When the mannequin in talker’s video for “Don’t Want You To Love Me” it seems like an eccentric affectation. But the shiny figure with no emotions is a perfect totemic device for putting someone bad for you and/or with whom you have a bad dynamic behind you even if some of your impulses and automatic emotional reactions draw you to them or in the case of this song back to them and right into the same context, the same kind of emotional turmoil that sidetracked your life. The visual style of the video looks like something out of the 80s with the awkward yet dramatic and colorful montages and that suits the song well as its themes of bypassing emotional self-sabotage is reminiscent of many of the pop songs of that era that treated conflicted feelings with a surprising level of nuance while tapping into the energy of those moments when you can pull yourself out of the psychic quagmire and get a few glimpses of clarity. But talker’s songwriting and vocals are more in tune with more recent artists like Japanese Breakfast and Mitski and their masterful blend of poignant storytelling, exuberance and engrossing melodies. All three have a knack for writing melancholic songs that sweep into a will to defiance against being dragged down. Watch the video for “Don’t Want You To Love Me” on YouTube and connect with talker at the links provided.
Mitski at Red Rocks, June 25, 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
[This series will highlight some of the best shows that I (Tom Murphy) saw in 2019. My better camera proved to be broken when I checked it before leaving to Red Rocks and then getting caught in the traffic jam getting into the venue and not being able to get the proper credentials to be at the front of the stage and did the best I could between my back-up camera and my phone]
Mitski at Red Rocks, June 25, 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
When Mitski Miyawaki announced in spring 2019 that the next set of shows would be her last indefinitely. This lead many to believe she was quitting music or at least quitting live performance. But the songwriter later clarified her intention in needing to step away from performing live and the rat race of touring for five years that can’t help but have a deleterious effect on one’s psyche, one’s sense of place and one’s identity in the end by unmooring one from the meaningful contexts that ground one’s existence. One can hardly blame her for wanting to step away from that situation for however long it takes to feel like a normal human again and cultivate one’s creative instincts rather than channel that energy into getting on stage and delivering what’s expected.
Given where Mitski must have been when she worked on the tour performance for her opening slots with Death Cab For Cutie at larger venues than she would likely headline on her own it was telling the care put into making it a show for the big stage. Mitski is probably not a millionaire from her music and yet her using a stage set with a chair and a table as props for a highly theatrical performance was an interesting balance of concept executed to give people that know her music something extra while presenting to those that didn’t something they were likely not expecting from an opening act for a beloved, established older band whose emotional earnestness and 90s-esque, stripped down, raw performance style was the expected aesthetic. In moments her set-up was reminiscent of the spoken word shows from Spalding Gray.
Death Cab For Cutie at Red Rocks, June 25, 2019
Deathcab for Cutie put in a fine performance proving it had transitioned well from a band some of us saw at a small club that held less than a hundred people to popular indie elders statesmen playing Red Rocks and still making music with meaning and power evolved naturally from its roots. Mitski brought what felt like a stage production of her 2018 album Be the Cowboy with some highlights from previous records. She strutted about the stage, leapt about like a gymnast and seemed to orchestrate the music in the foreground with the band in the wings giving her movements their emotional context in sync with Mitski’s commanding vocals.
Mitski at Red Rocks, June 25, 2019, photo by Tom Murphy
Near the beginning of the show Miyawaki, in a display of acute self-awareness, said, “You may be asking yourself if this is the set. This is the set.” She knew plenty of people were not expecting something so “arty” based on other shows the songwriter had played in Denver at places like Larimer Lounge and The Bluebird Theater at which Mitski played guitar as well as sang. This was Mitski in a stylized outfit and using props while delivering her thought-provoking and psychologically insightful lyrics. Toward the end Miyawaki broke the fourth wall of the show again and addressed those in attendance who weren’t familiar with her work by wryly stating, “If we’re not your flavor, don’t worry [Death Cab For Cutie is] up next.”
If Mitski is taking time off to learn to be human again on her own terms away from the rigors and demands of the road and being something of a public figure, reconnecting with the foundations of her own creative spirit, at least she left off, for now, with some shows hinting at the possible future and the best record of her career and one of the most incisive examinations of identity and the American psyche through a deeply personal lens in recent memory. I, for one, am looking forward to her return to making creatively ambitious pop music.
