MikelParis is perhaps best known these days as a keyboard player in the rock band O.A.R. but for many years he was also a cast member of the STOMP touring show as well as working with Pink, Train, The Dan Band and Jewel. All along MikelParis has developed his “GuitarDrumming” style of playing acoustic guitar. It combines his technique for playing piano, his honed sense of complex rhythms into a fluid and endlessly evolving sound that incorporates intuitive and expressive improvisation and songwriting acumen. His latest, and fourth, album GuitarDrumming 01 has the musician bringing in peers and friends like Vernon Reid (Living Colour), G. Love and Of Good Nature. The sound is richly varied and at times is reminiscent of 90s Peter Gabriel as the latter further integrated non-Western rhythms into his pop songcraft. The album released on March 28, 2025 on 12” vinyl, digital download and streaming services via ZP Records.
Listen to our interview with MikelParis on Bandcamp and follow him at mikelparis.com.
This is the much belated year-end-best list that Brian Tallman and I have been doing since 2024 but these picks are of course for 2024. Not definitive, just a sampling that is manageable and it’s a deep dive in various recording situations so the sound will switch up some. Brian is an attentive music fan near my own age who still gets into new music with great enthusiasm and while we share a love of post-punk, shoegaze and some mainstream pop our tastes different enough that hopefully this conversation and selections are interesting. The Spotify playlists are linked below. I would prefer to use a different platform but it’s the one for now that is easy enough for listeners to plug into and hear all the songs without the need for a lot of formatting.
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.
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.
Comprised of guitarist and vocalist Mike Bagetta, bassist mike watt and drummer Stephen Hodges, mssv is a band whose music defies easy genre categorization. Early on it was mostly or entirely instrumental but with vocals introduced more prominently on its second studio album Human Reaction and an attentive listener can hear rock and jazz roots in the mix with elements of improvisation. But on the group’s new record On And On (out March 7, 2025 via BIG EGO Records on vinyl, download and streaming) the detailed songcraft makes it obvious that the group has always been about songs but that this time the loose concept album explore themes of impermanence and chance in society, in our, on the planet and in our own minds. Utilizing detailed compositions and a keen ear for atmosphere and texture in building the emotional resonance of the songs the band uses the vehicle of the album as a commentary on and celebration of the life we live every day and its own essential significance to everything connected to it.
Listen to our interview with Mike Baggetta and follow the musician and songwriter as well as mssv at the links below.
Nikki O’Neill was born in Los Angeles but mostly grew up in Stockholm, Sweden and now calls Chicago home. The cultural influences in her development as a human probably goes some way to explain how her fusion of Americana, Soul, Gospel and Blues comes off like a confident yet self-aware manifestation of the finely honed pop songs of the late 70s and early 80s with some of its own roots in R&B. O’Neill’s new, and third solo, record Stories I Only Tell My Friends dropped March 14, 2025 on 12” LP vinyl CD, digital download and streaming. The album is full of vibrant energy and instantly relatable tales of having moved from the West Coast to the Midwest and holding on to a sense of self that isn’t jaded and numbed by the pace and demands of our current society. Throughout the record, O’Neill seems to struggle and come to terms with existential doubt, demonstrating she is more than slightly familiar with the importance of learning to come at the world like you’re new to so many things again and again to bring a freshness of spirit to life and one’s creative work. The effort to do so abundant from song to song.
Listen to our interview with Nikki O’Neill on Bandcamp and follow O’Neill at the links below.
