Red Tack – Queen City Sounds and Art

Best Shows in Denver and Beyond August 2025

**Latter performs at Ghost Canyon Fest on Saturday, August 22, 2025, photo by Vanessa Valdez**

Friday | 08.01
What: MSPAINT w/American Culture, Lip Critic and Pat and the Pissers
When: 7
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: MSPAINT came out of the hardcore underground as a band that didn’t have a guitarist instead took the attitude and applied it to a more synth-and-bass driven post-punk. Since then the group has evolved a sharp critique of American society and culture while maintaining a compassionate stance toward human vulnerability with an analog to what Chat Pile has been putting out. Its latest release is the No Separation EP on which the group expand its more experimental soundscaping tendencies while still having an arresting and commanding delivery. American Culture has had its own evolution as a band from earlier indie-pop-turned-atmospheric post-punk band but along the way it absorbed the influence of modern hardcore, The Cure and 90s Britpop simultaneously. It has resulted in a band that is not much like anything else going either.

Friday | 08.01
What: Down Time, Bluebook and Fingertip 57
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Down Time is now based out of Los Angeles but cut its teeth in the Denver indie rock scene where its sophisticated songwriting and tender melodies struck a chord locally in certain circles. Since then the group has developed its fusion of synth pop and a more baroque sound that hits as timeless and very analog in its aesthetic so that it’s songwriting has a very tangible quality in its saturated tones. Bluebook is one of the premier art pop bands in Denver fronted by the enigmatic and charismatic Julie Davis backed by former Monofog frontwoman Hailey Helmericks, gifted songwriter Jess Parsons and Still Tide’s guitar genius Anna Morsett.

Entrancer at Listening Lawn I, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 08.02
What: Listening Lawn V: Flyvee, Moth Sanctuary, Snowswept, Suo and Entrancer
When: 5-8
Where: Carpio Sanguinette Park
Why: This is an event organized by Multidim records and it’s for the experimental electronic heads who miss a time when this music had wider places to be experienced before Nü Denver came in and rapidly gentrified most corners of the metro area by the time the COVID-19 pandemic crashed into the headlong rush of all of that. This event will include notable producers and composers in the electronic realm including longtime forward thinking techno artist Entrancer. The event takes place in a park that is part ruin, part forgotten pocket of Denver and between complete corporate dominance and industrial land use. A perfect setting.

Saturday | 08.02
What: Lifeguard w/Autobahn and The Red Scare
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Lifeguard is touring in support of its full-length album Ripped and Torn out now on Matador. The noisy post-punk discordant aspect of the band’s sound with the dub-like tonal ripple baked into the guitar riffs as they interact at odd angles with the rhythm might be something one has come to expect from Chicago’s rich noise rock and post-punk scene generally but Lifeguard sounds like it’s on the edge and expressing the nervous energy and fragility that seems ambient in the world at the moment.

Monday | 08.04
What: Badvril, Surprise Soup, BabyBaby and Headslug
When: 7:30
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Badvril is a shoegaze band from San Francisco that is touring behind its new record In Heaven. If you’re into stuff like Letting Up Despite Great Faults and Wild Nothing you’ll probably enjoy what these people are doing. BabyBaby is a standout synth pop artist whose rich electronic melodies and effervescent spirit elevate any show of which she is a part. Surprise Soup is a Denver trio that sounds like it took a bit of inspiration from math rock bands of the late 90s, Pavement and Death Cab For Cutie. Headslug can be sorta ambient or shoegaze-adjacent but also lo-fi slowcore but always surprisingly interesting.

Monday | 08.04
What: MØAA w/Tassles
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: MØAA is a Seattle-based artist whose 2021 album Euphoric Recall was a crossover hit in underground shoegaze and Goth/post-punk for the moody yet tonally rich guitar work and expansive drift. The breathy vocals and sense of space on the project’s 2023 album Jaywalker paired with the electronic beats is reminiscent of mid-2000s Ladytron but with decidedly modern flavor. Denver’s Tassles is hard to pin down to anything except the music sounds like shoegaze made by someone who has spent a lot of time listening to Black Marble and corporate training video music but somehow transcending the limitations of both. The recently released Net Worth album has a breezy quality that is summery without feeling similarly insubstantial. Psychedelic warping and techno beats and hazy around the edges production make it one of the more original entries into the crowded modern shoegaze field.

Tuesday | 08.05
What: Angel Band tour kickoff w/Sonic Chick, Fragrant Blossom and Scorplings
When: 7
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Angel Band is taking its twee jangle pop on the road and leading off with this show. Fans of Sarah Records bands and their fresh energy and borderline naive style songwriting or newer bands like Denver’s The Maybellines will find a great deal to like about Angel Band and its charismatic live show. Fragrant Blossom is more like an arty abstract jazz and New Age pop project that includes Ben Donehower aka Petite Garcon. Scorplings will bring an angular, Chicago scene style noise rock and Yo La Tengo bleeding edge pop sound to this show.

The Milk Blossoms in 2025, photo by Tom Murphy

Wednesday | 08.06
What: The Milk Blossoms
When: 5-8 pm
Where: Granby Ranch
Why: Denver-based art pop heartbreakers The Milk Blossoms make a rare trip to the hinterlands to charm and entrance an audience for a three hour set in a beautiful outdoor setting away from the baking heat of Denver in August. Likely the group will break out some of its older material to extend the set so if you’re lucky enough to be there you’ll get to experience a full range of the band’s songwriting, all of it poignant, deeply evocative and cathartic in the way that only songs that truly tug at the heartstrings and stir the imagination simultaneously as deftly as The Milk Blossoms’ material can and always does.

