Singer / Songwriter Steve Dawson, photo by Matthew Gilson
Steve Dawson is a Chicago-based songwriter who released his most recent, and sixth, solo album Ghosts on June 7 via Pravda Records on CD, LP vinyl, digital download and streaming. Though perhaps best known for his membership in alt-country band Dolly Varden, Dawson’s solo work on the new record infuses his songwriting with power pop sensibilities, fitting for ten songs that explore ideas of how the past weighs on the present and influences how we live life and understand the world around us as well as the people we’ve lost along the way whose presence lingers in our hearts whether they have passed on to the great beyond out simply out of our lives. Dawson also examines times in his life that he remembers vividly that impacted the course of his own path as a human as an artist. For instance “Leadville” which so accurately captures life in various small towns in America that it could be about some place you’ve lived and not the songwriter’s hometown in Idaho. Dawson doesn’t romanticize that time in his life even as the country rock song has a touch of nostalgia to its sound. Each song is a poignant portrait of a space and time and the people that make up where we come from, where we’ve been and to some extent guide where we’re going.
Listen to our interview with Dawson on Bandcamp and follow the songwriter and musician at the links below.
Blushing, photo by Eddie ChavezBlushing in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Monday | 07.01 What:Blushing w/Wave Decay and Cherished When: 7 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Austin-based shoegaze band Blushing recently released its latest album Sugarcoat with its blast of melodiously gritty and ethereal pop. Its flares of tone and anchored rhythms lend the group a dynamic that has an undeniable power on its recordings but even more so in the live setting where the band seems to have a an expansively friendly energy. Opening the show are krautrock/shoegaze band Wave Decay from Denver and the emotionally charged dream pop of Cherished also from the Mile High City.
The Church, photo by Hugh Stewart
Tuesday | 07.02 What: The Church and The Afghan Whigs w/Ed Harcourt When: 6 Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: Both The Church and The Afghan Whigs could headline a tour of their own. The Church made its initial splash in the 80s with records that infused post-punk with psychedelic guitar rock color and thoughtful lyrics anticipating in its songcraft dream pop and shoegaze. Fortunately The Church continued to evolve as artists with records going into its later era that are among its most creatively fascinating including the twin albums The Hypnogogue (2023) and Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars (2024), concept albums about a future not so far in which the struggle to find meaning persists in human society and the psyche despite developments in technology and the evolution of human culture in an age of techno-globalism. The Afghan Whigs seamlessly melded R&B and post-punk for a hybrid sound that predated and helped to define alternative rock in the 90s but with a sound and songwriting style that has aged better than a lot of music of the era. Greg Dulli has seemed able to write songs about love and relationships and his own inner turmoil with passion and poetic insight since the band’s early days. Live both bands seem very capable of bringing you into a heightened emotional space shakes off the regular world for the duration. Listen to our interview with The Church’s Ian Haug here.
Winnetka Bowling League, photo by Paige Sara
Tuesday | 07.02 What:Winnetka Bowling League w/Emi Grace When: 7 Where: Meow Wolf Why: Winnetka Bowling League recently released its debut full-length Sha La La. Nevermind that for some listeners will be reminded immediately of The War on Drugs’ sweeping Americana psychedelia and the warm low end and ethereal melodies of first wave chillwave it’s a set of songs that has some poignant commentary on life in America with vivid set pieces in the lyrics that will be familiar to anyone that has lived through America since the 2010s and paid attention either because you were growing up in that time or observant and aware of the psychological climate of the time. It’s sonically rich indiepop for the time we’re in and its nostalgia-tinged lyrics honor both a flickering yet irrepressible sense of hope for the future and the wry acknowledgment that we could all be doomed given the political, ecological and cultural climate of the world.
King Rat, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 07.04 What:King Rat 30 Year Anniversary w/Black Dots, These Kids Today, Anti-Formula and Terror Attack When: 5 Where: EastFax Tap Why: King Rat has had a bit of a storied existence across its three decades as a band and its melodic punk and dabbling with roots rock has remained consistently worthwhile with well crafted lyrics and a compelling live show. They play at 10 so all the “adults” in attendance can make it to the show after family obligations and home early enough in case they have to work one of those jobs that don’t give adults the day after a national holiday falling on a Thursday, Friday off.
Cherry Spit, photo by Tom Murphy
Thursday | 07.04 What:TV Star, Angel Band, Cherry Spit and DJ Ryan Wong When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: TV Star is a jangle psych pop band from Seattle that sounds like it is tapping into 70s power pop and late 80s college rock like the later period of Paisley Underground acts like Game Theory, Let’s Active and Opal. Angel Band is coming from a similar sonic cauldron and indie pop. Cherry Spit, though, is a gouge the lightning from the skies noise rock outfit that includes former members of Quits and Endless, Nameless.
Glass Spells, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 07.05 What:Glass Spells w/Hex Cassette When: 8 Where: HQ Why: Glass Spells is a darkwave synthpop band from San Diego that has been making music with a clear leg in 80s New Wave and post-punk but more the modern approach bringing together influences, direct or indirect, from electroclash and Nu Disco/Italo disco as well as touches of Latin music rhythms. Opening is the synthwave deathcult performance art act Hex Cassette whose high energy shows make you part of the proceedings with some friendly but intense cajoling. And it all wouldn’t matter too much if his songs weren’t also worthwhile on their own separate from the stagecraft.
The Picture Tour, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 07.06 What: The Picture Tour, CELICA, Up Yours People When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: The Denver Goth scene hasn’t embraced The Picture Tour yet but it should because Billy Armijo and his bandmates have crafted the perfect fusion of shoegaze and moody post-punk. It has too much grit to be the kind of sadcore dad rock you might expect from Denver music scene veterans including Armijo who is the former lead guitarist of Emerald Siam. The guitar tones are searing and soaring yet imbued with enough melancholic melody and atmosphere to sound like a soundtrack to autumn. Up Yours People includes former members of Boss 302 and it is a mutant version of garage punk but noisier and more grimy and aggressive than one might expect even from past projects of the members of the band.
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, photo by Harvey Robinson
Wednesday | 07.10 What: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers w/Alana Mars and DJ Jake Luna When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sarah Shook & The Disarmers have been one of the more acclaimed bands in the broad realm of Americana of the past several years. On March 29, 2024 the group released its latest album Revelations on Thirty Tigers. The record isn’t short on the charm and warmth that has made the band’s previous releases so accessible and inviting and this time there seems to be a defiant spirit to the lyrics rejecting being defined by others and engaging in active self-discovery while finding some meaning in establishing healthy boundaries.
