Imagine yourself looking out the window of being lowered into the Great Barrier Reef in a transparent submersible while listening to Julian Zyklus’ “Waterpiano n.1.” The sounds of water flowing and lapping against the side of your craft as you hear widely dynamic and expressive, joyfully elegant piano work and bright synth tones trace the path of your trip and enhance the raw and otherworldly beauty of your environment before you are pulled back out into the world you know. The track is the first on Zyklus’ forthcoming EP Waterpiano. Listen to “Waterpiano n.1” on Spotify and connect with Zyklus at the links below.
The all but black and white video treatment by Alex Schuurbiers for Shellter’s single “Wissant” poignantly complements the song’s feeling of utter emotional desolation. Shellter’s powerfully expressive vocals manage to be forceful yet fragile as she sings words that describe the aftermath of a break-up. But it is bereft of any rage, of any anger, and all that’s left is the hurt and the vulnerability that you have to allow yourself to feel in order to process the experience of a bad break-up especially one in which one’s emotions were put into such turmoil and in which you were made to feel like the villain. The ache in the lines “How your voice hit me hard without caution/How I broke like a branch in slow motion” and later the refrain of “How you made me believe that was me” hit deep even though Silke Janssens (aka Shellter) sounds like she’s merely contemplating some melancholic episode of the distant past with some time and space between. Her words for this song are poetically visceral and without going into the gory details it’s obvious she felt that hurt profoundly and found a way to transmute it into a song that with the presentation of her voice front and center and tender instrumentals augmenting the reflective vibe of the song is something one can take on and maybe find a way to process one’s own heartfelt hurt in the resonance of the lyrics and accessible tones employed by the songwriter. Watch the video for “Wissant” on YouTube, follow the Belgian singer-songwriter at the links below and give a listen to the rest of Shellter’s debut EP The Sun’s Already Low which was released on November 26, 2021.
The sound of a winter storm in your head is the dynamic of siera wiski’s song “moondore.” Icy synth lines echo, highly processed vocals run through like Alice Glass gone fully ambient pop. The lyrics describe being in an emotional place of stasis with seemingly no way out with time around you moving forward but you’re moored to your own low state without the wonders of the world or dreams and aspirations to pull you out of it. But the raw, ethereal sweep of the song suggests that maybe those events that seem to pass you by might bring something your way to nudge you out of your psychic quicksand in a way you didn’t seem coming and had no hope for happening. And in that dynamic of the song there is a ghost of hope and sometimes that’s enough. It is a gripping and gorgeous evocation of depression in the broad experience of it without hackneyed rhetoric and that’s exceedingly rare. Listen to “moondore” on Soundcloud and follow siera wiski at the links provided. The song is also available as a t-shirt on Bandcamp linked below.
The engimatically titled “Summer ’94” by the creatively named Pyxis Iota establishes a simple yet inviting rhythm line early on that carries you along throughout the song. But around that line tones drift and gyre, intertwined with a meditative guitar line that shimmers in counterpoint to the shimmering and glimmering synth drones that swell and fade. Perhaps it’s the title but the way the song plays out, even when the guitar drops out replaced by gentle distorted waves of synths, it sounds like the act of remembering a time in your life when things seemed less compressed, when summer seemed to last forever with amble time to play, learn, explore, discover and travel before demands of school or of a job post-college graduation demanded the bulk of your time and energy. There’s something magical about that headspace, the eternal liminal, that seems to nourish the psyche and spirit and Pyxis Iota evokes that energy with this track. Fans of early Oneohtrix Point Never and turn of the century Boards of Canada will appreciate the textures and evolving atmospheres of this song greatly. Listen to “Summer ’94” on Soundcloud and follow Pyxis Iota at the links below.