Thursday | 08.07
What: Dispatch w/John Butler, Donavon Frankenreiter and Illiterate Light
When: 6
Where: Red Rocks
Why: Dispatch is mostly known as an indie and roots rock band in the past decade and a half or so that it’s been back together. But its new album Yellow Jacket hearkens more back to its early days when the group was more steeped in a reggae and ska sound blended into its more folk rock sound. Of course it’s an update and the band’s songcraft is more honed than in its earlier incarnation but the songs are still informed by a spirit of human liberation and the joy of living with the ups and downs inevitable with human existence. The new record includes an acoustic song with Ani DiFranco that sounds like a 60s folkie protest song and all the better for it. Live the band brings a passion to the performances that elevate what might be perceived as more introspective and tranquil material.

White Rose Motor Oil, photo by Tammy Shine

Friday | 08.08
What: White Rose Motor Oil, Graveyard Choir and Chella & The Charm
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: This is a stacked lineup for local Americana but one in which none of the bands are really even remotely alike. White Rose Motor Oil combines a rockabilly sound with stripped down country rock without compromising the passionate delivery. As a duo WRMO are surprisingly exuberant and warm in their performances. Graveyard Choir is a country rock group fronted by former In The Whale guitarist and singer Nate Valdez. The songwriting is more blues driven with more honky tonk bar style ragers but with more tonally expressive guitar than expected with that style of music. Chella & The Charm threads together alt-country creativity in the realm of Americana with lyrics that aren’t just sharply and sensitively observed but which offer a keen insight into social and psychological dynamics. And also performed with a commanding presence.

Friday | 08.08
What: Sharpie Smile, Pink Lady Monster, Chroma Lips
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Sharpie Smile from Los Angeles just put out its new album The Staircase on Drag City. The mix of minimalist left field rock and hyperpop with ambient and industrial soundscaping lends its songwriting futuristic feel like music you’d more expect on a label like Ninja Tune or Warp. Its expert use of jump cut swells and subtle pitch shifting renders the music both accessible and pleasantly disorienting. Pink Lady Monster won’t be one for small minds either with its alchemical fusion of No Wave funk, avant-garde performance pop and skronk-infused free jazz. Chroma Lips is a psychedelic garage rock band from Denver that ditched the trendy sound of the 2010s and adopted the more krautrock end of shoegaze as a driver of its sound.

Victim of Fire in 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 08.09
What: Victim of Fire album release w/Speed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch, Spear of Cassius and Ukko’s Hammer
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Victim of Fire is celebrating the release of its new record The Old Lie with a stacked lineup of other bands within the wide realm of its own amalgam of d-beat, hardcore, black metal and crust punk. The fast-forward avalanche of both distorted and melodic guitar work and feral vocals suits well its songs about the deceptions of society and government regarding the organization of our resources toward war as part of an ongoing and age old charade of actions for the betterment of the country or our in-group. Speed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch is a death doom band from Denver who seem to have fused perfectly classic death metal with melodic thrash including song titles that fuse ideas and concepts in an over-the-top and absurdly humorous fashion but which definitely conjure an image. Spear of Cassius is more of a screamo and power violence band with vocals that sound like they’re both distended and compressed with melancholic musical passages that suggest a great nuance of emotional expression than one often comes to expect from extreme metal. Ukko’s Hammer is classic crossover hardcore with caustic urgency in the vocals and percussion that seems to persistent it feels like the world drops out carried by the sheer momentum of the rest of the music and Zach Reini’s vocals over a chasm before re-engaging.

Bad Luck City in 2015, photo by Tom Murphy

Saturday | 08.09
What: Munly & The Lupercalians, Let the Dead Eat the Dead (feat. Members of Bad Luck City) and Weathered Statues
When: 8
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Drummer and visual artist Andrew Warner is celebrating his birthday by playing sets with three of his bands. Munly & The Lupercalians is potent fusion of dark Americana and post-punk with folkloric lyrics. Weathered Statues is one of the few genuine death rock bands from Denver but one that utilizes soaring vocals and synths with sharp guitar work and some of the most powerful bass lines of any band in Denver or anywhere. Let the Dead Eat the Dead, though, is like a new incarnation of the great Americana band Bad Luck City. Fronted by the charismatic Dameon Merkl, BLC was clearly influenced by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but with unique and often darkly humorous lyrics and noir storytelling that made it a local favorite for years.

In the Company of Serpents, photo by Kate Rose

Saturday | 08.09
What: In the Company of Serpents w/Palehorse/Palerider, Church Fire and Cronos Compulsion
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: In the Company of Serpents has completely reconciled its musical impulses on its new record A Crack In Everything. It is one of its heaviest and most crushing records but infused with the atmospheric desert rock psychedelia that has been a part of its sound over the past decade and with lyrics that capture the emotional tenor of the moment through the expression of personal struggle. Fitting that psychedelic, experimental heavy folk outfit Palehorse/Paleride shares the bills as does politically charged industrial dance phenoms Church Fire and its live show to suit the name of the band.

Thursday | 08.14
What: Shannon Lay w/Cyrena Rosati and Ryan Wong
When: 7
Where: Squirm Gallery
Why: Shannon Lay probably became known to underground music audiences as a member of indie rock/punk band Feels even before leaving the group in 2020 her solo work has taken on different dimension entirely. Quickly evolving from a more bedroom pop sound to experimental yet earnest folk Lay signed with SubPop for two albums. August (2019) proved that Lay had a great command of what might be called cosmic, existential indie folk with an arresting sense of intimacy. Her 2021 album Geist found Lay shedding any and all adopted styles and personae for an album that was moving and tranquil with elegantly inspired guitar work. Cyrena Rosati may now be known for her commanding bass work in Quits, Cherry Spit and Supreme Joy but before all of that she made beautiful dream-pop infused indie rock as Sweetness Itself. Who can say what this solo set will sound like but it will be worth showing up early to see. Same with Ryan Wong, frontman of Supreme Joy and member of The Fresh & Onlys. His own expertise in the realms of psychedelic and garage rock and post-punk will likely shine through on this rare solo set as well.

