Westwood Bluegrass Band, image courtesy the artists
Though writing within the realm of a well-established form of music in the kind of western, bluegrass tradition, Westwood Bluegrass Band’s creativity is immediately evident on “Ever Turning Wheel.” Everyone making traditional, acoustic music strives for the authentic by essentially imitating a past artist. If this trio is so obvious in its hearkening back to a specific artist, I don’t know because there is something disarmingly vulnerable and uncalculated by the performance in the live video for the song. The melodies between the instruments and the vocalists are exquisite and all the more impressive because it is a live recording and the players all create such a warm, atmospheric quality to the song that it stands out in what has long been a crowded field of folk and Americana. Westwood Bluegrass Band take the essence of what that music should be about and spin that into spare yet intricate arrangements that are mutually complimentary. It doesn’t sound like a stylistic museum piece and sits good in the ears even if you’re not necessarily a fan of bluegrass or folk because the songwriting and mood of the song transcends genre with its captivating emotional honesty. Watch the video below and follow Westwood Bluegrass Band at the links provided.
Employing multiple layers of flowing sound, LIGHTSPEAR imbue the single “System” from its debut album Metro with a classic synth pop sound that transcends the standard synthwave style that you hear often imitated. With melodic, distorted washes, syncopated leads, minimal percussion and creatively sequenced arpeggios LIGHTSPEAR invoke the sorts of sounds Tangerine Dream engaged in on its 1980s soundtrack work on films like Thief, Wavelength and Risky Business. There is a sense of edge and excitement just out of reach and embarking upon a journey from which you will return a changed person. On this track LIGHTSPEAR also avoids the temptation to put in the kinds of drops and builds that are intended to create an artificial, dynamic progression but which always comes off lazy. Rather, this project focuses on the dynamics emerging from composing a song with a depth of detail in which its easy to become immersed. Listen to “System” on Spotify below and follow LIGHTSPEAR at its Bandcamp page.
There is a sense of traveling to living video game world in Tekisuto’s “Go Left.” Some of the synth is reminiscent of a more high fidelity version of some kind of early 90s Nintendo game. But the horns and the more urgent and angular melody recall early Depeche Mode as well. The ascending synth line that takes us out of the song with the brief bit of ambient room sound to follow gives a different impression like we’ve been riding a rapid transit shuttle and the jubilant music we’ve been listening to is the theme music for the ride. Like if “Welcome to the Machine” by Pink Floyd was a lot shorter, wasn’t a brooding, melancholic dirge but with the same otherworldly quality. The ambient room sound is there at the beginning of the song with some light laughter and indiscernible conversation to bookend the surreal song with a touch of regular life even as it takes us on a trip to a brighter, more fun hyper reality for a couple of minutes, a welcome transport to a fantastical place. Listen to “Go Left” below on Spotify.
With his project Robin and the Modest, Tobi Vogel presents a cinematic experience through the music. His pacing, dynamics, sonic architecture, textures and arrangements suggest a kind of narrative structure and mood. The project’s 2017 debut Eftychia set a high bar for instrumental rock/post-rock but the new album Playground makes good on that promise including the single “Synthie aus Marzahn.” With minimalist synth arpeggiation in the beginning the song quickly segues into haunting atmospherics giving the impression of some kind of unusual thriller plot taking place in a late night cosmopolitan city on the platform of a rail line. The vocal samples make you think of the kind of movie where a passive observer coming from or going to their job is drawn into a drama involving international intrigue and high tech crime. Every song on the album tells a different story but all employ evocative composition to set vivid scenes without explicit use of language. The titles give hints with neologisms like “Raketenfaust” (“Faust Rocket”) and phrases like “Kaltes Herz” (“Cold Hearts”) but even these suggestions pale in comparison to the aural journeys through which Vogel takes us on Playground. Listen to “Synthie aus Marzahn” below and follow Robin and the Modest at the links provided.