Le Big Zero chose a more than averagely clever band name and its video for “Horror Movie Pie Fight” directed by Jeanette D. Moses is a good reflection of the group’s offbeat sense of humor. It features a vampire trying to navigate an even more vampiric world of people coasting through modern life until she cuts that faux party time mingle short with an extravaganza of gore satiating her thirst for blood. But the video has that quality of the awkward comedy but one that is actually darkly funny rather than something from which to walk away partway through. The music is reminiscent of the dynamic starts and stops of what made so many of those Boston bands of the 80s and early 90s so interesting in the way the songs hit with both a forcefulness and a sense of fun—art punk with a knack for pop hooks and bereft of pretentiousness. Though, to be fair, Le Big Zero has its roots on the east coast but not Boston. It’s difficult to be funny as a band and write music that isn’t easily dismissible but Le Big Zero has accomplished that. With beautifully X-esque vocal harmonies and wiry and scrappy guitar riffs anyone into early alternative rock will find something to like with Le Big Zero. Watch the video for “Horror Movie Pie Fight”on YouTube and look out for the release of the act’s new album A Proper Mess out on April 8, 2022 through Know Hope Records.
Tuesday | 02.08 What:Everything is Terrible KIDZ KLUB Tour When: 7 and 10 p.m. Where: Sie Film Center Why: Los Angeles-based video collage and and performance collective Everything Is Terrible! Brings its latest live show and presentation of some of the best of the worst video clips found at thrift stores, garage sales, odd ends of video websites and the like to Sie Film Center. This tour is called KIDZ KLUB so surely some of the most demented yet often earnest bits of trash Americana will make its way into the show perhaps themed after some of the surreal and you want to think are manufactured parody but aren’t passages of video made for children and for educational purposes. But who can say and with the costumes and other outright strangeness that comes with an EIT live show it’ll all be maximum weird in a time when normie culture insipidity is the norm and we need stuff this eccentric and inspired as a reminder that accidental creativity can be fun when recontextualized and presented with a spirit of fun and an odd sense of humor and irony.
Wednesday | 02.09 What:Action Bronson & Earl Sweatshirt w/The Alchemist and Boldy James When: 7 p.m. Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Earl Sweatshirt has been one of the most innovative hip-hop artists of recent years mixing a more traditional hip-hop beat making approach with utilizing ideas and sounds well outside the usual spectrum of that style of music making. Some of his albums at times sound more like a noise record than anything you hear much outside the most experimental of underground hip-hop projects. The Alchemist is also one of the cutting edge beat makers of today and his 2021 album with Armand Hammer pushed the art form to new vistas of soundscaping to bolster that duo’s own masterfully creative rapping and production. Action Bronson may not quite be in that league as an innovator but his forcefulness as a rapper and performer is unquestionable.
Spyderland at Down in Denver Fest September 2021
Friday | 02.11 What:Church Fire, Spyderland, Glass Human and Partyteeth When: 9 p.m. Where: The Squire Lounge Why: Church Fire has spent the better part of the past decade honing its vital fusion of darkwave, political punk and electronic dance music and today remains a forceful live act that should probably be known outside of Denver but for now you can still catch them at small stages mostly in and around Denver and the eastern slope of Colorado. Spyderland brings some songwriting heft to its eclectic and inventive pop songs combining Marie Litton’s experience in bands like Clever Elsie, Ghost Buffalo and Lil’ Thunder with Drew McClellan’s knack for hybridizing genres and production methods to make for music that has tactile presence while inviting its listeners to dream beyond one’s immediate limitations.
Saturday | 02.12 What:Down In Denver Fest Presents: Emerald Siam w/Zealot and Gila Teen When: 10 p.m. Where: Broadway Roxy Why: This is a fundraising event for the 2022 edition of Down In Denver Fest. Last year some local underground music luminaries put together a festival pretty much last minute with a focus on local artists in a way other festivals were not. It featured all the bands playing this event as well as groups from a broad spectrum of time having put into the local scene and genres. At a time when local culture is neglected and otherwise treated as fodder for digital marketing platforms rather than cultivated and curated in a manner outside that technocratic way of thinking an event like Down In Denver Fest is necessary. So for this night you get the brooding and triumphant psychedelia of Emerald Siam, Zealot’s playfully thought-provoking pop and Gila Teen’s emo-enriched post-punk noise rock.
