Sendai based ambient artist Nerve (Manabu Ito), as NRV, released his latest EP Notari in July 2021 on Foil Imprints and distilled the essence of the tranquil moments captured in deep places in our memories. The hazy drones and distant, abstracted to a blur of melodies and eroded feedback convey a sense of emotional place where the urgency of everyday life is blocked by a protective cloud cover that also conveys your spirit along a path that soothes the psyche and encourages an opening up to simple stimuli that can be missed in a sea of demanding content. “Rice field and river, 1974” and “i want a white petal in my teacup” as titles have a Zen-like poetic quality to suggest times when you are struck by simple things, simple desires that nourish a sense of inner peace rather than call for a dramatic response. In a time and in a culture that all but requires we push ourselves to the maximum for the requirements of an economic system that is destroying the planet and crushing everyone under, even those who benefit the most, music like this may not hit you over the head with its importance, it is not something over which to get “stoked,” but it may be the sort of thing we need more of to get through to a saner future human civilizational baseline as embodied by these gorgeous five tracks. Watch the evocative EP video preview below and listen to the EP on Bandcamp and consider purchasing the cassette version and listen analog in an appropriate setting like looking out the window during a snowstorm.
Julien Baker at The Gothic Theatre 11/13/21, photo by Tom Murphy
At one point in the Julien Baker show at the Gothic Theatre, the singer and songwriter acknowledged, in her offhand, dryly humorous way, that mostly the set would consist of full band songs since she had released a full band album (Little Oblivions) earlier in the year and that it may not be for everyone but that if it was, thanks for supporting the music. Her wry and self-aware wit graced much of the show when the occasion presented itself as a kind of contrast to the intense and raw emotional territory of the music itself.
Dehd at The Gothic Theatre 11/13/21, photo by Tom Murphy
Chicago art punk band Dehd opened the show with their own brand of irreverent intensity. Drummer Eric McGrady seemed to hold the music together while Emily Kempf and Jason Balla traded off and came together with emotionally charged vocals, Kempf’s expressions both refined and eruptive, Balla’s fiery yet thoughtful. After being on the fence listening to the band’s recorded output over the last few years taking a closer listen to the band’s 2020 album Flower of Devotion and seeing the band in action made it obvious that preconceptions of where its music fits in a box are best left aside in appreciation for how its various creative impulses work together well when in the context of a live music setting.
Julien Baker at The Gothic Theatre 11/13/21, photo by Tom Murphy
Julien Baker has always had an uncommonly powerful voice with a widely expressive delivery as a live performer. Impossible to ignore or dismiss because her turns of phrase are often so creative and coursing with genuine feeling. Seeing these qualities in the context of the full band and an expanded sonic palette. Sure, the middle section of the show where Baker performed solo with guitar and then piano were intimate and poignant and a showcase for her immense talent as a songwriter and performer. But it felt like in some ways that not having to make all the sounds of the music happen left her free to express her feelings in an even more potent and direct way. Certainly the band rehearsed before the tour but when Baker got swept up in the moment and cried out in peak moments of soaring vocals it felt like she was really putting herself out there in a radically vulnerable, elemental way, putting her trust in the audience emotionally. And to its credit the audience responded in kind. It seemed like everyone had more than a singular moment throughout the show and Baker seemed to give voice to thoughts and feelings maybe other people don’t know how to articulate as well or as artfully with as much cathartic energy in public.
Julien Baker at The Gothic Theatre 11/13/21, photo by Tom Murphy
There wasn’t a lot of banter during a set of around twenty songs but when Baker did speak it was with a charmingly self-deprecating humor and a spirit of kindness that was unmistakable. Yes, Baker’s song speak to pain and suffering in a poetic yet real way, especially the songs from Little Oblivions. But always with a sense of a shared experience. When her words address or speak about someone it isn’t with a sense of spite or accusation so much as honoring the raw emotions and with an aim of understanding and processing experiences that can be incredibly uncomfortable. Her performance, as with the new album, came across as opening these moments that can get stuck in our heads with an inspiring honesty minus the cruelty that too often accompanies when people are “being real” with one another. Rather Baker showcased a way to be real and honest with compassion and kindness while also feeling in full the power and sometimes psychologically transformative experiences of those feelings.
Julien Baker at The Gothic Theatre 11/13/21, photo by Tom Murphy
Perhaps most telling was a moment mid-set when someone in the audience commented on one of her early songs and Baker said she wrote it when she was 18 years old in her dorm and that she hopes she has grown and developed as a person since then but that yet she feels compassion for the person she was then. There are many lessons to be learned about life over the years but that’s one that Baker learned earlier than most people and a bit of down to earth wisdom she shared without couching it as such and that spoke volumes about her approach to her music and with other people, a subtle yet strong kindness that isn’t common enough.
Julien Baker at The Gothic Theatre 11/13/21, photo by Tom Murphy
Reptaliens from Portland, Oregon return with the video for “Like a Dog” (made with Tristan Scott-Behrends) from the group’s forthcoming album Multiverse. Though returning to using guitar and drums following the duo’s excellent 2020 minimal synth/post-punk EP Wrestling, Reptaliens haven’t lost their knack for solid, extended melodies and culture jamming with left field ideas about the nature of society, the universe and our place in it freely referencing Philip K. Dick novels and the work of transhumanist philosopher FM-2030 after whom the band named its 2017 album. With “Like A Dog” Reptaliens use popular culture as a vehicle for time travel and create an a kind of alternative history of the 1990s from the over hyped and bizarre late night/overly sexualized daytime commercials, Chris Cunningham’s phantasmagoric music videos for Aphex Twin, the manufactured grit and grime of many alternative rock videos and perhaps the truly eccentric music video programs as seen on the Canada’s version of MTV with Much Music. The nods to Nirvana’s Unplugged performance on the aforementioned MTV, the dramatic daytime talk show parody and air of general boredom with fake excitement that was often in the air once the then most recent wave of youth culture had crested by mid-decade all point to what seems like the absurdity of nostalgia for a time that was too often characterized by glossing over mediocrity with the patina of significance through surreal marketing and performative enthusiasm. The almost hypnotic melody maintained by Reptaliens in the tuneful psychedelic pop song is almost a parallel to the air of the time depicted in the video and yet it also strangely draws you in like some of the recreations of 90s media tropes that accompany the music. Watch the video below when it premiers on November 15.