Diles Que No Me Maten, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 07.12 What: Diles Que No Me Maten w/Wave Decay and Pink Lady Monster When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Presumably named after Juan Rulfo’s 1951 story of the same name Diles Que No Me Maten (which means “Tell Them Not to Kill Me”), this Mexico City-based band on the surface is a psychedelic folk group but he further one delves into its body of work you hear elements of dub and art rock with an ear for ambient soundscapes. More akin to the like of The Legendary Pink Dots than a modern psych rock band. Its most recent album Obrigaggi (2023) is a hushed and entrancing listening journey. Wave Decay is the Denver-based shoegaze/psychedelic rock band with far better than average tonal richness. Pink Lady Monster might be described as a No Wave-esque art rock and performance art band and a can’t miss act from Denver for the discerning music fan.
Pallbearer, photo by Al Dalmasy
Saturday | 07.13 What:Pallbearer w/Inter Arma and The Keening When: 7 Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: Pallbearer’s 2024 album Mind Burns Alive has been a long time coming and its first since 2020’s Forgotten Days. The doom metal band from Little Rock, Arkansas has always been a cut above and more interesting than many of its peers because its music has had complex melodic arrangements and particularly on the new record a widely dynamic vocal harmonies. The new album apparently represented the group being together in the same city after a prolonged time apart. The heaviness of the album taps into concept that the themes and emotional content are what makes for the heaviest of moods and its sometimes psychedelic guitar excursions resonate with what peers like Amenra have been up to of late. Opening the show is former SubRosa guitarist/vocalist Rebecca Vernon and her The Keening project and her own flavor of transcendent, ambient doom.
Kontravoid in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 07.13 What: Kontravoid w/French Kettle Station, Modern Devotion and Kill You Club DJs When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: For over a decade Cameron Findlay has been writing and release music as Kontravoid. With heavy, pulsating, industrial beats and dense and murky synths the project with Findlay performing in a white mask in theater style Kontravoid has offered a kind of dance music that draws upon the likes of classic EBM, the creative production style of Meat Beat Manifesto and techno. The latest album Detachment includes vocal contributions from Nuovo Testamento singer Chelsey Crowley. Opening the show are Denver acts French Kettle Station and his own fusion of glitch, electronic dance pop and performance art and Modern Devotion’s minimal techno.
Quasi, photo by John Clark
Thursday | 07.18 What:Quasi w/Jeffrey Lewis When: 7 Where: Marquis Theater Why: Quasi is the rock duo comprised of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss. The former some may know from his time in Heatmiser with Elliott Smith. The latter was the long time drummer of Sleater-Kinney and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and one of the truly great live drummers of the current era. After years of being inactive Quasi released Breaking the Balls of History in 2023 on Sub Pop and a set of songs that showcase the band’s gift for fusing punk and bombastic art rock. Jeffrey Lewis is the eccentric punk musician and visual artist whose songs are punk in spirit but not in the predictable way musically—just a disregard for convention of genre and expectation of subject matter like a one man They Might Be Giants.
mxmtoon, photo by Joelle Grace Taylor
Th and S | 07.18 and 07.20 What: AJR w/mxmtoon and Dean Lewis When: 6 Where: Ball Arena Why: AJR is the trio from NYC comprised of Adam Met, Jack Met and Ryan Met (thus the name, the last name truncated from Metzger) who are all vocalists and multi-instrumentalists and all are involved in the songwriting that’s a hybrid of hip-hop, indie pop and some elements of hyper pop and Americana. Opening the show is multi-media artist and folk bedroom pop artist mxmtoon who propelled herself into the public eye with her use of social media from a young age sharing her visual art and early songwriting with ukulele on a YouTube channel she started at age 13. Her soulful vocals help to set her music apart from what some may assume to be her natural peers and her songwriting demonstrates a poetically thoughtful perspective that takes on the usual subjects of the struggles of youth and looming adulthood with creativity. Add her imaginative production and free association of musical styles into a coherent one of her own and mxmtoon is easily one of the most interesting pop artists now more than flirting with mainstream success.
A Strange Happening in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 07.19 What: A Strange Happening, Plague Pitted Moon, Penny Auction When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Plague Pitted Moon is a psychedelic doom band from Rapid City that recently released its 2024 self-titled EP. Its dark, distorted drones are like a grittier, more metal-inspired shoegaze band. Penny Auction from Casper, Wyoming is similarly minded but generally more noisy and menacing like if someone that listened to a lot of Sonic Youth, Big Black and My Dad Is Dead decided to start a band that was more lo-fi than even all of that. A Strange Happening is basically an indie rock band if its members were all nerds for old radio serial programming and psychedelic garage rock but skipped on the 2010s version of that sort of thing and essentially a weird band that writes accessible music.
Digable Planets, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 07.20 What: The Roots w/Digable Planets When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: The Roots are a band that early on adopted using live jazz instrumentation into its brand of hip-hop setting it apart from most of its peers especially when it launched in 1987. Stylistically Digable Planets shared eclectic and jazz and R&B rooted sensibilities when it too formed in 1987. Both projects have roots in Philadelphia though Digable Planets first came to prominence when it was based in Brooklyn. Both outfits released their respective debut albums in 1993 on major record labels with a follow up in 1995. Digable Planets split for a decade after the release of that album, the deep mood jazz psychedelia-infused Blowout Comb, while The Roots continued to build its cult following into relative mainstream success even before it became the official house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2009. Big ups for the 2011 Michele Bachman incident. Although it hasn’t released a new album in nearly 30 years Digable Planets began its latest run as a live band in 2015 and The Roots for its own part hasn’t offered a new record since 2014 but both have proven themselves as vital live bands whose sounds and ideas have helped to shape the aesthetics of much of the modern hip-hop that dares to break the mold of standard and well worn ideas with imagination and a willingness to think of their own music beyond tradition and established style.
Daikaiju, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday and Sunday | 07.20 and 07.21 What: Daikaiju and TripLip w/Pink Lady Monster (07.20) and Big Canned Ham (07.21) When: 7pm both nights Where: The Matchbox (07.20) and The Squire Lounge (07.21) Why: Daikaiju is the legendary psychedelic surf rock band with truly exciting live shows with fire and breaking the audience and performer wall by making an entire venue a potential stage. TripLip could be described as a progressive surf rock punk band but really art rock in the more playful 90s vein and truly not easily put into any genre box though a perfect band to play with Daikaiju. Pink Lady Monster is the charismatic and enigmatic No Wave post-punk/art rock band from Denver. Big Canned Ham is sort of a psychedelic art rock funk band that apparently didn’t see some reason not to fuse Pink Floyd, Primus and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
The Decemberists, photo by Holly Andres
Tuesday | 07.23 What: The Decemberists w/Ratboys When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: The Decemberists have long been one of the quintessential indie rock bands of the 2000s and beyond with its penchant for eclectic instrumentation, folkloric, literary lyrics and a sound that dips into Americana and chamber pop. Plenty of shade has been thrown the band’s way for being pretentious in its theatrical presentation, its often somewhat nerdy subject matter and the baroque aesthetic of its cover art yet it’s refreshing to see a band put that much effort into the small details of its music from its performances to the way its music greets the world separate from the live context. Not to mention the creative ambition to pull it all off and to establish a body of work with layers of meaning and nuance. The band’s latest album As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again (2024) sounds like a descendant of jangle rock and 80s indiepop as embodied by groups out of the Paisley Underground and the southeastern part of the USA like The Windbreakers, Let’s Active and The db’s.
