Poison Tribe – Queen City Sounds and Art

Best Shows in Denver January 2024

Nabihah Iqbal performs at Lost Lake on January 25, 2024

Friday | 01.05
What: The Salesmen w/Billy Conquer, Tuff Bluff and Candy Chic
When: 8pm doors/8:30pm show
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The Salesmen might be considered post-punk because its music has that angular aspect and seems informed by political edge in the more interesting end of punk but its eclectic style doesn’t fit a narrow genre tag. Its 2023 EP WAR IN COLORADO! sounds like they grew up listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, pop punk and 90s art rock in the vein of Mr. Bungle and took what chops they learned that mutant route and made something decidedly different. Billy Conquer from Gunnison, Colorado unabashedly claims its garage rock roots but its 2020 EP Garage Hits has a flavor that sounds more like the guys grew up having their brains poisoned by classic rock and jam band overload (it happens whether through parents or peers) but then discovered T-Rex and Big Star and rather than follow the typical garage punk route of the 2010s actually honed their chops both technical and songwriting-wise to make something that dips into the classics a bit but so well developed you don’t mind. Tuff Bluff is the latest punk band to include Sara Fischer who some may remember for her time in old school Denver groups like Pin Downs, The Speedholes, New Idols, The Manxx, Bluebelle and others. So of course the songwriting is well crafted and both gritty and melodic Candy Chic has been around longer than one might assume since its cachet has caught on a bit more over the past year. Its music doesn’t seem beholden to surf rock, indiepop or post-punk though general fans of that kind of music will find something to appreciate about the band’s deft navigation of a sound that may remind some of early Slumberland bands or even Sarah Records acts with a gentle touch and a knack for tender and ethereal melodies and richly emotional vocals.

Friday and Saturday | 01.05 and 01.06
What: Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country & Trouble No More (A Celebration of Allman Brothers Band)
When: 7pm doors/8pm show both nights
Where: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom (01.05) and Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom (01.06)
Why: Daniel Donato released his latest album Reflector on November 10, 2023 and its richly diverse sounds and styles are entrancing and lively. It’s the kind of country one would expect from an artist rooted in modern Nashville in that he seems to have absorbed the sounds where country intersects with psychedelia, indie rock and the jam band universe and produced an orchestral yet accessible sound of his own. Donato’s songwriting isn’t same-y and through the album and his body of work he offers uplifting and thoughtful tales of human existence with great imagination and energy.

Sunday | 01.07
What: Equine, Church Car (NYC) and Adam Baumeister
When: 7 pm
Where: St. Pauli Tavern
Why: Equine is Kevin Richards’ long-running, solo, free jazz-inflected, avant-garde guitar drone project with several albums in his body of work to date. Richards was once the genius guitarist of post-hardcore band Motheater and a member of noise band Epileptinomicon and Equine reflects that background some in that he brought truly unorthodox jazz chords to post-hardcore guitar style and a structure, albeit one more intuitive, to noise. Church Car is the latest project of Ian Douglas Moore who was known in Denver more for his time in punk adjacent and Americana bands. Adam Baumeister? Who knows what you’ll get because his wide-ranging creativity has meant he was a member of Bad Weather California, art-punk weirdos Navy Girls, his own experimental guitar and cosmic country grunge pop band Littles Paia and Lil’ Adam as well as numerous other musical endeavors over the years including his running of lathe cut imprint Meep Records.

Sunday | 01.07
What: Nocturnal Prose w/Hex Casse, Empty4400 and Luna’s
When: 7pm
Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective
Why: Nocturnal Prose is a noisy post-punk/shoegaze band from San Antonio, Texas. Hex Cassette is the one man cult and industrial dance extravaganza who always seems to find a way to joke darkly with the audience while getting them to dance by bringing the performance into the crowd. Empty4400 is a true fusion of noisy shoegaze and emo. Luna’s is a hardcore band from Denver.

Thursday | 01.11
What: Plaid w/Rameau Control
When: 8
Where: Meow Wolf
Why: Plaid is the influential and foundational IDM duo from the UK. From its early days when Andy Turner and Ed Handley were part of The Black Dog Plaid has been pioneering forward thinking electronic musical ideas, forms and methods of composition including crafting their own electronic instruments in software form not to mention its creative use of hardware. Plaid’s diverse body of work has pushed the boundaries of modern electronic music and its latest album 2022’s Feorm Falorx is one of its most accessible records with bright melodies and finely sequenced beats like dance music for the soundtrack to a deceptively utopian thriller set in an off world holiday resort.

Friday | 01.12
What: Poison Tribe w/Upon a Fields Whisper, Clarion Void and Empire Demolition
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Poison Tribe is a crusty hardcore band from Denver whose body of work thus far seems like a caustic critique of state violence and the horror of the dystopia that is too obvious from any remotely realistic assessment of world events and American national and local politics. Upon a Fields Whisper is an atmospheric doom/blackened crust band from Colorado Springs comprised of noteworthy musicians from that city’s always surprisingly great local music scene including Brian Ostrow of numerous other bands including 908 and formerly of Blighter. Also Bryan Webb who has also been a mainstay of Colorado Springs music in various bands perhaps most well known for some for his tenure in garage punk legends Nicotine Fits and The Conjugal Visits. Clarion Void also from Colorado Springs seems to traffic in the kind of existential blackened doom that means it is deft at both introspective melodies and blisteringly intense riffing that it often lets hang in the air like a harbinger of disaster. Empire Demolition is sort of a powerviolence/deathgrind band from Denver who are set to release their new album Defenestration on January 12, 2024 in time for this show.

Saturday | 01.13
What: Bluebook w/The Still Tide and Uhl
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Bluebook is the long-running musical project of Julie Davis that has undergone various incarnations as a vehicle for her jazz-inflected, experimental downtempo chamber pop. But the current iteration of the band is a bit of an all-star lineup including former Monofog and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake singer Hayley Helmericks on drums, Anna Morsett of The Still Tide on guitar and Jess Parsons (The Still Tide, Patrick Dethlefs, Alex Cameron) on keyboards, all of whom also contribute vocals to the project. The result of this amalgam of talent is a group that conveys an emotional depth like a brooding, dark folk art rock pop group. Not much else like it. The Still Tide proves that Anna Morsett isn’t just a gifted songwriter but one of the best lead guitarists in a band in Denver with a knack for using alternate tunings and expertly placed capos to create a unique sound palette alongside what bandmate Jake Miller is doing on his own guitar. Uhl is the art pop project of Isabella Uhl whose vocals focused compositions have garnered critical attention from national publications like Under the Radar and whose music might be compared to ambitious songwriters in a more dream pop vein like Kate Bush or perhaps more directly like Jenny Hval and Fever Ray.

