name has been more in the vein of synth pop end of darkwave. The Siren Project is a Denver band that has persisted since the old local Goth scene of the 1990s but has never been a fashion victim group in sound or appearance. Its downtempo music and dream pop guitar sound with Malgorzata Wacht’s soaring vocals and emotional power has set it apart from most bands in the Denver Goth scene so its music has aged well and its excellent and so far only official album Denouement should appeal to fans of Dead Can Dance and Faith & The Muse.
The Cure at Riot Fest in Denver, September 20, 2014, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 06.06 What: The Cure w/The Twilight Sad When: 5:30 Where: Fiddler’s Green Why: The Cure is of course the foundational post-punk band whose gloomy, darkly melodic songs has exerted a lasting influence not just on what one might presume in the realms of Goth and darkwave but also shoegaze, pop music and even certain corners of hip-hop. Singer Robert Smith’s sensitively and sharply observed lyrics embody poetically a sensibility that takes in the possibilities and harsh realities of the world and casts dreams for the best against the odds. Though the band’s music has a reputation for melancholy sounds and sad songs its rich body of work is quite varied and not short on expressions of joy, amusement, romance and hope. Its music conveys the broad human experience like few popular bands get to with the level of power and nuance The Cure has brought to bear across decades and as a live band there is an uplifting warmth and sense of human solidarity to the performances. Scottish post-punk band The Twilight Sad is cut from a similar artistic cloth with songs that are both vulnerable and ferocious.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, photo by Jason Galea
Wednesday and Thursday | 06.07 and 06.08 What: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard w/Kamikaze Palm Tree When:6 p.m (06.07) and 12 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (06.08) Where: Red Rocks Why: With a name like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard you might imagine some acid head RPG nerds making psychedelic metal with lyrics based on an epic fantasy story arc. And other than maybe the RPG part and maybe the doing LSD bit you wouldn’t be wrong in essence. The group from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia has steadily built a large cult following with a prolific career (in both 2017 and 2022 King Gizz released five albums each year with other years yielding at least one if not two records) with sounds from psychedelic pop to prog, to synth pop and groove metal, thrash and psych power metal. With album titles like Flying Microtonal Banana, Nonagon Infinity, Butterfly 3000, Fishing for Fishes and the 2023 album so far PetroDragonic Apocalyp; or Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation you’d expect bizarre concept albums worthy of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Tarkus or Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or at least unclassifiable songs like Pink Floyd’s “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict.” And King Gizz delivers just that. The kinds of albums and songs and shows that take you on a mind-bending, genre-bursting musical journey worthy of Hawkwind or Gong at their self-indulgent best.
Thursday | 06.08 What:Alphabet Soup #61: Machu Linea, Dub FX, Savage Bass Goat, Yung Lurch, Furbie Cakes and Skyfloor When: 9 Where: Black Box Why: This monthly showcase of some of the most forward thinking/experimental producers in Denver includes some of the usual suspects like Furbie Cakes and Skyfloor and their brand of glitch and melodic ambient but this time out also Machu Linea whose avant-pop R&B/techno fusion has long crossed over into the realm of the indie scene.
Antibroth, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.09 What: Endless, Nameless and Antibroth tour kickoff w/Rose Variety and Polly Urethane When: 7 Where: D3 Arts Why: Antibroth and Endless, Nameless are embarking on a tour to the East Coast and back through the Midwest after which Antibroth and its weirdo, experimental, angular form of post-punk and confrontational surrealism will effectively come to an end though during the tour the trio will release its final EP, Satan and the Dying Baby. This is the band’s final show so don’t miss it. Endless, Nameless is a multi-genre band crossing the boundaries of post-hardcore, death metal, math rock and shoegaze. Rose Variety from Boulder came out of a time in local music that had recovered from that wave of really cookie cutter psychedelic and garage rock but took that raw material and made a pop band out of it with some real punk kick. Polly Urethane always reinvents her show with every performance so maybe you’ll get a gorgeously classical vocal show with some vinyl sampling or backing track or raw noise and signal processing or a pure performance art piece or all of it. Always worth coming to check out.