Multiverse is out on Captured Tracks on January 21 and the first pressing comes with rolling papers since the band works on a weed farm in Oregon when not engaged in musicianly endeavors. The tour in support of the record launches in SLC on 1/24 (other dates listed below including the show in Denver on Tuesday, January 25, 2022).
Thurs. Dec 9, 2021 – Eugene, OR – Sessions Music Hall Mon. Jan 24, 2022 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court Tues. Jan 25, 2022 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge Thurs. Jan 27, 2022 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry Fri. Jan 28, 2022 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen Sat. Jan 29, 2022 – Pontiac, MI – Pike Room Sun. Jan 30, 2022 – Cleveland, OH – Mahall’s Tues. Feb 1, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird Thurs. Feb 3, 2022 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall Fri. Feb 4, 2022 – New York, NY – Baby’s All Right Sat. Feb 5, 2022 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry Sun. Feb 6, 2022 – Washington DC – Songbyrd Tues. Feb 8, 2022 – Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle Wed. Feb 9, 2022 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Thurs. Feb 10, 2022 – Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5 Fri. Feb 11, 2022 – Nashville, TN – TBD Sun. Feb 13, 2022 – Dallas, TX – DaDa Mon. Feb 14, 2022 – Austin, TX – Empire Tues. Feb 16, 2022 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
Laraaji at Rhinoceropolis in July 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
Circle of Celebration is the latest release from the NOUS ensemble. The latter is a collaboration between composer Christopher Bono, sound healing artist Arji OceAnanda and ambient music legend Laraaji. Bono had met OceAnanda and Laraaji at the Ananda Ashram near Monroe, NY in 2013 and wasn’t initially aware of their status as accomplished musicians. But the three made an immediate connection over the work of Thich Nhat Hahn, the influential Vietnamese Zen monk and over several years kept in contact and came to record this new album. Incorporating Bono’s classical composition and production background with Arji’s sound healing methods and both Laraaji’s approach to ambient music and his concept of laughter meditation the music goes beyond logical barriers and limitations to stimulate the parts of your brain that create an openness of spirit and relaxation from everyday anxieties. Certainly states of being and emotion we could all use now.
Laraaji became known to a larger world of music through the 1980 release of his landmark album Day of Radiance as the third part of the Brian Eno produced Ambient series. At that time and since his music has exerted an influence not just on ambient music but world music and the use of sound and practice as a meditation for personal and collective improvement and development and Circle of Celebration certainly incorporates all elements of Laraaji’s life in the arts up to this time.
We had a chance to speak with Laraaji about Circle of Celebration and its manifestation of the trio’s philosophical and artistic underpinnings, intersections and goals as musicians linked below through our podcast on Bandcamp. Circle of Celebration releases on Our Silent Canvas Records on November 12, 2021 and you can order the album at the label’s Bandcamp page.
itchy-O at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom MurphyXordox at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom Murphy
When Xordox took stage the duo including J.G. Thirlwell looked like space mystics from a post-Solaris society with lights on their headsets and wearing pendants with symbols that seemed to have a significance for the performance ahead. A backdrop of abstract, evolving projections provided an unconventional grounding to melodic synth compositions that gave a sense of a mysterious future. Tonal sequences and distorted, flaring drones over inexorably flowing beats and rhythms captured that feeling you got from some of the more presciently utopian and dystopia science fiction movies from the 80s where bright sounds were often paired with dark themes. “Between Dimensions” from Xordox’s 2021 album Omniverse had one wondering if the robotic voice was a clear nod to early 80s hip-hop and its taking inspiration from Kraftwerk but that and the rest of the performance was a bubble of the otherworldly before the grand ritual of itchy-O’s set started.
J.G. Thirlwell of Xordox at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom Murphyitchy-O at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom Murphy
Between the drum corps and the taiko crew set up on and in front of the main stage and a more electronic cadre set up opposite the stage near the sound booth, itchy-O established a sense of space beyond the confines of the venue. In the band’s earliest days and through the mid-2010s the sheer physicality of the band in small spaces and larger places was an undeniable presence that in all its moving parts created a raw and chaotic energy even though the songs were written ahead of time and heavily rehearsed. It always felt like it could go off the rails even as it operated with great cohesion. Sometime between then and now the band has streamlined its performance. The set list felt sequenced in a way to orchestrate the tonal and rhythmic nuances so that the energy never dropped off. Sure the bombast of earlier shows was there but what might be considered by many to be a gimmick wears thin but the flow of the show now seems to reflect the ways itchy-O’s albums worked as a listening experience. The seamless integration of both approaches to executing the music in studio as worked out in rehearsals and composed outside of those and the live show appears to be complete. A listen to the newly released album SYPHERLOT & HALLOWMASS DOUBLE LIVE 2020 (out now on Alternative Tentacles) hints at this reality though thoroughly enjoyable on its own.