What:Glasss Presents the Final Speakeasy Series Season 3: Adam Selene, Abeasity Jones and MYTHirst When: Thursday, 06.20, 6:30 p.m. Where: Hooked On Colfax Why: This is the final edition of the Speak Easy Series not just Season 3 but overall. Each date has been a well-curated showcase of Denver’s underground experimental music underground with a reach covering a lot of that territory in a way few if any other events have in recent years. Tonight’s show includes some of the local scene’s hip-hop and production stars as named above.
What:SCAC with Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds When: Thursday, 06.20, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is the long-running, legendary Americana post-punk band with a theatrical flair and costumes to enhance a strong visual presence on stage. Joining them tonight is Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds. Also favoring matching outfits in the vein of influential Chicano rock bands like Thee Midnighters, the group is fronted and lead by one of rock’s great songwriters and guitarists. Kid Congo Powers brought great finesse, inventiveness and a keen ear for melody and dynamics to groups like Gun Club, The Cramps and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
What:Mystery Lights w/Future Punx and Slynger When: Thursday, 06.20, 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Mystery Lights is an odd and fascinating mix of retro synth bands and proto-punk. Give its new record Too Much Tension! a listen. Like early Zen Guerilla but weirder. Future Punx is also on tour from Brooklyn with its synth funk punk akin to Les Savy Fav and The Epoxies but with more synth than the former and less pop punk than the latter. Its own 2019 album The World Is A Mess (which includes an almost brooding cover of “The World’s A Mess (It’s In My Kiss)” by X) sure does sound like some people from the future looking back on the Twentieth Century New Wave and punk era the way some indie rockers have looked back on Laurel Canyon, classic rock and 80s glam rock for inspiration and cherry picked sounds to assemble in idiosyncratic fashion.
Hembree, photo by Stephen Shireman
What:Bloxx, Hembree and Warbly Jets When: Thursday, 06.20, 6:30 p.m. Where: Marquis Theater Why: Bloxx is a four piece from London whose sound makes one think its members evolved out of the music that defined its early youth and rediscovered 90s alternative rock and mulched it all in favor of a charmingly melodic, fuzzy emo-esque songwriting style reminiscent of newer bands like Culture Abuse. Kansas City’s Hembree rides that line between post-punk and synth pop well and its 2019 album House On Fire is filled with darkly luminous yet urgent dance songs.
Friday | June 21
Nick Murphy, photo by Willy Lukatis
What:Gasoline Lollipops., Dust Heart and Grayson County Burn Ban When: Friday, 06.21, 7 p.m. Where: Oriental Theater Why: Andy Thomas has been a fixture of Denver music for close to two decades as a member of bands like Ghost Buffalo, The Knew, Tin Horn Prayer, Only Thunder and, more recently, Lost Walks. Around a decade ago he started releasing music under his own name and as Andy Thomas Dust Heart and exploring different facets of his own songwriting. He is now releasing music as simply Dust Heart and tonight he releases his single “Plastic Walls” and “The Last Gap.” Thomas’ command of the musical vocabulary of Americana and punk has long been established. With the new material the songwriter delves further into something more akin to gritty power pop with charged guitar riffs and his always emotionally resonant vocal delivery. He’ll be performing the Punk Is Dad benefit tonight at the Oriental Theater with other like-minded local acts. Look for our interview with Thomas coming soon.
What:Nick Murphy fka Chet Faker w/Beacon When: Friday, 06.21, 7 p.m. Where: Ogden Theatre Why: Nick Murphy announced in 2016 that he would drop his long-running stage name of Chet Faker with the release of his next album, that being 2019’s Run Fast Sleep Naked. The Australian singer and songwriter’s mixture of R&B and downtempo electronic pop struck a chord in the first half decade of his career so far and his new album is the result of some wanderlust and making the music and putting together ideas as he went along. The album is a mixed bag but sometimes such material translates better live than as a loose concept album and you can see for yourself tonight as Murphy transforms the Ogden into a more intimate environment in which his songs can shine in the interpretation of the recorded music.
Saturday | June 22
Oh, Rose at Treefort Music Fest, photo courtesy the artist
What:Yeasayer w/Oh, Rose When: Saturday, 06.22, 7 p.m. Where: Gothic Theatre Why: Oh, Rose from Olympia, Washington has been making C86-esque pop songs for around half a decade and garnering some buzz for its emotionally warm and ebullient yet introspective songwriting. Fans of Shop Assistants and perhaps Black Tambourine will find much to like about Oh, Rose in general but especially it’s forthcoming album While My Father Sleeps due out on August 23, 2019 on Park The Van Records. The group is opening for Yeasayer whose genre bending sound makes psychedelic rock, non-Western rhythms and prog work well together by not bothering to recognize a boundary between all of that. The result is what might be considered “indie funk” but with a more imaginative live presentation of the music than those terms together might suggest.