The Sisters of Mercy, photo by Lara Aimee
Friday | 06.09 What: The Sisters of Mercy w/A Primitive Evolution When: 7 Where: Fillmore Auditorium Why: The Sisters of Mercy will probably fill the venue with a thick fog and you’ll get some colored murk in which to experience its foundational political post-punk but maybe this time the fog won’t be so thick and you’ll get to see Andrew Eldtrich and his band clearly delivering the kind anthemic, dark rock that launched a thousand Goth bands without directly being that music itself.
Elizabeth Colour Wheel, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 06.10 What:Jerome’s Dream and Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Only Echoes When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Jerome’s Dream is the influential screamo/powerviolence band from Sacramento that started out in the early heyday of that music in the late 90s and early 2000s and during its first run of 1997-2001 the trio made a major impact on the kind of music that would later be associated with modern hardcore and extreme metal and where those two fuse. The band has been reunited since 2018 and its latest album The Gray In Between is a fine example of the kind of cathartic extreme music that is has had a popular resurgence in the last handful of years. Elizabeth Colour Wheel is of similar sound but its fusion of noise rock and shoegaze but delivered like a hardcore band has made it a wonderful musical mutant of the past several years. Only Echoes is an instrumental post-metal band from Denver that has been honing its imaginative soundscapes on the road and around Denver whose 2022 album Sunsickness is both melancholic and fiery, reconciling both musical impulses.
Bayonne, photo by Eric Morales
Saturday | 06.10 What: Bayonne w/Mmeadows When: 8 Where: Globe Hall Why: Bayonne is the project of producer and composer Roger Sellers who started off releasing music under his given name but beginning with 2016’s Primitives he adopted his current moniker. The latest Bayonne record Temporary Time (2023) is an entrancing, orchestral electronic pop record of spacious melodies and melancholic yet summery moods. At another time some critic might have lumped Bayonne in with the “hypnogogic pop” of John Maus or even Dean Blunt but his style is more in the vein of downtempo ambient of Tycho but more grounded in texture and strong, organic rhythms.
Drowse, photo by Lula Asplund
Monday | 06.12 What:Drowse w/Agriculture, Sprain and Palehorse Palerider When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Kyle Bates is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work has most often been heard as his musical project Drowse. Founded in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, Drowse has released a few albums and numerous EPs and split releases. The music could be considered in part ambient, slowcore, shoegaze, drone, experimental folk and perhaps even transcendental black metal. But all categories aside, each Drowse recording is a journey into unique and nuanced emotional spaces exploring and living within a flow of emotions and thoughts that open the mind to new ideas and interpretations. And more so the moods, frequencies and textures on a Drowse recording, or really any of the releases in which Bates is involved, express a state of mind that one enters after having moved past a peak of anxiety or personal darkness and contain that tenderness and rawness one often needs to pull oneself out of a place of acute pain and psychological paralysis. The gentleness of the music is part of its power and appeal as Bates seems keenly aware of what it’s like to experience that period in life where you don’t feel like you can push or strive any further and you need an experience that is the opposite of that very modern and American internalized urge to keep at things to the extreme and prove yourself endlessly more and more. The core sound of Drowse is that of the musical equivalent of acceptance of one’s human limitations and of being open to what will nurture your well being and spark your imagination into nudging you toward fulfilling experiences.
Throughout his work as Drowse Bates has collaborated with Maya Stoner (Floating Room), Thom Wasluck (Planning for Burial), Madeline Johnston (Midwife), Taylor Malsey, Amulets, Daniel Schmidt and others. In 2023 Bates released an album as Kyle Bates and Lula Asplund called A Matinee that expands upon the format of his songwriting and production with two extended tracks that sound like an improv session one might have stumbled into in cutting room floor recordings of Alan Hankshaw and/or Brian Bennett had they been asked to provide music for a forgotten and mystical place. While it may sound like Bates’ work sets your mind into a different place than where it began upon listening to it, it does, but it is not escapist. Like the work of Grouper or Tim Hecker, Bates’ music has delicate immediacy that engages as it soothes and it stirs the emotions and the imagination.