Facet, photo from Bandcamp
Tuesday | 07.23 What: Facet, Moon Pussy, Abandons and Wingwalker When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Facet is the Oakland-based, noisy post-hardcore band whose self-titled 2023 album is half Amphetamine-Reptile-artist-esque atonal madness and DC post-punk. Fitting Denver’s own noise rock weirdo geniuses Moon Pussy are sharing the bill along with instrumental art doom trio Abandons and heavy, angular post-punk trio Wingwalker.
Ben Howard, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 07.23 What: Ben Howard w/John Francis Flynn When: 7 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: You don’t need any kind of background on the artist or the making of the album to get something out of Ben Howard’s 2023 album Is It? The singer-songwriter whose career stretches back to the late 2000s suffered two mini-strokes in 2022 which initiated some lifestyle changes and the subsequent album which in some ways charts his creative coming to terms with and working through his life changes isn’t just introspective in expected ways the music is richly detailed and flows with a seemingly organic flow of electronic and not so electronic elements that is instantly engaging and is resonant with recent offerings from Mount Kimbie. The songs are illuminating and tender, emotionally vivid and Howard’s vocals, processed or otherwise, shine with a gentle warmth. The record is the artists magnum opus.
Easy Honey, photo by Amanda Laferriere
Wednesday | 07.24 What:Easy Honey w/Sex Wacks and Welcome Back When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Charleston, South Carolina-based Easy Honey originally started in Sewanee, Tennessee and have cultivated a sound one more often associates with the mood and energy of a psychedelic pop band from the opposite side of the country. But in its songwriting one hears threads of influence beyond obvious touchstones. There is a power pop sensibility crossed with the storytelling mode of The Kinks and the way the latter ties its captivating choruses with big, melodic hooks. There is an easygoing aspect of the music even though its wit and exuberance inform the songwriting and the performances. On July 19, 2024 the band released its new album Cupidity Unlimited and is currently on a wide touring leg in Colorado alone that began on July 7 in Buena Vista and continues through July 27 in Colorado Springs.
Mark Farina, photo courtesy OM Records
Friday and Saturday | 07.26 and 07.27 What: Mark Farina When: 8 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Why: Mark Farina is the legendary DJ who fused house, jazz and downtempo with elements of other styles in an almost free association of beats and sounds to produce his trademark sound “mushroom jazz.” The latter hit like acid jazz mutated by left field hip-hop beats. Farina explored the inner and outer edges of that aesthetic across several releases in the Mushroom Jazz series. Farina’s eclectic, mellow but vivid production has influenced at least one generation of house and electronic dance music creatives Farina performs sets Friday and Saturday at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station where the room’s spacious and spare accommodations seem like the right place to experience music provided by one of modern house music’s most significant artists/mixologists.
Street Fever, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 07.30 What: Street Fever w/MDX View, Palace Guard, Dream Compartment When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Street Fever is the performance artist and industrial techno/EBM darkwave artist from Boise, Idaho who has a bit of an underground cult following dating back around a decade when he was a completely mysterious figure whose sets were in the realm of gritty darkwave before that became more of a thing within a few years. But more recent Street Fever shows have been more intense, seemingly more focused and heavier, harder beats perhaps heard in the most realized form on the 2024 album Absolution. The record whose themes seem to explore working through religious trauma and life under late capitalism is refreshingly not stylistically monolithic and start and has moments of sublime, melodic beauty and emotionally vibrant vocals. Live, Street Fever often brings the stage into the audience and involves those who show up in his personal catharsis.
The Ocean is an experimental metal band from Berlin formed in 2000. Primary songwriter and guitarist Robin Staps has a constant presence in the group which often operates as a collective with an evolving group of contributors and regular musicians. Its albums are often loose concept albums named after eras of the earth’s geologic history. Though the songs aren’t short on guitar driven heaviness but often employed to create dense and dynamic soundscapes. The most recent album, 2023’s Holocene, saw The Ocean more fully integrating synths and the aesthetics of electronic music into its ambitious compositions with songs that depict scenes from a dystopian near future and with lyrics that demonstrate the impact of the ideas behind The Situationist International and its prescient critique of consumer culture and the deleterious effect of late capitalism on human society and civilization.
Listen to our interview with Robin Staps on Bandcamp and follow The Ocean at the links below.
The Milk Blossoms will release its third album Open Portal on October 4, 2024 on vinyl, streaming and digital download. Open Portal is the first album to feature the band’s new lineup including Harmony Rose (vocals, ukulele, lyrics), William Overton (keys, synth), David Samuelson (electric bass) and Tyler Lindgren (drums). For the recording Zac Greenberg plays upright bass with Lindgren producing, recording, mixing and mastering the songs. Ahead of the record drop the group just released its second single “Teenager.”
The Milk Blossoms, photo courtesy the artists
“Teenager” begins with delicate textures and rhythms with ukulele and minimal percussion while Rose doesn’t reminisce so much as offers observations and thought provoking confessions with her words. The song accelerates in pace and ukulele seems to distort apace with the increasing urgency of the vocals toward the end of the song. All without losing what might be described as a vital vulnerability. Rose’s paces aren’t the standard meter of lyrics in a pop song. They seem more free verse and more intuitive in expressing the feeling and mood of the song even as she repeats the line “living like a teenager in the summer” at the end of the song after uttering the line once in the beginning. It hits like a mantra of intent, a reminder to oneself that just because you’ve gotten used to living on someone else’s schedule and according to the demands of living in the “adult” world doesn’t mean you can’t tap into what it felt like, even if naively and with the ignorance of a lack of life experience, to see the future as a place to make your fun and to dream of what to do and then do it and not be burdened by supposed practical considerations. Further if you could act without thinking overmuch about making a minor mistake or anchored by arbitrary social rules. Living like a teenager in the summer often meant for many people an open invitation to adventures and making your own fun without it having take a certain shape or be a certain way or ritualized. The lines “Glamor chandelier I’ve got a mind to escape to/what do you know about an open portal?” suggest that imagination and creativity is free to everyone who wants to escape mundane existence if they’re willing to act on it.
Growing into adulthood seems to be largely about increasing limitations that are largely arbitrary. This song appears to be an invitation, a challenge, to living outside those bounds at least once in awhile to feel alive and vital. It’s a rebel song without being try hard and thus more effective for it. Listen to “Teenager” on YouTube and follow The Milk Blossoms at the links below. Catch the band live at MCA Denver on July 19, 2024 with Dogtags, at The Skylark Lounge on August 22 with Car Microwave and mlady and at the album release show for Open Portal at the Hi-Dive on October 5 with George Cessna and Wheelchair Sports Camp.
