Aaron Spransy has spent more than a decade crafting charming pop songs with a variety of collaborators. Think in that Spoon-esque vein with some power pop and psychedelic touchstones. His new Sinnet album Island Town is a bit different and its closing track “Embracing That Dad Rock Vibe (part 2)” embodies that shift in songwriting style and attitude. The title of the song suggests coming to terms with not being in one’s 20s anymore and shock of all shocks being in a stable and healthy relationship that allows for some ability to relax and feel comfortable in a way that seems so antithetical to the cliché of rock music and art in general but need not be. Someone of a more wiseacre-ly inclined might listen to this album and say, “more like ‘Embracing that yacht rock vibe’” because the jazz-inflected guitar hooks and laid back vocal delivery as though waking up from a restful sleep ready to take on the world in a mellow way really is a feature of the music. But There is something undeniably charming and very real about someone writing a song that isn’t about adolescent angst for the umpteenth time in a decade or multiple-decade long career and saying something romantic and not cheesy about their relationship, which Spransy has done on this song. Whimsical, self-deprecating title aside, it’s a song about accepting and acknowledging love of self and the love in your life and not just being okay with it but yes, embracing these positive aspects to your human existence. The touches of Teenage Fanclub in the choruses lend some grit to an otherwise soft pop rock gem. Listen to “Embracing That Dad Rock Vibe (part 2)” on Bandcamp and connect with Sinnet at the links provided.
Who:Endless, Nameless tour kickoff w/Soulless Maneater, Lightstory, Giardia and Sliver When: Thursday, 02.28, 7 p.m. Where: Seventh Circle Music Collective Why: Math rock band Endless, Nameless is headed to SXSW and to launch the group on its way some of its friends and peers are playing this show including gloom and angst festooned post-punk band Soulless Maneater, psych jazz abstract metal trio Giardia as well as post-grunge poseurs Diet Nirvana. But, really, Sliver is a great band inspired by grunge-era bands, Wipers and DC punk.
Who:Starjammer w/Joshua Trinidad When: Thursday, 02.28, 9 p.m. Where: 3 Kings Tavern Why: Squidds Madden has been bringing his gift for improvisation to various funk, rock, jazz and ska bands over the past two decades. But Starjammer is his one man avant-garde dub reggae project in which he pilots an integrated multi-instrumental vehicle. Lately he’s been crafting stories to go along with performances and this is one of a handful of events where he’s trying that out while bringing in some of the greatest players in Denver to round out the bill. Tonight it’s trumpet player extraordinaire Joshua Trinidad who some may know for his masterful turns in Wheelchair Sports Camp and GoStar.
Friday | March 1
Blood Incantation, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Decibel Tour: Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Necrot and Blood Incantation When: Friday, 03.01, 6 p.m. Where: The Oriental Theater Why: Cannibal Corpse is known for having some of the most cartoonishly brutal and horrifying lyrics in metal. But it’s all in fun and if one can’t appreciate the absurd, even in bad taste, maybe you take yourself too seriously. The death metal legends share the stage tonight with one of the pioneers of death metal from, where else, Tampa, Florida (where Cannibal Corpse is now based): Morbid Angel. Opening the night is Blood Incantation, a Colorado band with a cult following in the death metal realm. While clearly self-aware, Blood Incantation is a powerful live act whose songs push the genre in interesting directions rather than get stuck like it’s 1985.
Who:Venus305 physical album release w/Gold Trash, EVP, Düll Haus and Techno Allah When: Friday, 03.01, 9 p.m. Where: Thought//Forms Why: Molly McGrath is perhaps better known for her rock band Surf Mom. But for Venus305 she’s left behind the guitar and punk-esque vocals for electronic dance tracks and a vocal style more fitting for the type of downtempo and what one might call progressive lounge that is the music of Venus305. Also on the bill for this release show of the project’s physical album is screamy electroclash Gold Trash, industrial punk/dance duo EVP, the glitchcore for the dancefloor sounds of Techno Allah and Düll Haus, a band that seems to navigate the sonic territory traversing minimal synth dance and IDM.
Who:The Scientist w/Dr. Israel and DJ Imeh When: Friday, 03.01, 8 p.m. Where: Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox Why: The Scientist learned his craft partly under the tutelage of dub legend King Dubby and went on to contribute greatly to the genre himself—which is reason enough to go if you’re into the roots of sound sculpting production.
Who:eHpH, TetraKroma, Redwing Blackbird When: Friday, 03.01, 9 p.m. Where: The Skylark Lounge Why: None more synth on this night. eHpH makes a good case for why EBM and industrial rock isn’t essentially dead these days because the duo brings an emotional resonance to the music that isn’t just trying to be as angsty and nihilistic as possible. TetraKroma, that’s a lot of analog synths for making dark dance music but the depth of sound makes it obvious having the layers in hardware are worth it. Redwing Blackbird mixes samples and low-end heavy tracks to make some gritty EBM like early Front 242 but darker.