And you’ll get to see the great Los Angeles black metal band Agriculture which will release its feral self-titled album on The Flenser on July 21, the Unwound-esque noise rock/post-punk group Sprain on its first time in Denver and the Mile High City’s own Palehorse/Palerider whose desert drone and cosmic shoegaze will add more than a touch of the epic and mysterious to the evening.
Earth, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 06.13 What: Earth w/Burning Sister When: 7 Where: Globe Hall Why: It is indeed the foundational doom and post-rock doom legends Earth bringing their extended mystical blues to Globe Hall which mostly gets more indie and Americana fare most nights. Its languorous psychedelia somehow manages to be dreamlike and weighty at once for a contrast that allows for a wide-ranging dynamic driven by a sense of wonder and self-discovery.
Harriette, photo by Muriel Margaret
Wednesday | 06.14 What:Joan w/Harriette When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Brooklyn based pop artist Harriette recently released her debut EP i heart the internet and a music video for the title track that features a bevy of older computer technology (including a flip phone of all things as well as old CRTs and is that an iMac in there?) as a celebration and send-up of internet culture for a song that takes a whimsical and self-aware approach to the phenomenon of people living perpetually online. The EP of upbeat and gentle melodies is a collection of songs as snapshots of modern life with free association of cultural signifiers and artifacts like mentioning listening to an “Folsom Prison Blues” on the appropriately titled “Johnny got it right.” Its genre-bending songwriting in the realm of indie pop and sharply and poetically observed descriptions of everyday life. Joan is a pop duo from Little Rock, Arkansas whose EPs over the past six years have established it as band that is gifted at crafting the heartfelt, expansive pop song as manifested most fully on its 2023 debut album superglue.
Metric, photo by Justin Broadbent
Thursday | 06.15 What:Garbage w/Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Metric When: 5:30 Where: Levitt Pavilion Why: Metric’s 2022 album Formentera has all the creative ambition, dream-like atmospherics and lush soulfulness that has has been the hallmark of the band from the beginning. But this time around Metric takes aim at some of the serious facing the human species as a collective and on the personal level. Also in 2022 the group headlined what it called the “Doomscroller Tour” after the song on the album about the habit of scrolling through social media and online taking in the news as a steady feed of the host of terrible things seeming to occurring every day and at a seemingly more rapid and dense pace than at any point in historical memory. And taking in this horror as a kind of act of soporific disassociation that Metric has sought to disrupt with its music and performance even if for just a little while and to get people to reconsider this habit and perhaps do something about these issues rather than be a passive actor in the human experiment. Metric is in good musical company with legendary alternative rock band Garbage whose own advocacy for social causes is obvious from its own social media presence and its way of discussing its work in the context of living as a human connected with the world. And Noel Gallagher is the former songwriter, singer and guitarist of Oasis and his new band High Flying Birds has been his musical outlet since 2010 following the 2009 final split of his old group. In 2023 the project released its latest album Council Skies perhaps as a reference to Gallagher’s having come up poor in Manchester and his own aspirational daydreaming as a youth, imbuing an album out in his mid-50s with some of that sense of wonder and looking forward.
Legs. The Band in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 06.15 What:Legs. The Band EP release w/Hen & The Cocks, The Ephinjis and Gila Teen When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Legs. The Band is releasing its new EP. The group that combines rockabilly blues with proto-punk sounds has been one of the more charismatic rock bands out of the Denver scene of the past couple of years and really sounds like no one else with a commanding and raw stage presence. The Ephinjis are a Boulder-based punk band whose own sound seems to borrow liberally across decades and manages to make a kind of pop-punk that manages not to sound stale because the band’s songwriting is steeped in a diverse sound with eclectic roots. Gila Teen is the Goth emo band everyone should get to experience at least once in their lives because their music is heartfelt and mysterious at the same time informed by a playful and surreal sense of humor but not one that distracts from the poignant emotional moments that clearly inspired so much of the songwriting.