itchy-O at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom Murphy
The two poles of command at the concert established an unspoken creative tension that reconciled and then parted again throughout the evening. The “creeps” that once most often mingled in the crowd also acted as living dramatic props at points in the show as when the speaker read from the book and appeared to criticize its contents as if to suggest that at some point you have to go beyond the rules, beyond established and entrenched authority to grow as a person and as a group. The clawed hands raised around him made it look like some Lovecraftian cult but one more benevolent and more keyed into the dark mysticism of the collective unconscious. One of the creeps did some riding of the crowd across the room while the two lion’s prowled playfully about. Whereas in some older shows the appearance of Larry the Lion could bring some pause to the forward motion of the event, nothing really diverted attention and all components seemed in sync and keeping the audience engaged beginning to end. If the live album is a marker in the life of a band, this show was a display of the lessons of focus and intentionality that the preparations for those shows necessitated and a clear signal that itchy-O has much more to offer with creativity in presentation of its art and the music that drives its expression.
itchy-O at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom Murphyitchy-O at Summit Music Hall, photo by Tom Murphy
Though officially announced on Monday, November 11, we found out that notorious L.A. punk legends FEAR will perform at The Gothic Theatre on New Year’s Eve with Potato Pirates and Cease Fire. The group took great pleasure in taunting self-righteous punks and conservative American culture equally with its irreverently humorous, sometimes nihilistic, lyrics and outrageous performances with lead singer Lee Ving commanding the stage like an insult comedian. The band was featured in Penelope Spheeris’ classic 1981 punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization as well as the infamous 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live arranged by show writer Michael O’Donoghue and former SNL star and then cinema luminary John Belushi. On the show the band performed and the audience included members of Minor Threat, Cro-mags, The Meatmen and Negative Approach and mayhem ensued including profanity broadcast before the live feed was cut. So plenty of anticipation was in place when The Record came out on Slash in 1982 and it delivered some of the most caustic and boisterous punk in an era not short on such offerings. Since that time FEAR has released a handful of records, the final being 2000’s American Beer, and occasionally toured and still worth showing up to see. But with Ving turning 72 next year this may be one of your last chances, if not your last chance, to catch these heroes of punk before Ving calls it a day. Please visit gothictheatre.com to buy tickets once they’re on sale November 12.
FEAR NYE at the Gothic Theatre poster by Lindsey Kuhn
Plack Blague started as a side project of grindcore outfit Wasteoid. Drummer Raws Schlesinger wanted an outlet for his interest in electronic music, noise and dance music and Plack Blague became, for about a decade, the occasional vehicle for that when it launched on Halloween 2001 and a pretext for Scheslinger to play some of the weirder shows he would have been going to anyway. With the untimely passing of Jeffmetal Sayers of Wasteoid in September 2011, Schesinger went on to focus his energy on Plack Blague and hone its craft, visual style and performances and along the way went from something of a local and regional legend to a star of the American underground able to fit bills of multiple musical genres and one of the most powerful and compelling live acts running. Depending on which record you pick up or show you catch you might hear more of the noise side of Plack Blague or more of the electronic dance aspect but in place is the leather daddy gear and Schlesinger’s dynamic stage show comparable to a more industrial and noise Big Freedia—the same raw intensity and infectiously fun energy. Schlesinger also regularly issues aesthetically striking merch and does t-shirt screenings for himself and other artists. But as you will hear in our recent interview with Raws he has a strong sense of community and connection to underground music culture both within the rich history of Lincoln, Nebraska punk and extreme music and the larger culture beyond his regional scene.
You can witness the spectacle of Plack Blague for yourself at the Hi-Dive this Saturday, November 6, 2021 for the 4 year anniversary of the Eventually It Will Kill You label along with Kontravoid, Many Blessings and Closed Tear. But until then, please listen to our extended interview with Raws Schlesinger below and hear about his deep roots in Lincoln punk and the modern era of underground music in America and beyond. And o check out Plack Blague’s music and order merch, visit the Bandcamp page.
Julien Baker performs at Gothic Theatre on Nov 13, photo by Alyssa GafkjenBrandy Clark, photo by Chris Phelps
Wednesday | 11.03 What:Brandy Clark w/Kelsey Waldon When: 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: If famous country music stars performing songs you’ve written is a sign of your significance as an artist, Brandy Clark has had a resoundingly successful career. Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban and Darius Rucker have all performed songs penned by Clark. Her critically acclaimed 2020 album Your Life Is a Record garnered her accolades for her own work even from more critical reviewers because her arrangements and thoughtful lyrics were undeniably well crafted and affecting even if you’re not a fan of country music or acoustic pop. Producer Jay Joyce encouraged Clark to expand her musical range with sounds and ideas that brought a quality to the songs that pushed beyond the boundaries of Clark’s previous work for arguably the best record of her career thus far. The 2020 pandemic put plenty of plans for touring and promoting records on hold so this is a chance to see the award winning singer and songwriter at an intimate venue.
Wolf Alice, photo by Jordan Hemmingway
Wednesday and Thursday | 11.03 and 11.04 What: Wolf Alice w/The Blossom When: 7 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Wolf Alice is hitting its stride with its new album Blue Weekend. Earlier records like 2017’s Visions of a Life and 2015’s My Love is Cool showcased the music of a band learning its powers and creative instincts in often thrilling ways during some years when too many rock bands were trying to cop some of that classic rock or psychedelic garage cachet. Wolf Alice walked a finer line of hard rock and atmospherics fortified by singer Ellie Rowsell’s sometimes gritty vocals yet always emotionally vibrant and nuanced vocals. The new album reveals a band that has not become stuck in what one might expect from previous efforts. Swells in a song don’t inevitably lead to a glorious blowout, rather Wolf Alice takes left field turns in its arrangements perhaps a challenge to foster their growth as a band with consistently compelling results.