Saturday | 01.13
What: Rowboat, Zealot and A Strange Happening
When: 9
Where: The Roxy on Broadway
Why: If you were to put the names of a dozen of the best indie rock bands in Denver in a hat and draw them out you couldn’t do better than this. Rowboat is a trio fronted by Sam McNitt who starts with a folk foundation on acoustic guitar in his songwriting process and builds them into emotionally charged and poetically insightful songs well orchestrated in the live setting on electric guitar and bass and synth from Scott Frank and drums by Brian Lepien. It is powerful and consistently underrated stuff in recent years in Denver from former members of Blue Million Miles and Fucking Orange. Zealot is a band that is comprised of brilliant songwriters and musicians in their own right but lead by Luke Hunter James-Erickson who perhaps is inspired greatly by the literary indie rock of The Mountain Goats but whose own creative muse has lead him down various fruitful paths and interests over the past couple of decades in Denver. But on board are former Fingers of the Sun and current Salads and Sunbeams songwriter, bassist and singer Suzi Allegra, former Facade and Violent Summer guitarist and singer Kitty Vincent and Michael King who is one of the great bass players in Denver indie rock but plays drums in this band. On the recording of the group’s latest single are Jacob Adamson and Elisha Coy from A Strange Happening whose own concept pop indie rock is a brilliant fusion of radio play storytelling style and indiepop in the classic 90s vein.

Saturday | 01.13
What: Pink Hawks release of Elote w/Don Chicharrón, 2MX2 and Fuya Fuya
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Pink Hawks came out of Yuzo Nieto’s fascination with experimental music, jazz and the possibilities in fusing those impulses with Afrobeat and other forms of African and Latin popular music. This show is a celebration of the release of the vinyl edition of the group’s new record Elote. So it’s only fitting that Latin psychedelic rock band Don Chicharrón is on hand on the bill as well as excellent Spanish language hip-hop duo 2MX2.

Cheap Perfume circa 2016, photo by Tom Murphy

Wednesday | 01.17
What: Cheap Perfume, Dead Pioneers and Elegant Everyone
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Three of the most overtly political bands from Colorado on one bill? And all with lyrics that are smart, poetic and poignant? Each of these acts are also entertaining, energetic and those lyrics don’t feel like a lecture at all but a rallying cry for something important and a sharp, pointed and clever critique of some of the worst impulses of our collective culture and society. That’s what punk can, has been, and should probably be more often.

Thursday | 01.18
What: In Plain Air w/Corsicana, Deth Rali and Tarantula Bill
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Psych prog trio In Plain Air is launching its long weekend tour through Kansas at this show with support from dream pop band Corsicana, Deth Rali and it’s unorthodox blend of thrash and psychedelic prog and Tarantula Bill who, based purely on song streaming, seem to ably enough perform music clearly inspired by early 2010s psychedelic indie rock.

Wave Decay circa 2023, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 01.19
What: Wave Decay w/Pale Sun and Galleries
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: This will be a show of the heavier end of shoegaze and psychedelia. Wave Decay’s sound is rooted in the angular disorient and sonic discipline of krautrock but with dense atmospherics reminiscent of music done by Jeff suthers of Pale Sun whose own mastery of soundscaping and emotionally charged songwriting all at once is more or less unmatched in Denver. Galleries came out of the 2010s based in the classic rock resurgence and psych garage and its current musical offerings are in that vein but the band appears to have followed an instinct for expansive melodies and the kind of psychedelia one might more expect from the more rock and roll end of Deerhunter.

Friday | 01.19
What: Wreckno w/Moore Kismet, Thelem and Eyezic
When: 8
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Wreckno is now based in Indianapolis but started out in small town Michigan and garnered a cult following as a queer rapper, producer and DJ in the bass music/EDM world with a presentation that is as colorful as it is inventive in genre bending and collaborating with a wide range of artists in his wheelhouse and beyond. But if you’re going definitely get there early enough to catch Moore Kismet whose 2022 debut album Universe, released when he was 17, revealed a gift for layering rhythms and atmospheres in a way reminiscent of the production of Flying Lotus and beats fusing ideas out EDM, trap and the more experimental hip-hop auteurs of the 90s and 2000s and progressing it into his own style. Fans of the aforementioned and the more electronic dance end of Jockstrap will get a lot of Moore Kismet’s creative experiments in the electronic music art form.

Saturday | 01.20
What: Broken Record, Quits, despAIR Jordan and DJ Listen Up Nerds
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Nothing Moves Me proved that Denver’s Broken Record had polished its already noteworthy songwriting into a shining body of work that has the emotional nuance and conviction of a great emo band but with power pop knack for hard hitting melodies like Dinosaur Jr had that band come up through 90s underground rock rather that influenced a lot of it. Quits is a juggernaut noise rock band who will be hitting the road to the West Coast in the first week and a half of February in support of its 2023 album Feeling It out on Sleeping Giant Glossolalia. DespAIR Jordan somehow came out of the punk scene and writes glittery and uplifting, shoegaze-adjacent pop rock that sounds more like The Dismemberment Plan than Sunny Day Real Estate but without truly sounding like either.

Tuesday | 01.23
What: Squirrel Flower w/Goon and Lu Lagoon
When: 7
Where: Larimer Lounge
Why: Ella O’Connor Williams was involved in the Boston DIY scene in her teens before moving to Iowa to attend Grinnell College where she wrote her first EP Early Winter Songs From Middle America as Squirrel Flower and releasing it herself in 2015. Eight years, two further EPs and four albums later Williams released 2023’s Tomorrow’s Fire. The songwriter already had more than a touch of that Low-esque talent for melodious vocals and emotional delicacy of expression baked into the music but also some of that scrappy energy that propels her folk-inflected songs into an elevated realm of sonic power. The new record simply opens up where Williams is able to go with her experiments with sounds and styles in unexpected directions and at times is reminiscent of the eclectic and explosive music of Wednesday. Except of course that Williams has her own perceptive observations about the challenges of modern, working class life told in musical shadings introspective and brash yet always sensitive and vulnerable in the way that only truly powerful music can be.