The Church formed in Sydney, Australia in 1980 as a post-punk band with psychedelic rock leanings that over the course of its long career has evolved in consistently fascinating directions. Its early records proved to be the sound of a band slightly ahead of its time and embodying the sound of what came to be known as dream pop with moody guitar and synth and literary lyrics that told stories and commented on human experiences in a way that wasn’t standard faire for a rock band. The group had breakthrough international success with the release of its 1988 album Starfish and hit single “Under the Milky Way” which had an echo impact in 2001 when it featured prominently in the psychological thriller Donnie Darko. 26 albums and numerous other releases along the way The Church firmly established itself as a band with creative ambition and emotionally refined sensibilities paired with a powerful live performance that it maintains to this day. Its later albums are among the best of the band’s career including its two most recent, The Hypnogogue (2023) and Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars (2024), companion albums telling the story of a future in which humanity struggles to hold onto its identity and reinvent itself for survival in even more uncertain times. The Church is still very much a guitar rock band but one that hasn’t failed to pay keen attention to where music has gone or keep track of its own vision and direction as a creative collective.
Listen to our interview with guitarist Ian Haug on Bandcamp and follow The Church at the links below. The group is currently on tour in the US with The Afghan Whigs and Ed Harcourt including a stop at Denver’s Ogden Theatre on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
bellhoss, photo courtesy the artists and taken at JCPenney
Bellhoss is an indie rock band from Denver, Colorado that began in 2017 as the solo act of Becky Otárola that grew to a full band within a couple of years. The songwriter came up in Southern California immersed in folk and bluegrass and underground music of the 90s and 2000s. Otárola moved to Denver in the first half of the 2010s and in the early days of the project she played open mics at Syntax Physic Opera and as perhaps a natural progression from there fell in with the local indie scene and as the band developed so did the songwriting and by the time of the release of the 2019 EP Geraniums bellhoss its sound had taken on aspects of slowcore with delicately rendered melodies and a warmth of expression reminiscent of Waxahatchee and Jay Som. With the release of the 2024 EP A Rose, a Thorn, bellhoss revealed a knack for blending vulnerable and thoughtfully observant songwriting with luminous dream pop and a bit of musical edge. 2024 also sees Otárola organizing the inaugural SarahFest, an all ages music festival designed to give a platform to female and female-fronted bands along Colorado’s Front Range taking place at The Mercury Cafe on Saturday, June 15.
Listen to our interview with Otárola on Bandcamp and follow bellhoss at the links below. Also linked is the ticket link for SarahFest.
SarahFest featuring Bellhoss, The Milk Blossoms, Luna Nuñez, Dream of Time, Gartener, Summer Bedhead, Tammy Shine, Nina De Freitas and Demigod (DJ set) at Mercury Cafe, June 15, 2024, all ages $20 6PM.
Death was one of the foundational bands in the metal subgenre sharing its own moniker. Along with Possessed and Necrophagia, all of which started in 1983, Death created an extreme form of guitar-driven music that combined speed with a heaviness and aggression that served well its often horrific subject matter. Its debut full-length Scream Bloody Gore (1987) set a high bar for the genre with convoluted guitar work courtesy the band’s de facto leader and sole consistent member until his 2001 untimely passing Chuck Schuldiner. Its horror cinema themes and intensity wasn’t for every metal fan of the time but the influence of the record on what would come in its wake in extreme metal and the genre of death metal itself is undeniable. Subsequent albums built upon the technical aspects of the music and its lyrics moved on from horror themes and by the time of 1990’s Spiritual Healing the lyrics engaged in social commentary and horrors of the real world and its own breed of monstrous human behavior. Across its subsequent albums the songwriting blossomed in technical complexity and focus in lyrical themes in expressing poetic personal perspectives. Tragically Schuldiner passed in 2001 of a brain tumor but the legacy of Death lives on in its obvious and deep influence on modern heavy metal. Drummer Gene Hoglan was acontributor to the albums Individual Thought Patterns (1993) and Symbolic (1995) and one of the driving forces behind Death To All, a project paying tribute to the creative achievements of the band and its primary songwriter, Chuck Schuldiner.
Miki Berenyi Trio perform at The Bluebird Theater on June 6, 2024, photo by V. ArbeletThe Damned in 2018, photo by Steve Gullick
Tuesday | 06.04 What:The Damned with The Mañanas When: 7 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: The Damned were one of the foundational UK punk bands in the mid-1970s releasing that scene’s earliest single with the iconic “New Rose.” In subsequent decades the group managed to evolve and still remain a powerful and entertaining live band with a sense of theater. Though part of the first wave of punk The Damned’s raucous live show proved an enduring influence on hardcore. After numerous lineup changes the current band includes founding members Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible.
Wand, photo by Asal Shahindoust
Wednesday | 06.05 What:Wand w/Supreme Joy When: 7 PM Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Wand guitarist Cory Hanson is widely considered one of the great talents of 2010’s psychedelic rock whose solo recordings are as fascinating as anything he’s done in anyone else’s band (Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, Meatbodies etc). But Wand is the musical vehicle that has perhaps rightfully garnered Hanson and his bandmates much deserved attention for actually making modern psychedelic rock that is more than simply adding trippy sounds and pedals to fairly standard indie rock songwriting. Its forthcoming record Vertigo (due out July 26, 2024 via Drag City) and its lead single “Smile” has all the gorgeously warm melodies and winding momentum you’d expect from Wand as well as the mind-warping soundscapes but its music video is a surreal journey from intense highs to transcendent tranquility akin to the best of Flaming Lips tracks. Though the record doesn’t come out for over a month this show will surely feature plenty of that new material as well as mind-melting classics on Wand records past. Opening the show is psychedelic post-punk Denver band Supreme Joy who opened for Cory Hanson’s solo trek through Colorado this past year.
Dylan Owen, photo courtesy the artist
Wednesday | 06.05 What: Abstract & Dylan Owen w/Jake Luke, FLWRS and Merch When: 7 Where: Lost Lake Why: Rappers Abstract (Nashville) and Dylan Owens (New York) bring their tour to Lost Lake. Both artists deal in heartfelt, confessional lyrics seemingly inspired in part by 2000s alternative rap but with more modern production style. Owens’ lyrics in particular seem clearly informed by a deep exploration of music and ideas beyond what one might expect. In his song “LA FREESTYLE” he references Philip Glass and that doesn’t happen much in hip-hop.