Black Dice, photo by Black Dice
Thursday | 11.04 What:Black Dice w/cindygod and H Lite When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Black Dice was an integral part of New York City underground music in the late 90s and 2000s. Its members had come up through punk but took the spirit of open possibilities suggested by that music to do whatever the wanted to. Anything could be an instrument, any rhythmic idea could be made to work. Even ideas about how structure and patterns would emerge through a kind of sound collage cut-up technique that one might compare favorably with the work of Autechre and Aphex Twin. Key to the band’s creative approach and aesthetic was visual art concepts and its various album covers have been designed by members of the band in a style that hits you like graffiti by way of the Situationist International. The band’s methods of composition and expression proved influential to peers like Animal Collective, a band that on the surface makes an updated form of 90s indie pop but like that music truly experiments with the form and musical substance of the songwriting with forays into noise and sampling that enriched the palette of sounds and dynamics available in crafting songs.
In 2012 Black Dice released its then most recent album Mr. Impossible after which its members took time to pursue other projects, Eric Copeland releasing several solo works as well. With the pandemic thus far time seems to have stretched and compressed for most people and what may feel like a handful of years in the living it can stretch to several and in 2021 Black Dice released its latest record Mod Prog Sic. It is classic Black Dice as a free flowing parade of ideas, textures, rhythm and playful tone and signal processing like some futuristic hip-hop/EBM fusion psychedelic beatmaking. We recently had a chance to speak with longtime member Aaron Warren about his early musical days growing up in California and his formative years as an active member of the punk scene in Boulder and Denver in the 90s before ending up in NYC in pursuit of furthering his education and ending up in the city at a time of great creative ferment. Listen to the interview on the Queen City Sounds Podcast.
Thursday | 11.04 What:The Black Angels w/L.A. Witch When: 8 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: The Black Angels came together and established its individual style of psychedelic rock before that became too trendy in the 2010s and has been able to develop, refine and then evolve its aesthetic across multiple records. Obvious influences drawn from early psychedelic rock, shoegaze, Middle Eastern drones and compound time signatures out of that music and perhaps a touch of African influence along with industrial and the avant-garde has merely made for a musical career that is much more creatively varied than seems obvious with a live show that is consistently entrancing. Opening is the like-minded L.A. Witch and their engaging take on blending 60s psychedelic pop with noir vibes.
Soccer Mommy, photo by Brian Ziff
Thursday | 11.04 What:Soccer Mommy w/Alexalone When: 7 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Probably virtually every musician touring in 2021 has the same story of an album released early in 2020 or slated or release that year only to have all forward momentum in getting the music out there slowed down or stopped due to the pandemic. When Soccer Mommy’s Color Theory was released at the end of February 2020 it garnered some critical acclaim for its winsome, melancholic pop songs in which the songwriter’s arrangements expanded to give her short lyrical lines expansive and often shimmering background textures paired with ethereal string arrangements. There is a pensive and yearning quality to singer/songwriter Sophie Allison’s words and vocal performance that elevates the music beyond much of the sometimes interchangeable indie music offerings you might hear on a playlist in a public space. Allison is not stranger to luminous and introspective songwriting, but right now she is taking her craft into deeper emotional territory than her admittedly excellent 2018 debut album Clean.
Band of Horses, photo by Stevie and Sarah Gee
Thursday | 11.04 What: Band of Horses w/Miya Folick When: 7 p.m. Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Band of Horses is a band that has managed to make uplifting yet incredibly heartbreaking music with undeniable earworm melodies without losing the emotional impact for the last 17 years. The group formed after the respected indie pop band Carissa’s Wierd split in 2004 and quickly established itself as purveyors of thoughtful songs imbued with an upbeat energy and great forward momentum while never dipping into the realm of the hokey or obnoxious positivity. Probably because the lyrics have consistently hit as grounded and insightful even when written in good fun. Expect the new Band of Horses album Things Are Great to drop in January 2022 but for now you can maybe catch a good deal of that new material live until then.
Friday | 11.05 What:Eventually It Will Kill You 4 Year Anniversary Pre-Show: Wisteria w/Candy Apple, Deadluv and Vitrina When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Brian Castillo has been involved in DJ nights over the years and releasing a few records here and there. But he may have found his niche when he launched Eventually It Will Kill You four years ago releasing mostly experimental music and darkwave like the 2018 reissue of the 1983 death rock classic by Denver band Your Funeral and their single “I Want To Be You” b/w “April Fool’s Day” and releases from Many Blessings, the noise side project of Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy, chicago darkwave band Funeral Door and dark minimal synth group Child of Night from Columbus, OH. For the occasion of the anniversary “El Brian” put together two shows including this Pre-Show which includes performances by Pittsburgh based post-punk band Wisteria and jagged, jangly Denver post-punkers by way of hardcore Candy Apple.
Plack Blague in October 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.06 What:Eventually It Will Kill You 4 Year Anniversary: Kontravoid, Plack Blague, Many Blessings and Closed Tear When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: For the second night of the 4 year anniversary of Eventually It Will Kill You you can catch some of the stars of underground darkwave and noise with EBM techno artist Kontravoid, industrial disco legend Plack Blague (listen to our new interview with Raws Scheslinger of Plack Blague from our podcast on Bandcamp), the ambient noise stylings of Many Blessings and the gloomy, post-punky dream pop of Closed Tear.
Saturday | 11.06 What:Dan Deacon w/Alex Silva and Patrick McMinn When: 8 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Dan Deacon’s 2020 album Mystic Familiar was praised as a solid synth pop album but it sounds more like Deacon has really honed his songwriting after a career of pushing musical ideas ever forward. The instrumental performances have a nuance and energy with a granular level of musical detail that can be enjoyed for simply the sheer joy and dynamic expressiveness Deacon seems to bring to his music. But one has to marvel at the way Deacon orchestrates complex passages and textures to into majestic pop songs that uplift the spirit and living up to the name of the album. His live shows are often a collaborative affair and even with his music surely Deacon will encourage those that show up to become involved in spontaneous and creative ways that don’t happen at other shows.
