Tom O C Wilson takes a fascinatingly left field turn with his experimental, electronic pop single “Better Off.” Bringing in Australian singer-songwriter The Magic Lantern on vocals, the song’s tones echo rapidly and convey a sense of being out of phrase with normal reality. The melodic shimmer of bell tones with crystal clear vocals and minimalist percussion manages to somehow be surreal and intimate and accessible at the same time. And the song seems to be about a person coming to terms with breaking up with someone whose influence forced them to bury or otherwise subsume parts of themselves to adapt to their particular and likely peculiar demands. It’s ultimately a song about reclaiming one’s psyche and making sense of what happened and how one can and should exist outside of an oppressive social context even if one was willing to enter into that situation to begin with because of a sense of affection that might have worked at one time and the early phases of which one is often willing to overlook how one is diminished and truncated in the attempt to be part of someone’s life. The song sounds like something spooky from the Warp Records catalog and it pushes the notion of what pop music can sound like just a little further afield. Listen to “Better Off” on Spotify and follow Tom O C Wilson at the links below.
Lancaster, UK’s TV FACE is back with another ferocious, noisy and scathing dig at the economic elite with “Boots Pocket Coffin.” The song as wonderfully pointed as it is has an undeniable dance beat punctuated by spirals of hysterical guitar sounds and angular rhythms. The song builds a heady momentum from the beginning and pulls you into its catharsis immediately as well. There is a playfully mocking tone to the lyrics that suits well its depiction of the dire fate to which the ultra-wealthy seeming casually willing to throw the bulk of humanity as disposable bits of paving on their highway to pointless economic excess and for what? Sane civilizations do not suffer billionaires and hundred millionaires to exist. But here we are and TV FACE spell out so well how everything is not enough to sociopaths who live only for accumulating wealth and doing nothing positive or even really visionary or interesting with their unjust theft of the public good. Look for the new TV FACE album Wolf Rents Bark due out September 2025. Fans of stuff like mclusky and Viagra Boys will definitely find a great deal of appreciations for the rhetoric and headlong pace of this band’s output generally. Watch the video for “Boots Pocket Coffin” (warning on strobe effects) and follow TV FACE at the links below.
The saturated synth melodies and crystalline percussion sounds in Tim Carr’s “Looking at Houses” puts you in an immediately reflective mood. But there is an underlying sense of what might be called low-key urgency. The song seems to be a meditation on how we live and conduct our business so much in the digital world that the line between analog life as lived in one’s body and the psychological significance of needing to adapt to how the digital realm functions and the relative convenience of it that is really a way for corporations to force us further into their dictates by making us dependent on their systems. Carr’s song as soothing as it is with a mood and vibe that is undeniable late night drive soundtrack material speaks to our dependence on computers from yes looking at houses we might buy or fantasize about occupying and the seductive ability to book a flight to distant places we might like to visit. And it’s just that, the dullened yearning this mode of living has conditioned us to experiencing and finding satisfying enough. Carr tows the line between that complacency and self-awareness in his lyrics and in the lush, hypnotic pop songwriting. The song will draw you into its loop but it’s one you don’t mind being stuck within. Listen to “Looking at Houses” on Spotify and follow Tim Carr at the links provided. Look for Carr’s new album Pleasure Drives out soon.
“Natali” opens up with an ethereal, impressionistic melody that drifts and builds. The song by TYGERMYLK deftly combines ideas and sentiments that are tragic and humorous as the singer sketches a time in life that symbolized and embodied a kind of felix culpa, no pun intended, in which the seeming loss reveals the reality of the situation and a revelatory truth that changes the course of one’s life or in the case with the song a relationship that might have gone on causing more heartbreak if not for a freak accident instigating a short form Rube Goldberg wrecking machine of personal realizations one might not have otherwise seen as quickly. Songwriter Hayley Harland’s vocals float through hanging harmonics and harmonic swells in a song that is reminiscent somehow of both Actor-period St. Vincent and Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien” yet very much with its own emotional resonances speaking to the skills of an artist gifted with turning a humorous phrase with sharp psychological insight. Watch the video for “Natali” on YouTube and follow TYGERMYLK at the links below.