Miki Berenyi Trio, photo courtesy V. Arbelet
Thursday | 06.06 What: Miki Berenyi Trio w/Lol Tolhurst X Budgie When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Miki Berenyi is one of the founding members of influential early shoegaze band Lush. Her unique and melodious vocals and unorthodox guitar style helped to shape the sound of the genre. With this current band Berenyi tapped an old comrade in guitarist Kevin McKillop formerly of shoegaze legends Moose to be in the lineup as well as Oliver Cherer (Gilroy Mere, Aircooled). Its early recorded music and live performances promise plenty of immersive soundscapes and otherworldly melodies. Opening the show are Lol Tolhurst who, you know, was in The Cure for years as a drummer/synth player during that band’s key years of development and Budgie, the drummer of Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Creatures and the duo has been collaborating with various musicians on a string of singles and performances so who can say what to expect this night.
Meet the Giant, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06/07 What:Takipnik, Meet the Giant, Falcon Haptics and Saint Somebody When: 7:30 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: Takipnik is a synthrock band that sounds like it draws a bit of influence from modern prog/art rock bands like Tool. Falcon Haptics are a black metal band from Fort Collins with some stoner rock leanings. Saint Somebody is an Americana band from Denver with some chamber pop flavor. Meet the Giant is a trio that completely blurs the line between downtempo, shoegaze and fiery alternative rock with imaginative soundscapes and top shelf electronic production fully integrated into its live sound.
Ghostly Kisses, photo by Fred Gervais
Friday | 06/07 What: Ghostly Kisses w/Kroy and Mon Cher When: 7 Where: Globe Hall Why: Margaux Sauvé is a singer-songwriter from Québec, Canada who releases music and performs under the moniker Ghostly Kisses. Her songs combine a sublime synthpop sound and orchestral indie rock. Her newly released full-length Darkroom (May 17, 2024 via Akira Records) features her beautifully breathy vocals and ethereal yet warmly executed soundscapes tied together with techno production-rooted beats and an almost classical music sensibility that at times waxes into similar realms of organic-electronic pop populated in the 90s by the likes of Everything But the Girl and other luminaries of sophistipop. Also on hand for this tour is Montreal-based, experimental pop/downtempo artist KROY and Denver’s Mon Cher which is the synth-driven musical project of producer and multi-instrumentalist Meghan Holton.
Cris Jacobs, photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Friday and Saturday | 06.07 and 06.08 What: The Bluegrass Generals featuring Chris Pandolfi & Andy Hall, Jarrod Walker, Cris Jacobs, Emma Rose w/Twisted Pine When: 7 both nights Where: Cervantes’ Mastrerpiece Ballroom Why: The Bluegrass Generals aka Chris Pandolfii & Andy Hall are putting on this even of some of the more gifted practitioners of the modern version of that style of music suggested by their shared moniker. For this edition of the event Baltimore-based roots rocker Cris Jacobs who is touring in support of his new album One Of These Days (Soundly Music). The songwriter’s expressive vocals and vivid storytelling and gift for expanding upon his stylistic foundations with imaginative arrangements has made him a favorite in his hometown and well beyond as evidenced by the invite to be part of this event with some of his more talented peers.
Quits, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 06.08 What:Dry Wedding,. Snakes, Quits and Moon Pussy When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Dry Wedding is a dark, Americana flavored post-punk band from Portland, Oregon. Its gloomy and brooding moods are shot through with bursts of nervy energy like purgings of anxiety and desperation. Ready comparisons to The Birthday Party and other Nick Cave projects are valid because it has a touch of that surreal, dark and harrowing carnival murder punk vibe. But fans of Love Life and Bambara will appreciate the band too. Snakes is a band whose music is Americana adjacent but its sound is almost as much spooky surf garage with expansive energy. Quits’ portraits of a conflicted and desperation-wracked American life are as inherently Americana as anything dubbed so even if its distorted, discordant sonic gyrations and burns are noise rock gold. Moon Pussy should be mandatory listening for anyone wanting a quick and thrilling escape from Mile High City Yuppie Normie bullshit.
American Culture in 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 06.08 What: American Culture album release w/Wave Decay, Cherry Spit, Dirt Filled and Flaming Tongues Above When: 7 Where: D3 Arts Why: American Culture’s latest, and greatest, album Hey Brother, It’s Been Awhile is a self-redemption arc fable not just on a personal level but for a society that has lost its way more than most individuals ever will. The music is a step away from the inspired and earnest indiepop of some of the group’s earlier efforts and has all the hallmarks of 90s Britpop, modern dream-pop-adjacent shoegaze and production driven dub. It’s a unique record in a time of many imitators and vibe hoppers. Wave Decay is a shoegaze act with foundations in krautrock and noise rock. Cherry Spit splits the difference between post-hardcore, noise rock and aggressive shoegaze and shapes it into electrifying live performances. Flaming Tongues Above is the solo, singer-songwriter project of former American Culture and current Destiny Bond guitarist Amos Helvey.
Death to All, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 06.08 What:Death to All (Scream Bloody Gore in its entirety) w/Cryptopsy When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Death is one of the most influential bands in all of heavy metal and one of the earliest death metal bands. The group split for the final time in 2001 with the untimely passing of guitar wizard and frontman Chuck Schuldiner. Death to All is a tribute to the legacy of the group and includes former members of the like drummer Gene Hoglan (who has been one of the most important musicians in modern metal), bassist Steve DiGiorgio and guitarist Bobby Koelble joined by Max Phelps who some may know from his time in Obscura and Cynic. So the line-up is solid and filled with gifted musicians in the artform. For this tour the group will perform two nights. This first night it will play the entire 1987 debut album Scream Bloody Gore with some choice classics from Leprosy and Spiritual Healing.
Pale Waves, photo by Pip
Saturday | 06.08 What: PVRIS w/Pale Waves and Sizzy Rocket When: 6 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: PVRIS is the electro-pop band from Lowell, Massachusetts that has come a long way since its early metalcore days as Operation Guillotine. And for the better. Its uplifting and triumphant songs about life and love delivered with no small degree of emotionally charged vocals and ethereal melodies has struck an enduring chord with fans. Sizzy Rocket seems to produce pop songs with undeniable hooks but about being very accepting of what other people might perceive as your flaws especially if you’re really just not a polite society conformist. Pale Waves is a pop rock band from Manchester, UK that’s a little challenging to pin down to some simple subgenre. Its bright melodies and rich arrangements somehow tie in a bit of post-punk grit and style with modern indie pop. Its visual presence and attitude bears all the marks of a darkwave band but one that isn’t ashamed of embracing a love for mainstream pop without giving up lyrics that aim for emotional authenticity.
Death to All, photo courtesy the artists
Sunday | 06.09 What:Death to All (The Sound of Perseverance in its entirety) w/Cryptopsy When: 6 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: This second night of Death to All will be a performance of the final Death album 1998’s progressive death metal masterpiece The Sound of Perseverance along with favorites from Human, Individual Thought Patterns and Symbolic.
Quintron and Miss Pussycat in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
Tuesday | 06/11 What:Quintron & Miss Pussycat w/Mr. Pacman When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Going to a Quintron and Miss Pussycat show is a bit like going to an adult version of a weekday kids’ show with the surreal sounds and imagery and often an elaborate live puppet show as part of the act. The music bridges the gap of psychedelic garage rock and the avant-garde/noise. Mr. Pacman similarly preserves a mystique of the weird with its members in costume like a band from a long lost video game show of the 90s but with music that is synth punk with actual edge and intensity.