Saturday | March 2
Praga Khan of Lords of Acid, photo courtesy the artist
Who:Teenage Fanclub w/The Love Language When: Saturday, 03.02, 8 p.m. Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Teenage Fanclub came out of the fertile musical ground of C86 influenced by the bands that influenced the jangle, twee and garage rock of that era. Its second album, 1991’s The King, came out on Creation Records, the imprint better known for being home to shoegaze giants of that period like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. But Creation also nurtured the cooler end of power pop (later Creation signed Oasis but that’s a whole other story). In the USA, Teenage Fanclub hit the college radio charts in a big way with its later 1991 album Bandwagonesque. At the time there was a revival in the interest in power pop pioneers Big Star and its soulful and melancholic catalog—a band that somehow sounded mournful and sad even when it rocked in a celebratory fashion on its songs. Bandwagonesque evoked Big Star powerfully on songs like “What You Do To Me” and “The Concept.” But Teenage Fanclub had its own voice and its sophisticated songwriting evolved over its now long career. 1993’s Thirteen sounded like the band had absorbed a bit too much of grunge or grebo or whatever and yet its delicate psychedelia and emotionally vibrant vocals remained part of the sound. 1995’s Grand Prix dispensed with the grunge affectations going forward. Teenage Fanclub doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being an important band in the development of Britpop but probably because there’s too much rock and roll in its songwriting and not enough of the dance music/Madchester element. It is precisely because of that disconnect with that 90s trend that the group’s music has aged well.
Who:GoStar When: Saturday, 03.02, 9:30 p.m. Where: Dazzle Why: If a trumpet-guitar-and-percussion-driven jazz fusion band of the early 70s (Bitches Brew period Miles, Mahavishnu Orchestra) adopted mind-altering psychedelic flourishes and then traveled forward in time to hang with Arrested Development and A Tribe Called Quest in the early 90s before hopping again and landing in the 2010’s, that band would sound like GoStar.
Who:Lords of Acid w/Orgy, Genitorturers and Little Miss Nasty When: Saturday, 03.02, 6 p.m. Where: The Gothic Theatre Why: There will be a lot of ridiculous antics and NSFW stuff at this show. Including from headliner Lords of Acid. The band’s songs are all about hedonistic activities and aspirations up to the line of self-parody. Its industrial dance music and live show is also good fun and maybe vocalist and band leader Praga Khan will push someone off stage into the audience for an impromptu and unexpected stage dive. But even if he doesn’t, Khan is a charismatic and entertaining frontman who draws you into the playful chaos of the band’s music.
What:Nightshift When: Saturday, 03.02, 9 p.m. Where: The Meadowlark Bar Why: Nightshift is an all vinyl dance party on first Saturdays curated by Meghan Meehan and Laura Conway, focused on synth pop, disco and new wave.
Who:Duos From The Abyss: Gort Vs. Goom, The Swamp Rats, Triplip, Still Frames When: Saturday, 03.02, 6 p.m. Where: Tennyson’s Tap Why: None of these bands are particularly from the abyss unless you’re only into punk that doesn’t color widely outside the musical lines. Gort Vs. Goom is the They Might Be Giants of Blue Oyster Cult tribute bands. Triplip is the Daikaiju of prog. Gort is not a tribute band but that’s the sort of mashup that comes to mind, among other things, seeing one of the duo’s sets.
Monday | March 4
Hunter Dragon circa 2009, photo by Tom Murphy
Who:Hunter Dragon album release of Universal Basic Income w/Lazarus Horse and Shockermom When: Monday, 03.04, 8:08 p.m. Where: Syntax Physic Opera Why: Hunter Dragon’s catalog is vast and widely varied in his methods and songwriting styles. But it’s unified by an imagination focused on a future that could or should exist now. Whether that’s a desolate post-disaster setting or, as the title of his new album suggests, a future where everyone can use the time they would normally expend on scrambling to survive on whatever suits their natural interests and talents. The new songs have a meditative, spacious folk quality. For the occasion of this release show Hunter has brought on board Lazarus Horse (a band that sounds like it realized that even the cooler weirdo psychedelic rock of the 2000s and 2010s would be and is played out and injected a lot more imagination and unusual rhythmic and tonal ideas into the mix) and Shockermom. The latter has been writing the soundtrack to everyone’s emotional return to peace and tranquility during the collective long dark night of the soul that’s been coursing through the world like a psychic cognate of the collapse of the global ecosystem. Essential listening.
Tuesday | March 5
In The Valley Below, photo by Jaimie Skriba
Who:Daughters w/Gouge Away and HIDE When: Tuesday, 03.05, 7 p.m. Where: The Gothic Theatre
Why: Daughters are the legendary post-hardcore noise rock band whose mournful and abrasive music sounds like the purging of the world’s anguish. Except Daughters make it darkly beautiful. Gouge Away is a forceful, cathartic hardcore band that isn’t trapped in early 80s SSD worship. HIDE is a performance art-oriented industrial duo from Chicago whose visceral, ritualistic live show will probably confuse punk purists but which will fit right in with everyone on the bill.
Who:Albert Hammond Jr. w/In The Valley Below When: Tuesday, 03.05, 7 p.m. Where: The Bluebird Theater Why: Albert Hammond Jr. is best known for his membership in The Strokes. But his solo career has yielded better songs than The Strokes have in years. There’s a bright and fresh quality to his upbeat pop songs and his performances that are likeable even when it sometimes sounds like he’s leaning on past creative laurels. Opening the show is synth pop band In the Valley Below from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its bass and melody-driven songs differentiate it from what one would assume are its peers in bands like CHVRCHES, Phantogram and Poliça while sharing a sense of elevating moods and positive energy.
Wednesday | March 6
Acidbat circa 2015, photo by Tom Murphy
What:Weird Wednesday: Acidbat, Satin Spar, Ruehlen/Seward When: Wednesday, 03.06, 9 p.m. Where: 3 Kings Tavern Why: Acidbat doesn’t play many shows in general much less outside of some super underground show. His ambient yet beat driven, glitchy IDM is more imaginative than a lot of music out of that milieu. Also on this night’s Weird Wednesday is avant-garde improvisational/spontaneous composition duo Ruehlen/Seward.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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