AUS!Funkt’s “C’est Parfait!” is pulsing with an urgent, motorik beat and rich, retro synth tones. But its message is very much of the moment. It’s anti-grinding culture and succumbing to the constant pressure from capitalist culture to be more and more “efficient” and serve the demands of an inhuman system that cares more about endless growth regardless of the cost to actual, living beings. The sheer urgency of the song is easy to get caught up within but it also opens up to an expansive and spacious middle section that is much less in forward momentum and clearly a part of the point of the song with the more intense sections being a model for a rebellious will to break down the infernal machine of the current time. It’s a dance song against technocratic fascism through inspiring movement for the sheer joy of it rather than at the behest of some economic dictate. Listen to “C’est Parfait” on Spotify and follow AUS!Funkt at the links below. The Canadian group’s new album Rewire The Damage released April 25, 2025.
Karate, Guns & Tanning, photo courtesy the artists
“Loons” finds Indianapolis-based trio Karate, Guns & Tanning contemplating the majesty of the Great Northern Diver in mythical terms. The song itself is an epic of pulsing rhythms and an emotional urgency that carries you along with its swirling tones teeming with a rich sonic detail and bird sounds. It would be tempting to pigeonhole the music as shoegaze but the attention to production and the robust electronic side of the songwriting makes it something more. The low end alone that runs through the song sets it apart from something more ethereal and Valerie Green’s (formerly of Denver art pop greats Good Housekeeping) melodious and moody vocals bring to the song a grounded quality that syncs well with the delicate guitar lines. It’s a song whose layers of sound are easy to get caught up in until the end for a sonic journey celebrating yes a particular type of bird but of the freedom and dignity it represents that it wouldn’t hurt to emulate as well. Listen to “Loons” on Spotify and follow Karate, Guns & Tanning at the links below. The group’s new album Krisis Genre, perhaps a nod to feeling no need to fit into a narrow style, released on May 23, 2025 on digital platforms and it is also available on 12” vinyl.
Detention (back left is Kevin Shields), photo courtesy the artists
Kevin Shields enlisted in the Coast Guard when he was 17-years-old. But as fate would have it he was stationed in Alameda, California as he was growing tired of 70s rock and learned about punk. That post allowed him the time to go to Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco a few nights of week to witness firsthand the excitement of early West Coast punk acts Dead Kennedys, DOA and Black Flag among others. When he got back home to New Jersey in 1981 he had all the inspiration he needed to start his own band so he recruited his brothers and himself bought a bass that he would eventually learn to play. Their band Detention was a raucous and wiseacre bunch whose first show at Raritan Manor was hosted by Matt Pinfield when he had his first radio DJ stint at WRSU at Rutgers. The police busted the show. But the band went on to record several of its songs many of which were filled with an irreverent spirit but others with more than a touch of social consciousness. Detention put out a self-produced, self-titled album in 1985 before breaking up. But the band’s legacy continued in college radio and beyond up to now with the wonderfully humorous and tasteless “Dead Rock ‘n Rollers” single. Its cover art has been endlessly imitated and the song itself in the realm of “Take The Skinheads Bowling” as an underground classic. The single and choice cuts from the self-titled album as well as unreleased material was released on vinyl in 2024 as Dead Rock ‘n Rollers on Left For Dead Records.
Listen to our interview with Kevin Shields on Bandcamp and visit the Left For Dead Records for more information and to order the vinyl.
The accents on the layered rhythms of “Small Talk” by Kaput gives it an especially heady pace. The sawblade edginess of the synth sound frames the vocals well as they ring out and echo ever so slightly like there’s a bit of dub production to the whole song. Tones whorl and rattle, buzz and fry lending an era of menace and confrontation. It’s a song about complacency and how it can’t protect you forever. When atrocity is happening right in front of you in forms that only a completely delusional person could pretend is something else. The line “Break your neck to look away” speaks to the cost of this level of self-deception and the effort required. “The lies you tell/It’s gonna be ok/It’s all gonna be ok/It’s not you today/You’re not afraid” also hits hard. Without being topical it seems clear the song is about so much of what’s going on in the world right now and not necessarily the obvious subjects of genocide, fascism, political malfeasance, police brutality, the crushing reality of wealth concentration and hovering pandemics but also climate change and how that’s the elephant in every room. The song is just one of a debut album full of commanding songs that are an evocation of ambient anxiety, desperation, insecurity, anger and sadness running rampant. That album titled I was released April 25, 2025 digitally and available as limited edition vinyl. Listen to “Small Talk” on Spotify and follow Chicago’s Kaput at the links provided.