Friday | 08.15
What: Entrancer, Lanx Borealis, Staggered Hooks, Quinn Boudeleaux, 4 Digit Visuals
When: 8
Where: Glob
Why: Entrancer has recently been mixing some older DIY, lo-fi electronic aesthetics into his masterful modern techno made with analog and digital synths. The result is audio time traveling layered together to great evocative effect like some 2020s rave music thoroughly blended with early witchhouse and 8-bit composition. Nothing like it. Lanx Borealis makes ambient music that integrates circuit bent devices and minimal synth. Staggered Hooks is Dean Inman who some may know for his involvement in the 2010s Denver rave scene but also for his fusion of hardware based dance music and noise with this project.

Saturday | 08.16
What: An Evening With Wilco
When: 6:30
Where: Mission Ballroom
Why: Wilco helped to pioneer and influence indie rock as we know it with eclectic yet coherent musical vision ever evolving past previous limits. Partly because the songwriting has always been imaginative and daring in its sonic creativity and also due to the insightful and poignantly earnest lyrics with a literary flavor minus the pretentious baggage. For this tour the band is playing choice selections from a large swath of its impressive and consistently quality catalog. Which could be mere fan service but Wilco is a band that brings a passionate delivery with the live show and at this point a nearly orchestral sound that elevates what indie rock and Americana music can be.

Tuesday | 08.19
What: Youth Code w/King Yosef, Street Sects and Insula Iscariot
When: 7
Where: HQ
Why: Stars of modern industrial hardcore for the entire night. King Yosef will have just released his new album Spire of Fear on his own imprint BLEAKHOUSE when this show happens and it includes contributes from space rock/black metal/shoegaze legends Holy Fawn. The album recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou is an abrasive, disorienting and relentless listen with vocals that sound like they’re giving voice to the accelerated and amplified collective outrage over current world events with a direct personal resonance that may be reminiscent of Ballou’s main band Converge but with an aesthetic that more closely reflects King Yosef’s own work as a producer in the realm of electronic industrial music. A few years back Yosef worked with co-headliner Youth Code who were the industrial hardcore band of note around 10-12 years ago on a collaborative album called A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression (2021) that revealed his ability to enhance the virtues of a like-minded band in which each could complement each other perfectly. Youth Code returns with a new EP titled Yours, With Malice which showcases the duo in classic form with edgy, caustic and emotionally-charged EBM-infused hardcore. Street Sects are an Austin duo that pioneered a different edge of industrial hardcore with its fog-enshrouded yet confrontational live shows and manic energy. The music itself could be lost in the theatrical aspect of the show but listening to the records it was obvious they had incorporated elements of noise and dance music into the mix. This has become even more obvious with its “side project” Street Sex and its new album Full Color Eclipse with its fusion of industrial and synth pop like a disco darkwave with some gritty highlights. Street Sects is simultaneously releasing its new album under that name called Dry Drunk that is more in the vein of what you might expect but the sounds are often like a collection of samples assembled in a beautifully jarring fashion that also flows with pointed social commentary. The album cover looks like Charles Burns doing a tribute to Raymond Pettibon. Perfect for what you’ll hear on the record. Insula Iscariot is a death industrial act whose new album is out on Yosef’s BLEAKHOUSE imprint.

Street Sects, photo by Ismael Quintanilla III

Saturday – Sunday | 08.21-08.24
What: Ghost Canyon Fest
When: Varies by Night
Where: What’s Left Records (8.21), The Skylark Lounge (8.22), Hi-Dive (8.23-08.24)
Why: Ghost Canyon Fest is in its third year with yet another stellar lineup of bands from a broad spectrum of noise rock and experimental rock including Church Fire and Scorplings the first night and sort of pre-festival proper event at What’s Left Records in Colorado Springs, The Milk Blossoms and Pink Lady Monster with Honduh Daze at The Skylark on the second night, Flesh Tape and Flowting Clowds the afternoon of 8/23, Suicide Cages, Latter, Still House Plants and Black Eyes the third night at Hi-Dive (8/23), Moon Pussy and Dug the afternoon of 8/24 at Wax Trax, and Buildings and Cloakroom the concluding night Sunday 8/24 at the Hi-Dive. Look for our more comprehensive guide to the festival and interviews coming soon.

Tuesday | 08.26
What: Horsegirl w/Godcaster
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Chicago’s Horsegirl made waves when it released its debut single “Forecast” in 2019 and became a much hyped act out of the Windy City’s post-punk scene. Its minimalist guitar work and delicacy of feeling was reminiscent of the likes of a slowcore Raincoats or Young Marble Giants. The group’s new album Phonetics On and On was written when most of the trio have been students in New York and the introspection and evocation of uncertainty heard throughout the album lends it an emotional resonance that may suit young adulthood specifically but also reflects how in the current time things feel so fragile and tentative and the way you can navigate the energy with integrity is to approach things with intention and a sense of creating a normalcy rooted in exploring new expressions of confidence and a sense of play. The result is a song that is rewarding for its bold and sharply observed lyrics and paring the music to its absolute sonic essentials without skimping on a full sound.

