Sigur Rós @ Red Rocks

Saturday, September 27, 2008

By Brian F. Johnson

Photos by Jonathan Keller

Summer officially ended on Monday, September 22, but this show — the final night of Red Rock’s 2008 summer season — was the unofficial close of the season, and I can’t think of a better way to end the summer than this show — a concert that was aurally and aesthetically gorgeous, and at once celebrated the departing summer months with happy energy, while  equally welcoming the cold, melancholy winter nights to come.

The weather in the area throughout the day threatened to put an autumn stamp on the evening with some chilly breezes and rainy-looking skies, but as the opening act, Parachutes, took the stage just after 7 p.m., the weather mustered its best impression of summer that it could.
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Spiritualized @ The Ogden Theatre

September 23, 2008

Photos by Timothy Dwenger

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:: TV On The Radio ::
 :: Monolith Music Festival ::
 :: Sunday, Sept. 14 ::
 :: Esurance Main Stage ::
 :: 8:45 p.m. ::

By Timothy Dwenger

TV On The Radio began life as an experimental two-piece on the small stages of neighborhood clubs in Brooklyn, N.Y., where founding members David Steik and Tunde Adebimpe laid the groundwork for what the band would become. Their sparse and experimental blend of electronica and hip-hop was soon fleshed out when guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone joined the fray along with the powerhouse rhythm section of bassist Gerard Smith and drummer Jaleel Bunton. Together, these five men have methodically refined Steik and Adibimpe’s early digital meanderings into a hard-hitting, yet melodic, sound that doesn’t resemble anything out there today. Continue — Read more »

:: Cameron McGill ::
 :: Road 34 :: September 12 ::
 :: Monolith Woxy.com Stage :: Sept. 13 @ 3:10 ::
 :: b.side Lounge :: September 15 ::
 :: Walnut Room :: September 18 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Cameron McGill may be one of the most crucial singer/songwriters of our time.

For several years, the Chicago suburbs native has been churning out highly cerebral, intricately and immaculately phrased folk songs that couple extreme beauty and severe sadness together in a seemingly effortless union.

But one of his most recent songs, “Lose Americans” — a track that is on his yet to be released newest album Warms Songs for Cold Shoulders — is such a perfect description of the current state of our country that it makes most protest songs that’ve come before it seem like trite babble in comparison. Continue — Read more »

Silversun Pickups
Saturday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 8:45 p.m.

— Brian Kenney

In the past year no one can doubt Los Angeles’ Silversun Pickups fresh presence on the waning indie scene — a scene without a figurehead since  Smashing Pumpkins’ lackluster “comeback” of 2006. Enter vocalist Brian Aubert and SSPU, who, with their dead-on Gish-era Pumpkins-friendly sound, found themselves saddled up for a role as the indie poster children of 2007. SSPU is a well-balanced, well-greased, sensual pop pleasure machine. With European jaunts supporting the Foo Fighters and stateside tours with Snow Patrol under their belt, SSPU has appeared in high slots in the year’s most celebrated festivals. They come out of the studio for an appearance at Monolith, so expect a blistering set of new material until the flavorful new record (rehearsed and written in Hawaii) appears on shelves by year’s end.

Young Coyotes
Friday :: Bluebird Theatre VIP pre-party :: 9:20 p.m.

— Alex Samuel

Out of the ashes of several now-defunct Denver bands, comes Young Coyotes — a group of rowdy, glockenspiel-heavy indie-rockers. Lead-singer Zach Tipton left his band in Georgia to work with Chain Gang of 1974’s drummer Adam Halferty and Matt Wilcox. And, while people have compared the Denver boys to The Shins or Arcade Fire, it’s hard to ignore Tipton’s vocal similarity to Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. Westword’s Dave Herrera said that Tipton has a “masterful sense of melody that is matched by Halferty’s command of dynamics … the buzz is already significant and deservedly so.”

The Fratellis
Saturday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 5:45 p.m.