Gus Dapperton, photo by Jess Farran
Saturday | 11.06 What:Gus Dapperton w/spill tab at The Gothic When: 6 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Forget the hair style, the jewelry, the eyeliner and Gus Dapperton’s stylish sartorial proclivities, the songwriter’s 2020 album Orca is brimming with touching and delicate songs with real insight into the vulnerabilities and haunting thoughts that come to you in your lowest moments. His spare musical arrangements give the vocalization of the lyrics space to issue forth and sit in the air like lingering melodies. It’s an unexpectedly interesting effect from a songwriter who can come across to anyone that hasn’t sat down with the music as saccharine pop but the guy’s music is anything but that.
Uniform, photo by Ebru Yildiz
Monday | 11.08 What:Uniform, Portrayal of Guilt and Body Void When: 7 p.m. Where: HQ Why: Uniform is an industrial hardcore band from New York that came out of the city’s punk and extreme music scene. Its fiery and abrasive electronic onslaught articulates issues of existential confusion and frustration with the destructive forces of society and within our own minds and clawing a path to catharsis. The group’s 2020 album Shame (Sacred Bones Records) is perhaps its most accessible but also its most deeply personal and raw. Also, listen to our podcast episode with an interview with vocalist Michael Berdan on Bandcamp. Opening the show is the great experimental hardcore group Portrayal of Guilt. With music sitting somewhere betwixt black metal, grindcore, hardcore and noise, Portrayal of Guilt consistently delivers scorching songs of poetic yet abrasive beauty. Its new album Christfucker is due out November 5, 2021 on Run For Cover Records. Body Void’s scathing, outraged doom just seems like the perfect complement to the whole show and its 2021 album Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth out on Prosthetic Records is not short on tortured crushers.
Mamalarky, photo by Sara Cath
Tuesday | 11.09 What: Slow Pulp w/Mamalarky When: 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: When many bands in the 2010s were evoking a bit of 1990s fuzz rock and grunge, Slow Pulp took a hint of that but went in more a direction of atmospheric pop and experimental soundscapes as a structure for its more hushed and introspective songs. Tourmates Mamalarky from Atlanta is on a similar wavelength with songs of unconventional structure, rhythmic strategy and tonal palette. Like maybe its members came up listening to early Liz Phair demos, Broadcast, Virginia Wing, Deerhoof and Electrelane. The group’s outstanding 2020 self-titled album never gives you a chance to get too settled into a sound but draws you along for a ride into a colorfully dreamlike realm of lush pop adventures.
Wednesday | 11.10 What:Nothing w/Frankie Rose and Enumclaw When: 7 p.m. Where: Marquis Theater Why: Nothing has been on a great trajectory of developing into and beyond punk-influenced shoegaze reaching a high state of creativity on its 2020 album The Great Dismal. Whorling sheets of guitar drone bursting up and receding like waves punctuated by electronic crackles and an aesthetic as much informed by electronic music as by rock at this point. Frankie Rose has spent time in such bands as Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls and Beverly but her solo albums is where she has perhaps been most free to utilize her imaginative guitar work, production and songwriting. Though these days she’s also in a band with Matthew Hord of Pop. 1280 called Fine Place which is more in the realm of dub-influenced darkwave pop. So it may be awhile before you get a chance to see a solo Frankie Rose performance for a bit. Enumclaw is one of the few modern bands that sounds like it was heavily influenced by Dinosaur Jr without ripping the band off and injecting a good deal of fuzzy dream pop like they listened to The Smiths but found a way to mix Morrissey out of the proceedings.
Wednesday | 11.10 What:Armand Hammer w/Trayce Chapman and Time (from Calm.) When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: The psychedelic sounds in the beats to Haram, the 2021 album by Armand Hammer with The Alchemist, is reminiscent of the ways cLOUDDEAD tapped into subconscious spaces to evoke a mood that complements the surreal vibe of the lyrics. Fans of Gonjasufi and early Sole records will appreciate the way this pairing of artists collage tone and texture to create great depth of sound and expression. Plus opening is Time whose existential and deeply philosophical and playful lyrics are an antidote to the programmed ignorance of the American education system and the current state of the culture.
Silverstein, photo by Juan Angel
Thursday and Friday | 11.11 and 11.12 What: Silverstein w/The Plot In You and Can’t Swim When: 6 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater and Gothic Theatre Why: Silverstein is one of the few bands that walked the line between pop punk and screamo without sounding a parody of itself and where the distorted, screaming vocals really did sound like a primal expression of an intense peak of feeling in the context of the songs. What has kept the band worth a listen is the songwriting and how, as is the case with the better pop punk, the most critical examination in the lyrics is aimed at one’s own shortcomings and finding a way to get through those moments of feelings of failure and intense self-judgment rather than lash out at someone else like a challenge to oneself to truly feel these things you don’t want to in an attempt to be a better person even if you fall short because life and self-betterment is often a process of reworking habits and not some perfect formula to follow.
Friday | 11.12 What:Glacial Tomb, Noctambulist, Necrosophik Abyss — CANCELED When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Glacial Tomb and Noctambulist are two of the best and most brutal and imaginative technical death metal bands out of Denver at the moment and if that’s your thing they’re both on the same bill.
Phony Ppl, photo courtesy the artists
Friday | 11.12 What:Phony Ppl w/Kent Washington When: 7 p.m. Where: Marquis Theater Why: Brooklyn’s Phony Ppl have done some music with Megan Thee Stallion but their own music is a richly expressive sort of art soul music and jazz-inflected hip-hop without making boundaries between any of those styles. There is a gentleness to the music that makes it instantly accessible even though the specific content is very musically sophisticated and challenging. These five guys take heady musical elements and ideas and bring to it a loose and playful spirit that sounds like it should be music for the kind of arty dramas that have yet to be made about the poignant periods in the lives of regular people.