Friday | 02.11 What:Satellite Pilot, King Ropes, Flora de la Luna Where: Lion’s Lair Why: Bozeman, Montana’s King Ropes are a bit like the Dead Milkmen of lo-fi psych Americana whose 2021 album Way Out West straddles the line between the early, on-the-verge-of-collapsing charm of early Mercury Rev and the irreverent humor and oddly respectable musical chops of Dead Milkmen.
Saturday | 02.12 What:The Backseat Lovers When: 7 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: The Backseat Lovers from Provo, Utah strike that delicate balance between folk pop, hazy, late afternoon psychedelic rock and Americana. It’s a blend that might not work or sound like too much music in the larger indie world. But there’s enough grit in the band’s music and an earnestness in its performances to set it apart from other bands in a similar spectrum of style. Its dynamics and balance of force and delicacy allows its songs to go from hushed, contemplative moods to heightened emotional flares of intensity with a rare grace. The band is set to go back into the studio to record its next album so this would be a good time to catch it in high form performing its earlier music and maybe catch some of the new material before these guys put it through the studio process.
Saturday | 02.12 What:Bluebook, American Culture and Alison Lorenzen When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Bluebook has had an interesting arc of musical evolution since its inception in the 2000s and lately its experimental, baroque pop has emerged as theatrical and dramatic with Julie Davis striking a commanding and focused figure with a band that creates a mysterious atmosphere. So with punk-infused indie pop band American Culture on the bill seems like an odd pairing but one fitting since American Culture frontman Chris Adolf is a bit of a musical rebel whose own vision places a premium on authenticity and not fitting in with expectation. Its 2021 album For My Animals on the respected Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records imprint is possibly Adolf’s most fully realized album to date with expert players to help manifest meaningful and powerful pop music in an era of entirely too much blandness.
The Siren Project in April 2010, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 02.12 What:The Siren Project w/The Midnight Marionettes and Katastrophy When: 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: The Siren Project is one of the longest running bands in the Denver post-punk and Gothic-industrial underground with roots in the 90s, influenced by both alternative rock, European folk music and downtempo electronic music. Charismatic frontwoman Malgorzata Wacht and longtime keyboard player Alex Seminara weave a beguiling and unique style of thrillingly dramatic and lush dark pop with a strong strain of romanticism and self-affirmation.
The Wombats, photo by Tom Oxley
Monday | 02.14 What:The Wombats w/Clubhouse When: 7 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: UK indie band The Wombats like many bands began work on their new album in 2019 and had to piece together the songwriting and recording as best they could from 2020 through 2021 due to the ongoing global pandemic. But Fix Yourself, Not the World was finally released in January 2022 and it’s the sort of cinematic pop with a literary flair we’ve come to expect from the band. The lead single “Method to The Madness” builds into a glorious torrent of sound like a manifestation of our collective frustrations unleashed. And the album appears to be a struggling against and an acceptance of the things we can’t change but learn to work around or take into account in our attempts to move forward through life.
Wednesday | 02.16 What: Public Opinion, Destiny Bond, No Roses and The Clue When: 7 p.m., $10 Where: Mutiny Information Cafe Why: Local hardcore show. Destiny Bond has a bit of D-beat flavor.
Thursday | 02.17 What:Abandons, New Standards Men and Hoverfly When: 9 p.m. Where: Lion’s Lair Why: If heavy instrumental music is something you’re into Abandons has been making some of the more dynamic and moody variety thereof for a few years or so. More post-rock than doom and extreme metal but there’s a plenty of that in the mix too. Fortunately for this show you also get to see those instrumental heavy music experimental tricksters New Standards Men whose twin albums I Was a Spaceship and Spain’s First Astronaut answer the question not enough people were asking in wondering where art rock bands into Zappa, Isis, Amphetamine Reptile noise rock, post-hardcore, John Zorn and ambient music were hiding.