Wednesday and Thursday | 01.24 and 01.25
What: Nabihah Iqbal w/STAR Inc. and DJ Ladybug
When: 6pm doors/7pm show on 01.24 and 7pm doors 8pm show on 01.25
Where: Washington’s (01.24) and Lost Lake (01.25)
Why: Nabihah Iqbal was a human rights lawyer before crafting the music for which she would later be known though has likely dabbled in music across a lifetime. An early contributor to the work of the late experimental pop artist and producer Sophie, Iqbal released her debut album under her own name in 2017 with Weighing of the Heart. In 2023 she unveiled Dreamer via the respected avant-electronic imprint Ninja Tune with its intricate layers of hazy, luminescent atmospheres and flows of introspective vocals. The music casts light on the aspirations, challenges of joys of navigating the world and its sweeping dynamics intermingle the musically tactile with the ethereal for an effect that is transporting yet grounded. Iqbal’s navigation of these aesthetics and creative impulses is masterful and often attempted by more conventional shoegaze bands but not always to the same degree of effectiveness.

King Cardinal, photo from kingcardinal.com

Friday | 01.26
What: King Cardinal w/Cous and Hunter James and The Titanic
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Brennan Mackey of King Cardinal says on the band’s web bio that he moved to Denver on a whim after working a finance job he didn’t love and perhaps dreading what the rest of his life might look like he decided to throw that caution to the wind. Fortunately for us, Mackey is a gifted songwriter and musician and the 2017 debut album from King Cardinal, Great Lakes, is a choice example of when an Americana band can infuse its more homespun charm with mood and imagination. Dynamic flows of tones and textures in expressive rivulets around Mackey’s own fine singing. The group is now releasing its new album Landlines. Haven’t heard any of the new material but based on the attention to songwriting details and delicacy of delivery it’s likely to be another set of songs of pastoral beauty and sentiments that have made the group’s previous offerings eminently listenable.

Friday | 01.26
What: Rowboat, Blacktop Musical and Owosso
When: 8 doors/9 show
Where: 715 Club
Why: Rowboat is making a rare live showing inside of the same month with this show and bringing some highly literate and passionate folk-rooted, shoegaze adjacent rock to this small room. Also on the bill is the Owosso whose members came up in the punk and early modern indie rock milieu and whose music has that scrappy angular energy blended with melodic songwriting acumen that made the many of the DC post-punk bands so perennially appealing.

Saturday | 01.27
What: Buck Meek w/Dylan Meek
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Buck Meek is perhaps best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of indie rock phenoms Big Thief. But for the past half a decade and more he’s carved out an musical identity to explore separate from the band and his third album Haunted Mountain was issued by 4AD in 2023. The cosmic, ambient folk/alt-country is at turns poetically fantastical, tenderly personal and organic in its arrangements. Each song seems to emerge, unfold and grow into charming, poignantly knowing vignettes of life. If you’re a fan it would be advised to catch him on this tour to see how the band pulls this off live.

Tuesday | 01.30
What: Digable Planets Reachin’ 30th Anniversary Tour w/Kassa Overall
When: 8
Where: Ogden Theatre
Why: Digable Planets began as a solo project of Ishmael “Butter Fly” Butler in the late 80s but the demos blossomed when Butler met and began collaborating with Mariana “Ladybug Mecca” Vieira and Craig “Doodlebug” Irving after he started interning at Sleeping Bag Records in NYC and in 1989 the current and classic lineup of Digable Planets was born. Like some of its contemporaries the trio was immersed in the aesthetics and creative impulses of jazz fused with highly literate lyrics and brought that sensibility firmly into hip-hop in a way that translated as particularly experimental and to this day surprisingly forward thinking. During its first iteration from the 80s through 1995 the group only released two albums, 1993’s Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and 1995’s futuristic Blowout Comb. The group has reunited twice from 2005-2011 and 2015 to the present and although it hasn’t released an album’s worth of new music its live show maintains a certain mystique and late night jazz vibe that is still deeply compelling.

Best New Shows in Denver and Beyond November 2023

**Chat Pile performs at The Bluebird Theater on November 2, 2023, photo by Bayley Hanes**

Thursday | 11.02
What: Chat Pile w/Agriculture
When: 7
Where: The Bluebird Theater
Why: Like its self-professed biggest influence Big Black, Chat Pile didn’t really fit in with the underground music scene of its home town of Oklahoma City as a noise rock band that even critics often describe as sludge metal. But its sound even early on captured the ambient anxiety of anyone that’s been paying attention to what’s been happening in America and the world in terms of politics and its failure to adequately address the challenges of the current era like the climate change effects we were told were decades off and the market would come up with something to make the proper adjustments along the way. Except that fascism is on the rise which is the opposite political ideology to take on global challenges and one that seems to think bellicose international policy is the answer in a time of great tensions and unfurling conflicts. Chat Pile’s fracturing guitar rock and soundscaping embodies that milieu with lyrics that make very personal experiences that can seem abstract unless you’re not too distracted to notice. The group’s monumental 2022 debut full length album God’s Country expressed all the aforementioned and even had moments of heartbreaking storytelling that ring as true as the bleakest documentaries as cast in stories about real life with gritty details of being in the working class with no hope for the future and eking out what existence you can with the small shred of dubious joy to be garnered. And yet live Chat Pile’s shows are a joyous catharsis of civilizational anxiety in a way those of few other bands ever are. You also get to see Los Angeles-based, ecstatic black metal band Agriculture which released its own, self-titled, debut full-length. Agriculture is definitely not the typical black metal band and on the record avant-garde musician Patrick Shiroishi contributes saxophone and there is an experimental and improvisational aspect to the songwriting that feels more wide open than a lot of black metal.