Atmosphere, photo by Chris Fiq Colclasure
Friday | 06.16 What:Dirty Heads & Atmosphere & Stick Figure w/DENM, The Grouch and Mike Love When: 4:20 Where: Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater Why: Atmosphere is a hip-hop duo from Minneapolis, Minnesota comprised of rapper Slug aka Sean Daley and DJ/producer Ant aka Anthony Davis. Slug and Ant have been influential well beyond their own remarkable work as artists as co-founders of the respected Rhymesayers Entertainment imprint which has long been one of the torchbearers of underground and alternative hip-hop going back to the mid-90s and releasing not just the work of Atmosphere but that of Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, Eyedea & Abilities, Dilated Peoples, Grayskul and others. Including its debut album Overcast! (1997), Atmosphere has released thirteen full albums and ten EPs up through the new record So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously (2023) making the project one of the more prolific acts in hip-hop. In its various lineups and incarnations Atmosphere has consistently paired sensitive and thought-provoking lyrics with a sonically rich and diverse production ranging from some more classic hip-hop sounds to the clearly experimental and avant-garde all to deliver powerfully evocative music that engages the imagination and the heart. In the live setting Atmosphere create an intimate and inviting energy that creates an environment of the shared experience as Daley’s lyrics aim to not just tell relatable stories with roots in his own direct experiences but with resonances for common experiences and emotional spaces we’ve all known. On the new record the songs take us through a journey through un rest and hope, the latter the primary feeling Daley hopes to convey to everyone that shows up to an Atmosphere show because it is hope that lingers and can carry you through trying times into those that are better.
Allison Lorenzen in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.16 What:Allison Lorenzen, Openly Weep and Bell Mine When: 7:30 Where: Leon Gallery Why: Allison Lorenzen has for several years made the kind of transcendent indie folk that seems to combine a mystical sensibility with ambient soundscapes and tender yet emotionally powerful songwriting and performances. Openly Weep is the debut musical project of Ryan Hall who is one of the founders of the Whited Sepulchre imprint which releases some of the most fascinating experimental music out of the underground on physical and digital formats. His own music is the kind of ambient music that combines beats and the sensibilities of house music. One might call it IDM but it bridges various electronic musical worlds for a sound that feels tribal, primal and completely modern. Listen to his 2021 EP Overpass here. Bell Mine is a Denver-based avant-electronic pop artist whose entrancing and darkly downtempo music is reminiscent of the work of Laurel Halo and Jenny Hval.
Dirty Few at 2013 original album release show for Get Loose Have Fun, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.16 What:Dirty Few 10 Year Anniversary of Get Loose, Have Fun w/White Lightning Co., The Sickly Hecks and host Matt Cobos When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Dirty Few were stars of the local garage punk scene in Denver in the early 2010s with a rightfully earned reputation for raucous shows that for better or for worse depending on your perspective and the show you caught embodied the so-called “Denver party rock” attitude. What was perhaps less obvious from the revelry is that Seth and Spencer Stone were talented songwriters whose music had real heart and undeniable hooks as perhaps best heard on the 2013 album Get Loose, Have Fun which the group is reuniting to celebrate with this show.
Sour Magic, photo courtesy the artists
Friday | 06.16 What:Sour Magic album release of Forbidden Fruit w/The Crooked Rugs, Fly Amanita and Chaarm When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Sour Magic is a psychedelic rock and pop band from Denver that’s releasing its debut album Forbidden Fruit. At first listen maybe you’ll think you’re in for the kind of post-Tame Impala and Temples music but Sour Magic takes that sound into different directions with inventive tempo changes perfectly synced in with the way the melodies flow and unfold. The shimmery sound alongside that more gritty and the way the music allows all elements to shine immediately sets the band apart from much of the psych rock that came out of Denver in the 2010s. Fans of Beach Fossils’ shoegaze pop will appreciate the way Sour Magic often lets the rhythm section lead the music and how that lends the songwriting a weight even as its midnight hued atmospheric elements indulge in blissing out into the moonset. Also, not since Sunboy has a Denver psych band seemed to have such a strong command of the aesthetics of electronic music and rock fused as a unified whole.
The Blue Stones, photo by Nick Fancher
Saturday | 06.17 What: The Blue Stones w/Compass & Cavern and JACK When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Canadian blues rock band The Blue Stones has turned its musical roots into an expansion of the sound especially on its 2022 album Pretty Monster. Even a cursory listen through the album reveals a band that takes solid melodic lines and strong rhythms and employs modern production methods that give a tried and true formula and gave it some expansive mood in a psychedelic sheen and modern pop accessibility. It’s a shift in direction for The Blue Stones but Tarek Jafar and Justin Tessler seem to realize that taking chances and not being defined completely by one’s artistic past is more key to longevity than getting stuck doing the exact same thing for an entire career.
