Kyle Evans aka pulseCoder uses circuit bent arcade controllers with homemade synthesizers in conjunction with lighting and visual art to create a multimedia experience that gives a mutually reinforcing context for his creative work. His new single “Wicked Transmission” (released through Holodeck Records) sounds like a futuristic EDM piece with resonances with the recent works of Plaid, Autechre and Weval. Synth lines stretch out playfully and take dynamic turns as if moving in conjunction with the washes of tone and percussive tones that blip like a pointillistic video projection that evolves from dots to manifesting full images. All the while the beat flows like a synergistic overlay suggestive of dance. The net effect is one of reconciling a sinuous quality with bright and forceful accents and a shifting sonic focus that carries you along for an immersive ride in the listen. Listen to“Wicked Transmission” on YouTube and follow pulseCoder at the links provided.
What:An Ambient Valentine’s Day: Benefit for Resilience Rising: School Dance, Allison Lorenzen solo, Midwife, God of Water and Bell Hoss When: Thursday, 02.14, 8 p.m. Where: Rosehouse Why: This show is a benefit women’s shelter Resilience Rising and includes more sonically ethereal and low key artists such as ambient slowcore star Midwife and the like-minded but less abstract artist Bell Hoss who sounds like she fled some pocket dimension that was perpetually the early 80s but where people didn’t get why Joni Mitchell is one of the coolest, most important artists in popular music.
Who:Grivo w/DH and Madelyn Burns When: Thursday, 02.14, 8 p.m. Where: Surfside 7 Why: Grivo is an experimental shoegaze/psychedelic rock band from Austin with music out on Holodeck Records.
Who:The Dead & The Daylily w/Turvy Organ, Avifauna and Tiffany Christopher When: Thursday, 02.14, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: This is Matthew Rossi’s first show as a guitarist in indie rock band Turvy Organ. You’ve seen him play in Tyto Alba assuming you’ve seen that underrated and great Denver dream pop band. Rossi has helped bring to that band a certain elevated emotional tonal palette and he’ll bring some of that to Turvy Organ as well.
Who:Codename: Carter w/Tonguebyte When: Thursday, 02.14, 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Spy-surf phenoms Codename: Carter don’t play so often but when they do, it’s a worthy catching because they coordinate outfits and write songs that remind you that surf rock can have chops and imagination behind it.
Friday | February 15, 2019
Who:Scream Screen: Poltergeist When: Friday, 02.15, 8 p.m. Where: Sie FilmCenter Why: The latest in Theresa Mercado’s Scream Screen series celebrating the life of master horror filmmaker Tobe Hooper. Tonight, 1982’s haunting classic Poltergeist.
Who:The Pollution, Perry Weissman 3 and DJ AKA Miggy When: Friday, 02.15, 9 p.m. Where: Goosetown Tavern Why: The Pollution is rooted in the politically conscious but non-didactic punk of the 80s DC scene but influenced by psychedelic rock and weirdo 70s prog. Perry Weissman 3 is definitely within the experimental wing of jazz. Not necessarily free jazz but that element is in there too.
Who:Maya Jane Coles When: Friday, 02.15, 9 p.m. Where: The Church Why: Maya Jane Coles is the UK DJ whose production and engineering work is noteworthy separate from her career as music maker. In the latter capacity Coles is known for her dark techno sets with a deep house and dub sensibility. Her compositions usually have a gently urgent quality amid moody synth swells and a finely crafted and separation of tones and textures as part of her layers of rhythm bumped along by expertly sculpted low end. Which is just another way of saying her music sounds like something you’d want to hear in the inevitable virtual experiential product of the future that tries to convey what it was like to go to a 2000s underground experimental dance music event in an illegal but safe warehouse in the middle of fall. Plenty of sonic allusions and nods to style can be found in one of her sets for the heads that work well whether you’re familiar with those references or not.
Saturday | February 16, 2019
Turkuaz, photo by Dani Brandwein
Who:Turkuaz with Eminence Ensemble When: Saturday, 02.16, 8 p.m. Where: The Ogden Theatre Why: Turkuaz is a nine-piece, Brooklyn-based funk band whose sound is as eclectic as it is layered and multi-cultural. Though incorporating elements of psychedelia, R&B and rock Turkuaz’s sound can be readily compared to like-minded bands more associated within the cross section of jam bands end electronic dance music. Think on the more interesting end like Lotus, STS9 and The Disco Biscuits. That kind of flow of sounds and rhythms but rooted in executing the sounds with all live instrumentation and sounding more akin to Kool and the Gang or a Bernie Worrell band than something that has much in common with the EDM realm.