What:TRVE DadFest When: Saturday, 06.22, 1 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive and Mutiny Information Café Why: TRVE Brewing and Dad Fest combined forces for this event to bring a day and night of stars of extreme, doom and experimental (and combinations thereof) metal from Denver and beyond. But as per usual for DadFest, there will music well outside that like ethereal soundscaper Midwife, Denver noise legends Page 27 and beat-driven noise auteur Data Rainbow. Our pick for the later heavy stuff if one must choose? BIG|BRAVE’s 2019 album A Gaze Among Them is a towering locomotive of driving beats that transcends narrow concepts of doom, noise and industrial. But, really, everything on the bill is worth your time—not something one can say about every festival, tastes differing. The event happens at two venues, schedule listed below.
Hi-Dive Schedule (upstairs and downstairs as indicated)
Up: Dreadnought 7:50-8:10
Down: Noctambulist 8:15-8:35
Up: In the Company of Serpents 8:40-9:00
Down: Vale 9:05-9:25
Up: Midwife 9:30-9:50
Down: Of Feather and Bone 9:55-10:15
Up: BIG|BRAVE 10:20-10:50
Up: Wake 11:05-11:25
Up: Vanum 11:40 – finis
Mutiny Schedule
Lost Relics 2:00-2:20
New Standards Men 2:35-2:55
Chair of Torture 3:10-3:30
A Light Among Many 3:45-4:05
Livid 4:20-4:40
Whilt 4:55-5:05
909 5:20-5:40
Flesh Buzzard 5:55-6:05
Heathen Burial 6:20-6:40
Data Rainbow 6:55-7:05
Page 27 7:20-7:40
Sunday | June 23
Howard Jones circa 2017, photo by Tom Murphy
What:A Vulture Wake w/Joy Subtraction and State Drugs When: Sunday, 06.23, 7 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: A Vulture Wake is a sort of melodic punk super group including Chad Price of ALL and Drag the River) and members of Lagwagon and Real McKenzies. But you won’t be getting some odd pop punk or melodic hardcore redo, it’s songwriting goes a bit beyond all of that with technical proficiency used with imaginative and evocative guitar riffs. Joy Subtraction doesn’t play much these days but its punk is borderline post-punk and its sharp take on social and political issues lacks is way more clever and insightful than that of at least two or three other bands. But not just any two or three other bands.
What:Howard Jones w/Men Without Hats and All Hail the Silence When: Sunday, 06.23, 5:30 p.m. Where: Hudson Gardens Why: Howard Jones is a pioneer of synth pop and one who learned to use difficult and temperamental equipment to compose some of the biggest hits of the 1980s like “Things Can Only Get Better,” “No One Is To Blame,” “What Is Love” and “Like to Get to Know You Well.” While for some these may be light pop songs Jones’ voice expressive and highly emotional deliver stood out even back then in the heyday of that music. As a live performer now Jones is surprisingly forceful and charismatic with an expertly crafted light show whose music seems prescient considering the direction synthwave and chillwave has developed.
Monday | June 24
Ginger Root, photo by Seannie Bryan
What:Ginger Root w/Oko Tygra and Hi-Fi Gentry When: Monday, 06.24, 7 p.m. Where: Hudson Gardens Why: As Ginger Root, Cameron Lew has been making lush downtempo synth pop that sets itself very much apart with an attention to the low end. It gives his songs a sonic depth and flow that credibly gives a nod to 70s dance music and soul. Frankly, some filmmakers who are trying to nail that 70s and 80s vibe should hit up Lew to score and/or music supervise their projects because more than most people making music now who probably wasn’t alive at that time, he gets it and it’s not just having access to the vintage gear. But listen for yourself to his new singles “Weather” and “Slump” here.
What:Stevie Wonder When: Monday, 06.24, 7 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: Stevie Wonder needs no introduction as a legend of soul, funk, R&B and jazz. He’s performing at this Red Rocks show as a fundraiser for SeriesFest.