Child of Night, photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 06.18 What:Child of Night w/Dream of Industry, Teller and Kill You Club DJs When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Child of Night is a darkwave dance band from Columbus, Ohio whose ethereal duskiness is driven by strong rhythms and robust low end. Its 2021 album The Walls at Dawn has an alluring moodiness like the soundtrack to a near future, urban techno thriller that is the missing link between TR/ST and Actors.
Temples, photo by Molly Daniel
Monday | 06.19 What: Temples w/Post Animal When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: UK psychedelic rock band Temples has been one of the leading lights of the modern manifestation of that music. And its own sound informed by the aesthetics of synth pop has given its music a different trajectory and greater longevity than some of the bandwagon artists of the 2010s. Its music flows with layers of luminous melody and hits with a dream-like resonance that sounds like a quick trip to a sun dappled vacation destination in a beautiful and exotic place. Thus the title of its 2023 album Exotico seems entirely appropriate as each of its sixteen songs is like an immersive sampling of a place you’d like to visit long enough to soak in its uniquely affecting environment. Post Animal are like the younger creative cousin to Temples and its 2022 album Love Gibberish is nine transporting meditations on the glories and foibles of love and a myriad of perspectives on a perennial theme of rock music with the band moving a bit beyond its more hard rock early era into what is often lush 1970s pop-flavored, hazy psychedelia.
UPSAHL, photo by Aubree Estrella
Tuesday | 06.20 What:Oliver Tree w/UPSAHL, Tai Verdes and Little Ricky ZR3 When: 6 Where: Red Rocks Why: Oliver Tree got his break in the music industry proper making presentations for the likes of Skrillex and Zeds Dead though he’d long been a musician and songwriter who has pursued a variety of styles before finding his greatest success making the kind of pop music that is eclectic and informed by the kind of irony that serves to express the sincerity of feeling that is the core content of his songwriting. The eccentric stage performance style and drily and absurdly humorous music videos might give the impression of his music being a put on but songs aren’t. UPSAHL is an up-and-coming pop artist whose spirited and eclectic sound borrows liberally from various genres of music and fuses them into music that is somehow both deeply witty and amusing and thought-provoking. At least if her 2021 album Lady Jesus is any indication not to mention her 2022 EP Sagittarius (Taylor Upsahl being a Sagittarian herself). In 2023 the singer/songwriter announced the release of THE PHX (Phoenix) TAPES which will pair two songs as (SIDE A/SIDE B) to showcase her evolving interests as an artist and producer and so far singles like “GOOD GIRL ERA” (SIDE A) and “CONDOMS” (SIDE B) as well as “WET WHITE TEE SHIRT” (SIDE A) have demonstrated Upsahl’s range as a vocalist and gift for genre-morphing into whatever style suits her always sharp and sassy yet sensitive observations.
Moon Walker, photo by Madison McConnell
Tuesday | 06.20 What:Moon Walker w/Annabel Lee When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Moon Walker is a duo from Denver comprised of Harry Springer and Sean McCarthy whose music is a mix of ’70s glam rock and power pop in a modern flavor. The project came out of the early pandemic when Springer’s and McCarthy’s band The Midnight Club couldn’t play out and Springer started writing music for song libraries until he wrote stuff he didn’t want to give away that way and the new band had its roots. It’s a little kitsch, it’s a lot boogie rock but at least the theatrical element is real and it’s not merely yet another couple of people re-re-re-re-discovering classic rock. Opening act Annabel Lee released her debut album Mother’s Hammer on March 8, 2023 and though housed in acoustic guitar, piano, minimal percussion and other traditionally more folk or pop elements, Lee’s vocals are commanding and intense in her expression and at times one is reminded of a peer like Grace Cummings or obvious touchstones like PJ Harvey in the orchestral arrangements and willingness to unmoor the emotional expression from the tethers of pop convention.