Friday | 11.03
What: Genesis Owusu w/The Deep Faith
When: 8
Where: Globe Hall
Why: If Ghanaian-Australian singer Genesis Owusu is a hip-hop artist he’s equally steeped in post-punk and synth pop. His albums from his 2021 debut album Smiling with No Teeth to his new release Struggler from 2023 are a fusion of the aforementioned and futuristic funk with a masterful command of lyrical flow. Owusu’s eclectic style is both accessible and avant-garde and crafted with a clearly playfully spirit that keeps his songs fresh and inviting. In the live setting Owusu’s commanding presence and theatrical presentation of the music like he’s a late night lounge MC who kicks things up a notch when the song calls for it but never lacking for the smooth dance moves. Cobranoid sounds like it has a leg in both thrash and power metal.

Friday | 11.03
What: Lost Relics w/Messiahvore, Cobranoid, Voideater and Burning Sister
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: This show features some of the best sludge metal-oriented bands from Denver but all also have elements of noise rock rendering them a little different than any standard metal act. Lost Relics released its new album Die + Cry + Loathe in June 2023 and a quick listen reveals what should have been obvious all along but there’s a touch of Melvins from the Big Business period in there but with a drive and menace reminiscent of Unsane. Messiahvore has a little more groove and doom psychedelia in its sound but possessed of a seething heaviness as well. Voideater is like if a metalcore band stripped away everything but a stark and colossal sound that feels like it could collapse at any moment under its own heaviness. Burning Sister is a “downer rock trio” that sounds like it used to be a garage rock band that got bored with that and got into trippy music and absorbed the entire Sleep and Captain Beyond catalog and then got a little weird with those influences.

Saturday | 11.04
What: Margaret Glaspy w/Cat Clyde
When: 6 doors, 9 show
Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soap Box
Why: Throughout her prolific career Margaret Glaspy has garnered critical accolades for the immediacy of her poetic songwriting. Her new album 2023’s Echo the Diamond is a consistently refreshing and earnest offering of songs that hits with strong emotional resonance with fairly minimal elements. Singles like “Get Back” and “Act Natural” sound like they could have come out of the early 90s alternative rock era with some wonderfully roughened edges in the guitar work and eschewing excess in favor of essentials and putting the focus on Glaspy’s gift for expressing personal insight with resonant life details that always seem to transcend specific context without glossing over the human experience.

Barns Courtney, photo courtesy the artist

Sunday | 11.05
What: Barns Courtney
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Barns Courtney is challenging to describe using simple genre designations. His style seems informed by the blues rock the triumphant sound of a single like his recently released “Young in America” is triumphant and expansive, rich in stirring atmospheric melodies like an Arctic Monkeys song. In 2022 and 2023 Barns has been dropping a single here and there to hint at what he might have in store for a future album since he hasn’t had released a new record since the pandemic so for this show you may get to a see a showcase of what you might expect to see more of in 2024 delivered in his usual spirited and engaging fashion.

Monday | 11.06
What: Subhumans w/Cheap Perfume and Poison Tribe
When: 7
Where: The Oriental Theater
Why: Subhumans are the influential and foundational anarcho-punk band from the UK. Forming in 1980 the group’s creative presentation of humanist anarchism and a left critique of politics and culture in an era when the right was on the ascent globally including in the UK and the USA proved to have an enduring appeal. Partly because the music while very steeped in punk and hardcore aesthetics made that rebellion seem fun and attainable, even a collective endeavor not led by the band so much as the band provided some incisive observations and a sense of play that embodied Emma Goldman’s words about how she didn’t want to be a part of someone’s revolution if there was no dancing. Though the group originally split in 1985 it reunited briefly a couple of times in the 90s but has been back to being active and touring since 2004.

Periphery, photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva

Monday and Tuesday | 11.06 and 11.07
What: Periphery w/Mike Dawes
When: 7
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Periphery is a progressive metal band that formed in Washington D.C. with roots in guitarist Misha Mansoor’s home audio experiments. But over the years the group has evolved with various lineups until its current quintet. In 2023 the group released its first album in four years with Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre. The title is a clear and wryly humorous nod to a style of guitar sound that became the defining feature for a whole swath of modern metal with the sharp, clipped riffing. But that’s just one sound in Periphery’s broad range of expression and the new record is more imaginative than that with even elements of electronic composition and creative pinch harmonics making Periphery V not just arguably the band’s most fully-realized record but a high water mark in the progressive metal genre. Witness for yourself at one or both of these shows at a small theater like The Bluebird.

Tuesday | 11.07
What: Dale Hollow w/Sarah Adams and Peter Stone
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Dale Hollow got his start in music in his hometown Nashville, Tennessee but is now based out of New York City. Hollow refers to himself as THE Country Music Superstar (“Trademark Pending”) and his stage persona larger than life, his mystique as a fully-formed artist when his earliest released dropped in terms of songwriting and musicianship and the quality of his output supports a case for that designation regardless of that dubious claim on purely verifiable commercial grounds by the likes of Luke Bryan, Loretta Lynn, Jessica Simpson, Darius Rucker or Kenny Chesney. There is a thrilling earnestness to Hollow’s performance on recording and on stage that is commanding even when there’s an element of humor and playfulness to many aspects of Hollow’s craft. His new record Hack of the Year beats critics to the punch with the title and yet it speaks to the spirit of the underdog and the performative humility rampant in much of country music. Hollow takes on the tropes of the genre and and both embraces their virtues and upends the pretensions. Hollow’s use of humor doesn’t mean his songwriting is a joke or satire rather it plays the same role humor does in approaching life and putting everything into the proper perspective and injecting a little joy into some of the most downbeat moments we might experience. The songs of Hack of the Year are very much unalloyed country performed with a grace, elegance and passion one might hope for out of any record or any genre. Listen to our interview with Dale Hollow here.

