The title of Lochie Earl’s new single “Laugh@urseLF” should be an obvious clue that there is an element of humor involved in the songwriting. But that humor is pointed inward as a reminder to not be an insufferable jerk. Also, to remember that no matter how seriously you may take yourself that won’t change your condition or your personality and that in the end you can’t escape yourself and you may as well accept yourself as you are and have a laugh once in awhile at how your personality can have unpleasant manifestations that you can either find humor in to diminish their power or double down on your ridiculous moments. Musically it’s a dynamic and varied song that begins with a piano figure and rapid fire lyrics that reflect the rush of thoughts and emotion. The piano melody is reminiscent of Blue Oyster Cult’s 1974 song “Astronomy” and that gives it a haunted quality suggestive of maybe being stuck in your own head with the drama around you maybe in no small part existing as a figment of your imagination. Listen to “Laugh@urseLF” on YouTube and follow Lochie Earl on the Gypsys of Pangea Febook page.
Duphi’s latest single “Tears of the Past” brings together production and natural sounds to create a track that sounds like a cycle of processing regret and grief in the context of your whole life. It’s a natural tendency to look back and assess and, if you’re a person of conscience possessed of self-honesty, flagellate yourself a little for mistakes, reliving those moments as if that ritual of punishment is an endless act of atonement that is the only proper way to demonstrate you’ve acknowledged that mistake but are never able to live it down. The gentle beats of this song and its utilizing sampled sounds of a storm in the distance and a sense of traveling away from that storm into more tranquil zones of melodic, percussive arpeggiation that bring a clarity of mind and engender giving yourself the perspective of placing your mistakes as part of your evolution as a person and not as something to always hang over your own head. The song is a reminder that while self-martyrdom may be normal it’s really a waste of time, energy and life better spent being the better person you aspire to be. Listen to “Tears of the Past” on Spotify and follow Duphi at any of the links below.
A charming mix of 8-bit sounds, organic percussion and sounds and keyboards, Podge’s “Twintails” is a song that picks up where 80s Ninendo game soundtracks left off and explored the pop songwriting possibilities of that sensibility. The effect is something like a playfully yet melancholy indie pop song that draws on what is an element of so much manga and anime and that is how it reflects a sense of loneliness and yearning for connection while speaking to the aspirations and dreams of the artists. This palette of sounds thus never comes off as gimmicky or mere affectation. Podge’s songwriting is fully immersed in the blend of cultures Western and Japanese on that creative level and that gives “Twintails” an unexpected emotional and sonic depth for an effect of an eclecticism reminiscent of Alopecia-period Why? Listen to “Twintails” on Soundcloud and follow Podge at the links below.
One imagines this track inspired by dropping a small stone into a still pond from on high and watching the ripple effect as it intersects with small waves and the influence of a breeze on the water. Or contemplating a Zen garden and its use of organic and mathematical elements and contemplating how nature doesn’t do the calculations we create to model them imperfectly. Yet with the bright tone in an otherwise ethereal unfolding of sounds emits in echo like the horn of a ship in a distant harbor indistinctly on a foggy morning. Whatever was the collection of inspirations behind edad del pavo’s “centric,” it has a sense of place and wonder and a feeling of contemplative acceptance of our place in the entirety of existence. Listen to “centric” on Soundcloud and follow edad del pavo at the links provided.
Beginning with volume swells on guitar and a low background repeating synth figure “Orders of Magnitude” by Lakes of Wada edges forward like a drifting cloud formation. Melodic electronic drones thread into the mix in layers giving the composition a bit of conventional songwriting element inside the more experimental soundscape framing. Going from minimal to a full spectrum of sounds including a full drum set, the song progresses to give expression to the title. From quiet calm of the beginnings of a rainstorm to not torrents but a steady rain interrupted by sunshine as the rain clouds pass overhead away from a sun headed toward the night time horizon. Rather than morning music or night music, this is late afternoon music and while dynamic with flaring tones, it’s feel is like that time of the day when you know it’s time to wind down a bit or the part of the summer when you can tell the season has broken and cooler days area ahead. Listen to “Orders of Magnitude” on YouTube and follow Lakes of Wada at the links below.