Elf Power, photo by Jason Thrasher
Wednesday | 06.21 What: Elf Power w/The Tammy Shine When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Elf Power was one of the early Athens, GA bands affiliated with the Elephant 6 collective and thus one of the bands that helped to chart the musical direction of modern indie rock. The prolific group has reliably put out thoughtful and inventive psychedelic pop up through its most recent record, 2022’s Artificial Countrysides and its dreamlike, fuzzy melodies and transporting electronic shimmer. Sharing the bill is The Tammy Shine, the charismatic and powerful lead singer of Denver indie pop legends Dressy Bessy doing her no less lively and heartfelt solo material.
Bestial Mouths, photo by Katerina Asta
Wednesday and Thursday | 06.21 and 06.22 What: Bestial Mouths w/WitchHands and eHpH on 06.21 and w/Church Fire and DJ Shannon Von Kelly on 06.22 When: 7 (06.21) 8 (06.22) Where:Vulture’s (06.21) and Hi-Dive (06.22) Why: Bestial Mouths began in 2009 as a band that early on might be considered post-punk but even its debut EP, 2009’s Stabile Vices, had elements of noise and industrial set to ritualistic rhythms with tribal percussion. All along, vocalist Lynette Cerezo who has a background in fashion and design brought to performances a striking visual presentation that drew upon the imagery of mythology and dreams in a creative interplay with the music. Cerezo’s lyrics have always explored issues of gender, identity and personal liberation and whether combined with the performance or not, certainly enhanced by the live experience, meant as a conduit for mutual inspiration and uplift by challenging arbitrary societal notions of “proper” social roles and behavior and aesthetics. A Bestial Mouths show and the music embodies aspects of the subconscious and what has traditionally been relegated to artistic darkness and the feminine, the intuitive and the supernatural. Cerezo through the practice of her art reclaims all of that as a source of power and dignity by demonstrating how it isn’t negative, that it is a part of a complete human life and that such things can be harnessed to the benefit of the self and all.
More recent Bestial Mouths records starting with the new arc of music since the project has been mainly headed by Cerezo since 2018 has reconciled the early post-punk and Goth sound and noise completely with the more mystical and non-Western experimental sonic ideas and rhythms that have been a feature if not the focus of the music since the beginning. But in 2020’s RESURRECTEDINBLACK, the first Bestial Mouths record crafted with Cerezo at the creative helm it’s all there for a listening experience not unlike the psycho-mystical depths of a Dead Can Dance album but darker and more harrowing and cathartic. The new album R.O.T.T. (inmyskin), with the acronym standing for Road of Thousand Tears drops on August 11, 2023 and continues the path of its predecessor but with the songs seemingly emerging from the murk that seemed entirely appropriate for a set of songs from a time of great uncertainty and treading new musical paths. Those appreciate Diamanda Galás’ elemental catharsis, psychic fearlessness and avant-garde sensibilities might find a great deal to appreciate about Bestial Mouths as will those with a taste for the political industrial punk of ADULT. and Jarboe’s deeply emotional and unfettered vocal performances but while in Swans and since. Listen to our interview with Bestial Mouths on Bandcamp linked below.
FACS, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 06.24 What:FACS w/Wave Decay and Replica City When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: FACS is a post-punk from Chicago that includes former 90 Day Men and Disappears singer/guitarist Brian Case. Its angular, menacing songs create a brooding soundscape of stark moods like the hollowed out facade of modern industrial culture. Its 2023 album Still Life In Decay is perhaps its most focused effort in articulating the telltale signs of a civilization in decay neglectful of itself and detrimental to all life within its sphere of influence.
Graham Nash, photo by Amy Grantham
Saturday and Sunday | 06.24 and 06.25 What: Graham Nash When: 6:30 (06.24) and 6 (06.25) Where: Chautauqua Auditorium (06.24) and Washington’s (6.25) Why: Graham Nash is a singer/songwriter who established for himself a rich and influential legacy in music and culture as a member of The Hollies in the 1960s and later that decade going forward with Crosby, Stills & Nash (and for a time CSN&Y with Neil Young). The socially conscious and poetically resonant rock proved a touchstone for a generation with an iconic body of work that’s still worth exploring and finding some of the classic rock era’s finest material. On May 19, 2023, Nash released his latest solo record Now and at 81 he is still crafting exquisite melodies and imaginative stories that have something to say and the forward looking perspective that has always been the hallmark of his art. He’s playing two shows in Colorado in celebration of the record.