Céline Dessberg masterful performance on the yatga (the traditional Mongolian harp) on “Selenge” perfectly lines up with the psychedelic R&B flavor of the rest of the track. The effect is a set of rhythms and melodies that transcend originating cultural context, Dessberg herself having French and Mongolian ancestry. Her performance on the instrumental as evidenced in the video takes an ancient instrument and translates it into the eclectic aesthetics of modern jazz without losing the old world appeal of the sounds. She seems to effortlessly orchestrate the song with an elegant composition like a web of tones and texture paired with visuals that show older images of Mongolian culture as the song is almost a reminder that the Mongols once held sway over an international empire that integrated cultural and artistic influences along with its more fearsome reputation—a complex legacy with rich traditions. Dessberg’s brings past and present together in a way that lingers with you and hits as timeless and not anchored to modern musical subgenre much less beholden to older musical forms. Watch the video for “Selenge” on YouTube and follow Dessberg at the links below. The song is out now as a limited 7” vinyl out via That’s Love Records as well as digital download and on streaming platforms.
Michigan Rattlers is a band of lifelong friends who have been in bands together since they were in their early teens and started recording their songs in 2016 under their current name. The band’s first two albums offered beautifully pastoral Americana about everyday life, articulating the aspirations of yearnings that would be recognizable instantly to anyone that has spent more than a few months contemplating what it is you really want and what you have and what you value. The 2024 album Waving From A Sea is a creative leap forward for the band with more atmospheric elements and a songwriting style more in line with the kind of power pop one heard in the late 70s or in a more modern era with the likes of The War on Drugs. The songs tie the feelings to a strong sense of place both physically and psychologically at a time when you’re re-orienting your life and finding the anchors in your psyche that remind you of the contexts that have helped shape you and the boundaries you have moved beyond.
Captain’s Audio Project, photo by Faerin Millington
Captain’s Audio Project is the solo project of Portland, Oregon band Trashcan Joe’s James Cook. The songwriter and mult-instrumentalist is releasing his debut album Waiting For The Moon under that new moniker on February 28, 2025 on vinyl LP, CD, digital download and via streaming services. Whereas Trashcan Joe is a full band known for including instruments made from found objects as part of its sound hearkening to early jazz, Captain’s Audio Project was built on a foundation of Cook’s vocals and a 1931 National Tenor Resonator Guitar with other instruments and guest musicians overdubbed to fill out the sound when it felt appropriate. But the core appeal of the new record is how it feels like a fusion of indie pop and chamber folk performed with an intimate feel like something sung around a campfire after dinner with friends sharing stories.
Listen to our interview with James Cook on Bandcamp and follow Captain’s Audio Project at the links below.
Extra Kool and Time recently released their album The Grimies for streaming, digital download and limited green vinyl. The record represents the product of decades of working together playing shows and on each other’s respective tracks. Danny Vincennie aka Extra Kool and Chris Steele aka Time are two of the most gifted lyricists and rappers in Denver of recent years but their work has not often been championed in local much less national press and culture. Several years back they worked on tracks together in a project they called The Grimies with singles that appeared on obscure compilations now challenging to track down. But separately and contributing to each other’s work they have written poignantly personal and vulnerable, insightful, emotional songs about life and society that are vibrant and heartbreaking. Time has frequently released music with the brilliant producer AwareNess as the experimental hip-hop duo Calm. and along with Extra Kool and artists under the label umbrella of The Dirty Laboratory they were a force in alternative hip-hop in the 2000s. That world imploded or faded away in “commercial relevance” if not in impact in influence around the 2010s but the legacy of that time has continued in the more interesting hip-hop of today and certainly Time and Extra Kool didn’t stop creating powerful work just because the crumbling music culture wasn’t shining as much of a spotlight on alternative hip-hop for a long time. In September 2024 Extra Kool and Time finally released their fully collaborative album titled The Grimes. It’s full of vivid and emotionally resonant bars traded by both artists with tales of Denver and existential exploration of what endures in the mind and heart long term, the ghosts that haunt us, our communities and our various cultures. It’s a deep record with richly realized production from the likes of Fumes the Threat, AwareNess, Satyr and Preacher vs. Choir with contributions from Illogic. The record is rich with pop culture references used with a cleverness and poetry that makes the music fun and insightful even as it delves into heavier subjects.
Listen to our interview with Extra Kool and Time on Bandcamp and follow the artists at the links below. The vinyl can be purchased on the Bandcamp or at select Denver record shops.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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