Tuesday | June 25
Mitski, photo by Bao Ngo
What:Death Cab for Cutie w/Mitski When: Tuesday, 06.25, 6:30 p.m. Where: Red Rocks Why: Mitski Miyawaki recently announced that after her fall live bookings she was taking a hiatus from the grinding, album-release-cycle-and-touring of the music industry that allows little time for cultivating one’s life and creativity separate from its considering for delivering up to an audience in a form they are expecting. Miyawaki has had a respectable career and body of work up to now including her 2018 album Be the Cowboy. The latter pushed her songwriting to new heights of creativity in telling stories, self-examination and soundscaping. And a deep level of emotional honesty. With an album as great Be the Cowboy where does a songwriter go without repeating oneself while under the gun to produce something more quickly than one’s brain is prepared to deliver? With any luck she’ll find the time away from the cultural realm that Hunter S. Thompson famously critiqued before it got as bad as it is now by writing: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good [people] die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” Wherever Miyawaki lands we wish her good fortune and happiness while hoping she comes back with a new set of music that continues her legacy of great songs.
Death Cab for Cutie is a band that helped to define and shape what “indie rock” has meant, sounded like and looked like since at least the late 90s. Now that the group has been fairly commercially successful for several years at this point its songwriting may lack some of the urgency and poignancy of its earlier output at least the band has a few decent songs with every album since the turn of the decade.
Wednesday | June 26
J. Hamilton Isaacs, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Harry Tuft When: Wednesday, 06.26, 6 p.m. Where: Four Mile Historic Park – Shady Grove Why: Harry Tuft is the godfather of bluegrass and folk in Denver having run the Denver Folklore Center in the 60s through the 70s and as a founder of Swallow Hill. He seldomly performs but when he does his interpretations of other people’s songs and standards is always interesting and his originals worthy as well. As a champion of music for decades, Tuft ironically didn’t have many chances to play his own music until his 80s and he does so with emotional power and grace.
What:Die ANGEL, Xambuca, Equine, Ian Douglas Moore and J. Hamilton Isaacs When: Wednesday, 06.26, 8 p.m. Where: Thought//Forms Why: Die ANGEL is Ilpo Väisänen of noise/drone legends Pan Sonic and Dirk Dresselhaus of avant-guitar group Schneider TM. With Die ANGELthe duo explore the kind of noise, ambient, sound environment composition that is an experience in itself in flowing sounds, tones and rumbling low end. It is a physical as well as a psychological experience that will engulf the room at Thought//Forms. Xambuca is a San Francisco-based modular synth and production artist who will bring his own depth of sonic field to the proceedings. Denver’s Equine is Kevin Richards whose avant-garde guitar work has been part of the Mile High City’s underground for nearly two decades as a member of weirdo, jazz/noise post-hardcore band Motheater and blackened noise duo Epileptinomicon. J. Hamilton Isaacs is one of the local music world’s champions of modular synth music as well as a noteworthy artist in his own right producing entrancing (no pun intended for those in the know) synth/dance music that blurs the line between ambient and more academic synth experiments.
What:No Vacation w/Okey Dokey and Hello, Mountain When: Wednesday, 06.26, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: No Vacation’s take on surf rock-inflected dream pop is truly elegant and transporting like they’re able to relax and let whatever is in them speak through their collective efforts. Of course a lot of practice and playing together was involved but the band makes it look effortless and easy.
With disaster and political malfeasance plagueing the world, not helped by an American president filled with the insufferable hubris to troll not just a dictator with nuclear capabilities and a proven delivery system as well as an American territory hit hard by a hurricane it’s difficult to think how anything less serious matters much. But getting no enjoyment out of life won’t make things better for anyone so what follows are a list of some of the best shows happening in Denver this coming week.
Who:Atriarch, Fotocrime, Echo Beds and Palehorse/Palerider When: Thursday, 10.12, 9 p.m. Where: Meadowlark Lounge Why: Portland’s Atriarch creates the kind of ominous, bluntly forceful yet elegant music that shows you where noise, deathrock and black metal intersect to create the soundtrack to an epic post-apocalyptic horror film soundtrack. It’s new record, Dead As Truth, should appeal to fans of Neurosis, Swans and Wolves in the Throne Room. Fotocrime includes members of Coliseum and Young Widows. Not too surprising considering Coliseum’s latest, and best, material is a reinvention of dark post-punk. Fotocrime is even more in that vein but with the forcefulness of a post-hardcore band. And that would be reason enough for going to this show but you’ll also get to see Denver’s great industrial/noise band Echo Beds and Palehorse/Palerider who are on that post-punk vibe but more in the vein of colossal, atmospheric doom metal. That is if Kevin Shields got into that game. It’s 2017 album, Burial Songs, is a sprawling science fiction and fantasy epic in its own right.