Sunday | 06.01 What:Peach Pit w/Briston Maroney and BNNY When: 6 Where: Red Rocks Amphitheater Why: Peach Pit started off at an unusual time in pop and rock music. The mid-2010s indie world was dominated by surf rock, psych and some reinterpretation of classic rock sounds. Fortunately, the quartet from Vancouver, British Columbia seemed to have focused more on songwriting craft rather than trying to play a style or fit in with a trend. The result has albums that have interesting arrangements and reveal a real ear for creating a mood and telling stories of romance, breakups and all the heartache and mixed emotions involved. The group recently released the “expansion pack” (kudos on the nerdy gamer lingo) version of its 2024 Magpie and includes alternate versions of eight songs, a cover and new material. Better than half a chance you’ll get to see some of that live. And the openers for this show are worth showing up to catch. Briston Maroney just released his latest and third album Jimmy on May 2, 2025. Even early in his career, Maroney had a knack for imbuing his songwriting and performances with an honesty and vulnerability that transcended any stylistic affectations he picked up from influences. On the new record Maroney delivers some heavy lines but in the context of songs with an upward emotional swing that doesn’t downplay the melancholic moods and the raw places in his heart that inspired the lyrics. BNNY might for those familiar with the music and songwriting is best experienced in a small club because the delicacy and intimacy of the music feels like something a handful of people would connect with more immediately than a large audience. But Jessica Viscius’ songs also have a cinematic quality that will fit perfectly fine on a bill with other artists who don’t hesitate to present music with an emotional openness and an inviting spirit.
E.T., photo from Bandcamp
Sunday | 06.01 What: E.T. (Minneapolis synth punk), Redder Moon (KC darkwave) and Church Fire When: 7:30 Where: D3 Arts Why: Egalitarianism Today (E.T.) might be described as an anarcho-darkwave band. From Minneapolis, the duo’s pulsing rhythm and driving beats are represented well on its new album Full Anarchism. Think something musically like Lords of Acid but with lyrics that delve into science fiction concepts, radical left political rhetoric and the dire consequences of destructive worldviews rather than hedonism. Church Fire is thus of course the perfect band to share the bill with its own righteous industrial dance music. Church Fire expertly weaves in humor and fun into its performances while so many of its songs are heartbreaking in their evocation of collective agony. Kansas City’s Redder Moon is more of a post-punk band but one with the synth augmenting its gorgeously melancholic songwriting.
Wednesday | 06.04 What: Lords of Acid w/Little Miss Nasty When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Lords of Acid is the Belgian industrial dance band that has combined campy, sexually explicit lyrics with undeniably well-crafted dance club music. Its 1991 debut album Lust is a classic of both dance music and EBM. The live show is also not short on theater and bombast with long-time band leader Praga Khan hyping the crowd with his own enthusiasm and on stage antics. The band seems on the verge of releasing a new record and this may be the opportunity to catch it live in full effect.
Ava Maybee, photo by Whitney Otte
Wednesday | 06.04 What: Ava Maybee w/Annika Rose and Emi Grace When: 7 Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Ava Maybee is touring behind her debut EP Orange Drive. Although the daughter of Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame, Ava Maybee’s music isn’t much like what her dad is known for being a part of making. Hers is a vibrant alt-pop informed by vivid everyday observations and colorful splashes of melody. That and her uniquely commanding vocals. There is some light vocal processing on the EP but you can tell there is power and conviction behind what you’re hearing and the variety in the songwriting is evidence that Maybee isn’t stuck in one flavor of music.
Ringo Deathstarr, photo by Tom Murphy
Wednesday | 06.04 What:Ringo Deathstarr w/American Culture When: 7 Where: HQ Why: Ringo Deathstarr is a shoegaze band from Austin, Texas who despite a humorous name and recorded material that is reminiscent of classic shoegaze band is as a live act a force to be reckoned with. The enveloping atmospheric elements have a visceral presence in person and the songwriting isn’t finely honed with an ear for using the more psychedelic side of the style in a manner that reveals the band isn’t just using neat effects, they know how to use the often unpredictable sonic shapes to great effect. Opening is Denver’s American Culture whose own shoegaze turn has also been one more in the direction of the earlier, weirder Britpop but steeped in punk and indiepop.