It’s the little biographical details that Sulene puts into her song “Diamond” that really sets it apart from so many indie synth pop songs. The hook and the breezy chorus are what keeps the momentum going and the tasty and fluid bass line at the song’s outro. But Sulene knows how to set a scene as early in the song when she speaks of drinking whiskey in the August heat and hanging out on the fire escape. Dancing in Brooklyn and grinding her teeth and how friends move on, talking about LCD (presumably Soundsystem) – these are the sorts of memories that can tie you to a time in your life and a situation that you’ve outgrown and as Sulene sings in the chorus about being a diamond in the rough she’s ready to let go of the life and some of the attachments she once had for the next step in her life’s journey. Listen to “Diamond” on Soundcloud and follow Sulene at the links provided.
The title track to Per Störby Jutbring’s latest album The Thief Bunny Society has all the light, playful yet imagination stirring qualities of great childhood fantasy movies, the kind that don’t pander and remain enjoyable through adulthood. Like Nigel Westlake’s score for Babe, Alan Silvestri’s soundtrack to FernGully or any of Danny Elfman’s cinematic music. With layers of piano, strings, clarinet and electronics, Jutbring conveys a sense of openness and freedom, of a vista of adventures to look forward to in whatever this Thief Bunny Society may be. Is it the kind of society children form to bond over a summer of shared hijinks and discovery, of creative mischief and several weeks free of all the demands of life during the school year? While that may be an age and perhaps for many class specific option, it is something everyone should get to experience sometime in their lives—a lengthy period of time where your imagination and intuition are the guide and fun is the goal—so that you have a place in your heart that you can go to when life can seem like drudgery and the demands place on you seem burdensome. It’s a psychological space that represents a freedom that can’t be taken away from you. Jutbring’s soundtrack provides the sonic analog of that experience as the childhood soundtrack to a film that does not yet exist, He taps into those parts of your brain that create those feelings with his composition and your mind is better for having heard it. Listen to “The Thief Bunny Society” on Soundcloud and follow Jutbring at the links below.
What:Derelicts w/Cyclo-Sonic, Clusterfux and The Lurchers When: Friday, 08.16, 8 p.m. Where: Streets Denver Why: The Derelicts are a bratty punk band from Seattle legendary for its unhinged stage shows in a scene know for them. Lead singer Duane Bodenheimer grew up in Denver and was part of the punk world here before moving to Seattle to join this infamous outfit. Clusterfux are the legendary Denver street punk band that has been going since the early 90s.
What:Flying Lotus in 3D w/Brandon Coleman Spacetalker, Salami Rose Joe Louis, PBDY When: Friday, 08.16, 8 p.m. Where: The Mission Ballroom Why: Flying Lotus returns with his visually stunning “in 3D” performance in support of his new album Flamagra. The sets often involve a bit of a stage set where Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus controls the sound and perhaps aspects of the visuals for an engulfing audio-visual experience. See below for a taste from 2017. Though Flying Lotus has crossed over between experimental electronic and EDM and funk and hip-hop his imaginative soundscaping continues to evolve in ever more colorful directions with an ear and eye for the presentation of that music for people who show up to craft a mutually inspiring performance.
Saturday | August 17
Little Fyodor and Babushka Band circa 2016, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Sigilcraft with Tom Banger The Art of Making Things Happen: Using Art, Sound and Video to Create Change When: Saturday, 08.17, 2-4 p.m. Where: Mercury Café Why: Tom Banger, former punk/experimental/underground music promoter in Denver through the 80s and into the 90s will demonstrate the use of creative endeavor to enact change in one’s life and beyond. See event page for details including suggestions for bringing imagery from magazines or books in the crafting of the aforementioned sigil. Banger will also present artifacts of his music promotion past at the Central Library on Monday 8/19.
What:Physical Wash, Voight, Entrancer and Staggered Hooks When: Saturday, 08.17, 9 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: Physical Wash is the solo project of High Functioning Flesh’s Susan Abstract. Both are melodic and in the classic industrial/EBM mold but whereas HFF is more akin to the likes of Nitzer Ebb and Front 242, Physical Wash is a little weirder and more in the vein of late 80s Skinny Puppy.
What:The Rotten Blue Menace w/The Repercussions, Noogy, Tuck Knee When: Saturday, 08.17, 7 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: The Rotten Blue Menace was one of Denver’s greatest ska punk bands in the vein of Choking Victim and Against All Authority before going more or less inactive a few years back. Here’s a chance to see the band at the venue you could most often catch its spirited performances.