David Valois and friends, photo courtesy the artist
The sense of the surreal and sinister to Davi Valois’ “Event Horizon” reflects the political reality of modern Brazil with Jair Bolsonaro, a fascist leader whose bizarre beliefs and ease with the use of violent repressive policies, aren’t far removed from the likes of Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Vladimir Putin or what Donald Trump would do if he could yet get away with it. With processed vocal samples and an unsettling melody cast in luminous piano tones and synth, Valois seems to evoke the demented side of Wendy Carlos’ iconic soundtrack work for A Clockwork Orange—a way to ridicule an awful and dangerous political regime while also invoking how as absurd as it is, those types of figures and governments destroy everything around them from the norms of governance and civic culture, the institutions that brought stability to society and the economic system itself. Given that, by extension, the aforementioned political figures contribute to the destruction of the world itself. “Event Horizon” is part of an album called Bátraquio that addresses these issues as well as the depression and general despair and malaise that infects everyone in ways they may not realize and how not all change should be embraced when it is not so much inevitable as part of a programme to benefit the few at the expense of everyone else in a self destructive spiral that will not even spare the perpetrators. Listen on Spotify and explore Valois work further at the links provided.
The shimmer of slide guitar and languid pace of “Give Me Honey” by Dope Lemon is somehow reminiscent of both Luna and Harry Nilsson. The hovering synth haunting the background in descending tones to accent the main vocal line and unconventional percussion conveys a kind of late night lounge vibe but with a haunted elegance. The music video for the song reinforces the impression of the song like there’s a lurid secret hidden behind appearances and underneath the surface, secrets that may rattle existing norms and expectations. The hardened cowboy types and hanging out at a classier bar than one might associate with their usual hangout and the exotic, mysterious figure that draws their attention. The plot of the video ends inconclusively as does the song with a simply fast fade out. But it works as a slice of life and the simple mysteries and fantasies everyone entertains just to get through the drudgery of the usual mundane existence that is the work week. Follow Dope Lemon at any of the links below.
“Up Comes the Tunnel” drifts in softly with tonal guitar swells, understated bass and nearly whispered vocals before Sun Blood Stories brings in the fire a little over a minute in. What starts as introspective quickly evolves into an urgent tale of impending doom. Dramatic, rapid swirls of synth coil around seething guitar work and plaintive, beckoning wails of warning. Listening, it’s like a whimsical dream in a mysterious land that turns into a nightmare in which you see your own death and doom rushing toward you. Like the tunnel in the title of the song you are in a car hurtling toward a passage into the next life whether metaphorical or literal. It’s a song that reminds us that no matter how much we’ve planned or thought through we can’t escape the fate of all living creates and it all too often comes before you or anyone you know is read and too soon. Dire stuff but the song has a life affirming quality that lifts it out of that personal darkness and musically Sun Blood Stories, who have always more than a few steps removed from the wave of psychedelic rock of the past decade and a half, have pushed themselves into realms of songwriting and soundscaping that avoid tropes of the genre. Look out for the new record Haunt Yourself on September 20, 2019. Listen to “Up Comes the Tunnel” on Soundcloud and connect with Boise, Idaho’s Sun Blood Stories at the links below.
The term “supergroup” gets thrown around a lot, but few bands are as deserving of the title as Old Man Gloom. With members whose day jobs have included Cave In, Converge, ISIS, Sumac, Doomriders, Mutoid Man and myriad other projects, the band has become one of the most enduring enigmas in the world of heavy music, simultaneously stunning fans and critics with jarring and creatively extraordinary releases while confusing nearly everyone with bizarre social media posts and even taunting the music press. After all, this is the band that slipped review copies of its album Ape of God to music journalists only to reveal months later on release day that what they’d distributed wasn’t the actual record.
“There’s been so many things that if any other band had done the things that I do they would be slaughtered for it, and they would lose fans and people would be outraged,” says Santos Montano, Old Man Gloom’s drummer and the band’s primary online presence. “But because we do it so consistently people don’t even think about it for more than a day. When we did the Ape of God thing,” any other band that did that, publications would be like ‘fuck these guys.’ The labels would be like ‘fuck these guys.’ There’s so many people that would be like ‘Great, you want to play jokes? Go fuck yourself and fuck your stupid band.’ With us, we’re so consistent in our bad behavior that it didn’t affect us in any way.”