The Chameleons, photo by Mick Peek
Wednesday | 06.12 What: The Chameleons perform Strange Times w/Missing and FashionNation DJ Eli When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: The legendary, Manchester post-punk band The Chameleons will perform its 1986 classic Strange Times in its entirety. The band’s perfect fusion of electronic and rock aesthetics with emotionally charged and existential lyrics as well as its masterful guitar work anticipating the sound of shoegaze in the 90s has proven influential across decades and this incarnation of the band includes original singer Mark Burgess and guitarist Reg Smithies so expect more than a little of the magic of the group’s classic material.
LABRYS, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 06.14 What: LABRYS w/Tiny Tomboy and Isadora Eden When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: LABRYS is the songwriting vehicle for Oklahoma City-based Penny Pitchlynn and the sounds heard on the project’s 2024 album 10:10 has a brooding grit like PJ Harvey gone psychedelic blues garage. Tiny Tomboy is a Denver based indie band whose delicate songwriting is reminiscent of Soccer Mommy’s brash vulnerability and ear for finely sculpted guitar melodies. Isadora Eden’s introspective and soulful dream pop has a gentle feel even as the lyrics often give voice to intrusive thoughts and dark musings captured in imaginative songwriting.
bellhoss, photo taken at JCPenney
Saturday | 06.15 What: SarahFest When: 5 doors, 6 show Where: The Mercury Cafe Why: This inaugural edition of SarahFest showcases some of the most noteworthy female or female fronted acts from Colorado’s Front Range including bellhoss, The Milk Blossoms, Luna Nuñez, Dream of Time, Gartener, Nina de Freitas, Summer Bedhead, Tammy Shine and DJ Demigod (Demi Harvey). Listen to our interview with organizer Becky Otárola of bellhoss here.
Morgan Garrett, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 06.15 What: Morgan Garrett, Purity LP tour w/Many Blessings, Fossil Fuel and Head Slug When: 8 Where: Glob Why: Morgan Garrett recently released the new album Purity through Orange Milk Records and further cemented the artist’s reputation for genre bursting weirdness that happen to form into coherent songs with a unique and haunting emotional resonance whether it’s the abstract industrial noise metal or organically flowing anti-folk acoustic ambient. Also on hand are Denver noiseniks including Many Blessings, the harsh noise side project of Ethan McCarthy who many may know from his being in legendary doom death grind trio Primitive Man.
DIIV, photo by Louie Kovatch
Sunday | 06.16 What: DIIV w/Sasami and Glixen When: 7 Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: DIIV is the New York City band that helped to re-popularize shoegaze in the early 2010s with the release of its 2012 album Oshin. It wasn’t merely imitative but its own take and sound in an established genre which is something not nearly enough bands accomplish. And so DIIV has never seemed simply derivative. Its new album Frog In Boiling Water is a deep commentary on what if feels like to live in the end stages of capitalism and how sometimes the despair at what we could have done as a civilization but seem to continue to fail to do to alleviate the inevitable destruction and suffering ahead of us in terms of the environment, economic collapse and political collapse can be deeply dispiriting. But the gentle energy of the record and its richly atmospheric songwriting makes the album a standout from the group and something to witness live. Also on the bill is Sasami whose inspired genre bending songwriting has manifested as garage-y dreampop and alternative metal.
Shwarma, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 06.21 What: Shwarma w/Cloud Catcher and Kaepora When: 7 Where: Cervantes’ Other Side Why: Denver’s Shwarma might be best described as a psychedelic space rock band whose players all got into Frank Zappa and Melvins along the way as well as perhaps Hawkwind. The group is celebrating the release of its new album Best Cerv’d Shwarm with this show and sharing the stage with doom metal group Cloud Catcher and prog jazz fusion bluegrass band Kaepora.
d4vd, photo by Nick Walker
Friday | 06.21 What:d4vd – My House is Not a Home Tour w/Scott James When: 6 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: David Anthony Burke aka d4vd has been building an audience since his earliest singles came out when he was a mere 16 years of age. But from early on the singer-songwriter’s songs demonstrated an ear for soulful melodies and freely associating a wide array of influences, not all musical, into sonically rich songs that don’t fit neatly into even broad categories of R&B, hip-hop, pop and rock. 2022’s “Romantic Homicide” and its J-horror-themed music video was a beautifully haunting song about heartbreak. His live shows proved the artist had real command of the stage and audience interaction. 2024 saw d4vd release his the single “Feel It” as part of the soundtrack season two of the animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s (Walking Dead), dystopian super hero comic series Invincible.
Fainting Dreams, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 06.21 What: Nighdrator w/Evan Kallas, Water on the Thirsty Ground, RMO and Fainting Dreams When: 7 Where: Squirm Gallery Why: Nighdrator is a psychedelic shoegaze doom band from Hattiesburg, Mississippi that shares membership with the great post-punk band MSPAINT. Its epic and nuanced soundscapes are cinematic in scope yet intimate in its expressions of personal challenges. Fans of SubRosa and the more shoegazey of Chelsea Wolfe’s songwriting will find much to like in Nighdrator’s arresting compositions. And so it’s only fitting that doomy shoegaze post-dream pop band Fainting Dreams is also on the bill with its thrillingly gritty soundscapes and raw catharsis.
Friday | 06.21 What: Colorado Goth Fest Pre-Party When: 9pm-2am Where: 715 Club Why: This event inaugurates Colorado Goth Fest with some of the DJs who have been very much part of the local Goth scene in Denver in its more post-punk, death rock and darkwave manifestations with Precious Blood, Lord Charon, DJ BatBoy and DJ Mal Toxisk.
Plague Garden, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 06.22 What:Colorado Goth Fest Featuring Calabrese and Scary Black w/WitchHands, Plague Garden, Opaque Shades, Funeral Process, Thee Coroners, Redwing Blackbird and Devoratus When: 3 doors, 4 show Where: HQ Why: Colorado Goth Fest returns after a long hiatus but finally in Denver. This edition puts the focus on post-punk, death rock and horror punk. The out of town headliners include Arizona-based horror punk act Calabrese and Louisville, Kentucky’s Scary Black, a one man Goth rock act like a post-punk Alabama 3. And the local line-up includes notable veterans of local darkwave and post-punk like WitchHands, Plague Garden and Redwing Blackbird and newer acts like Devoratus and its Spanish-language darkwave pop.
Ex Lover, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 06.22 What: Ex Lover w/Twin Ion Engine, Pill Joy, Sell Farm and Kill You Club DJs When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Omaha-based Ex Lover stops in Denver for a night for a performance of her hyperpop infused darkwave dance songs. Her 2023 album Devotion mixes English and Spanish lyrics but all threaded through with soaring guitar melody and upbeat vocals. Fans of Nuovo Testamento should check out Ex Lover.