Thursday | 02.17 What:Screwtape, MSPAINT, Cyst and CFX Project When: 7 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: MSPAINT from Hattiesberg, MS sound for all the world like a noisy post-punk band that came out of a brilliant blend of hardcore, Protomartyr-esque art punk and Sleaford Mods attitude. One wonders also if they were into mclusky or Future of the Left at some point in their creative trajectory. You also get to see one of Denver’s top five punk bands in Screwtape who always put on a ferociously energetic show.
Cautious Clay, photo courtesy the artist
Thursday – Saturday | 02.17 – 02.19 What: Cautious Clay w/Ivy Sole and Julius Rodriguez When: 8 p.m. Where: Belly-Up (02.17) and Bluebird Theater (02.18–02.19) Why: Cautious Clay’s wide emotional range as a vocalist and his introspectively and poignantly observed lyrics coupled with the eclectic beats and instrumentation of his songs is instantly captivating. Through a series of EPs over the past few years as well as his 2021 album Deadpan Love, Clay has revealed himself to be one of the most creatively vibrant artists in recent years whose music spans beyond R&B and hip-hop as the jazz influences in his music synergize well with ambient and psychedelic pop undertones. Catch Clay during his run through Colorado at the Belly-Up in Aspen and The Bluebird Theater in Denver (dates and links above).
Saturday | 02.19 What: Machine Girl w/Evic Shen and Polly Urethane When: 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Machine Girl is pretty much impossible to pigeonhole with any simple genre designation. Fans of digital hardcore, breakcore/glitchcore, industrial in the more modern mode will definitely find something to like about its surreal and colorful production and refreshingly coherent songwriting for a world of music that makes a virtue of the musical equivalent of radical jump cuts in tempo and tenor. People into Ho99o9, Atari Teenage Riot, Ghösh, 100 gecs and their ilk should at least give this band a listen. It’s like the next generation or two out from whatever it was HEALTH did in the 2000s and witch house from the same era. Yet it has some stylistic resonances with all of that. Rumor has it that at a Machine Girl show at a DIY venue people danced so hard part of the floor caved in so Machine Girl goes hard. If a legit horror movie could be made up of memes and rapid cycling anime footage it would sound like the duo’s 2020 album U-Void Synthesizer. Denver’s own dream pop/industrial project Polly Urethane is clearly a good fit for the bill.
Enumclaw, photo courtesy the artists
Sunday | 02.20 What: Naked Giants w/Enumclaw When: 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Naked Giants are a lively and playful rock band whose roots in grunge and psychedelic rock are obvious without preventing the trio to lay out some nice surprises where they go way beyond expectations they set for themselves at the show. Enumclaw shares a similar irreverent spirit and effusive punk energy but their guitar work has more in common with The Smiths and The Cure than Nirvana or Mudhoney or even Jay Reatard. Their combination of authenticity and eccentricity as a live band is proving to be uncommonly compelling.
The Weather Station, photo by Jeff Bierk
Monday | 02.21 What: The Weather Station w/Helena Deland https://globehall.com/event/the-weather-station-helena-deland-presented-by-kgnu When: 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station has the rare gift of being able to project an ethereal thoughtfulness and fragile elegance and emotional strength at once. The group’s 2021 album Ignorance brings forth a full range of sounds and orchestrated emotions for one of the most satisfying listens of any album that we at Queen City Sounds basically slept on last year. Catch The Weather Station ahead of the March 4 release of its new album How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars.