Saturday | 06.24 What:Godflesh w/Sumerlands, Stormkeep, Spectral Voice and Street Tombs When: 5 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Maybe the extreme metal even of the summer with headliners Godflesh, the influential and always unforgettable industrial grindcore pioneers whose grinding, scorching menace always hits hard and not without a sense of mystique. And Denver, thorny grindcore legends Spectral Voice make a very rare appearance these days.
Sunday | 06.25 What:JK Flesh w/Terravault, Corpsewhale, CXCXCX, Vox Mnemonic When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: JK Flesh is the pseudonym of Justin K. Broadrick of Godflesh who fresh off performing at the Gothic the night before with the latter will treat an audience at the Hi-Dive to a set of some of his more experimental work in the realm of noise, power electronics, dub and industrial along with some local noise scene luminaries.
Moon Pussy in 2021, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 06.27 What:Moon Pussy w/Porcelain, Quits and Messiahvore When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: This is probably the noise rock show of the month with Denver-based greats Moon Pussy whose borderline unhinged and visceral live show is always a cathartic experience informed by a surreal sense of humor. Porcelain visits from Austin with its own fusion of atmospheric rock and its noisy cousin. Quits reconciles dissonant art rock with post-hardcore intensity. Messiahvore might otherwise be considered a metal band but a little too weird and disregarding of clear tonal sight lines to be that.
The Head and the Heart, photo by Shervin Lainez
Thursday | 06.29 What: The Head and the Heart w/Rayland Baxter and Sera Cahoone When: 6:30 Where: Red Rocks Why: The Head and the Heart has since its 2009 inception become one of the most popular and creatively vital bands under the umbrella of indie folk. The group came together organically through the open mic nights at Conor Byrne pub in Seattle and not long after its 2011 debut album on Sub Pop became a bit of an instant classic of modern folk rock with “Rivers and Roads” becoming a major hit with fans as a typical concert closer. In 2019 “Honeybee” was a bit ubiquitous and may have given the impression that the band was being marketed beyond its ability to deliver but fortunately the group’s earnest performances and orchestral and ambitious songwriting made it obvious that even that song was not just hype. In 2023 The Head and the Heart announced its inaugural festival Down In The Valley to take place at Oxbow Riverstage in Napa, CA on September 2 and 3 to feature not just its own performances but those of Waxahatchee, Faye Webster, Rayland Baxter, Miya Folick, Dawes, Madison Cunningham, Mitch & The Coal Miners, Shaina Shepherd and Josiah Johnson.
Remember Sports, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 06.30 What:Remember Sports w/Goon and Dry Ice When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Remember Sports isn’t the typical pop punk band if it can truly be considered that at all. But it has that scrappy spirit and emotional openness that makes for the best of that genre. But the group uses a drum machine rather than a more traditional musician in the role. Its songs unabashedly incorporate left field sounds in the mix and its vocals sound like a childhood subjected to the likes of a now more obscure alternative pop artist like Jane Jensen and the much more famous Alanis Morissette by Gen X parents but the members of the band took a foundation like that and took it in a different direction. The band’s 2022 EP Leap Day is four tracks of lo-fi bedroom punk experiments of undeniable charm.
Helloween is the influential power metal band from Hamburg, Germany. Since 1984 released a string of albums that have often featured concepts and storytelling commenting on the human condition in both personal, emotive narratives and paralleling historical references with current events and commenting on recurring themes of human civilization and the impact of culture and those in power on the lives of people within and without a particular country. The iconography of the pumpkin has been part of the group’s artwork since early on and infuses the often weighty subject matter of the songwriting with a touch of humor and humanity. In 2016 older Helloween lead vocalists Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen rejoined along with long time singer Andi Deris for the kind of sound not many groups in metal have ever had in one band. In May 2023 the group was slated for induction into the Metal Hall of Fame.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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