Tuesday | 11.07
What: Tallies w/Cherished and Pill Joy
When: 7
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Tallies are the shoegaze band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada whose guitar jangle and shimmer are reminiscent of an era of music in the early 90s when a band like Sky Cries Mary wouldn’t be considered shoegaze but more psychedelic rock even though its musical ideas were resonant with a broad range of atmospheric guitar rock. Tallies’ excellent 2019 self-titled album is a bit like if The Sundays and a Sarah records band fused with a more modern shoegaze band that has benefited from developments in the sound of guitar music in the past decade and the shedding of genre adherence. Cherished is the Denver dream pop and shoegaze band whose lush and entrancing guitar work fronted by an emotionally charged frontperson in Chloe Madonna who is also the vocalist for hardcore band Destiny Bond.

Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, photo from Bandcamp

Wednesday | 11.08
What: Mass of the Fermenting Dregs w/Replica City and The Sickly Hecks
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Mass of the Fermenting Dregs is a Japanese trio whose musical style traverses post-hardcore, shoegaze and progressive rock. Formed in Kobe in 2002. After a break in 2012 the group reunited in 2015 and currently touring in support of its 2022 album Awakening: Sleeping. What Boris is for metal and psychedelic rock and noise, this group is sort of for post-hardcore/shoegaze and psychedelia in that its songs seem to have a creative coherence but its presentation can be unpredictable in ways that transcend expectation.

Slaughter Beach, Dog, photo by Dan Winters

Wednesday | 11.08
What: Slaughter Beach, Dog w/Bonnie Doon
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Slaughter Beach, Dog started as a solo side project of Jake Ewald of emo/indie rock legends Modern Baseball. But since that band’s 2017 indefinite hiatus Ewald has made Slaughter Beach, Dog his main songwriting outlet. The group’s 2023 record Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling has a gentle sound with guitar and percussion flowing like a gentle creek. The introspection is one of looking far afield and assessing both the past and looking to the future while trying to remain emotionally present and striking a Zen-like balance. Musically it’s like a pastoral Luna or a more countrified Low. There is an elegance to the sound and Ewald’s vocal phrasing akin to Steve Kilbey in more tranquil moments. Which seems like a flavor of the season when the world seems on the brink of deep existential turmoil.

Wednesday | 11.08
What: Bell Witch w/Spirit Possession and Paul Riedl
When: 7
Where: Marquis Theater
Why: Seattle’s funeral doom duo Bell Witch released one of its typically hypnotic, crushing, epic, concept albums in 2023 with Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate. Anyone that has seen Bell Witch knows the bone rattling reputation of its low end is much deserved. But the new record begins with the sound of spectral organs evoking the mood of some kind of cosmic transition that Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman are going to guide us through for the duration of the album and if you go to the show the range of frequencies generated will render that experience if not literal definitely not fully abstract.

Wednesday | 11.08
What: Kim Petras: Feed the Beast World Tour w/Alex Chapman
When: 7
Where: Fillmore Auditorium
Why: After some time struggling with the release of her two most recent albums Feed the Beast (released in June 2023) and Problématique (released September 2023), pop singer Kim Petras is finally able to share that music on a headlining tour with a stop in Denver. The latter album got delayed despite completion and was headed for being scrapped with a mass leak of the songs in 2022. But now the EDM-infused hyperpop can be experienced with Petras’ orchestrated, richly multimedia, theatrical production. Petras has been releasing singles and mixtapes and has worked with the likes of Sam Smith, Nicki Minaj, Charli XCX and Banks and is in many ways a veteran and yet this tour is a bit of an introduction of her energetic, sex positive songs of love, hedonism and heartbreak to a wider public.

Thursday | 11.09
What: Devil Master, Fuming Mouth, Final Gasp and Victim of Fire
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Devil Master is a black metal band from Philadelphia whose 2022 album Ecstasies of Never Ending Night is a blend of the aforementioned and Goth-y hardcore. Fuming Mouth is a death metal band from Massachusetts that just released its new album Last Day of Sun with its contorted vocals and expansively grindy guitar work. Victim of Fire is one of the best Denver-based hardcore bands in that more metallic vein and at times will unexpectedly cover an older and more obscure Iron Maiden song and the like. Final Gasp dropped its debut full length Mourning Moon via Relapse on September 22, 2023. It’s the perfect amalgam of hardcore, thrash and deathrock. Anyone that caught the band at Seventh Circle Music Collective over the summer of 2023 knows that these guys have a furiously intense live show and yet their music has great mood flowing through the fiery performances. The new record is reminiscent of if Testament, Fields of the Nephilim and Rozz Williams-era Christian Death collaborated on an album and made something that seemed completely out of step with its time but would seem prophetic decades later.

Pussy Riot circa 2018, photo by Sacha Lecca

Friday | 11.09
What: Pussy Riot w/Sloppy Jane
When: 7
Where: Gothic Theatre
Why: Pussy Riot is the legendary punk and performance art group from Russia that courted controversy and experienced imprisonment for their unapologetic critiques of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vladimir Putin regime. Those antics might not translate so well to a touring band that continues to challenge the authoritarianism of its home country and others but if you’ve managed to catch a Pussy Riot show in the past half decade and more you know that the band actually delivers an exuberant and visually compelling live performance.

Friday | 11.10
What: Cindy Lee, Freak Heat Waves, Bobby Amulet and Tepid
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Cindy Lee is the solo project of former Women singer Patrick Flegel. The music Flegel has released under this moniker has been well far afield of the experimental guitar rock of women and according to the Cindy Lee Wiki page, it’s a “drag queen ‘confrontation pop’ project.” Flegel was inspired by Karen Carpenter in her appearance and style and how her life was a kind of cautionary tale about the way stardom and the music industry can and will chew you up and dispose of you when you’re no longer getting the spotlight or if your human frailty becomes anything resembling a liability that isn’t readily marketable. The project’s fifth album What’s Tonight to Eternity is like a pure fusion of classic pop and experimental electronic music that fans of modern darkwave will appreciate with a theatrical live presentation to go along with it. Also on the bill is the solo electronic project of Nick Salmon of local shoegaze/post-punk luminaries Voight.