Hawthorne Heights, photo by Courtney Kiara
Monday| 06.24 What: 20 Years of Tears: Hawthorne Heights, I See Stars, Anberlin, Armor for Sleep, Emery, This Wild Life When: 5 Where: Ogden Theatre Why: This package tour features some of the stars of 2000s and 2010s post-hardcore and emo. The latter is a genre that earned plenty of ridicule with the scene kids and their signature style of dress and hair cuts nevermind the controversies with various bands in later years. Hawthorne Heights took on that moniker in 2004 before which it operated as A Day in the Life. Even if you weren’t into emo at least Hawthorne Heights had interesting guitar work, expressive vocals (and not mostly shouting and easily parodied screaming) and a dramatic flair in its arrangements. Is it easy to trace the band’s influences? Certainly. But its music has aged better than that of many of its peers.
The Alarm, photo by Andy Labrow
Tuesday | 06.25 What:The Alarm w/Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel and Belouis Some When: 6 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: The Alarm is a post-punk/New Wave band from Wales lead since its formation by Mike Peters. The group’s lyrics and musical style bore the influence of Welsh literature and cultural tradition that it translated into songs that caught on with a much wider public than simple local cult band status. Early on the group played shows with The Fall and U2 going on to support the latter for its US War Tour in 1983. The Alarm became popular on college radio throughout the 80s while also enjoying a degree of commercial popularity as well that landed them a support slot with Bob Dylan by the end of the decade. The band’s buoyant melodies and poetic lyrics sustained a following while it was broken up between 1991 and 1999 and since the group has reconvened it has been more prolific than its first chapter in existence. Also on this bill other than Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel and its own blend of psychedelia and post-punk is New Wave artist Belouis Some aka Neville Keighley. The latter garnered some popularity for hits “Some People,” “Imagination” and cinematic fame with “Round, Round” featured on the soundtrack to the 1986 John Hughes film Pretty in Pink. Though mostly known for his 80s heyday Keighley has remained active in music on and off since that time and this is a rare chance to see him live in Denver.
Adrianne Lenker, photo by Germaine Dunes
Wednesday | 06.26 What:Adrianne Lenker w/Twain When: 6 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Adrianne Lenker has firmly established herself as both a member of one of the more acclaimed bands of recent years and as an equally respected solo artist. Lenker had already garnered critical accolades before Big Thief got going in 2015. Her second album Hours Were the Birds was released on Saddle Creek in 2014 already revealing Lenker’s gift for articulating personal insight with spareness of composition and vulnerable minimalism. A decade later Lenker offers her latest record Bright Future which while offering more orchestral arrangements still comes across as Lenker finding the poetic essence of solitary revelations that flash into your mind fully formed. The cover art to the record give you a clue into the vibe a bit of late evening drives on the road with enough time to sort out the important thoughts from the distractions. Lenker’s voice intoning with a tender slight warble like the songs were worked out around a campfire with friends.
French Cassettes, photo by Marisa Bazan
Wednesday | 06.26 What:French Cassettes w/Body and Barbara When: 8 Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: French Cassettes is touring in support of its latest album Benzene. The latter is frontman Lorenzo Scott Herta’s family nickname given without the usual connotations. It’s a gentle set of songs with rich melodies like an indie rock psychedelic band with an ear for lushly orchestral arrangements reminiscent of art pop bands like The Magnetic Fields and Belle & Sebastian. It’s a record about miscommunication and reconnecting on a better basis while owning up to shortcomings and coming together to sort out the barriers to mutual comprehension and coming to terms with how we’ve been, how we are and how we will be.
Yellow Card, photo by Acacia Evans
Wednesday | 06.26 What: Third Eye Blind w/Yellowcard and Arizona When: 5 Where: Red Rocks Why: Third Eye Blind wrote one of the iconic songs of late 90s, late alternative rock with “Semi-Charmed Life.” The band’s upbeat music and wry humor has since garnered a cult following enough to be able to headline Red Rocks Yellowcard might have been forgotten as yet another pop punk band at a time when the world seemed awash in multiple generic versions of that sound. But its fourth album, 2003’s Ocean Avenue, somehow fused sunny pop punk with lyrics about struggling with what you want to do with your life, complicated relationships with the people in your life and the nature of relationships beyond those teen and high school romances that are the subject matter of a lot of rock, pop and certainly pop punk and emo. And hey Sean Mackin, the only original member left in the band, doesn’t just do lead vocals he plays violin and it actually adds an atmospheric element that doesn’t just sound like a gimmick in a punk band.
Steven Lee Lawson, photo courtesy the artist
Thursday | 06.27 What: Steven Lee Lawson + The Archers EP release w/Blacktop Musical When: 7 Where: Roxy on Broadway in the Speakeasy Downstairs Why: Steven Lee Lawson is a singer-songwriter from Denver whose musical exploits date back to the late 90s and early 2000s when as a fledgling musician he was involved in a variety of styles of music including the experimental/krautrock of Zubabi before finding his lane at the edges of Denver’s indie rock scene in the mid-2000s with the more classic pop and Americana-inflected projects like Oblio Duo and its multiple incarnations with then songwriting partner Will Duncan (now of Pleasure Prince). Lawson’s poetic lyrics shed a light on his attempts to come to terms with life challenges and struggles with a society and culture seemingly stuck on boosting dull and crass commercialism and anti-human systems of politics and economy. Lawson also spent some time as a sideman in bands like Ross Etherton and the Chariots of Judah before dropping out of actively being involved in music for a handful of years and then getting back into the joy of creating music again in recent years. Obvious touchstones like Harry Nilsson, Townes Van Zandt, Sparklehorse and Neil Young can be heard in Lawson’s musical DNA but his songs have always seemed deeply personal and idiosyncratic including his new EP Help Is On the Way due out June 27, 2024. Listen to our interview with Lawson here.
Fake Fruit, photo by Daniel Topete
Saturday | 06.29 What:Omni w/Fake Fruit and Tender Object When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Atlanta’s Omni has been one of the more interesting post-punk bands out of the past decade and more with intricate and angular rhythms and structures like a missing link between jangly college rock sounds and Wire’s art punk minimalism and ferocity. Its latest record Souvenir was borne out of creating during a time of immense change in the world during the course of the 2020 pandemic and how that has played out and necessitated some reflection and reassessment of one’s life and priorities but this time Omni does so with no small amount of wry humor and and vulnerability. Oakland’s Fake Fruit seems to share some similar musical DNA but with more jagged edges and noisy outbursts that bear the potential influence of arty guitar bands like Women and Lithics. With its forthcoming album Mucho Mistrust Fake Fruit has a wonderfully discordant fervor like The Pretenders gone unhinged and with the cathartic vitriol aimed at the anxieties of living under late capitalism and its trickle down inhumanity and has and continues to warp hearts and minds.