Old Man Gloom began in 1999 in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a project between a group of friends who all happened to be professional musicians. Aaron Turner (guitar, vocals) was the frontman of the band ISIS at the time and now fronts the art-metal group SUMAC. Nate Newton (guitar, vocals) plays bass in the frenetic metalcore band Converge. Caleb Scofield (bass) was a member of Cave In and the Old Man Gloom side project Zozobra.
After releasing a handful of sporadic recordings in the early 2000s, the band went completely dark for nearly a decade, only to reemerge seemingly out of nowhere to release a new record, NO in 2012. The record was barely advertised but still got a lot of attention from fans and the press and was followed in 2014 by the now-infamous Ape of God.
By any measure, Old Man Gloom has done a terrible job promoting itself. The band doesn’t tour and largely eschews the typical PR relationship for Montano’s bare-bones self-promotion techniques. That’s by design according to Montano. Because Old Man Gloom is a side project for all its member (Montano is a set dresser for television and films), there’s little pressure to tour, release albums or even behave professionally.
“We don’t need people to listen to us or come see us play live or do anything,” he says. “We don’t need any of it. We just do it on an as-needed-by-us basis. It just so happens that it works for everyone else. If it all stopped tomorrow, we’d all be like ‘Well that was pretty good. Too bad it’s not all still happening.’ There’s just no consequences for us and it’s pretty great.”
That same attitude follows the band into all aspects of its existence, he says, including the studio. Montano says sometimes he’s as surprised as everyone else when he hears the band’s completed records.
“Have you heard our albums?” says Montano. “It’s like 70 percent gobbledygook. There’s literally moments in the studio where we look at each other, and Aaron’s in there doing something really fucking weird, and we’ll look at each other like ‘Is this real? Is he serious right now or is he fucking with us?’ Sometimes it sounds really terrible and we’re not sure it’s going to work, then Aaron takes it away for six months and comes back and it just so happens it’s really good stuff. We never know what it’s going to be or if it’s any good while we’re doing it. And we don’t really care. Whatever it ends up being is just fine by us.”
That’s not to say the band has had an easy go of things. In March of 2018 the band and the heavy music community at large was dealt a terrible blow when, on a highway near his home in New Hampshire, Scofield hit a concrete barrier with his truck and died from his injuries. It’s hard to put into words how devastating the loss was to Scofield’s family and friends. Aside from his musical family, he left behind a wife and two young children. He was 39.
Caleb Scofield, who played bass in Old Man Gloom and Cave In, died in a car accident in New Hampshire in March of 2018. His bands have forged on, with Nate Newton taking over bass duties in Cave In and Steve Brodsky doing the same in Old Man Gloom. Photo by Josh Withers.
Montano, like the others, still struggles to talk about Scofield’s death.
“It’s just so hard to imagine that it’s real” he says. “I guess it’s a little over a year now and it still feels pretty surreal. It still feels like it’s not really possible that what’s happened has really happened. But then obviously it has.”
Montano says his feeling go up and down, from extreme grief to fondly remembering funny things Scofield said or did. It’s a rollercoaster that more often than not ends with an empty feeling that’s hard to escape. Keeping the band going, he says, helps.
“On a day to day, I could not think about it for however long and then something happens and something will hit me and all the synapses will start connecting and I’ll sort of remember the reality and get really fucking bummed out,” he says. “But then we’ll get together and we’re all in the same place and we’re all going through it together. It’s really healing to get together and talk and laugh and tell Caleb stories. It’s what we all need. Saying all that, none of that speaks at all to what his family is going through. What we’re feeling is just a drop in the bucket, which leads us to keep doing things to support his wife and kids however we can. It’s what we’re all kind of focused on right now.”
That focus has not only helped friends and bandmates honor Scofield’s legacy, it has made a very real impact for his family. A GoFundMe campaign in Scofield’s memory raised more than $100,000 and ongoing efforts including auctions of memorabilia and music-related items continue to bring in money for the family. Montano says the outpouring of help has been mind blowing.
“It’s been pretty crazy, the amount of support” says Montano, adding he was particularly shocked by what fans and even relative strangers were willing to offer just to help out.