Friday | 11.10
What: Fever Ray w/CHRISTEENE
When: 7
Where: The Fillmore Auditorium
Why: Fever Ray really created a rich body of content in terms of composition and paired presentation for their 2023 album Radical Romantics. From science fiction noir style music videos, a broad spectrum of promotional photography depicting the singer and songwriter as an androgynous every person like a modern day David Bowie free associating and blurring the lines of gender while commenting incisively about state of the world and culture. It’s clearly one of the most ambitious creative endeavors by a musical artist who has always had a vision for the visual presentation of the music and how it will be experienced by those who show up. To call it arty synth pop is inadequate but a starting point like calling Bowie’s output glam or art rock or pop and the live show is likely to be a dazzling affair that invites participation. CHRISTEENE is the legendary synth punk and art pop artist originally from Brooklyn, NY but these days based out of Austin, TX and really an ideal opening act for Fever Ray.

Friday and Saturday | 11.10 and 11.11
What: Huerco S, Pontiac Streator, Dull Tusk, Polly Urethane, Sleepdial, Goo Age live show on 11.10, Huerco S. (DJ), Pontiac Streator, Loudmen and Aalala.One on 11.11.
When: 8:30 (11.10) and 11 (11.11)
Where: Glob
Why: Huerco S. is making an extremely rare live appearance at Glob with a live music set on 11.10 and a more DJ-oriented set on 11.11 for the late night rave crowd. Brian Leeds aka Huerco S. has had a diverse and prolific career of experimenting with the form and compositional elements of minimal electronic and musique concrète, perhaps even utilizing aspects of plunderphonics in crafting imaginative ambient and minimal house songs while genre bending at will. Pontiac Streator is a likeminded producer from Philadelphia whose own work operates in similar musical realms but with some more seeming roots in deep house and left field pop. Dull Tusk blends glitchcore production style with ambient for something markedly different from both. With Polly Urethane you don’t know what you’re going to get except that it will be something creatively different than what she’s done before as a live artist whether or not it includes bits of her work in noise, art pop, industrial punk beatmaking, classical or the unclassifiable stuff that really is part of her oeuvre. But it won’t be boring and on her own worth the price of admission. Sleepdial is the ambient project of Luke Thinnes who rarely performs this side of his music live and is perhaps more well known for his visionary futuristic retro pop and New Wave glam project French Kettle Station. Goo Age is post-glitchcore and New Age ambient soundscaping in abstract threading together of tone, texture and rhythm.

Saturday | 11.11
What: Baroness w/Wayfarer
When: 6
Where: Summit Music Hall
Why: Sludge rock legends Baroness reinvented themselves with the 2019 album Gold & Grey with contributions of new lead guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Gina Gleason. It not only expanded the horizons of what the group had already done and bringing a new creative edge to the band’s songwriting but set a new high water mark for progressive metal. With the band’s new album Stone (2023) Baroness has reached another level with its incorporating the driving and heavy guitar attack that established it as one of the more significant artists in modern heavy music with a more keen ear for atmosphere and nuanced emotional resonance. Yes, the people in the band are all ace practitioners of their craft who can show off aplenty and do on the album but it’s the kind of record that people who aren’t as dazzled by chops alone can appreciate much more fully as a set of songs that engage with an appeal beyond simple rocking out.

Saturday | 11.11
What: The Bright Light Social Hour w/Demob Happy
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Bright Light Social Hour is the popular Austin-based psychedelic rock band that recently released its new album Emergency Leisure, which is a great title for a record at a time when we’re all encouraged to grind and strive beyond reasonable human capacity. This time there’s perhaps an extra element of lounge vibe to its finely crafted psych pop. But get there early to catch Demob Happy who are touring in support of their own new album Divine Machines. The group based out of Newcastle upon Tyne, England some how play fuzzy, bombastic rock and roll but in the mix one imagines one hears the atmospheric alien dystopian stylings of Gary Numan and the mutant pop sensibilities of Sparks. Especially on the new record. If Demob Happy could ever be considered “stoner rock” at any point in its career at this point it has evolved into maybe a hard rock, psychedelic art glam band whose creative vision broke out of any instincts for reinventing classic rock.

Saturday | 11.11
What: Baby Baby album release w/RDFM and Deth Rali
When: 8 doors/9 show $10
Where: 715 Club
Why: Lily Conrad is known for her contributions to the likes of indie rock band Rose Variety but her solo project Baby Baby has always had this earnest, indie/bedroom pop charm and she’s releasing her new album for this show with some assist from electronic pop soundscaper RDFM and dream pop band Deth Rali.

Saturday | 11.11
What: Cherry Spit w/Moon Pussy, Watch Yourself Die and Caged Grave
When: 7pm, $10-15
Where: D3 Arts
Why: This is the debut Cherry Spit show. The band might include former Antibroth bassist Dan Witalski. But these rumors cannot be confirmed and you’ll have to see for yourself. But you also get to see hardcore/extreme metal heroes Caged Grave, Denver death rock super group Watch Yourself Die and one of the best noise rock bands of all time and fortunately based out of the Mile High City with Moon Pussy and maybe, if you’re lucky, Crissy Cuellar will have a bevy of her signature between song stage banter dad jokes.

The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir, photo from Bandcamp

Sunday | 11.12
What: The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir, Edith Pike and Fainting Dreams
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: The Holy Ghost Tabernale Choir from Savannah, Georgia is rooted in various branches of post-hardcore but its 2022 album Slow Murder expanded on what one might expect from the band if your only exposure to it was previous releases. It includes samples and its songs sound like a thrilling blend of hardcore and the noisy heavy rock of the likes of Melvins or even the more punk end of Boredoms. Opening the show is post-hardcore/dream pop hybrid band from Denver Fainting Dreams whose emotional range is broad and expressed with an intense poignancy and vulnerability. Edith Pike traverses a similarly diverse territory while exuding the raw emotional expressions in its noisy yet atmospheric songs. Like the more punk side of Unwound had that band come up during the era of power violence with sharp angles and hanging chords that drift into sharply amplified feeling.

Sunday | 11.12
What: Chat Pile w/Agriculture
When: 7
Where: Vultures
Why: This is your next chance to see Chat Pile and Agriculture on this tour. See above on November 2 for more information.