Friday | 08.29
What: I’m A Boy w/Toddy Ivy, Gata Negra and Red Tack
When: 8
Where: Lost Lake
Why: I’m A Boy’s original lineup of singer/guitarist Jimmi Nasi, bassist/singer Whitney Rehr and drummer John Shipe are reuniting for a show that’s a bit of a celebration of its spectacular 2012 album Sensation. The record benefits from not just masterful musicianship from its three members with no shying away from technical flourishes. But it’s not showing off for the sake of doing so, it all serves the songs which are an unusually and refreshingly insightful take on what it is to be an adult that hasn’t lost the love of art and music as a valid art form and avenue of expressing and exploring the grown up psyche and looking back and remembering what made life feel vital and bringing that energy into the present and finding that essence in the context of where you are now. Looking back it’s a classic of Denver underground rock for the sophistication of the songwriting and the sheer moxy of its performances. Many bands of that time were trying to mimic classic rock glory in a fashion that felt try-hard. I’m A Boy always seemed to live and embody the spirit of its influences by writing songs that didn’t feel derivative but also in spirit not so far removed from its roots. For this show it’s not just the band reuniting but also Rehr’s excellent garage-blues adjacent Gata Negra, Red Tack (fronted by former Baldo Rex frontman Ted Thacker) and his own take on reinventing punk rock spirit into gritty singer-songwriter style music and longtime friend of everyone involved with this show Toddy Ivy aka Toddy Walters.

Best Shows in Denver 1/24/19 – 1/30/19

hackdepicciotto_sylviasteinhäuser — **hackedepicciotto performs January 30 with DBUK at Lost Lake. Photo by Sylvia Steinhäuser**

Thursday | January 24, 2019

meetthegiant3_may15_2018_tommurphy — Meet the Giant, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: Meet the Giant w/Dead Pay Rent, Mr. Atomic
When: Thursday, 01.24, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Meet the Giant, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps subconsciously, perhaps entirely by plan, has drawn on both 80s and 90s sounds at a time when the various aesthetics of those decades are firmly back in vogue. Downtempo, brooding post-punk, the rhythms of sample-driven composition and emotionally rich vocals make for a band that sounds instantly like something beyond having an appeal to nostalgia while drawing on a hint of that. The group spent nearly a decade honing its songcraft and chemistry as a unit and more than a small amount of the intimacy that comes out of such extended wood shedding comes through in the music like you’re getting to experience that connection that friends have who can share much with each other and be real. Many bands put on some kind of ego-driven facade fueled by a kind of borrowed rock and roll myth bravado. Meet the Giant comes about its rock and roll power honestly and with tender emotions laid bare, which is always more compelling than tough guy strutting any day of the week. Do yourself a favor and see them or at least check out their remarkable 2018 self-titled debut.

Who: DSTR, eHpH, Cutworm
When: Thursday, 01.24, 8 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: DSTR is Destroid, a project of Daniel Meyer who some may know more for his work as half of influential EBM band Haujobb. Distorted vocals, imaginative soundscaping, strong, pulsing beats and menacing, glitch-hazed atmospherics. Denver’s eHpH has been making an interesting hybrid of industrial rock and dark EBM of their own but refreshingly unlike any of their peers in the Mile High City. Cutworm is a bit of a left field choice for a bill like this if its 2018 Swallow EP is any indication with its sound being unfruitful in placing in a particular genre box. Its sounds range from modern downtempo darkwave to especially beautifully moody IDM. Live, though, Cutworm definitely brings the industrial edge into the production.

Friday | January 25, 2019

klausdafoe_nov10_2018_tommurphy — Klaus Dafoe, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: Red Tack, George Cessna and Blindrunner
When: Friday, 01.25, 9 p.m.
Where: Lion’s Lair
Why: Red Tack is the solo, somewhat weirdo singer-songwriter project of Ted Thacker who should be remembered widely for being in 90s alternative rock band Baldo Rex and later as a member of indiepop band Veronica. Whatever his pedigree, Thacker has remained one of Denver’s most interesting songwriters and personalities. George Cessna is the son of Slim Cessna of Auto Club fame. The younger Cessna’s own work is both not too surprising considering his father’s legendary musical legacy but he is far from a carbon copy and his use of raw sound and atmosphere in his recordings and his wide ranging musical style in a broader realm of Americana and weirdo folk is noteworthy on its own merits.

Who: faim (record release), Line Brawl, Euth, Moral Law and Targets
When: Friday, 01.25, 7 p.m.
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Hardcore band faim is releasing its latest seven inch through Convulse Records and celebrating the occasion with a few of Denver’s and Wyoming’s best hardcore acts.

Who: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 and 2
When: Friday, 01.25, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Sie Film Center
Why: Tobe Hooper passed away in 2017 leaving behind a legacy of unusual and influential films beginning, in terms of impact, with 1974’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a movie so graphically violent and darkly disturbing for the time, because it felt more like a documentary than the mostly tame horror cinema up to its release. In 1986 he released the sequel as a horrifying kind of parody. Between that, the 1982 Poltergeist film, 1985’s space vampire spectacle Lifeforce and numerous other films, Hooper’s unique cinematic vision will be celebrated for years to come including this month-long or so series hosted by Theresa Mercado kicking off this night on the director’s birthday.

Who: Flaural, Panther Martin and The Eye & The Arrow
When: Friday, 01.25, 8 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: The kind of line up you want to see more often in the realm of indie rock with Flaurel’s psychedelic pop, Panther Martin’s visionary lo-fi rock and The Eye & The Arrow’s re-working of Americana into something we’re not hearing ad infinitum on playlists and radio stations with a fairly vanilla stream of content.

Who: Klaus Dafoe, New Standards Men and Simulators
When: Friday, 01.25, 9 p.m.
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Klaus Dafoe seems to be a sort of instrumental rebirth of late 90s to mid-2000s indie math rock but deconstructed to be more fractured and potentially more interesting than some of the bands mining that neo-mathcore/emo sound of late. Simulators are the kind of post-punk that carves out the overtly atmospheric quality for stark contrasts of tone and angular rhythms that somehow still flow without getting splintery and yet, despite that intentional minimalism, bursting with Bryon Parker’s raw emotional vocals.