OMD, photo by Ed Miles
Thursday | 06.05 What: OMD When: 7 Where: The Paramount Theatre Why: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark aka OMD were one of the pioneers of synth pop as we know it though clearly in the realm of post-punk as also influenced deeply by Kraftwerk. Its first five albums are practically a blueprint for synth-infused New Wave and one that has aged exceptionally well because the songwriting wasn’t tied to the aesthetics of a movement and the subject matter of the music was as personal and emotional as it was conceptual. As a live band OMD also came off like a punk band with a lot of power and charisma that gave a dimensionality to the music that sticks with you once you’ve seen the band in person. This quality persisted up to the current time and in 2023 OMD surprised many with the release of Bauhaus Staircase, an album worthy of its early era with richly composed songs and synth work and song ideas that comment on human civilization in this moment with an insight not common enough in popular music.
Pig Destroyer, photo from Bandcamp
Thursday | 06.05 What: Pig Destroyer w/Cephalic Carnage, Author & Punisher and Sex Prisoner When: 7 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Pig Destroyer is the influential grindcore band from Alexandria, Virginia whose 2004 album Terrifyer got the 20 year anniversary treatment last year as a reminder that the band was not just of that moment in grindcore but ahead of its time. Sharing the bill is legendary Denver death metal jazz weirdos Cephalic Carnage, industrial avant-metal project Author & Punisher and Tucson-based deathgrind group Sex Prisoner.
Daikaiju, photo from band’s Facebook
Friday | 06.06 What: Daikaiju vs. TripLip, Smokey Mirror and Black Yeti When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Daikaiju is the long-running, mutant surf punk band originally from Huntsville, Alabama but now based out of Houston. The group wears masks kabuki style and its live shows are joyful and highly energetic and theatrical and usually with an outdoor component involving fire. In general it could be gimmicky and silly but Daikaiju makes it feel like getting to see something special. TripLip is a math-y punk thrash band from Denver. All instrumental with bass and drums but coming off with a full wall of sound and surprisingly visceral and riveting.
Wombo, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 06.07 What: Wombo w/Mainland Break and Spliff Tank When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Wombo is the psychedelic post-punk/art pop band from Louisville, Kentucky that has been evolving a sound that is part introspective delicacy, playful menace and the kind of angular rhythms one might expect out of a DC post-hardcore band. Think a 2000s indiepop group that got into darker and more challenging music. The band is currently touring ahead of the release of its new album Danger in Fives due out on August 5, 2025 via Fire Talk Records.
Blondshell, photo by Daniel Topete
Sunday | 06.08 What:Blondshell w/Jahnah Camille When: 7 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Anyone that caught Blondshell on her 2022 tour prior to the release of her debut album witnessed a songwriter and performer that had uncommon self-possession and a willingness to incorporate movements in the live show that were like acrobatics in slow motion but without missing a beat or a line. Since then Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum aka Blondshell has released two albums of vulnerable and commanding indie rock imbued with great personal insight a musical edge that adds a touch of scrappy spirit to finely crafted melodies. The latest Blondshell album If You Asked For a Picture is brimming with the kind of emotional honesty one would hope for in any pop music worth listening to and Teitelbaum’s absurdist and self-aware sense of humor that has made much of her music as endearing as it is heartfelt. Also on this tour is Birmingham, Alabama-based singer and songwriter Jahnah Camille who is about to release her new EP My sunny oath! Camille’s music is swimming in the granular atmospherics that blur the line between early 90s alternative rock and the more ambitious, shoegaze adjacent modern indie rock. Camille’s vocals ground the emotional resonance of the music with a sense of intimacy. The layered guitars utilize the mix of acoustic and electric to great effect lending Camille’s songs a wide range of sounds. The songwriter’s lyrics are both thoughtfully poetic and filled with a heartache that she has clearly explored to its inner depths and outer edges and articulated the nuances and complexities of truly feeling for another person.