Quits, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 06.29 What:Red Fang w/Spoon Benders and Quits When: 8 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Portland-based sludge rock band Red Fang makes a stop in Denver on its current tour. Frontman and bassist Aaron Beam grew up in Fort Collins and still has family in the Mile High City so it’s sort of a hometown show for the musician. Also on the tour is psychedelic doom prog band Spoon Benders and opening is one of Denver’s greatest noise rock bands Quits and its own mind-altering sonic assault and emotionally harrowing lyrics.
Caterwaul is a music festival that showcases of paragons of the weird, loosely defined, in underground music. The organizers of the event have been steeped in left field music going back decades as musicians, bookers, record label employees, running labels and otherwise active participants throughout the ecology of the subculture. Since 2022 Caterwaul has hosted a finely curated and small scale event across two venues so that attendees can realistically catch every act if they so choose. This has meant lineups featuring the likes of Chat Pile, Multicult, Kal Marks, Big Business, Tunic, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, Moon Pussy, Animal Bite, A Deer A Horse, Big’n, Heet Deth and Cherubs. All of which represent not just representative of a spectrum of the best of underground weird music but also active participants in their local, national and international communities in keeping non-mainstream music not just a vital, viable but rewarding milieu in which to operate. Organizers Conan Neutron (Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends), Rainer Fronz (Learning Curve Records) and Melanie Thomas have all helped to establish and maintain the connections that make the festival possible but going through to its third year in 2024 when the event runs Friday, May 24 through Monday, May 27 at Mortimer’s and Palmer’s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This year’s festival will include performances by Brainiac, Oxbow, Flooding, Whores., Part Chimp, J. Robbins Band, Couch Slut, Gaswar, Thrones, Ganser, Almanac Man, Quits, CNTS and powertakeOFF. For more information, the full schedule and to buy tickets please visit caterwaul.org.
Listen to our interview with Conan Neutron and Rainer Fronz on Bandcamp.
Swans are the influential, experimental rock band formed in New York City in 1982 as one of the standout acts of the no wave scene. Fronted by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira, the group’s ever-evolving lineup and sound has helped pioneer and in many ways define aspects of noise rock, industrial music, post-punk and in later eras of the band post-rock. Its earliest records were brutal affairs of a stark beauty and unsettling intensity. By the last half of the 80s singer and keyboardist Jarboe had joined the band and its music began to increasingly incorporate a musical intricacy, melodic ambiance and emotionally nuanced delicacy that became a regular feature of the songwriting. And for years the constant members of the band were Gira, Jarboe, and longtime guitarist Norman Westberg. Swans might have come to an end on a high note following the tour for the sprawling epic of the masterful 1996 album Soundtracks For the Blind. But in 2010 Swans reconvened and began another great arc of songwriting with songs that had an even more orchestral aesthetic than in the past and a series of albums that have delved into themes of existential terror, mortality, death and the search for meaning later in life in a world seemingly on the brink of unraveling. The latest Swans record, 2023’s The Beggar, finds Gira and his collaborators manifesting some of the songwriter’s most personal statements in songs that experiment even more deeply into modes of expression that disregard conventional notions of song structure and length in favor of experiential truth.
Swans is currently on tour in support of The Beggar for its first full North American tour since 2019 (band member Kristof Hahn Is the opening act) with a stop at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood, Colorado on Tuesday November 7, 2024 (7pm doors/8pm show). We recently had a chance to interview Gira via email about the music, his interactions with the public and the works of other artists and the new album.
Tom Murphy: In your social media presence you frequently share films, other works of visual art, music and literature that you’ve been taking in that has had an impact on you. Do you find yourself drawn to particular works that you encountered earlier in your life that resonate especially strong with you now and why so?
Michael Gira: I share as little as possible about Swans and myself on our social media accounts. I only post about Swans when it’s pertinent to a new release or a tour etc. I find the medium appalling and disgusting, but I recognize it’s one of the few ways we have of letting people who are interested know when there’s something happening with the music they might like to know about. In the meantime, I post about visual artists or writers or music that I find compelling. More specifically to your question, on a personal level I often find myself returning the art of Francis Bacon, the writing of Jorge Luis Borges, and the music of Nico.
What newer artists and work have you found especially fascinating and even inspirational of late and why does it resonate with you so strongly?
The music of Maria W. Horn is fantastic and I recommend it highly, as well as her work with the singer Sara Parkman (as Funeral Folk).
As a writer of music and literature do you find encountering and absorbing the creative work of others an essential part of your process?
No. It’s enough of a struggle to make something that seems worthwhile without thinking about other people’s work.
Swans albums, especially those since reconvening, seem like quite a production. Do you approach writing and recording them in a method similar to a film director in assembling the talent and collaborators to realize them and then perform them live?
No matter how strongly I vow to keep things simple, each album inevitably burgeons into a cascade of chaos and conflicting forces and then ultimately the creative act is figuring out how to find order in the mess I’ve made for myself.
The Beggar feels like a bit of a different record for Swans. Its tensions, pastoral daydreamy sounds and spirit of unease in certain songs feels like its coming from a different place. Like a musical Ecce Homo. Were there personal insights that have come to you recently in your life that helped to shape the songs you wrote for the album?
The music and the words grow organically somewhere inside my experience and I shape them as dispassionately as I can into a form that seems compelling and irreducible. I don’t think about content much, per se, though I presume it’s there.
You have lived on both coasts of the USA and abroad but are now based out of New Mexico. Has living in The Land of Enchantment had an influence on your creative work?
Not at all, no. I’m never home anyway.
You have said that when you were finally able to work on The Beggar that it was like “he moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film changes from Black and White to Color” and now you’re feeling optimistic. What do you think accounts for what might seem like a shift in outlook for you?
I’ve realized that I feel most alive when I’m doing what I was put on earth to do, which is to make music as best I can. The period of isolation during the pandemic was a prolonged suffocation. I’m sure it was the same for many people.
The artwork for The Beggar includes images of a heart and lungs. What is the significance of that imagery for the record?
These are the internal organs that I have found to be most crucial, personally.
Perhaps you’ve discussed this elsewhere but the sleeves/CD covers for many of the current editions of Swans albums available seem to be printed on paper that looks unbleached. What about that look and texture do you think suits your music and its presentation?
I like for the work to be tactile, a palpable physical object.
Live you seem to perform longer pieces of music like “The Seer” and “Bring The Sun Toussaint L’Overture” (which is a choice historical reference). Might we see “The Beggar Love (Three)” on this tour? What is the appeal for you of performing these longer compositions on tour?
Live, the music grows and grows and grows over the course of a tour. The opening piece of our current set has now morphed into something like an hour and 20 minutes. Don’t ask me why this happens. We follow the music; it leads us. We’re inside it and it controls us, I guess would be the best way of putting it.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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