Julien Baker, photo by Alysse Gafkjen
Saturday | 11.13 What:Julien Baker w/Dehd When: 8 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why:Little Oblivions is not the album a lot of people were expecting from Julien Baker. Her first two records of hushed and introspective folk rock had an undeniable emotional power in part because of Baker’s own stirringly emotional vocals. For this record Baker expanded the palette of sounds including more electronic elements and more expansive, brash soundscapes that seem perfectly suited to what really feels like a burst of expressing emotions kept under wraps for too long yearning to be let out. There is an intensity to the record that almost makes Baker’s previous albums seem safe by comparison if they too weren’t informed by a strong emotional honesty themselves. Easily one of the top albums of the year in the realm of rock. Opening is psychedelic surf pop band Dehd from Chicago. Don’t let that short descriptor throw you off because Dehd performs with an often unsettling intensity as well for a band whose moody music is not short on nervy energy too.
Saturday | 11.13 What:Nitzer Ebb w/DJ Eli Where: Oriental Theater Why: EBM/industrial legends Nitzer Ebb don’t tour much these days and no matter which of their music you’ve heard the live band is more scrappy, more visceral and more powerful than you could really expect. Their 1987 album That Total Age remains a stone classic of 1980s electronic industrial music.
Big Dopes, photo by Jake Cox
Saturday | 11.13 What:Big Dopes album release w/Bellhoss When: 9 p.m. Where: Roxy on Broadway Why: Big Dopes is one of the best Denver bands not enough people know about yet. Its new EP Destination Wedding picks up where its outstanding 2019 album Crimes Against Gratitude left off with affecting lyrics and exquisitely crafted melodies. Fans of C86 era pop, Magnetic Fields and Carissa’s Wierd will likely appreciate the band’s attention to sonic detail and knack for a poetic and thoughtful turn of phrase. Also on the bill is the utterly idiosyncratic pop group Bellhoss. Although many have compared Bellhoss and singer Becky Hostetler, at least according to the project’s website, to artists like Waxahatchee and Soccer Mommy, Bellhoss is weirder and more interesting than those comparisons would suggest (though both artists are obviously notable in their own right) and often comes off like some kind of weirdo indie pop thing with intricate and eccentrically shoegaze-y guitar. Really a show with two of the most compelling bands in the Denver scene post-2017 when the music scene in the Mile High City started to severely fragment even as it expanded.
Monday | 11/15 What:Surfbort — CANCELED When: 8 p.m. Where: The Coast (Fort Collins) Why: Surfbort is a weirdo punk band that’s probably a little too rough around the edges and real for a lot of people who call themselves fans of punk but it’s also one of the most interesting and powerful bands in the world of punk today. They don’t have a lot of releases but its new single “FML” has a strange music video that includes Fred Armisen of Portlandia fame whose own background in punk and his own unusual sense of humor vibed with that of this New York band.
Monday | 11.15 What:Exhumed w/Creeping Death, Bewitcher and Victim ov Fire Where: Oriental Theater Why: Indeed, it’s influential deathgrind band Exhumed from San Jose, California. Though the music can be brutal and forbidding in a way that might be reminiscent of Cannibal Corpse it nevertheless performs the music with great energy informed by a sense of irony and humor with lyrics often aimed at the corrupt American political and economic system that has metastasized into an oligarchy with a wide gulf between the ultra rich and the poorest members of society.
Paul Jacobs, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 11.16 What:Tonstartssbandht, Paul Jacobs and Wally When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Between its gentle lo-fi psychedelia and almost found sound collage aesthetic, Tonstartssbandht from Orlando, Florida is a different animal in the realm of modern psychedelic pop. Andy and Edwin White draw on a broad spectrum of influences from more traditional music to classical music, classic rock and they have a High Rise tribute band called High Rise II. So even though their relatively pastoral 2021 album Petunia can come off just shy of too weird and gritty for yacht rock there are plenty of bizarro nuggets in the mix to keep it interesting. Paul Jacobs’ 2021 album Pink Dogs on the Green Grass gave us a solid batch of wefting and warping psych pop that somehow both hits the ears reminiscent of both Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Clarke and the Himselfs and Odessey & Oracle period The Zombies. The textural quality of his guitar sound keeps us grounded as vocals and wind sounds and even the percussion carries us away into ethereal realms of daydream wonder. In the case of both artists it seems odd to consider how they might pull this stuff off live and yet they do.
Black Marble in May 2017, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 11.16 What:Black Marble w/Voight When: 7 p.m. Where: HQ Why: Black Marble has spent some years perfecting a sonic equivalent of Polaroid photos cast in the colors of lo-fi, New Wave-y post-punk. The 2021 album Fast Idol finds Black Marble less in the realm of entrancing gloom pop and more in some upbeat mood with a sound that makes one think about what forbidden music might have sounded like if it was the USA rather than the USSR that cracked down on the immoral popular music of a decadent other empire. Live the music hits with full fidelity resulting in two different experiences of the music. Denver’s Voight really wants to be a dark techno band playing in dark rooms in the neo-urban decay but is still stuck in industrial shoegaze mode. And yet remains one of the best bands in the Mile High City because the music isn’t rote, predictable, safe pabulum and ferocious live.
Tuesday | 11.16 What:Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock & Roll Revue w/Los Straightjackets Where: Oriental Theater Why: Nick Lowe is one of the pioneers of power pop. He would have sealed that reputation had he remained in Rockpile with one of the other greats of that form of music Dave Edmunds. But Lowe’s solo career speaks for itself with soulful pop rock classics like “Cruel to Be Kind” and “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass.” This run of music is a nod to the sounds that influenced Lowe from rockabilly to soul and beyond.