Jahnah Camille, photo by Elizabeth MarshPanchiko, photo by Adam Alonzo
Tuesday | 06.10 What:Panchiko w/Alison’s Halo When: 7 Where: Summit Music Hall Why: The myth of Panchiko could be more interesting than its actual music and it’s a story worth delving into of a band whose late 90s and early 2000s music was rediscovered on poorly preserved CDs but garnering a cult following before discovering they could return and be much more successful than its first go round. Since reuniting the dream pop/psychedelic band has released two full length albums including 2025’s Ginkgo. Sharing the bill is Alison’s Halo who also started in the early 90s as part of that first or second wave of dream pop before splitting in 1998 only to reconvene in 2009. Musically it appears to have melded the lingering melodicism of Slowdive and its more gritty early music with the ethereal vocal style and rhythmic dive of Lush but of course transmogrified into its own heady soundscapes.
David J, photo courtesy the artist
Tuesday | 06.10 What:David J spoken word w/The Milk Blossoms and Gogo Germaine + Shon Cobbs When: 7 Where: HQ Why: David J is of course the artist known best for being a member of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. This year he is releasing a new album The Mother Tree alongside a book of poetry titled Rhapsody, Threnody & Prayer. The album is spoken word and spare yet musical accompaniment, evocative and music of introspective moods to match the tenor of David J’s reflective rhetoric in tribute to his mother. Opening the show is Glory Guitars (2022) author Gogo Germaine with music by former Plume Varia guitarist/synth player Shon Cobbs and the emotionally charged poetry of the music of Denver indiepop band The Milk Blossoms.
PINES, photo courtesy the artists
Wednesday | 06.11 What:PINES at Meow Wolf w/Sugar Nova (ft. Luke Miller of Lotus) When: 8 Where: Meow Wolf Convergence Station Perplexiplex Why: Australian electronic duo PINES returns to Denver for it’s second visit to the Mile High City in support of its new EP SUN which released on April 15, 2025. The new songs are a further evolution of the project’s uplifting fusion of EDM and glitch pop. Listening one gets the sense that PINES are soundtracking a movie in their own heads taking place in a realm of perpetual summer nights and the psychological and emotional space to truly delve into feelings and embrace the broad range of the human experience without getting stuck in the lowest lows or the highest highs because none of that is sustainable. The music should also resonate with fans of early 2010s chillwave.
Julia Wolf, photo courtesy the artist
Thursday | 06.12 What:Julia Wolf w/Worry Club and Ellis When: 6 Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Julia Wolf appears to have been processing hard lessons of being in the music business lately and the demands and compromises required of you if you’re going to be the kind of artist that can sustain a career. The cover of her new album Pressure (May 23, 2025) shows Wolf leaning backward and held up by hooks or some other device like she’s a suspension artist. The music is still well within the realm of the intimate, raw and often experimental pop that has garnered Wolf a respectable following but this new record is much more noisy and gritty with Wolf’s expressive vocals awash in crafted beats like a an amalgamation of industrial music, trap and glitchcore but with an undeniable pop accessibility.
Glass Human, photo from Bandcamp
Friday | 06.13 What: Glass Human w/The Milk Blossoms and Fainting Dreams When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Glass Human is issuing its latest release on vinyl, The Hive. The record showcases the band’s atmospheric, jazz-tinged art rock and gift for layering rhythms and moods for an effect like a prog album cast in an almost downtempo mode. But the 4-song EP dives deep into utilizing noise and the kind of soundscaping that doesn’t fit into a narrow genre yet expresses perfectly the sense of a world and a psyche swimming through the nascent disorder of the current era and embracing the vital strands of meaning that remain. The Milk Blossoms too have an undercurrent of experimental structures and unconventional, often intuitive modes of expression held together by Harmony Rose’s gift for impressionistic and emotional, poetic storytelling. Fainting Dreams is at this point a wonderfully stark yet atmospheric fusion of stark post-hardcore and emotionally-charged black metal.