— Brian Kenney

When you land the opening slot on the hottest reunion tour in decades, the stars must be aligning for you. Such is the case for Glasgow Scotland’s The Fratellis, who spent most of 2007 supporting The Police on their stadium tour. The Fratellis are Scotland’s answer to Denver’s Hot IQ’s, with poppy, trigger-happy tunes such as the high-kicking single “Flathead” off of 2006’s Costello Music, which runs like a ’60s beach party anthem with tweaky jangling guitars and scotch-infused vocal slurs. It proved catchy enough for an iPod commercial. (And what better for a band who markets themselves on digital downloaded singles?) 2008 has found The Fratellis redefining their sound with the June release of Here We Stand, where they attempt to shed their cobra bite snippets of songs in favor of a slower, ominous, moodier feeling. Fans of White Stripes and The Vines will not be disappointed, as this is high energy British pop at its best.

Del Tha Funky Homosapien
Saturday :: New Belgium :: 8 p.m.

— Neil McIntyre

Long before he appeared on The Gorillaz breakout hit “Clint Eastwood,” Del Tha Funky Homosapien led a renaissance of conscious hip-hop out of the Bay Area in California. As the founder of the much respected Hieroglyphics crew from Oakland, Del forever changed the way heads looked at the genre. Unafraid to address topics others viewed as corny or decidedly not hard enough, Del started a trend in hip-hop away from gangsta and toward lyrical content and forward thinking. Widening the pallet of what people considered “real,” Del opened the door for a windfall of non-traditional emcees and backpack rappers. The irony is that Del got his start ghost-writing for his cousin Ice Cube’s group Da Lench Mob, a band that represented everything he later set out to destroy.

Band of Horses
Sunday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 7:15 p.m.

— Brian F. Johnson

It’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll hear someone during the Band of Horses set talk about how much they sound like My Morning Jacket, mostly because of the vocal similarities between Jim James of MMJ and Band of Horses lead singer Ben Bridwell. But don’t let that sway you one way or another. There are similarities but Band of Horses is its own (cough) animal. Formed by Bridwell and guitarist Mat Brooke in 2004 following the dissolution of the band Carissas Weird — an orchestral pop group — Band of Horses have become media darlings with rave reviews in Rolling Stone, SPIN and Pitchfork. They’re the hip band to watch, and for once, that hip band has some substance.

Blitzen Trapper
Saturday :: Rock Room Stage :: 3:50 p.m.

— Mike Hedrick

Imagine if Beck, The Eels, Wilco and Neil Young all got together deep in the sparse woods of New Mexico and decided to pass a joint around a bonfire and partake in Kesey’s conception of a communal mind. The sound produced from that little session would just about describe the stylings of Portland’s sextet Blitzen Trapper. Already exploring numerous genres on their first three, self-released albums, Blitzen Trapper has received critical acclaim about their buzzing experimental folk style. After signing to Sub-Pop in 2007, the band has stayed miraculously true to its chilled-out down-home roots while still managing to take artistic freedom and experiment. It’s a shame music like this never reaches the shelves of deep Midwest Wal-marts, where the outsider kids are starving for the slightest semblance of real musical expression.

Vampire Weekend
Saturday :: Esurance Main Stage :: 7:15p.m.

— Brian F. Johnson

This year’s The Strokes? This year’s Tapes N’ Tapes? Could be. This preppy quartet that formed in 2006 at Columbia University was the first band in history to be on the cover of SPIN magazine before their debut even dropped — a debut which they self-produced. The band was picked up by XL Recordings and to say that they’ve had rave reviews is an understatement. NME called them the “saviors of American rock.” Their sound draws influences from African pop and Western classical music, but they’ve called it “Upper West Side Soweto” or “trust fund frat rock.”  Salon recently called them the world’s “whitest band.”

Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Sunday :: Woxy.com Stage :: 7:10 p.m.

— Brian F. Johnson

Does It Offend You, Yeah? have been getting lots of attention lately, and with good reason. Their debut You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into has made top 10 lists across the board. Spin, AP, Rolling Stone, and Interview Magazine all confirm that hyper bass, blasts of white noise, electro sludge and attitude will cure whatever the fuck it is that plagues the world. Performances at Coachella and SXSW received high praise everywhere from indie blogs to the NY Times. But their album’s sound was best described by the Chicago Tribune as “a dazzling steamroller of an album, akin to getting choked by a dude in a glitter suit.”