Wednesday | 11.17 What:Caribou w/Jessy Lanza When: 7 p.m. Where: Boulder Theater Why: Dan Snaith has written some of the most inventive yet accessible electronic music for nearly 20 years as Caribou. Employing traditionally acoustic instrumentation alongside synths/electronic instruments and programming, Snaith taps into some of the same emotional pools of yearning, introspective pondering and nostalgia as the later chillwave and bedroom pop composers he influenced directly or indirectly. His most recent album Suddenly (2020) seemed more somber than other releases but still flowing with hazy yet bright melodies. Even in the most down moments, Snaith incorporates a playful creativity in the mix to convey the nuances and complexity of existence and how we experience life.
Kraak & Smaak, photo by Michael Mees
Wednesday | 11/24 What:Kraak & Smaak w/Capyac When: 8 p.m. Where: Marquis Theater Why: Dutch musical production trio Kraak & Smaak are masters of blending a tropical beat with layers of synth melody modified in real time to give a sense of fluid movement giving the music the aural equivalent of 3D visuals. The effect being an enveloping music with a cinematic sensibility like a somehow benevolent spy movie funk without any violence or skullduggery involved, just adventure and relaxing moods. It’s most recent EP, Scirocco, is like an unlikely but satisfying blend of Ennio Morricone, Boards of Canada and Simple Minds. If the band’s recent live streams are any indication, this current tour will be like seeing some long lost electro funk great of the past playing music that seems familiar yet fresh.
The Velveteers, photo by David Mermilliod
Friday | 11.26 What:The Velveteers w/Dreadnought and Dry Ice When: 7 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: The Velveteers were a promising band from early on in their career in Denver and Boulder playing house shows, small clubs and DIY spaces. While many bands were trying for that classic rock sound, The Velveteers were rapidly outgrowing those early influences into their own sound with fuzzed out riffs and surging song dynamics that made the band sound like it was taking off in multiple directions lending its performances a fiery energy. Through developing the group, creating their own music videos and a little bit of touring, The Velveteers came to the attention of Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys who offered to produce the trio’s new album Nightmare Daydream. Sure it has expert production and clearly the band got some polish in Auerbach’s studio but this set of songs also sound so focused yet as thrillingly effusive as it ever has.
Friday | 11.26 What:Baroness When: 8 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Savannah, Georgia’s Baroness never got to tour behind its 2019 album Gold & Grey for the reasons most bands didn’t do a lot of touring in 2020 and a good chunk of 2021. But now the group with new guitarist Gina Gleason will get a chance to perform older favorites as well as material from the aforementioned album showcasing a seemingly different approach to songwriting different from the brash, bombastic and playful style of previous records. John Baizley’s vocals still soar with great expressive control but the music seems more tied in with the rhythms and beautiful minor chord progressions so that when the songs engage into expansive choruses they always seem to resolve in ways that feel like the group decided to push themselves to say something different and worthwhile with each song. It’s frankly their best album and it would be simply lazy and clumsy to merely refer to this era of Baroness as sludge metal.
Primitive Man in April 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 11.27 What:Primitive Man w/Spectral Voice and Oryx When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Denver is fortunate to have an exceptional extreme metal scene with many bands worth a deep listen. This show, though, showcases three of the best. Spectral Voice and the angular brutality of its dark death metal has evolved from an earlier sort of a blackened deathgrind sound into more refined sonic brutality without losing its raw edge. Oryx has never been short on an inventive evocation of musical heaviness and commentary on the hubris of human civilization. It’s 2021 album Lamenting a Dead World perhaps says it all with the title but the vocals sound especially feral and the parallel rhythms and guitar leads flow with a primordial energy that embodies an inevitable path to doom for the planet if things don’t take a different turn amongst us humans. And of course Primitive Man brings the most crushing and emotionally harrowing death grind you’re likely to experience anywhere. The Denver trio did not tour or play much if anything in the way of live shows in 2020 or much of 2021 so its caustic 2020 album Immersion and its nightmare vision of what seem like end times didn’t get to unleash what is hopefully a catharsis of the eschatological mood that has cloaked the planet since the onset of the pandemic until recently. That these great works of music from Oryx and Primitive Man are still so relevant does speak to the excellence of their conception and execution but also to how far we have to go as a species to prove ourselves worthy of continued existence.
Black Dice was an integral part of New York City underground music in the late 90s and 2000s. Its members had come up through punk but took the spirit of open possibilities suggested by that music to do whatever the wanted to. Anything could be an instrument, any rhythmic idea could be made to work. Even ideas about how structure and patterns would emerge through a kind of sound collage cut-up technique that one might compare favorably with the work of Autechre and Aphex Twin. Key to the band’s creative approach and aesthetic was visual art concepts and its various album covers have been designed by members of the band in a style that hits you like graffiti by way of the Situationist International. The band’s methods of composition and expression proved influential to peers like Animal Collective, a band that on the surface makes an updated form of 90s indie pop but like that music truly experiments with the form and musical substance of the songwriting with forays into noise and sampling that enriched the palette of sounds and dynamics available in crafting songs.
In 2012 Black Dice released its then most recent album Mr. Impossible after which its members took time to pursue other projects, Eric Copeland releasing several solo works as well. With the pandemic thus far time seems to have stretched and compressed for most people and what may feel like a handful of years in the living it can stretch to several and in 2021 Black Dice released its latest record Mod Prog Sic. It is classic Black Dice as a free flowing parade of ideas, textures, rhythm and playful tone and signal processing like some futuristic hip-hop/EBM fusion psychedelic beatmaking. We recently had a chance to speak with longtime member Aaron Warren about his early musical days growing up in California and his formative years as an active member of the punk scene in Boulder and Denver in the 90s before ending up in NYC in pursuit of furthering his education and ending up in the city at a time of great creative ferment.