Sunflower Bean, photo by Lulu Syracuse
Saturday | 06.14 What: Sunflower Bean w/Gift and Dry Ice When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Sunflower Bean released its latest album Mortal Primetime in April 2025. Perhaps more than its previous releases the new album makes obvious the trio’s talent for songwriting and crafting melodic hooks. The band had already proven itself capable of experimenting to great effect in genre and song structure and in writing solid pop songs. There is just a creative clarity in the new set of songs that serves the elegance and emotional nuance of the words and the delicacy of much of the music that pairs well with when the band gets into much more gritty sonics. Overall the record has an analog quality like some long lost-70s rock record without having immediately obvious touchstones. And live the group has always had a visceral presence that makes even its most tender songs resonate with an uncommon intensity.
Yelawolf and J. Michael Phillips, photo by Edward Crowe
Saturday | 06.14 What: Yelawolf and Three 6 Mafia When: 7 Where: Mission Ballroom Why: Yelawolf is a rapper originally from Alabama who has spent the last 20 years exploring his musical curiosities mainly in the realm of hip-hop but in recent years also in Sometimes Y, his rock band with Shooter Jennings. There was some speculation he would stop making hip hop but in 2024 he released his latest album War Story. True to form the record is stylistically diverse with live instrumentation and atmospheric and moody beat-making to frame his stories of American life in a fashion opposite of the portrait of luxury and the good life common in the songs of more mainstream hip-hop artists. Yelawolf also recently collaborated with J. Michael Phillips on a new album Whiskey & Roses that drops July 11, 2025. It’s mix of soulful and atmospheric country with hip-hop style beats and production in a way that draws on the strength of both styles of music. Co-headlining this show are southern hip-hop legends Three 6 Mafia, pioneers of horrorcore and an influence on Yelawolf. Their own inventive beats and energetic and creative vocal delivery has yielded a career of music that feels like it’s ahead of its time while awash in contemporary cultural resonance.
Broncho, photo courtesy the artists
Tuesday | 06.17 What:Broncho When: 7 Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Broncho originally came out of Norman, Oklahoma when former Starlight Mints member Ryan Lindsey launched the group shortly after his old band dissolved. Since then Broncho has been fairly prolific and seeming to pursue a unique musical vision with each album. The earlier records were in the lane of garage rock psychedelia but not in the cookie cutter fashion that plagued the 2010s. Always weirder and more interesting and genuinely transporting. The band’s new record Natural Pleasure (2025) is steeped as well in a vintage, analog sound and mood like something that picked up where girl groups left off in the 60s but not where The Ramones took that inspiration, more resonant with what Cindy Lee did on 2024’s sprawling epic Diamond Jubilee. So more haunted and imbued with what some might call intentional imperfections but really lending the melodies character and a quality that doesn’t feel like an obvious imitation of something else.
Meltt, photo by Zachary Vague
Wednesday | 06.18 What: The Blue Stones w/Meltt When: 7 Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: The Blue Stones are a blues rock duo from Windsor, Ontario, Canada currently touring in support of its 2025 album Metro. A fuzz-drenched affair with at least some rhythms that set the band apart from the standard issue blues rock bands that operate in every city of size in North America. Opening the show is Meltt from the western end of Canada in Vancouver. Its own sound has some similar roots as The Blue Stones but Meltt clearly combines an electronic music aesthetic into its psychedelic sound. There is a tranquility at the heart of Meltt’s songwriting that puts a focus on reflective moods in crafting uplifting and soothing melodies that transport the listening supported by rhythms that draw upon downtempo dance music. The effect is a lush fusion of dream pop and chillwave.
Mr. Pacman in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.20 What: Magic Cyclops, Jocko Homo, Mr. Pacman and Little Fyodor When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Magic Cyclops aka Scott Fuller is celebrating 25 years as a performance project that is part comedy, part synth music of various stripes and all absurd. Along for the proceedings are Devo tribute band Jocko Homo, the surreal and inspired synth punk band Mr. Pacman and avant-garde punk pop artist Little Fyodor and maybe he’ll have his full band with him for this show as well. Maximum weirdness for the month in Denver.