Who:We Should Have Been DJs (WI), Once A Month (WI), Guts and Obtuse When: Thursday, 10.12, 9 p.m. Where: Mutiny Information Cafe Why: Madison, Wisconsin’s We Should Have Been DJs are that kind of noisy, sloppy and relentless weirdo punk brings their show to Mutiny with fellow Wisconsinites Once a Month, a lo-fi, fuzzy punk trio that is so bratty and irreverent it’s worth listening to for that alone. “Ghosting” and “Boys Oughta” from their new split with We Should Have Been DJs are brilliantly pointed pieces of commentary. Denver emo punks Guts and Obtuse put out two of the best EPs/splits of the year out of that world that has been re-emerging over the past half decade or so. Flavorwise, Guts is more DC-esque emo and Obtuse more midwest/Chicago/Champagne-Urbana style.
Who:Candace w/Eyebeams and Boat Drinks When: Thursday, 10.12, 8 p.m. Where: Hi-Dive Why: Candace is “country shoegaze”? Maybe the shimmer from certain kinds of country and the solid songwriting. But the Portland band’s music could have come out 26 years ago of at the height of slowcore in the 90s or today with a fresh take on all of that. Opening are Denver dream pop band Eyebeams and Boat Drinks, a band whose melancholic pop songs suggest maybe the songwriters listened to a lot of Chisel (though probably Ted Leo & The Pharmacists) and Wilco but that is no knock on the excellent songwriting.
Who:Battalion of Saints, The Nobodys and The Cryptics When: Thursday, 10.12, 7 p.m. Where: The Marquis Theater Why: Battalion of Saints was part of the first wave of hardcore when it launched in San Diego in 1980. Sure it had the edgy furiousness of other hardcore bands and thus part of the appeal. But Battalion of Saints always had a melodic quality to even its heavier songs that has aged better than some of the music of its contemporaries. Colorado Springs-based melodic hardcore veterans The Nobodys opens the show alongside Dover, New Hampshire’s The Cryptics.
Who:Jonwayne w/Danny Watts and Grigsby When: Saturday, 10.14, 8 p.m. Where: Lost Lake Why: Jonwayne was one of the youngest performers at Low End Theory when he started performing at the legendary hip-hop showcase in 2010. He started attending the night when he was still a teenager in 2009 and he became friendly with Diaba$e and later Peanut Butter Wolf who has since signed the rapper and beatmaker to his Stones Throw label. Jonwayne garnered early attention for his mixtapes including 2011’s I Don’t Care and Cassette and Cassette 2 from 2012 and 2013 respectively. His lyrical deftness was reminiscent of Aesop Rock but his beatmaking has always been creative in his use of musical samples in synch with unusual field recordings to craft truly unique rhythms. 2017’s Rap Album Two further confirms Jonwayne’s gift for storytelling and imaginative soundscapes. Jonwayne discovered Danny Watts when the latter contacted him through Soundcloud. Watts, originally from Houston, had been working at a Costco optical department with no realistic prospect of taking his music to the professional level but there was a creative connection between the two artists and Jonwayne was very involved in making the music for Danny Watts’ 2017 release Black Boy Meets World, a powerfully vulnerable and honest set of songs that spell out some of the downbeats of modern life with a rare sensitivity.
Who:D.I., Redbush, The Hacks and Amuse When: Saturday, 10.14, 8 p.m. Where: Streets of London Why: D.I. is indeed the hardcore band that was in Penelope Spheeris’ Suburbia. Or at least vocalist Casey Royer is still in the band. The group had a memorable scene in the film where they perform “Richard Hung Himself,” which was originally written when Royer was in The Adolescents. But D.I. Had plenty of other material and its sing-along, poppy punk sure seemed to have an influence a generation or more of punk bands to follow. Denver’s The Hacks are cut from a similar cloth including an irreverently self-deprecating sense of humor as evidenced by the title of its 2017 album: Three Chord Cliché.