Saturday | January 26, 2019

hippocampus-creditpoonehghana — Hippo Campus, photo by Pooneh Ghana

Who: Hippo Campus w/Now Now
When: Saturday, 01.26, 9 p.m.
Where: The Ogden
Why: Hippo Campus has been writing finely crafted pop songs since its early days and challenging itself to make each record reflect not just personal and creative growth, qualities you’d want in any band worth your continued attention, but an evolving approach to larger cultural narratives. The group’s 2018 album Bambi offers no pat answers or platitudes. It is a record brimming with questions instead of the instant opinion/instant expert tendency that permeates our culture from the way people interact and present themselves on social media and how one must conduct oneself in various contexts lest one be thought indecisive rather than recognizing and learning to identify nuance—not in a way to placate all sides but in order to avoid the hubris of being unaware of one’s own limitations of knowledge and comprehension. It can be enjoyed as just a solid pop album but there’s a great deal of dimensionality and content for anyone wanting to listen deeper.

Who: A Celebration of 1/26 with Weird Al Qaida, Gregory Ego and Mermalair
When: Saturday, 01.26, 7 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: Weird Al Quaida is an avant-garde punk/noise/psychedelic band from Denver that doesn’t perform often. Definitely for fans of the more rock end of Sun City Girls.

Who: Space Jail, Snaggletoothe and Claudzilla
When: Saturday, 01.26, 7:30 p.m.
Where: The People’s Building
Why: Space Jail might be described as a psychedelic synth band. Snaggletoothe as psych prog. Claudzilla as a one-person keytar rock weirdo extravaganza. All in likely the only venue in Aurora where you might see music anywhere within he realm of these bands.

Who: Soulless Maneater, Sliver, Endless Nameless, Fox Moses, Equine
When: Saturday, 01.26, 9 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: Soulless Maneater is somewhere between the best death rock band in Denver and a moodily creepy doom band. Sliver is “Diet Nirvana.” Fox Moses sounds like a gloomier neo-grunge band and all the better for that. Endless Nameless sounds like a hybrid of math rock, shoegaze and post-rock—not that those are mutually exclusive concepts. Equine is the avant-guitar and synth solo project of former Epileptinomicon and Moth Eater guitarist Kevin Richards.

Sunday | January 27, 2019

sumac_annegodoneo — Sumac, photo by Anne Godoneo

Who: Sumac, Divide and Dissolve, Tashi Dorij
When: Sunday, 01.27, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Aaron Turner’s guitar work and songwriting in partnership with fellow musicians has helped to define some of the boundaries of the more experimental, heavy music. As the leader of Hydra Head Records he also encouraged the development of that music throughout the 90s and 2000s. As a member of Isis, Old Man Gloom and Mamiffer, to name a few projects, Turner has crafted consistently interesting material that is undeniably within the realm of metal but with an ear for abstracting sounds into noise and then back together into coherent expressions of emotion outside the realm of standard songwriting in the genre. With Sumac this may be especially so in particular the band’s 2018 album Love In Shadow where the trio takes the concept of love at its most primordial level pre-marketing device, pre-narrowing the concept down to a relatively trite, or at least limited, word casually thrown around. Also on this tour is Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorij whose noisescapes could be considered loosely as avant-garde but also seem to contain a kind of personal ritualistic expression. See his own 2018 album gàng lu khau chap ‘mi gera gi she an example of the sorts of music you’re in for during his set. Since Dorij and Turner have collaborated on at least one record maybe you’ll get to see some of that this night as well.

Tuesday | January 29, 2019

themaykit_jul25_2015_tommurphy — The Maykit circa 2015, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: Nadia Bolz-Weber – The Shameless Book Tour
When: Tuesday, 01.29, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Tattered Cover — Colfax
Why: Nadia Bolz-Weber is the activist and Lutheran pastor whose 2014 memoir Pastrix: the cranky, beautiful faith of a sinner & saint traced her personal growth from a kind of bohemian comedian to sober theology student and pastor. The book, brimming with irreverent humor and sarcasm as well as plenty of illuminating insights into human psychology, whether you’re Christian or not, struck a chord with a fairly sizable audience. In humanizing challenges many people face, Bolz-Weber made a good case for how we can embrace an expanded sense of our own best selves. In July 2018 left her pastoship of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. Now she is releasing her new book Shameless: A Sexual Reformation. As a candid reexamination of “patriarchy, sex, and power” (from the Tattered Cover website), Bolz-Weber will likely further cement her reputation as something of a refreshingly maverick religious thinker and writer.

Who: Big Paleo album release w/Places Back Home, The Maykit and Quentin
When: Tuesday, 01.29, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Denver-based math rock Big Paleo is releasing its, presumably, debut album. One of the opening bands, The Maykit, may not be math rock but its intricate musicianship and songwriting and Max Winne’s indisputably sincere vocal delivery will be a standout of the evening.

Wednesday | January 30, 2019

mallrat_photocredit_ michelle pitris — Mallrat, photo by Michelle Pitris

Who: Gnash w/Mallrat and Guardin
When: Wednesday, 01.30, 7 p.m.
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Mallrat is Grace Shaw from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Since high school, Shaw has been writing sophisticated pop songs that bring together elements of electronic dance production, hip-hop style beats and the informal structure of modern indie rock—really an ideal synthesis and vehicle for expressing one’s ideas with nuance but a direct emotional quality. Her 2018 EP In The Sky is an interesting blend of contrasts: dusky atmospherics speckled with bright highlights, onomatopoeic cadences and vivid lyrics and soaring, saturated melodies dissolving into introspective minimalism. Headlining the show is Gnash, aka Garrett Nash, who released his debut full-length We on January 11, 2019. Nash made waves with his early breakup EPs and his far better than average beat-driven R&B.