“I had all this old Hydra Head (Turner’s record label) stuff and we marked it up really high and all of that money went to Caleb’s family,” he says. “I met a woman who bought this ISIS sawblade, like a CD attached to a sawblade. I think we made like ten copies, and she bought it for 300 bucks. And you know, she didn’t want to spend $300 for a CDR attached to a sawblade, but she was like ‘hey, it’s a cool thing to have, it’s yours and all that money goes to Caleb’s family.” And it’s like, you don’t know me, and you still want to funnel that 300 bucks to [the family]. We did these raffles and you know people didn’t give a shit about the stuff we were raffling. They thought it would be cool, but the bags were just overflowing. They bought all the raffle tickets and the raffle people started having to make [tickets] on napkins just to keep it going. And again, it wasn’t because they wanted a fucking signed drum head. It’s because they wanted to give that money and give support. It was unbelievable. People really came through.”
Losing Scofield, he says, made the idea of continuing Old Man Gloom both sad and exciting: no one ever wanted to do the band without their friend, but continuing was something they all knew he would want. In the end, Montano says, they decided as a group to push on.
“It’s really made this all feel important again in a way that it hasn’t,” Montano says, “and I think we all have sort of a renewed enthusiasm for Old Man Gloom. It’s like we’re here and we have the ability to spend this time together and we’re so grateful for the time that we got to spend with Caleb through Old Man Gloom.”
Newton says it’s been hard to write and record the new Old Man Gloom record, in large part because they are using ideas Scofield sketched out before he passed. Finishing Scofield’s songs has been fun, weird, sad and challenging, sometimes all at once.
“It’s crazy,” says Newton, obviously emotional about the situation. “It’s hard to put that one into words. It’s difficult on an emotional level, but it’s also hard because his stuff isn’t easy play. He definitely had his own voice.”
In the end the band decided to do things the only way they know how.
“We’re kind of approaching it the way we do every record,” he says. “Everybody brings a bunch of ideas to the table and we just see what works. Because they aren’t fully formed songs, we’re taking some of those ideas and figuring out how to make them work. Then trying to stay true to what he would have done.”
This, he says, is where things get emotionally tricky, but also brings them the closest they can get to paying homage to their friend.
“Every record, Caleb would write a bunch of songs and we’d take one and do it a totally different way,” says Newton with a chuckle. “We’d take a day when he wasn’t there and completely redo his song so when he showed up to record, it would be a totally different song. How do you do that in this situation? It’s new territory, trying to do things in a way that honors Caleb’s memory, but without Caleb.”
One of the overarching themes in Old Man Glooms music has always been how much the members enjoy playing music together. To keep that spirit alive, they enlisted Cave In frontman Steve Brodsky. He’s one of their oldest friends, Newton says, and the only person who could even begin to step into Scofield’s shoes. Newton, however reticently, assumed Scofield’s spot in Cave In for the same reason.
“It is still fun,” he says. “And with Steve involved, he’s part of the family. I don’t know if anybody else could have done it, just like nobody else could have stepped into Caleb’s shoes in Cave In. We needed someone else who knew Caleb like we did. Being able to relate on that level is important because once we relate on that level we can start making jokes about it.”
It would have been easy, Montano says, to focus solely on other things – family, work, other bands – and let Old Man Gloom fade away. But no matter what has happened, the members have always managed to get together, however irregularly, and make music.
“We’re all over 40 and we all have kids and Old Man Gloom was really the only time we saw each other,” says Montano. “Now, in retrospect, thank God we pestered [Caleb] into doing this with us. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t have seen him in the last five years. This was a great excuse to be together.”
And now, he says, the band is an even greater excuse for the remaining members to keep that passion alive and do what they love, as a family.
“We’ve never had the shitty times that other bands have had,” says Montano. “We’ve just never gone through that, like getting sick of each other, all that stuff. We’ve never had it because we’ve never been a full-time band. It’s special and we’re pretty grateful.”