Monday | 11.13
What: SDH (Semiotics Department of Heteronyms) w/MVTANT, Church Fire and Sell Farm
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: SDH is an italo-disco/darkwave band from Barcelona, Spain. Like a gloomier version of early Ladytron and cast more in dance music style. Its 2023 album Fake is Real sounds like the soundtrack to an ultra hip retro-futurist espionage thriller. San Antonio’s MVTANT is also on the bill with his own brand of hazy, gloomy dance music that live comes off more as a hard hitting industrial band with irresistible momentum. Church Fire always brings a joyful, emotionally charged energy to its own presentation of industrial dance music that brings a sense of fun to taking down the patriarchy and authoritarianism. Sell Farm is a one-man force of early EBM and industrial soundsculpting.

Tuesday | 11.14
What: We Are Scientists w/Sean McVerry
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: We Are Scientists formed in 1999 after guitarist/vocalist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain met two years prior while attending Pomona College. From early on the group adopted something like a fusion of David Bowie-esque glam rock and post-punk. Its earliest releases reflected a more punk spirit in its songwriting. But over the intervening years the group of course honed and developed and reinvented its sound and its 2023 album Lobes is brimming with melodic atmospheres, funkier rhythms and sophisticated pop songcraft akin to where Phoenix has been going in recent years with more nuanced lyrical content and a series of fantastic promotional music videos featuring a car driving through a city nightscape.

Wednesday | 11.15
What: Harm’s Way w/Fleshwater and Ingrown Jivebomb
When: 6
Where: Bluebird Theater
Why: Harm’s Way is a hardcore band from Chicago whose particular style of sonic aggression has evolved over the years from its early powerviolence roots to what we got to hear on its 2023 record Common Suffering. Featuring a guest appearance by King Woman on “Undertow,” the album seethes with the struggle with mental health issues, turmoil in society and within one’s own relationships and the corrosive effects of political corruption and the impact of creeping authoritarianism. To meet the challenge of expressing the sorts of anxieties and frustrations most of us have felt for the past several years Harm’s Way injected its core sounds with industrial beats and caustic atmospheric elements that give the music a little more bite than previous releases which is no mean feat.

Wednesday and Thursday | 11.15 and 11.16
What: Allison Russell
When: 7 (both nights)
Where: Boulder Theater (11.15) and Bluebird Theater (11.16)
Why: Allison Russell some may know for her masterful turns in the great folk Americana duo Birds of Chicago. When that project when on hiatus in 2021 Russell released her debut solo album Outside Child and told some of the most raw and intense personal stories put to record that year. It also featured a more soul-infused sound to which her versatile and emotionally vibrant voice seemed well suited. In 2023 Russell released her new album The Returner. Rather than the seemingly autobiographical exploration of her first solo outing the new record seems uplifting and explicitly points to a spirit of transcending the demons that haunted her and perhaps held her back emotionally and as an artist. Whether this album reflects recent personal discoveries or a lifetime of overcoming childhood and not so childhood trauma matters less than its lush and entrancing sound that is informed by the soul and gospel sounds of her earlier work but also comes across as ambitious art pop akin to the likes of Kate Bush and Caroline Polacek.

Thursday | 11.16
What: Speedy Ortiz w/Space Moth and Mr. Atomic
When: 7
Where: Globe Hall
Why: Speedy Ortiz started as a solo project for guitarist/singer Sadie Dupuis but expanded to a full band in 2011 that has gone on to release three EPs and four full-length albums including 2023’s Rabbit Rabbit. From the beginning Dupuis, also a visual artist, has done a most of the artwork for the band including its album covers and thus one gets a unique and personal aesthetic and perspective from the band’s music that has thankfully made its music challenging to pigeonhole outside of the umbrella term of indie rock. But there is also something immediately accessible about the pop songcraft and poetically and often cleverly observed lyrics that has set the project apart from artists more content with following an established style popular at any given moment. In October 2023 Rolling Stone magazine released a list of “The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” where Dupuis charted at 176. And a quick listen to any of the band’s records reveals that Dupuis while an imaginative artist in her songwriting is also technically gifted musician who channels that talent into songs that come from the heart. Rabbit Rabbit is an album that explores various themes including survival mechanisms, those behaviors many of us undertake to get us through challenging times in our lives some of which we may not be consciously aware of adopting and which can affect us for much of the rest of our lives. And becoming aware of these patterns gives us some ability to guide our lives in ways we really want so that we can live instead of settling for mere survival. Its a complex and emotionally rich album that is also not short on humor and cultural Easter eggs for the perceptive listener that enrich the full meaning of the songs. Listen to our interview with Sadie Dupuis on Bandcamp.

Friday | 11.17
What: Eventually It Will Kill You 6 Year Anniversary: Light Asylum, Human Leather, Ortrotasce, CXCXCX and Teller
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: This anniversary show celebrating the Denver-based darkwave label Eventually It Will Kill You lead by Brian Castillo features a headlining set with legendary darkwave band Light Asylum. The latter is at this point more or less the solo project of Shannon Funchess and we haven’t heard much new music released on an album or EP since 2012 but in 2022 Funchess performed a couple of new songd at the Cold Waves festival in Chicago that year. Light Asylum’s music is a bit like a post-punk synth pop band with Funchess’ commanding vocals and dance prowess to lend the performance some visceral intensity. This marks the first time Light Asylum is performing in Denver. Also on the bill are Salt Lake City synth pop group Human Leather, modular synth noise project CXCXCX, Floridian industrial darkwave project Ortotasce and Denver synth pop solo act Teller.

Saturday | 11.18
What: Cory Hanson w/Slowhand and Supreme Joy
When: 8
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Some may know Cory Hanson better for having been in Wand. But his solo works are psychedelic in a slightly different way as exemplified by his 2023 album Western Cum and its equal facility with waxing freak folk and cosmic country as bombastic psych akin to early Meat Puppets. Also on the bill is Supreme Joy which blurs the line between countrified psych and angular post-punk to fascinating effect.

Saturday | 11.18
What: Yard Art, Moonlight Bloom, Totem Pocket, Fly Amanita
When: 7
Where: The Skylark Lounge
Why: Thankfully the Denver psyche scene of the 2010s is basically over and you get something in that realm but more in the vein of shoegaze and post-punk with indie pop in the mix with this entire bill of some of the better bands of that vintage.