Who: Hackedepicciotto w/DBUK
When: Wednesday, 01.30, 7 p.m.
Where: Lost Lake
Why: Hackedepicciotto is a multi-media, experimental music duo comprised of Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke. De Picciotto was one of the founders of the long-running electronic music festival The Love Parade in Berlin. The festival was initiated as celebration of innovative electronic music but also as a subversive kind of demonstration for peace through love and music. Hacke is the bassist for influential industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten. The aforementioned couldn’t completely encompass either artist’s work, output and collaborations and it would be worthwhile to explore their work in depth. But with this project the two bring together a set of skills in composition, performance, film making and storytelling. The word “immersive” gets thrown around a lot these days but it definitely applies to a Hackedepicciotto show. It isn’t just that the sound design and visuals and songwriting are striking, they are, it’s also because before it quite became a widely articulated phenomenon, de Picciotto, in her 2013/2015 graphic novel We Are Gypsies now vividly and powerfully captured what it’s like to be noteworthy, internationally renowned artists have to uproot from one’s home and home city of decades due to gentrification. Then, as explored in further detail on the 2016 album Perserverantia and 2017’s Menetekel how the way the world economy functions now globally has not only all but dismantled the way independent artists and not-so-independent artists can live, function and thrive. The albums alone are worthwhile experiences in the listening but the live show is where you truly get to experience a deep emotional manifestation of faith and hope nearly crushed by despair at the state of things supported by a drive to seek what must be better over the horizon. There is no naivete to the work, de Picciotto and Hacke both know they can never really regain what they once had, but a reminder that one’s compulsion to pursue one’s life work can be a beacon through difficult times. The duo’s latest release is the 2018 meditation soundtrack Joy.

Who: The Pink Spiders w/Television Generation and Smile Victoria
When: Wednesday, 01.30, 7 p.m.
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: The Pink Spiders are a power pop band from Nashville who had a minor hit in 2006 with “Little Razorblade” from their Ric Ocasek-produced album Teenage Graffiti. Smile Victoria sounds like it’s still wearing its Pixies and others 90s alternative music fairly freshly. But not in the neo-grunge kind of way as the trio has more atmosphere and melody than some of its peers tapping into the same era. Television Generation somehow perfectly blends grunge with power pop without sounding like Nirvana or like Cheap Trick gone metal. Is there a bit of sonic DNA in there out of Love Battery and Buzzcocks? Probably but live the band has plenty of grit and emotional darkness to keep it from ever feeling derivative.

Best Shows in Denver 7/26/18 – 8/1/18

Tarmints_Aug11_2007_TomMurphy — Tarmints (circa 2007) perform at The UMS on Sunday, July 29, 2018 at The Hi-Dive

Thursday | July 26, 2018

MrPacman_Feb17_2007_TomMurphy — Mr. Pacman circa 2007, photo by Tom Murphy

Who: I Heart Monkey Mania: Mr. Pacman, Robot Peanut Butter & The Shooting Stars, Cyclo-Sonic and Moon Pussy, visuals by Chris Bagley
When: Thursday, 07.26, 8 p.m.
Where: Syntax Physic Opera
Why: Mr. Pacman is not a band that should be dismissed as mere gimmick. Yes, the band dresses up like characters from a cosplay of some weird, ancient Japanese video game. But it’s live drums, keytar, electronic drums and other instrumentation with, indeed, fairly silly songs but performed with a disorienting intensity and earnestness. At times it’s fun but moderately scary. Which is what any good band should be at least once in a while. Mr. Pacman is that pretty much every time. Robot Peanut Butter & The Shooting Stars is a more out downtempo band and Cyclo-Sonic includes former members of Denver punk legends The Rok Tots, Choosey Mothers and The Frantix. Chris Bagley, one of the filmmakers of the 2008 documentary Wesley Willis’ Joyrides, will provide visuals and make it even more of a trip.

Who: Glasss Presents: The Speakeasy Series Season 2 Finale w/Brother Saturn, Equine, VAHCO, MYTHirst, Bowshock
When: Thursday, 07.26, 7 p.m.
Where: Hooked On Colfax
Why: This is the final show of the second season of Glasss Records’ The Speakeasy Series. It’ll be more of an ambient show with Brother Saturn’s soothing and abstract guitar and synth collages, Equine’s avant-guitar drone and beats, VAHCO’s beat-driven soul,. MYTHirst’s bright soundscapes and ukulele and whatever it is one might call Bowshock’s mixture of influences from space rock, reggae and improvisational composition.

Who: Har Mar Superstar sings Sam Cooke
When: Thursday, 07.26, 7 p.m.
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Har Mar Superstar cleaned up but good for this series of shows in which he dresses up in a suit and tie (which may or may not come off before the set is over in the weather Denver has been experiencing as of late). Sean Tillman (Har Mar Superstar) and his band will perform several of Sam Cooke’s classic R&B hits and maybe even some deep cuts. Seeing as Har Mar’s usual schtick is singing R&B and soul and making a spectacle of himself but pulling off the singing like he was born to it, this is not a huge leap for the performer. And at this time, the socially conscious end of Cooke’s music seems more relevant than ever.