Salin, photo courtesy the artist
Friday | 06.20 What:Salin w/Tyler Adams Organ Trio When: 7 Where: Cervantes’ Other Side Why: Salin is a drummer, producer and composer who was born in Thailand but based in Montréal. The Juno-nominated artist has built a body of work that sounds like a fusion of psychedelic Afrobeat, summery downtempo, funk and cosmic jazz with sounds and ideas from indigenous Thai musical traditions. Her live performances reveal a musician who brings undeniably positive energy to the shows and great nuance of polyrhythms while making musically sophisticated songwriting accessible. There’s something uplifting and soothing to Salin’s work solo and with her ensembles. Fans of Kamasi Washington will find some resonance here in terms of the richness of tones and sheer ability to communicate complex emotions through the music alone.
Perfume Genius, photo by Cody Critcheloe
Saturday | 06.21 What:Perfume Genius w/Ulrika’s Bedroom When: 8 Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Over the past decade and a half Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius has well established himself as a writer of sophisticated and emotionally vibrant pop songs imbued with an orchestral sensibility. Hadreas combines in his songwriting a vulnerability and confidence that is immediately captivating. On stage the artist has a theatrical flair worthy of 1970s glam rock legends. The new Perfume Genius album Glory is fascinatingly raw, intimate and tender and expansively atmospheric in just the right measure throughout. Like an indie folk album but resonating with cinematic production and rich emotional coloring. Will guest vocalist Aldous Harding tour just to perform “No Front Teeth” and bring with her that special, experimental pop weirdness? Likely not, but either way this is a chance to see Perfume Genius touring in support of what is arguably his best record to date.
EMF, photo courtesy the artists
Saturday | 06.21 What:EMF and Spacehog w/Ecce Shnak When: 7 Where: The Oriental Theater Why: EMF will forever be linked to their 1990 breakout single “Unbelievable” which was ubiquitous on college and then pop radio in the US in 1991 after emerging on UK charts the year of its release. The song got a further boost when the band put out ots debut album Schubert Dip in 1991 as well. But the band was never able to fully capture the excitement that the debut single seemed to instill on first hearing it and by the late 90s EMF had split. With some reunion gigs in the 2000s EMF returned to being active in time to release its first album in 27 years with Go Go Sapiens and returned to atmospheric rock informed by dance music roots but with a clear ear for modern production and with songwriting instincts that have evolved and whose early aesthetics have aged well. Spacehog co-headlins this bill. The band consists of four men from England who were living in New York City when the group formed in 1994 and as wouldn’t be so strange for those heady times had a major label deal yielding its 1995 debut album Resident Alien. Its hit single “In the Meantime” sounded like an anticipation of the full incorporation of electronic production in the context of a rock song albeit one that sounded like it was inspired by 70s glam rock akin to Bowie and like a bridge between Brit Pop and later era grunge without coming off as trying hard to fit into a trendy style. While the cultural and musical milieu that had early nurtured Spacehog was done by the late 90s at least the band didn’t sound like the watered down version of alternative rock that plagued the middle of the 90s and to a certain extent to today.
Spacehog, photo courtesy the artistsMoon Pussy in 2024, photo by Tom Murphy
Saturday | 06.21 What: Bull Market, Moon Pussy, Blood Oath and The New Creep When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Bull Market from Billings, Montana sounds a lot like it listened to a lot of Failure but even more Harry Pussy and Melvins. Its edgy, blunt noise rock indulges in fuzzy drones and Coachwhips-esque splintery minimalism and experimental flourish. Moon Pussy is the kind of angular noise rock band whose gnarly punk discharge will tear your face-off but whose stage banter in its sincere awkwardness will make you laugh and somewhere in that mix of ideas the group has genuinely compelling and innovative music of its own. The New Creep is an industrial noise rock post-punk band from Denver.
eHpH in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.27 What: eHpH album release w/Cruel Morning, Unnatural Element and Modern Devotion When: 8 Where: Bar404 Why: Denver EBM/industrial band eHpH returns with a surprise new record called CORRUPTION AND FEAR with front to back wonderfully scathing songs against the oligarchy, fascism and the anti-woke agenda. The duo has always had superb production but for this album it has taken everything to new heights with impassioned performances and heady beats. Opening the show is the dark techno project of Voight guitarist Adam Rojo.