What:Denver Art Rock Collective All Stars: Inactivists, Little Fyodor, Gort Vs. Goom, Cattle Axe and The Plastic Rakes When: Saturday, 08.17, 8 p.m. Where: Streets Denver Why: Denver Art Rock Collective is a loose affiliation of bands that don’t really fit into any distinct musical categories but are united by having an eccentric artistic vision behind the music and this event features some of the group’s greatest bands. Naturally punk/noise pioneer Little Fyodor will bring the weirdness as well as great songcraft, Gort Vs. Goom is the Blue Oyster Cult, Melvins and Devo hybrid no one was expecting or asking for but which we need in this bland era and The Inactivists return after who knows how long a hiatus to lay out twisted pop songs too clever for their own good but also catchy enough that in a parallel universe the band would have had a string of hit records. The Plastic Rakes includes former Mourning Sickness guitarist Matt Maher and Cattle Axe includes former New Ancient Astronauts and Superbuick guitarist/vocalist Kasey Elkington.
What:The Claypool Lennon Delirium w/Uni When: Saturday, 08.17, 8 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Les Claypool and Sean Lennon’s band together, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, is making some of the most transporting, conceptual psychedelia being made by anyone right now and at the live show you’ll also probably get treated to some inspired reworkings of their respective individual catalog but also some Beatles material as they did “Tomorrow Never Knows” in their current style when the band stopped through to play The Fox Theatre in 2017.
What:Snail Mail w/Choir Boy When: Saturday, 08.17, 8 p.m. Where: Bluebird Theater Why: Lindsey Jordan will eventually outgrow her current phase of songwriting with the gentle guitar work, albeit highly refined and sophisticated, that’s a little too much like that of many of her indie rock peers. But her lyrics reveal someone who is capable of articulating great, vivid nuances of feeling and unconventional thinking.
Sunday | August 18
Phantogram, photo by Reagan Hackleman
What:Old Man Gloom w/Oryx and Echo Beds When: Sunday, 08.18, 8 p.m. Where: Marquis Theater Why: Old Man Gloom is sort of an extreme/atmospheric metal/post-hardcore super group comprised of members of Isis, Converge, Sumac and Cave-In. Its music is haunting, psychedelic and unrelenting. Oryx is an extreme metal band from Denver that is sometimes lumped in with doom and if you’re into doom you won’t be disappointed but Oryx’s presentation and creativity within that realm of music sets it apart from many of its peers. Echo Beds is the organic-industrial post-punk band whose confrontational sound and political lyrics are both harrowing and transcendent.
What:Y La Bamba and Esmé Patterson When: Sunday, 08.18, 6 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Y La Bamba is a band from Portland, Oregon that is impossible to pigeonhole as folk or world music or “Latin” or post-punk or experimental pop because it’s all of that to varying degrees. It’s music, though, is a sonically rich and engrossing band whose ability to craft a vivid mood and deeply emotional listening experience that’s transporting and grounding at once is impressive. Esmé Patterson in her now long-standing solo career is an artist whose work is rooted more in feeling and concept than genre. Patterson made her mark in indie folk band Paper Bird but her solo records have all explored the nature of identity and relationships and her live performances seem to experiment with the very format of what a live band can look like and how it can present itself without limiting itself to past expectations.
What:The Claypool Lennon Delirium w/Uni When: Sunday, 08.18, 7:30 p.m. Where: Boulder Theater Why: See above for Claypool Lennon Delirium.
What:Phantogram w/Bob Moses When: Sunday, 08.18, 8 p.m. Where: The Mission Ballroom Why: Phantogram’s synth pop is cinematic and sweeping in scope and presentation even back when the band wasn’t playing rooms as big as The Mission Ballroom. More than some of its early peers, Phantogram created a sound that felt like it was engaging your imagination as much as your emotions and bringing you along for its ride into broad vistas of sound and inspiration while speaking to a broad spectrum of the human experience. Its newer music seems to be expanding into more soulful territory though no album has been forthcoming since 2016’s Three. Its “Into Happiness” single, though, more than hints at its next musical direction.
Monday | August 19
Calexico and Iron & Wine, photo by Piper Ferguson
What:Calexico and Iron & Wine w/Madison Cunningham When: Monday, 08.19, 8 p.m. Where: Denver Botanic Gardens Why: Calexico and Iron & Wine last collaborated on a recording with 2005’s In the Reigns EP. But in 2018 Sam Beam, Joey Burns and John Convertino were able to get together to write and record the eight songs that make up their new record together, 2019’s Years to Burn. It’s the kind of album that sounds like its intricate details were somehow well mapped out and intuitive. Like friends who get each others instincts and share sensibilities and aesthetics. Which given these artists seems obvious. And it’s an album on which thoughts and observations are explored with a sense of life’s complexities and ambiguities and the comfort that can come with being able to navigate through tentative times in your life and in the world if you’re not too set in your ways and hardened to your own heart and the world around you.