Who:KGNU Quarterly Showcase: The Milk Blossoms, Lady Gang, My New Dad (members of Dandu), Joshua Trinidad and Gregg Ziemba – DJs Joel Davis aka The Vibrarian and TerraSonic When: Saturday, 02.16, 8:30 p.m. Where: Lion’s Lair Why: This edition of the KGNU Quarterly Showcase is, reliably, a fantastic showcase of some of the more interesting artists in Denver. The Milk Blossoms provide a gentle yet heartfelt emotional catharsis with every show with meaningful and experimental pop music by not trying to fit in any genre and giving you the raw, delicately rendered experience. Lady Gang is Jen Korte’s one woman, loop station composition extravaganza. Joshua Trinidad and Gregg Ziemba will kick the serious space jazz science and stretch the boundaries of consciousness in the process.
Who:Le Butcherettes w/Stars at Night and Viretta When: Saturday, 02.16, 8:30 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Le Butcherettes make weirdo prog punk within the context of what always seems like inspired performance art as Teri Genderbender channels rock and roll and mythological archetypes of her own creation at every show. Earlier this month the group released its latest album bi/MENTAL, a typically otherworldly and cathartic offering that isn’t much like anything else in rock in re-contextualizing and re-purposing tropes of the genre in creative ways.
Monday | February 18, 2019
Sharon Van Etten, photo by Ryan Pfluger
Who:Kikagaku Moyo w/Weeed When: Monday, 02.18, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Kikagaku Moyo is a Tokyo-based psychedelic rock band whose 2018 album Masana Temples demonstrated further the band’s subtly eclectic sound rooted not just in 70s prog and psychedelic rock but also Japanese traditional music and perhaps 70s Japanese folk artists like Happy End, Karuomi Hosono, Itsutsu No Akai Fusen and Nobuyasu Okabayashi. There is a very organic quality to the band’s music, especially in the live setting where layers of sound are presented in a way that is deceptively simple. Definitely not informed so much by the trendy psychedelic rock wave of recent years. This Hi-Dive show is sold out but there is another day the next night in Boulder at The Fox Theatre.
Who:Sharon Van Etten w/Nilüfer Yanya When: Monday, 02.18, 7 p.m. Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: Sharon Van Etten has been releasing worthwhile and wise records for close to a decade and a half now but her 2019 album Remind Me Tomorrow is her best work to date. The rough warble reminiscent of Marianne Faithful in her prime heard in “Seventeen” is thrillingly raw and the words imbued with a deeply painful letting go of ideas and associations once deep in one’s heart but no longer useful while the ghosts of those connections remain. But the whole record is flowing with the spirits of loves past and the album a gentle purging and reconciliation.
Tuesday | February 19, 2019
Men I Trust circa 2018, photo by Tom Murphy
Who:Kikagaku Moyo w/Weeed and Ashley Koett When: Tuesday, 02.19, 8:30 p.m. Where: The Fox Theatre Why: See above for the 2.18 Hi-Dive show entry for more information on Kikagaku Moyo.
Who:Men I Trust w/Michael Seyer When: Tuesday, 02.19, 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Men I Trust has been described any number of ways but the live band evokes the mood of dusky nightclub R&B and soft lighting. But without evoking the early 70s Laurel Canyon pop sound so much in vogue lately. The band’s videos look like some kind of cinematic rendering of 1980s home movies and in a way reminds one of fan videos various people have made for Boards of Canada. It’s not often a band can maintain some sense of mystique these days but Men I Trust definitely has some.
Wednesday | February 20, 2019
Alien Boy, photo by Sam Gehrke
Who:Sundressed, Awakebutstillinbed, Alien Boy and Sunsleeper When: Wednesday, 02.20, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Around the turn of the century pop punk had all but burned out any appeal to anyone but the most die hard fans because it seemed like every other band was still mining that musical territory hoping to play Warped Tour. But then that tide went out. Toward the end of the first decade of the 2000s some musicians in the punk world embraced melody in their songwriting and the relatable and emotionally resonant and urgent quality that the best pop punk and emo had. In the decade since there’s been a renaissance of that style of music but with musicians freely incorporating elements of other musical styles and ideas. This is a good showcase of that development now long since established. Alien Boy, however, has strayed the furthest from the sonics of punk canon and thus, for this writer, it is the most interesting band on the bill with its unabashed use of moody musical ideas from punk, shoegaze, post-punk and its own focus on the most poignant moments of their lives as a loci of inspiration. The band’s 2018 album Sleeping Lessons firmly established it as one of the most interesting punk bands of recent years. Awakebutstillinbed’s crackling and ragged energy also sounds promising for the performance like a less art/space rock Rainer Maria. It’s gloriously titled 2018 album what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you is the things of which modern emo legends are made.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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