Wallice, photo by Jerry Maestas
Thursday | 02.24 What: Still Woozy w/Wallice https://www.missionballroom.com/event/405967-mission-ballroom-denver-tickets When: 7 p.m. Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Still Woozy is part of a big wave of bedroom pop of the past decade but like the better artists out of that world he has some musical chops with a background in classical guitar and formal educaton in electronic music that aren’t so obvious and fortunately get focused in songwriting. After spending a few years in the math rock band Feed Me Jack, Sven Gamsky departed in 2016 to start making music under the moniker Still Woozy. Making a virtue of what might be seen as a limited format, the music out of Still Woozy has a simple charm informed by a subtle sophistication in the songwriting. In 2021 he released his debut album If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is. Opening the show is Wallice whose own roots in jazz training have been channeled into finely crafted and poignant pop songs. Her single “Punching Bag” garnered her early attention as a poetically succinct summation of a friendship gone awry and how our digital footprints can complicate life when we’d really rather just part ways with someone. The track appeared on her 2021 EP Off the Rails which included songs that showcased Wallice’s growth as a songwriter beyond the style of contemporary indie pop. “Michael” really nails how all the tired narratives a young woman or really anyone else has had to suffer from a certain kind of male is just unwelcome. Some things never change but thanks to Wallice all the same for articulating this so well and Philip Stilwell for giving the song visual form.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor at Ogden Theatre in 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday and Saturday | 02.25 and 02.26 What: Godspeed You! Black Emperor When: 8 p.m. (02.25) and 7:30 p.m. (02.26) Where: Gothic Theatre (02.25) and Boulder Theater (02.26) Why: Godspeed You! Black Emperor are pioneers of post-rock but also a band whose left anarchist politics are part of its operating as a group and its music therefore is orchestrated and organic while sounding as planned as a classical piece of music. But the group does not skimp on evoking feelings and pairs the emotional content of its songs with the visual representation thereof often as projections on the stage as a stirring visual component. Godspeed’s 2021 album G_d’s Pee at State’s End! reintroduced a strong component of musique concrète to help ground and reinforce its more than usual tumultuous, brash and direct compositions.
Saturday | 02.26 What:Blood Incantation When: 7 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Experimental death metal band Blood Incantation will perform its 2022 ambient album Timewave Zero in its entirety and then engage in some improv for this show. Will there be any of the death metal its more conventionally-minded fans might crave? Who can say but the guys in the band are into enough unusual and experimental music that likely the ambient album will be worth a listen. Heck, if Wolves in the Throne Room could put out Celestite at the peak of their popularity, Blood Incantation can drop something like Timewave Zero at one of the peaks of its own renown.
Saturday | 02.26 What:Dinosaur Jr w/Pink Mountaintops When: 7 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Dinosaur Jr influenced more music than is generally taken into account and clearly an inspiration to the entire shoegaze movement of the 90s, all of alternative rock and even current psychedelic guitar bands from the more indie variety to those heavier. J. Mascis honed in on the tender feelings and angst people often shuffle aside trying to get through life and gave voice and dignity to feelings that many people would otherwise find shameful. Along the way Dinosaur Jr also managed to never release an album that wasn’t always surprisingly well crafted with imaginative guitar rock in a seemingly endless knack for reinventing the language of the instrument in the context of tasty hooks and evocative storytelling. And as a live band always intense yet seeming to tap into a daydreamy quality.
Saturday | 02.26 What:Denial Of Life w/Implied Risk, Moral Law and Ukko’s Hammer When: 10 p.m. Where: HQ Why: Tacoma, Washington’s Denial of Life brings its thrash punk stylings to HQ for a late night set with local hardcore bands of similar spirit including the D-beat super group Ukko’s Hammer.