Friday | July 27, 2018

RedBaraat_MarkJaworski — Red Baraat, photo by Mark Jaworski

Who: Red Baraat
When: Friday, 07.27, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Where: Clyfford Still Museum
Why: Red Baraat’s syncretic pop spans South Asian musical styles, Western funk, Afrobeat and Caribbean pop to create something that’s celebratory, immediately accessible and deep. The sprawling band is playing this free concert at Clyfford Still Museum in central Denver in the wake of the release of its latest record, 2018’s Sound The People. With its cultural scope and implicit message of human unity, Red Baraat’s music is an international call of all people to come together to resist the rising wave of aggressive authoritarianism plaguing the world today. Beyond the heady messaging, Red Baraat is a reminder that sprawling, seemingly improvisational compositions needn’t be the pure realm of jam bands and that it is a component of popular musical styles across the world.

Who: SUPER PARTY Day 1: Presented by Remixed Gifts and Hot Sauce the Dog
When: Friday, 07.27,7 p.m.
Where: Remixed Gifts 70 S. Broadway
Why: This parallel event to the UMS amidst the dense and varied offerings there is out on by the boutique Remixed Gifts and the Denver culture-centered comic ‘zine Hot Sauce the Dog written and drawn by the gifted singer-songwriter Rachael Pollard whose new band DEN |V|OTHER will kick off the event at 7 p.m. followed by Joe Sampson at 8 and R A R E B Y R D $ at 9. Simply some of the best people from Denver you can see at any time. The event runs two days picking up again on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. with Bonnie Weimer.

Who: Larians, Real Gongs, Jumanjuhad
When: Friday, 07.27, 8:30 p.m.
Where: Denver Bicycle Café Beer Hall
Why: Larians is Male Blonding frontman Noah Simons’ IDM/experimental electronic project and Real Gongs is that of Male Blonding guitarist Bryce Navin. If the UMS is too much or not of interest for whatever reason or if you have some time Friday night, highly recommended.
Who: Denver Broncos UK, Echo Beds, Simulators and Shadows Tranquil
When: Friday, 07.27, 9 p.m.
Where: Syntax Physic Opera
Why: Denver Broncos UK is sort of a post-punk side project of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club so a good fit with math-y post punk duo Simulators (think like Shellac but stripped down to even more of the bare essentials) and Echo Beds whose forthcoming album Buried Language (due out August 18 on The Flenser) pushes their harsh organic-industrial soundscape further than previous boundaries.

Saturday | July 28, 2018

CSH-credit-Mikeal-Beland-4 — Car Seat Headrest, photo by Mikael Beland

Who: SUPER PARTY Day 2: Presented by Remixed Gifts and Hot Sauce the Dog
When: Saturday, 07.28, 2 p.m.
Where: Remixed Gifts 70 S. Broadway
Why: Day 2 of SUPER PARTY, a free event amidst the UMS. The following is today’s schedule: 2 – Bonnie Weimer, 3 – Jen Korte, 3:45 Ted Thacker of The Red Tack, 4:30 Andy Thomas solo, 5:30 Kissing Party, 6:30 Teacup Gorilla

Who: Car Seat Headrest w/Naked Giants
When: Saturday, 07.28, 8 p.m.
Where:The Gothic Theatre
Why: Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest is one of the most prolific and interesting songwriters of his generation. Having put out nine albums independently before signing to Matador in 2015, Toledo clearly didn’t need a label but the distribution and marketing arm of one helped to get his music to a wider audience. The new Car Seat Headrest album, 2018’s Twin Fantasy (Face to Face), is brimming with what has made the band impossible to dismiss with lazy genre designations. Vocals that sometimes soar with an upsweep of deeply felt emotion, sometimes speak quietly about the concerns of the moment that flood your mind and won’t let go. Lo-fi guitar composition in the vein of maybe a Pavement or Sebadoh but informed more by underground rock of the 2000s like Jay Reatard’s more sublimely ethereal moments and more modern lo-fi stars like No Age, Times New Viking and artists from the Siltbreeze imprint. Beyond just the sonics, though, the new record is an exploration of the concerns, anxieties and self-image of a young person in an era when destructive, and self-destructive messages, have been repackaged and made to seem like a viable option. Car Seat Headrest’s new album is a compassionte and vibrant rejection of much of that as well as a suggestion of a path of discovery/rediscovery of what’s truly important in one’s life.

Tuesday | July 31, 2018

Weezer-2017_BrendanWalter — Weezer, photo by Brendan Walter

Who: Weezer and the Pixies w/Sleigh Bells
When: Tuesday, 07.31, 5 p.m.
Where: Fiddler’s Green
Why: Weezer got to be in on the tail end of the legitimate wave of alternative rock in the early 90s. Its 1994 self-titled album, “The Blue Album,” yielded a couple of hits with “Buddy Holly” and “Undone – The Sweater Song.” The crunchy melodies and quiet-loud dynamics pioneered by groups like Mission of Burma and Pixies, who had then recently split, continued the tradition of nerdy punk rockers making music that took that spirit of punk to different places. Weezer could have been another fuzzy, alternative rock/pop punk band with that kind of sunny Southern California flavor. But Weezer’s songs, even when it’s indulging in some fun-loving goofiness, had at its core an impulse to resist being pigeonholed or musically fitting into a specific trend.

After its first record, singer Rivers Cuomo wanted to change gears dramatically and nearly made a science fiction-themed concept album but what came out instead is what could be argued is the band’s most artistically interesting record to date, 1996’s Pinkerton and its darkly conflicted lyrics. Cuomo has since all but disavowed the album as a reminder of a painful time. And to Weezer’s credit, the group has not spent its time as a band trying to recapture past glory. Its most recent full-length album, 2017’s Pacific Daydream, reflects not only Cuomo’s personal alienation but the anomy of our time when many people feel a disconnect with the lives they might want, however modest the aspiration, and the reality we face with diminished expectations. A melancholy set of songs? Maybe not obviously so but despite the title, a song like “Beach Boys” sounds like something that, psychologically speaking, was written in a vast room lit only by small windows on a cloudy day reminiscing about what once brought one joy. Like a less dire but no less impactful musical version of William Friedkin’s depiction of life in the City of Angels.