What:Punk Show and Tell with Tom Banger When: Monday, 08.19, 6 p.m. Where: Central Library Floor 7 Training Room Why: Denver punk promoter/musician/underground culture legend Tom Banger will present artifacts from his life and times in that world with actual items from his library donated to the Denver Public Library as part of its history collection. It’s a rare and curated glimpse into Denver’s cultural heritage and its connection with underground music and culture around the world.
Tuesday | August 20
BIG|BRAVE, photo by Rachel Cheng
What:Big|Brave w/Deaf Kids, Yakuza, Human Tide, Gruesome Relics and Volunteer Coroner When: Tuesday, 08.20, 8 p.m. Where: Rhinoceropolis Why: It might be an exaggeration to call this the extreme metal show of the month much less the year. But it does include experimental drone metal trio Big|Brave and its contorted atmospherics and emotionally charged vocals, Deaf Kids’ polyrhythmic, psychedelic industrial punk and Yakuza’s menacing, sludgy, dark and heavy yet ethereal drones. And that’s only half the bill.
What:Deathwish w/Cadaverine, Zygrot and Victim of Fire When: Tuesday, 08.20, 7 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Deathwish is the thrash punk band from Madison, Wisconsin, not the UK thrash band from the 80s. But if you’re a fan of the latter it seems like you’d be into the Wisconsin band as both have a similar proclivity for confrontational vocals, burning guitar riffs and a disdain for mainstream normalcy.
Wednesday | August 21
David Dondero circa 2009, photo by Tom Murphy
What:David Dondero and Patrick Dethlefs When: Wednesday, 08.21, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: David Dondero is a lifer whose music reflects a dedication to telling the truth about various corners of human existence and experience through poignant stories delivered with his signature voice warm and sensitive and on the verge of quavering, accompanied by intricate guitar work played with a dynamic urgency. Patrick Dethlefs is a Denver-based singer songwriter whose highly emotive songwriting is thought-provoking and inspires a compassionate examination of your own feelings and reactions to the events in your life through his own openness in singing about his own travails and reflections.
“Calm” by Secret Shame is probably the state of mind this song is a kind of an emotional exorcism to attain given its narrative of chaos and anxiety among a circle of friends and associates. Comparisons to Siouxsie & The Banshees is inevitable as Lena’s vocals have a similar power and versatility. The rhythms are steady and appropriately brooding and the guitar minimal yet melodic and spidery after the manner of early Sisters of Mercy. But when the guitars, bass and drums sync up with the vocals, including the backup vocals, for the choruses the band alchemically attains an electrifying frisson that pushes the sound beyond what one might expect with the intentionally lo-fi recording. The latter actually contributes to a sense that this song could have come out in 1983 or today except that, while also reminiscent at times of Denver’s Your Funeral or a death rock version of The Vanishing, there is nothing museum piece about what the band is doing. It’s moods are introspective and its words unsparing yet poetic and compassionate in their examination of self and socio-political issues—aspects of the music that often seem underappreciated in a lot of dark post-punk. And it is that side of the songwriting that gives the music its powerful emotional resonance. Look for the group’s debut full-length Dark Synthetics out on Portrayal of Guilt Records (yes, run by the great weirdo hardcore band) on September 6, 2019. Listen to “Calm” on Soundcloud and follow Asheville, North Carolina’s Secret Shame at the links below.
“Myopia” by Seattle band Peyote Ugly sounds like a song about one’s own inability to see situations in our lives clearly until they’re right before us because we’re so focused on our own context most of the time. Our blind spots are often revealed to us when we’re least prepared to deal with the fallout, a phenomenon that seems to have run amok in the society at large from politicians, corporations and humans in general or maybe we’re just examining the things we refused to look at for years. The coruscating psychedelic riffs of “Myopia” express this cognitive dissonance perfectly as Peyote Ugly channel shades of Built to Spill, The Posies and Dinosaur Jr while in the end casting itself in a different mold of its own making. The fiery guitar work and the subtle and dynamic atmospheres and emotional awareness informing the lyrics are a refreshingly rare pairing. Watch the video for “Myopia,” filmed and edited by Kyle Toda of the band Antonioni, on YouTube and follow Peyote Ugly at the links provided.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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