What:Line Brawl (final show), Potato Pirates, C.O.ntrol T.V., Remain & Sustain and Mindz Eye When: Thursday, 08.01, 8 p.m. Where: Mutiny Information Café Why: Line Brawl was one of the best hardcore acts out of Denver’s scene in the most recent wave of that sort of music. Its short, sharp dynamics and fit a lot of fury into songs that built up and ended with all but the sparest self-indulgence cut out. Catch them for the last time with some other heavy hitters in the local punk scene.
What:Part Time w/Gary Wilson and French Kettle Station When: Thursday, 08.01, 8 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Part Time has been around for over twenty years at this point, probably, and its music sounds like it began in the late 80s inspired by The Power Station gone synth pop. Could be outsider, definitely eccentric. Also on the bill is Gary Wilson who is a bit of an underground music legend going back to the 1970s. But as a teenager in the late 60s he met and hung out with avant-garde composer John Cage and his own music, however pop-oriented some of it may be, has retained a decidedly experimental edge. In the early 80s he quit music and in the mid-90s was cited by Beck as an influence. Before quitting music he received fan mail from the likes of The Residents. And around the turn of the century Wilson was coaxed into returning to playing his own music and has been writing and occasionally playing out since and this is a rare opportunity to get to see this utterly unique pop songwriter live. Opening the show is synth, drums and guitar prodigy French Kettle Station whose Arthur Russell-esque synth pop songs are delivered with an earnest, passionate intensity.
Friday | August 2
Warpaint circa 2016, photo by Mia Kirby
What:My Morning Jacket w/Warpaint When: Friday, 08.02, 6:30 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: My Morning Jacket is doing a two night run at Red Rocks again this year. The band has enjoyed some mainstream success for a fairly varied body of work that’s genre-bending with elements of folk, psychedelic rock, Americana and alternative rock. Opening the show is Warpaint, a band whose music has also spanned a broad range of sounds from its early post-punk-y/shoegaze-y sound to its more current phase where the band is writing the music collectively and influenced by the sonics of production and hip-hop as much as any rock that has influenced the group’s sound.
What:Nina Storey w/Jeremy Dion When: Friday, 08.02, 7 p.m. Where: Soiled Dove Underground Why: Nina Storey’s powerful voice imbues her eclectic music with a warmth and energy that can be lacking in the realm of the blues, jazz and pop singer-songwriters. Her versatility as a songwriter has resulted in a rich and varied body of work. Years ago Storey was a staple of the Denver music scene but has since branched out and garnered a much wider audience.
Saturday | August 3
French Kettle Station circa 2016, photo by Tom Murphy
What:My Morning Jacket w/Amo Amo When: Saturday, 08.03, 6:30 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: See above for My Morning Jaket. Amo Amo is sort of a psychedelic dream pop band but one that sounds like it came up listening to a lot of surf rock, Laurel Canyon pop and Linda Ronstadt.
What:Murder By Death When: Sunday, 08.04, 7 p.m. Where: Green Russell (1422 Larimer St.) Why: Murder By Death has reliably been putting out thought-provoking poetic albums of wiry, energetic Americana having come up through 90s punk. But its 2018 album The Other Shore finds the band diving into inner space and finding new dark corners of the psyche to bring to light in its inimitable style but with a shade more introspection and atmospheric flourish.
Tuesday | August 6
Everything is Terrible, photo by Jim Newberry
What:Stef Chura w/French Vanilla and Bellhoss When: Tuesday, 08.06, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Stef Chura honed her gritty songwriting for years in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Detroit, doing home recordings and playing in friends’ bands all the while, before releasing Messes in 2017 through Urinal Cake Record. Sure there’s some sculpted fuzz in the guitar and bass but she doesn’t come off like she’s drawing direct inspiration from 90s rock but more from the kind of noise and garage rock of the 2000s, bands like Tyvek, Times New Viking and maybe even some of Jay Reatard’s various projects. Her songwriting has that similar kind of off-the-cuff, splintery quality that sounds like it could come unhinged yet focused. Her 2019 album Midnight, out on Saddle Creek Records, finds Chura vividly sketching situations and people in short lines and bouncy yet flowing dynamics that wed contemplation with embracing the feelings of the moment. Chura also goes off the map throughout her songs so that the pace never gets tedious and her use of sound always imaginative and evocative.