Who:Black Out—Solar Powered Show w/Ned Garthe Explosion, The Amphibious Man and Colfax Speed Queen When: Saturday, 10.14, 7 p.m. Where: 7th Circle Music Collective Why: This show is going to be drawing on solar power, presumably stored in the kind of battery that can provide ample power for three rock bands to play at least partial sets. For this show Ned Garthe Explosion and Colfax Speed Queen will demonstrate how bands that in some ways came out of the garage rock and psychedelic resurgence of the past 8 years or so can take the threads of the music that informed a lot of other bands and do something genuinely interesting with it. Ned Garthe and Stuart Confer playing off each other and the crowd provide some hilarious stage banter.
Who:The Bronx w/Plague Vendor and ’68 When: Saturday, 10.14, 7:30 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: The Bronx is often referred to as hardcore but its sound is like someone found a way to inject Aerosmith by way of L.A. glam metal into a punk band. Somehow it works. But if you’re not at all into Turbonegro or the the glammy end of The Refused, you probably won’t like The Bronx. Plague Vendor is in a similar vein and apparently calls its sound “voodoo punk.” Which is fitting since there seems to be some trippy-ish surf rock in its aesthetic that makes you think these guys listen to a lot of The Cramps and, in its noisier more hectic moments, At The Drive-In.
Who:Listener w/Levi the Poet and Comrades When: Sunday, 10.15, 7 p.m. Where: Marquis Theater Why: When Listener first started touring through Denver over a decade ago, it was the spoken word/hip-hop project of Dan Smith. His rapping and beats was in a similar vein to that of artists on the Rhymesayers and Anticon labels meaning sharply observed lyrics and a mastery of delivery. These days, Listener hasn’t ditched his poetic sensibilities but the music is provided by a live band whose introspective music has more in common with post-rock and Daniel Lanois than Smith’s organic and electric beatmaking of old and in many ways the better for it. 2017’s Being Empty: Being Filled finds Smith in an especially emotionally vibrant and impassioned mode.
Who:Imelda Marcos (Chicago) w/Body Meat and Club Soda When: Sunday, 10.15, 9 p.m. Where: 3 Kings Tavern Why: Imelda Marcos is a math rock/avant-garde noise rock band from Chicago whose 2017 album Dalawa might be compared to the likes of This Heat, Laddio Bolocko or Don Caballero. At least in its use of space in the songs and willingness to employ unorthodox rhythms and methods of playing guitar strings. Denver’s Body Meat might be similarly described except there seems to be more of a jazz component to Body Meat otherwise maybe its disorienting and angular flow of rhythms would be difficult to pull off.
Who:Boris w/SubRosa at Endon When: Tuesday, 10.17, 7 p.m. Where: Globe Hall Why: Boris is the long-running metal/avant-guitar rock band from Japan. Its music helped to define stoner and doom rock for the past 25 years. While influenced heavily by Melvins (the band took its name from a Melvins song), Boris seems to just explore whatever realm of sound and rock and roll suggests itself to the band. Whether it’s broad vistas of sound with 2000’s Flood, crushing fuzz sculpting with 1998’s appropriately titled Amplifier Worship, the heaviest of heavy shoegaze and psychedelia with 2005’s classic album Pink or 2017’s eclectic Dear, Boris always seems to be reaching in different directions for inspiration. Live, Boris will remind you why so many other guitar bands are playing it safe in terms of both the sounds employed and the level of energy put into the show. Opening is SubRosa, the mystical/atmospheric doom band from Salt Lake City. Since its inception, SubRosa’s imagery and music has seemingly drawn upon primal, earth energies to put into its whole aesthetic. 2016’s For This We Fought the Battle of Ages is classic SubRosa in its weaving together organic, almost folk elements with epic, heavy, densely atmospheric guitar work and pummeling tribal rhythms that carry your imagination into the mythological realms that are at the heart of the music.
Who:Chromadrift and Victoria Lundy When: Tuesday, 10.17, 7 p.m. Where: Hooked On Colfax Why: This latest installment of the Speakeasy Series hosted by Glasss Records in the basement of Hooked on Colfax features two of Denver’s most accomplished ambient/experimental electronic artists. With Chromadrift, Drew Miller has found a way to tap into the same well of transcendent and transporting sound and rhythm that seems to inform the work of Boards of Canada. Except that Miller’s song titles seem more grounded in immediately relatable themes rather than the suggestive mysteriousness of BOC. And this cozy setting would be the perfect place to experience his music live. Victoria Lundy has been a veteran of various facets of the Denver expermental music scene since at least the 90s. She uses the theramin the way other musicians play their classical instruments and she has in fact adapted classical pieces for her performance. Ultimately, though, Lundy is a nerd and that finds its way into her elegant way of expressing those impulses such as her 2015 electro/ambient album Miss American Vampire. Every Victoria Lundy show is different so expect something well-composed but leaving room for intuition to guide the sound where it may go this evening.