That Weezer is co-headlining with Pixies seems fitting. Both bands find themselves perhaps having to reinvent themselves for the current era even as their back catalog speaks for itself. Pixies are obviously the influential alternative rock band from Boston, darlings of college radio in the late 80s and early 90s and breaking up with its legacy intact. The band’s humor, unhinged energy, idiosyncratic songwriting filled with seething emotion, delicacy of feeling, have kept its music fresh decades onward. Like any band worth its salt, Pixies also produced new music post 2003 reunion once its internal dynamics leveled out. The group’s first album with former touring, now permanent, bassist Paz Lenchantin, 2016’s Head Carrier, isn’t generally as immediately cathartic and as vital as the group’s 80s and 90s output, it proved Pixies can still write material worth a listen and highlights the band’s ability to clue in to unusual sounds and rhythm and texture ideas that other established artists often don’t.

Who: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks w/Soccer Mommy
When: Tuesday, 07.31, 7 p.m.
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: Stephen Malkmus is obviously the singer and one of the guitarists in lo-fi slacker psyche legends Pavement. But his songs under his own name and with The Jicks are as worthy as anything he did with Pavement. Free to explore unusual melodies, self-indulge a wide range of guitar styles and fusing noise, jangle rock, improvisational instincts, 70s rock, psychedelia and prog, Stephen Malkmus with the Jicks is capable of coming up with refreshingly unusual songs even if they all have the stamp of eccentricity and imagination that Malkmus has brought to all his projects. The group’s 2018 record Sparkle Hard reflects Malkmus examination of the modern world and his place in it as a white man, and father, in his fifties who is still engaged in doing the thing he’s best at—writing unusual rock music—when the world seems to be falling apart and changing at a rapid pace. In typical fashion, Malkmus has a worthwhile and interesting take on all of it.

Opener for this tour, Soccer Mommy, is an interesting pairing because Sophie Allison’s songs have a layered and emotionally rich, compositional style with a sound collage quality that isn’t at first obvious. Her 2018 debut studio album Clean is a solid 10-song collection of sophisticated pop. Unlike many young songwriters, Allison, now 21, doesn’t sound like she’s tapping into a particular era of the 90s or the 2000s except for maybe Mitski and Japanese Breakfast. But, really, those are exceptionally respectable touchstones. What is also noteworthy is Allison’s range of dynamics, command of what, in a film score, might be called sound design, materfully orchestrating textural and atmospheric elements to augment her storytelling. With a debut so strong, one can only hope we’ve not yet seen Allison at her peak.

Who: ModPods w/R A R E B Y R D $
When: Tuesday, 07.31, 7 p.m.
Where: Mutiny Information Café
Why: ModPods from Los Angeles with its mixture of electronic post-punk and dance music sounds more like some kind of band from Baltimore in the 2000s or the kind of band that would have played The Smell in its heyday with an eclectic spirit not trapped in adherence to a stylistic subgenre. Either way its beat-driven songs have an edge and an 8-bit melodic fringe on its minimal synth melodies. Fronted by Myriad Slits, the trio, including Mindee Jorgensen and Daniel Guzman who switch up instruments regularly so that the musical duties never really become rote, is like an intentionally lo-fi synth pop/dance band.

Also on this bill is R A R E B Y R D $, the hip-hop trio that keeps pushing boundaries, including its own, in terms of beatmaking and Key Lady’s and KoKo La’s alchemical vocal interplay. The way some guitarists create interesting shapes for chords, the members of this group creates interesting synergy of sounds between vocals, beats and Michael Blomquist’s organic percussion. It’s a deeply emotional experience that you share with the band. It’s like alternative hip-hop if made by people who take great joy in seeing exactly what you can do with a synthesizer and a sampler to make something entrancing and meaningful. Hypnagogic post-disco, endorphin releasing, gangsta dub.

Wednesday | August 1, 2018

Who: Shocker Mom, Spargob and R A R E B Y R D $
When: Wednesday, 08.1, 8-11 p.m.
Where: Fort Greene
Why: It’s a free show and you get to see some of Denver’s best producers of electronic music in the underground. For R A R E B Y R D $, see above. Shocker Mom is Robin Walker who to the big wide world outside of Colorado is not known at all. But for those that have been able to witness her talents as a solo artist, member of lo-fi pop phenoms Cougarpants or one half of the hip-hop duo Nighttimeschoolbus, Walker is a singular talent. As Shocker Mom, Walker taps into her broad musical experience to produce tracks that blur the line between hip-hop, trap, IDM, ambient, dubtechno and indie pop. Aleeya Wilson is perhaps most well-known for her avant-garde guitar/noise project Death In Space. But now the Girls Rock Denver alumn is writing music as Spargob, her production project so expect something refreshingly weird and imaginative.

Who: Weird Wednesday: Universal Devils, Limber Wolf, The Far Stairs facebook.com/events/509245982828786
When: Wednesday, 08.1, 9 p.m.
Where: 3 Kings Tavern
Why: This edition of Weird Wednesday, Claudia Woodman’s monthly at 3 Kings Tavern, will include Rick Layton’s solo experimental metal project Universal Devils. Layton is a talented multi-instrumentalist who spent several years as the drummer for weirdo punk band Little Fyodor & Babushka Band. The Far Stairs is fronted by former Hindershot keyboard player Jesse Livingston. Imagine a manic New Wave/New Romantics/power pop band influenced by They Might Be Giants. But not just good, but great.