Erika Wester’s single “Novelty” has all the hallmarks of a classic pop song: gorgeous melodies, entrancing arrangements that pull you immediately into the embrace of the song. And that’s exactly what makes it such a poignant and effective bit of musical writing in general. Webster honed in on the essential dysfunction of a toxic relationship and her own complicity therein by allowing the person bad for her having their hooks in her psyche and not quite being able to resist those charms because of some bad emotional habits she picked up along the way. It happens. But right from the beginning Wester sings “I hate the way you make me feel, I think I make up what I want to be real” as an acknowledgment of that the relationship and the connection in general is bad and that she has some issues with identifying what is real and what she wants to be real and holding on to what does feel good rather than what she wants to feel good because it’s supposed to because all relationships should be fulfilling even when they’re not, right? The rest of the song Wester paints for us some small situations that would be gutting in the experiencing but sounds not so bad with the tone of the song. And that’s the seduction of being the kind of person who hasn’t quite jettisoned these ingrained behavior from their psyche. But knowing you deserve and want better is a good first step and Webster begins with that. Is this literally about Wester’s life? It doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s something in the past, maybe it’s not, but it is an extremely relatable situation and mindset for most people at some point in their lives and laying it out there sometimes helps in getting the will to move onward from a psychological space that no longer serves you well. Titling the song “Novelty” frames the deeper sentiment of the song so well because no one wants to be that, no one wants to just have an emotional bond with someone on that basis and sometimes something or someone will appeal to us simply on that basis when we shouldn’t take it or them so seriously and make it or them part of our lives. Listen to “Novelty” on Spotify and follow Webster at the links below.
On the title track to his forthcoming EP Rabbit Feather, Jackson Hill brings extremely tactile sounds together with an electronic production aesthetic that both grounds what you’re hearing and transports you to an otherworldly headspace of pure imagination. Soft electronic drones swell and swarm while percussive sounds mark out unconventional rhythms in modulated clicks and snaps, strings resound with an unmistakably delayed and drawn out strum, bass traces downward arcs in jazz-like downtempo style. It is layers of minimalism that matches the surreal imagery suggested by the title of the song. For something so peaceful and spare there is a lot of movement and forward momentum in the song and altogether it sounds like little else unless you could vaguely trace a lineage to some of the work of Laraaji, Brian Eno’s and David Byrne’s 1981 experimental world music album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and maybe the more avant eras of Anthony Braxton. It is a unique and rewarding listen for anyone that has an ear for the music that is somehow both tuneful and requires taking it in on its terms rather than imposing genre requirements in order for it to be enjoyed. Listen to “Rabbit Feather” on YouTube and connect with Jackson Hill at the links below. The Rabbit Feather EP is being independently released on March 18, 2022.
Peaces is no stranger to the recontextualized pop hit and cultural reference mashup and remix but with “Down To Earth” he has outdone himself with the both the audio and the unusual collage music video. Crafting a hodgepodge of a sample of Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi,” some ever so slightly warped Don Toliver flourishes and what sounds like a modified UK garage beat, Peaces invites the listener to rethink how popular music works and how it can sound. Certainly hip-hop and EBM artists have used sampling and sequencing to place sounds seemingly disparate into new contexts for a different way of creative thinking and Peaces is operating out of similar aesthetics but updating the sample base and imagining how they might work as a piece of music in the context of his own composition. Sure, DJ Shadow did that in the 90s and Girl Talk took the mashup to glorious new extremes. But with “Down To Earth” Peaces takes bits of popular music that many might dismiss as mainstream fluff and makes it into something experimental, surreal and cool. Watch the psychedelic music video for “Down To Earth” on YouTube and connect with Peaces at the links below.
It probably helps to know some Spanish to get the most out of Sonja La Makina’s “GOTEO” but as purely a piece of music it is immediately compelling as something different. You’ll hear elements of trap, perreo and more hip-hop-inflected electroclash but it’s La Makina’s fluidity and forcefulness in the use of language that stands out in a shuffling and shifting beat that weaves in compound rhythmic lines and playful synth work that augments a sense of swagger in the vocalist’s performance. Frankly, it’s the kind of music you imagine the characters in the futuristic urban environments the Hernandez Brothers’ Love And Rockets would listen to as they drive through the neighborhood and seem cooler than people vibing to basic tunes. Fans of M.I.A. will appreciate La Makina’s musical fusion. Listen to “GOTEO” on YouTube and follow Sonja La Makina at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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