Rubedo at We Labs with Ikey Owens (3rd from left), November 15, 2013. Photo by Tom Murphy
Friday | 06.27 What: Rubedo, RAREBYRD$ and Redamancy When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Rubedo is a psychedelic prog and pop band from Denver. The trio is comprised of childhood friends Kyle Kramer, Alex Trujillo and Gregg Ziemba whose roots in the influence of alternative rock and art rock bands like The Mars Volta has meant Rubedo would never be trend hoppers and with an interest in concepts of alchemy and how that can inform how music can be made and functions, Rubedo has had a different kind of journey through, around and out of the Denver music scene. In the early 2010s they met R. Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, keyboard player for The Mars Volta and Jack White’s band and became friends and collaborators as he produced the albums Massa Confusa (2012) and Love Is The Answer (2013). Owens became a mentor to the band influencing their ethos, their already strong work ethic as artists and their drive to continue to put out worthwhile releases. Even with the tragic passing of Owens in 2014, Rubedo has continued their friend’s commitment to community and cultivating artistic vision. For a handful of years they were involved in running the influential DIY space Unit E which has since morphed into a record label that focuses on quality local releases including their 2025 album Citrinitas which started brewing in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and was written and recorded across sessions at R.A.R.E. Records in Winchester, TN (co-owned by Michael McDonald) with Michael Lee, Tayler Martin, Jeremy Mason and Charlie Powell. Additional engineering at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado with Andrew Berlin, mixed by Matt Embree (Rx Bandits) at ICS in Long Beach, CA and mastering by Tyler Lindgren (The Milk Blossoms). It’s a record that reflects the band’s community and connections local and beyond and the album is co-release with Mash Down Babylon, Embree’s label. The album is typically both a touching and personal set of songs and those that are an incisive and poetic commentary on the times in which we find ourselves ravaged by the psychopathy of oligarchs, fascists and the ways in which we’re encouraged to isolate ourselves when the opposite is what is needed.
Anthony Ruptak, photo from Bandcamp
Saturday | 06.28 What:Anthony Ruptak w/Porlolo and The Trujillo Company When: 8 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Anthony Ruptak is a veteran singer-songwriter from Denver who has run the gamut of hosting shows, playing numerous others, recording and releasing albums of great poetry and personal insight. His latest, released tonight for this show, is Tourist. The title perhaps refers to Ruptak’s having felt like a tourist in many situations socially but from listening to the songs also psychologically and how one can often suffer from impostor syndrome when you’re an artist or any sort of sensitive person who has to try to navigate situations and fractured egos that aren’t your own. It balances dissonance and melody in a way that both enhance the effect of the other. Pololo is the project lead by Erin Roberts that has been going on for around 20 years but you don’t get to see Porlolo all that often and every time it’s striking how Roberts’ lyrics seem to sum up a state of mind or the state of the world in a compelling way.
Church Fire in 2024, photo by Tom Murphy
Sunday | 06.29 What: Denver Pride After-Party: Church Fire, YAN YEZ, Mr. Knobs and May Be Fern When: 7 Where: Hi-Dive Why: Denver pride happens the weekend of 6.28-6.29 and this event is a choice way to wind down the festivities, not that the likes of indie funk group May Be Fern is exactly tranquil stuff. Nor that Church Fire’s highly charged, industrial dance anthems tearing down the theoretical and spiritual framework of the patriarchy is tranquil either but it will be a catharsis we all need in time when it seemed like we should be rebuilding a better world instead of once again having to take on patriarchy’s most extreme manifestations in fascism and late capitalism because no one is coming to save us.
Sheri Miller’s “Chelsea Summer Nights” in its acoustic version is vivid in its capturing the spirit of a time and place in 1960s Manhattan when the Hotel Chelsea was home to elements of the American creative class like Bob Dylan and associates of Andy Warhol. Miller’s vibrant vocals command attention with expertly cadenced lyrics that make you feel like you’re there experiencing a time of youthful romance in a context where idealism seemed to be readily at hand and folk music could be radical and even revolutionary as a vehicle for a generational zeitgeist. Miller effortlessly taps into that energy in her performance with only vocals and acoustic guitar and makes it obvious that the resonance of a cultural moment she channels powerfully in the song could be something we could have now and to feel that purity of love, endless possibilities and fearlessness many people yearn for but don’t always get to indulge in this deeply conflicted and diminished era. Listen to “Chelsea Summer Nights (acoustic)” on Spotify and follow Sheri Miller at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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