Who:Dälek w/Street Sects, Echo Beds and It’s Just Bugs When: Tuesday, 10.17, 8 p.m. Where: The Marquis Why: Dälek formed in the late 90s and from the beginning its use of sound and samples was markedly different from most other hip-hop acts. In retrospect the group’s most obvious peers in beatmaking and soundsculpting (i.e. Sole, cLOUDDEAD, Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock, El-P) started getting off the ground to a national audience around the same time. But it was Dälek that seemed to be embraced by more open-minded fans of heavy music who could appreciate what one might call the My Bloody Valentine meets Godflesh sound of the group. In 2011 the project went on hiatus for a few years before reuniting to write and record 2016’s Asphalt for Eden on Profound Lore, a label that generally releases metal in a more experimental vein. In 2017 Dälek released Endangered Philosophies on Ipecac, an imprint also well known for its catalog of arty, innovative heavy music. Austin’s Street Sects is one of the opening acts and its gritty, dark and aggressive industrial punk has garnered it an international audience. The 2016 album End Position blurred all lines between hardcore, industrial and breakcore. 2017’s Rat Jacket takes the band into even darker thematic territory. Apparently hard political and economic times is a good time for music that gives no fucks about peeling back the scab of society’s sins. Speaking of which, two Denver bands are also on the bill. Echo Beds has been developing its own synthesis of punk, industrial and noise since 2010 and these days have honed strong ideas into sharp songs that articulate and embody the desperation of the current era. With its visceral live show, Echo Beds is pretty unforgettable. It’s Just Bugs is an industrial rap band whose forays into noise are a refreshingly developed use of sounds as samples.
Who:Pixies w/Mitski When: Wednesday, 10.18, 7 p.m. Where: The Fillmore Auditorium Why: Pixies probably got its greatest boost into mainstream popularity oddly with the release of the 1999 film Fight Club. Because if you went to see the band during its 2003-2004 reunion tour cycle a lot of the crowd seemed largely lukewarm to and confused by the band’s other classic material but when “Where is My Mind?” came on the crowd went wild. Some of us got to be confused by Pixies during its earlier era when the 1988 album Doolittle was offered in the metal section of tape/CD clubs and when it turned out that it wasn’t metal didn’t know what to think of it. But once everything clicked the genius of the band’s unusual and imaginative lyrics and its willingness to go off the standard time signatures and roll with the moment became something to be cherished rather than dismissed. This version of the band is without founding bassist Kim Deal but Joe Santiago’s truly eccentric and brilliant guitar work will be there along with Black Francis’ alien yet melodious and intense vocals and David Lovering’s expressive and propulsive drumming. Also, if you’re going to get a bass player Paz Lenchantin is no slouch and her talent has elevated other artists like Jarboe, A Perfect Circle, Jenny Lewis, Queens of the Stone Age and Silver Jews. Opening the show is Mitski whose emotionally charged rock songs are cathartically confessional and some of the most strikingly honest music of the past few years.
Who:Girlpool w/Palm and Sweater Belly When: Wednesday, 10.18, 7 p.m. Where: Larimer Lounge Why: Seems like any guitar band that has a tinge of distortion and any whiff of DIY credibility is called “punk” like a sound rather than an attitude. Or, worse, when said music isn’t particularly aggressive and the band is all or mostly women, “pastel punk.” Girlpool probably gets painted in that light often and if the band chooses to embrace that sort of thing, it’s certainly entitled to because who gets to tell a band whether or not it’s really punk. But fans of dream or indie pop will find much to like in Girlpool’s expansive melodies and fluid song dynamics, particularly on its excellent 2017 album Powerplant. Philadelphia’s Palm toured with LVL UP earlier in 2017 and its precise, spidery guitar interplay was reminiscent of a band like Young Marble Giants had the members gone on to be members of 90s math rock bands and then ditched the sound but not the musical skill and ended up like some weirdo neo-No Wave jazz band. Its 2017 album (EP?) Shadow Expert is a nice reminder that a band can be completely weird and completely accessible at the same time.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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