Black Dice performs at the Hi-Dive this Thursday, November 4, 2021, with cindygod and H-Lite (doors 8 p.m., show 9 p.m., $15 presale, $20 day of show) but until then, please give our wide-ranging and in-depth interview (linked to Bandcamp below) with the insightful and engaging Aaron Warren a listen as it is another tale of the American underground music scene from the 1990s to the present.
This Friday October 29 through Sunday October 31 with doors at 8 p.m., Denver-based experimental performance troupe itchy-O is set for a string of shows at The Summit Music Hall it’s calling HALLOWMASS. Expect a visceral flood of image and sound more like a ritual than a traditional concert or other show with performers dressed up in outfits like ushers in a neo-mystical ceremony. Full drum corps including taiko, synths, other electronics noises, bass, guitar—all in sync to create one of the most powerful live music performances you’ll get to see this or any season. Opening the first night is dark Americana band Munly and the Lupercalians, on October 30 the opening performer is industrial/noise/producer legend J.G. Thirlwell and his Xordox project, October 31 brings tribal post-hardcore post-punk phenoms Wovenhand.
In 2020 the 57-member group performed two outdoor, drive-up events, SYPHERLOT in the parking lot of the Mission Ballroom in August and HALLOWMASS at the now demolished New Tech Machinry building in October. Those performances were captured in high definition and will find release as a double live LP on November 5 through Alternative Tentacles. But advance copies of SYPHERLOT | HALLOWMASS DOUBLE LIVE 2020 will be available during the 2021 HALLOWMASS performances. We recently got to ask some questions of the band via email about the creation of the new album and its evolution as a live and recording project across roughly the past decade.
itchy-O live in 2020, photo by Michael Rehdish
Queen City Sounds and Art (Tom Murphy): How did Itchy-O prepare for the concerts that were captured on the SYPHERLOT | HALLOWMASS DOUBLE LIVE 2020 album given the sprawling membership and what one would assume were observed precautions during that phase of the pandemic?
Itchy-O: When the pandemic hit, we got to work at what we do best, adapting and evolving. Over the years as this thing has grown, being as flexible and nimble as this behemoth can be has been paramount.
So, we heeded the call: Short-band radio broadcast turned each car interior into a private listening experience for what felt like a post-apocalyptic affair. Roving bands of our Khaos Federation opened a temporary escape portal with physically contactless strategies, engulfing each vehicle in the carefully crafted rite and ritual 2020 called for. And procedurally, we developed a set of standard operating procedures that the health department applauded us for, while we followed all of the recommended CDC guidelines for masking, ventilation, disinfecting, and distancing to keep everyone safe.
Q: Bands often release a live album to mark the end of an era or the peak of that era and the beginning of another. Do you feel this was the case with this live album? If so, how so? If not, why not wait until enough newer material was created for a new studio type of record?
I: We record all of our live sets but have never been interested in putting out a live record until now. One of the reasons we decided to release this material was because after looking back we realized we had just captured an extraordinary moment in time (as the blaring car horns attest). It was a literal torch lighting during one of the darkest moments of modern history.
In hindsight, and as you most astutely surmise, this album does feel like a turning of the page for us. One of the reasons for this is the music that we are currently writing for our next studio album embraces a number of more advanced concepts we are incredibly excited about: Things like beat cancellation, the effects of frequencies on bio-organisms, science in music, group hypnotics, and the rhythmic brain.
Q: The global pandemic, still ongoing, prompted musicians and other performing artists to find creative ways to present and perform their music in a safe way and/or to reassess their music and experiment with new approaches and sounds out of necessity and caution. Did those considerations and limitations drive the kinds of shows you’ve done and perhaps inspire new sounds and visual styles and performances that stretched what you’ve done before? How so?
I: Covid may have forced our hand, but like we mentioned we are good at adapting and were able to respond in kind. In addition to the drive-in series (which you can catch part of on Alamo In-Demand), our From The Vault live performance streams gathered fans online each Saturday for two and a half months to relive HD recorded concerts, and we were commissioned by the Greek Onassis Foundation for our Milk Moon Rite performance. The acclimation and protocols we developed helped shape our triumphant return to Levitt Pavilion in July for thousands of spaced-out revelers under a beautiful summer night sky that we set ablaze in pyrotechnics.
But, probably the thing we are most proud of over the past 19 months was our Noise Bath stroboscopic meditation series, utilizing binaural and isochronic frequencies. We rolled out this six part series to our beloved Patreon supporters (who have seriously been the lifeblood through these last 20 months) as a proof-of-concept and it exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Q: What do you feel Evergroove Studio has been instrumental in bringing out in terms of sound for the live shows and on your recordings, the live album in particular?
I: Bringing on Evergroove in 2015 was a game changer for us. Our radio frequency game is on par with the biggest stadium shows touring and in terms of the studio… a whole other article could be devoted to this; see: Evergroove’s new Atmos system that was just installed and our next record.
Q: After listening to the live album in depth I’d say that like your studio albums it gives the listener another dimension of the band. I found the level of detail in texture, dynamics, tone and atmospheric elements to be very immersive in a way that’s different from the live show where the visual element and the collective experience of both band and audience creates an energy that would be impossible to convey fully on a recording. What do you feel you tried to highlight on the live recording with the mixing and mastering process that isn’t always fully possible when executing the music live? Or maybe it is and having this independent listening experience enriches the live show.
I: Many of the musicians were out in the center of the lot with the cars and we had atmospheric mics specifically placed to capture those elements. Those tracks really ended up paying off.
Q: How did J.G. Thirlwell come to be an opener for the October 30 Hallowmass 2021 show? How did his music and production impact what Itchy-O has done?
I: Many of us grew up with J.G. – Foetus, Wiseblood, Clint Ruin, Steroid Maximus, and all of his music on Ectopic Ents, etc. We met him down in Tasmania when we played Dark Mofo in 2016; he’s been a great source for advice concerning the industry over the years and we are completely honored to get his holiday cards every year.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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