What:Everything Is Terrible When: Tuesday, 08.06, 7 and 9 p.m. Where: Sie Film Center Why: The people behind the brilliantly surreal and irreverent video blogging site/channel Everything is Terrible is bringing its show on tour including a stop at Sie Film Center for a live multi-media performance that will include the puppets, bizarre characters, skids and the sacrifice of Jerry Maquire VHS tapes to the group’s now massive collection that will one day permanently reside in a pyramid in the desert. Strange stuff and we need more inspired, intentional, creative weirdness in these times.
Opening Bell with Tamio Shiraishi (one of the founders of Fushitsusha), photo by Mariah Robertson
What:Action Beat (UK, members of The Ex), Opening Bell (NYC) and New Standards Men When: Tuesday, 08.06, 7 p.m. Where: Glitter City Why: Action Beat includes G.W. Sok, former vocalist of The Ex and is a noise rock band with some free jazz structures, frantic, relentless stuff. Opening Bell is a New York City-based duo comprised of Armando Morales and M. Thomas Reisinger. The latter was based in Denver for years where he was in some of the most forward thinking and strange bands of the time like the experimental post-hardcore band Motheater, processed guitar/bass/vocals noise soundscape group Epileptinomicon and math-y noise drum, bass, vocals and synth duo Mjolniir DXP. Opening Bell sounds like a further trip into processing generated sounds into unsettling yet somehow soothing layers of ambient noise. New Standards Men is an experimental guitar group who mix doom-y metal with Krautrock-esque prog. Targets is a noisier than usual hardcore band.
What:Flume w/JPEGMAFIA, Slowthai and Collin McKenna When: Tuesday, 08.06, 6 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: Harley Streten got started producing music at age thirteen with a program he got in a box of cereal but by the end of his teens in 2010 he began making much more sophisticated house music as HEDS (his initials). As Flume Streten was making electronic dance music that seemed to push the boundaries of the realm of EDM with he seemed to most associated. His compositions are always more imaginative and bring together sounds that one doesn’t often hear in the genre and his production, whatever tools and methods he’s using, isn’t focused on technique, which he has already mastered, but on the emotional flavor of the sounds and how they fit into a bigger arc of feeling across the course of a song. His latest EP, 2019’s Quits, showcases his knack for creative hip-hop beats as well. Also on this tour is JPEGMAFIA whose pointed political and experimental hip-hop is informed as much by weirdo industrial groups like Throbbing Gristle as it is 90s hip-hop and pop.
What:Weird Wednesday: Succulent, Mt. Illimani and Full Bleed When: Wednesday, 08.07, 6 p.m. Where: Bowman’s Vinyl Lounge Why: Weird Wednesday at its new home at Bowman’s Vinyl Lounge will feature sad, sometimes acoustic songs by Randall Chambers as Mt. Illimani. He was in the garage rock band The Carnivores and post-punk group Phenobarbital for those who were fortunate enough to catch either. Full Bleed is sort of an instrumental noisy guitar/prog band.
“Soothsayer” by Skinjobs from Helsinki, Finland immediately draws you into its story of struggling with the drives of ones desires and one’s personal boundaries. The music, like so much of the more experimental rock out of Finland, is eclectic in a way that doesn’t feel forced. There is no stylistic or genre straightjacket to which the band seems to adhere to as a guide for how it’s supposed to sound and that’s gives the song a freshness and different quality than might seem immediately obvious. Skinjobs seems to orchestrate guitar, bass, drums, piano and vocals in a way that suggests a classical music foundation manifesting in a much more free form songwriting style. Its sweeping pace and tightly dynamic and dramatic structure has an emotional urgency that carries you along from its introspective beginnings to the heights of feeling later in the song. Skinjobs takes us to places of intense emotions and gives us breaks from the action in the song but without losing momentum. It’s difficult to compare this song to anyone else except to maybe reference 4AD bands like early Dead Can Dance or Xmal Deutschland but without truly sounding like either. Just that dusky sensibility with a bit of an edge and seeming to not be coming from modern musical reference points. Listen to “Soothsayer” on Soundcloud and follow Skinjobs at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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