Saturday | 11.18
What: FRENSHIP w/Torine and Bizzy
When: 8
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Los Angeles-based electropop duo FRENSHIP new singles “Love or an Enemy” and “Copenhagen” from their October 13, 2023 EP Base Camp. Weaving together a smooth R&B aesthetic with its signature synthpop sound, songwriters James Sunderland and Brett Hite seem to be using the new set of songs to express a vulnerability that both felt in their travels outside the US and now living apart with one living in Los Angeles and the other in Washington State and able to see their home country from different perspectives and the fragmented nature of the culture and its politics. Rather than rendering judgment the duo speak to the unease and feelings of uncertainty that seem to be a shared experience not just among Americans but internationally for what seem like similar reasons or at least for causes that are interconnected. In typical fashion FRENSHIP approaches the subject matter with nuance and sensitivity.

Sunday | 11.19
What: Eventually It Will Kill You 6 Year Anniversary: Buzz Kull, Normal Bias, Many Blessings, Terravault and Verhoffst
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: For this second night of the Eventually It Will Kill You 6-year anniversary celebration, Australian coldwave artist Buzz Kull will perform bringing his melodic and dark fusion of EBM and post-punk to the stage. And a good deal of the rest of the show will feature prominent local noise artists like Many Blessings and Verhoffst as well as the industrial synth duo Terravault as well as NYC-based synthwave/industrial funk project Normal Bias.

Friday | 11.24
What: Quicksand w/Hotline TNT and Abrams
When: 7
Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: Quicksand is the influential post-hardcore band from New York City that included then and now members of renowned hardcore groups Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Beyond, Bold and Burn. Quicksand’s sound was sludgier, slower, heavier and thus fit in well with the nascent alternative rock milieu of the early 1990s. It’s angular, foreboding sound was a new kind of heavy that wasn’t metal so much and not grunge and you could hear in its songs’ clear roots in punk. After a couple of breaks in the 90s Quicksand reconvened in 2012 to critical acclaim with live shows a reminder that its heavy sound was also a soundtrack to getting through life’s struggles and triumph over everyday adversities. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of its debut full-length Slip which was reissued early in 2023 with an extensive companion booklet. Along for this tour is Hotline TNT also from New York led by Will Anderson formerly of the Canadian band Weed. This project released its new album Cartwheel on November 3, 2023 and for this show the group will provide a good deal of the joyous, atmospheric sonics with its expansively melodic songs. Often lumped in with shoegaze and indie rock the band’s music resists easy categories because its guitar swirl is definitely within the realm of more pop-oriented shoegaze bands but it has enough of and edge to delivery densely glittery moody soundscapes that fit in well with a show with heavier acts. If its music videos are any gauge, Hotline TNT has a healthy and irreverently self-deprecating sense of humor that gives its uplifting melancholia some grounding. Abrams is came out of the more doomy and stoner rock world of Denver metal but its own songs might be described as heavy psych and its own shoegazing instincts have always set the band apart from a more predictable musical path.

Shadows Tranquil in 2022, photo by Tom Murphy

Friday | 11.24
What: Shadows Tranquil album release w/Polly Urethane and Julian St. Nightmare
When: 7
Where: The Marquis Theater
Why: Shadows Tranquil is finally officially releasing its album Downward Flowers and celebrating with this release show. The quartet has some diverse roots in shoegaze, post-punk, emo, psychedelia and noise rock with finely tuned tonal details in the songwriting that emerge with repeated listens to its songs and a bit of a live mystique that isn’t something that’s easily imitated. So the band invited a couple of Denver’s most interesting artists in the world of local experimental and post-punk music. Julian St. Nighmare is secretly one of the best bands from Denver with its alchemical blend of post-punk, surf rock and psychedelia and a charismatic and passionate live show. Polly Urethan is simply someone whose shows you can’t fully predict because she changes up the type of set she does with every performance whether that’s noise, ambient pop, modern classical, noise rock psych or performance art or whatever. But never boring and rote which is not something many artists can claim with validity.

Teenage Halloween, photo by Okie Dokie Studio

Sunday | 11.26
What: Teenage Halloween w/Elway (solo), Broken Record and Plasma Canvas
When: 7
Where: Hi-Dive
Why: Asbury Park, New Jersey’s Teenage Halloween has given us an outstanding and heartfelt emo and power pop album with its new album Till You Return. Its a record that dives deep into exploring issues of identity, the heavy legacy of trying to survive and find a place in the world we’re all trying to navigate now but the whole record feels like a big journey of a concept album that doesn’t offer pat answers or solutions but plenty of solidarity and a catharsis of collective trauma. Broken Record from Denver offers its own fusion of melancholic yet vital power pop and modern emo and live comes across as though it absorbed plenty of the influence of Dinosaur Jr and Hüsker Dü. It too released a solid 2023 album with Nothing Moves Me. Assuming its still on for the gig this may or may not be one of your last times getting to see the legendary emocore band Plasma Canvas from Fort Collins. Its sound and chops are steeped in a more radio rock and classic rock vein but delivered with a spirited punk attitude with lyrics that mince no words about struggling with issues of class, gender and sexuality and how that all intersects with a culture and people that are hostile to one’s own unique overlapping identities.

Tuesday | 11.28
What: The Japanese House w/quinnie
When: 7
Where: The Summit Music Hall
Why: The Japanese House is the musical project of Amber Bain who has been developing her sound and songwriting for several years with a leg up from being signed to The 1975’s label Dirty Hit early on and being thusly championed. Bain’s style in some ways anticipated the strain of yacht rock and soft pop that has become a feature of certain branches of indie rock. A great deal of Bain’s output has been on singles and EPs and so In the End It Always Does releasing in 2023 as her second album can give the impression of the musical sophistication and lush and imaginative arrangements as having come out of nowhere. And for Bain it does seem like a lateral leap into experimenting with textures, tones and unorthodox arrangements in crafting her typically well composed pop songs. Adele Julia of Gigwise in a June 28, 2023 review spoke to the album’s candid “discussions surrounding queerness and sexuality.” The album’s rich array of melodies and moods provide a comfortable place within which to have those discussions and the vital yet gentle quality of the album invites the listener along for those discussions regardless of one’s own specific sexual or gender identification.