Larimer Lounge

Wednesday 4/4; Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM; Boy Harsher, Voight. This Event is 16 and Over. The Soft Moon: 'Criminal', The Soft Moon's fourth studio album, is a confessional work. Through the stark lens of shame and guilt that has followed Luis Vasquez since a violent childhood growing up within the humming ambient sprawl of 80s Mojave Desert, here he documents the gut-wrenching sound of going to war with himself. Battling with his own sanity, self-hatred, insecurity, self-entitlement and grappling with the risk of these things transforming him into a person he despises, Vasquez has laid his feelings bare with this: his confession and most self-reflective work to date. "Guilt is my biggest demon and has been following me since childhood. Everything I do strengthens the narrative that I am guilty" Vasquez reflects. "The concept of 'Criminal' is a desperate attempt to find relief by both confessing to my wrongdoings and by blaming others for their wrongdoings that have affected me." 'Criminal' marks a striking and important chapter in his self-exploration, both artistically and emotionally. As a young musician living in Oakland, Vasquez began to try and process the narrative of his difficult upbringing veiled through musical exploration. Taking krautrock's motorik beats and Post-Punk deconstructions and honing them into a hushed percussive incantation, The Soft Moon's self-titled debut album took shape. The album was released in late 2010 by Captured Tracks and was praised by critics and emulated by contemporaries. In 2012 the apocalyptic conceptual work of Zeros emerged, shortly followed by Vasquez moving to Venice, Italy in 2013, acting as a catalyst for 2014's release, Deeper. While previous albums were primarily instrumental records, where Vasquez's voice was diffused amidst the music as another instrument, Deeper marked the beginning of a new musical direction where vocals and lyrics became something more than a mere presence. Deeper was a descent into the womb of childhood trauma, anxiety and fear, and although Vasquez survived this dark exploration of himself, he did not return alone. Working once more with Maurizio Baggio, who produced Deeper, at La Distilleria in Bassano Del Grappa, Italy, 'Criminal' sees Vasquez further explore putting his lyrics at the forefront and letting his raw emotions flow. The album begins with a confrontation with his true self through the torrid bass lines and searing vocals of "Burn"; a song evoking a loss of control akin to demonic possession, stating: "Eyes, reflecting the person that I am, and it burns". In this track Vasquez's guilt bores deeper and deeper into a condemnation that ultimately is: "Fire, hell is where I'll go to live, so I burn". "Burn" is followed by the caustic bass, mechanized rhythms, and numbing emulsions of "Choke, " a song about the amplifying and anesthetizing effect of cocaine, a drug whose darker side Vasquez is not unfamiliar with. The next track "Give Something" is a subterranean love song from the deepest depths, with harrowingly despondent lyrics, seeking hope in a sea of shame. The album continues its thematic inner conflict in the Industrial/EBM percussion and distorted high attack bass of "Like a Father", a song reflecting Vasquez's anger towards the father that abandoned him. "This head is a problem/You're the ghost of my problem/Something's got to give" pleads Vasquez as revving guitars invoke chainsaws before the song's final lines search for closure: to kill the father within himself. The album closes with title track "Criminal"; a despondent resignation to guilt; bereft, broken, and bruised, with lyrics that confess: "It's the way I cross the line, it's the way I open, it's the way to my decline, it's the way I'm broken". The song, like the album itself, is Vasquez's way of holding himself accountable and seeking redemption for the abuse he inflicts on himself, and acknowledges roots in the abuse which, inflicted upon him as a child, broke him. 'Criminal' will be released on February 2nd 2018 with a new home on New York label Sacred Bones. Boy Harsher: BOY HARSHER is a dark electronic duo that produces gritty dance beats infused with ethereal vocals, creating a sound that is eerie, intense and incredibly danceable. Augustus Muller develops the underbelly of sound with minimal beats and grinding synths, where Jae Matthews whispers, screams and chants on top. Together, the music created is somewhere between industrial, drone and confessional storytelling. Muller and Matthews both have a strong background in film and their cinematic approach translates effectively in both their recordings and live performance. Boy Harsher started in early 2013 under the name Teen Dreamz. The project was based on short stories written and read by Matthews then live scored by Muller. As the project matured the instrumentals became more dance influenced and Matthews' delivery became more dynamic and spontaneous. In January of 2014 Teen Dreamz took on the moniker Boy Harsher. Yr Body is Nothing, Boy Harsher's debut LP, was released by Atlanta's DKA Records in June of 2016. The LP has been described as a "darkly beautiful and very emotional new record" by Gorilla Vs. Bear and as "highly danceable fantasy narratives of desire and nuanced discomfort" by Decoder Magazine. The album was recorded at home in Northampton, Massachusetts with additional recording and final mixing done at Dollhouse Studios by Peter Mavrogeorgis. The first pressing quickly sold out and a 2nd pressing was released January 2017 ahead of Boy Harsher's US tour. Their first EP was mostly recorded at home in Savannah using small collection of cheap synthesizers. These recordings were fleshed out in the studio under the guidance of veteran engineer and producer Peter Mavrogeorgis at Dollhouse Studios. After a short, but productive mixing and mastering session Boy Harsher completed their EP Lesser Man. Lesser Man was originally released by Savannah's Soft Science on small run cassette. St. Paul's Night People re-released Lesser Man in April. Boy Harsher currently resides in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Thursday, 4/5; Doors: 4:00 PM / Show: 6:00 PM. This event is 21 and over. Win tickets to the devil makes three at red rocks on 5/25!

Thursday, 4/5; Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM; Tmule; This Event is 16 and Over. Indie Folk band formed in Brisbane, Australia in 2013.

Tuesday, 5/1; Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM; Dead Sullivan, American Grandma. This Event is 16 and Over. Chastity Belt: A few years ago, while in a tour van somewhere in Idaho, the members of Chastity Belt—Julia Shapiro, Gretchen Grimm, Lydia Lund, and Annie Truscott—opted to pass the time in a relatively unusual fashion: They collectively paid one another compliments, in great and thoughtful detail. This is what we like best about you, this is why we love you. I think of that image all the time, the four of them opening themselves up like that, by choice. It's hard to imagine other bands doing the same. But beyond their troublesome social media presence—see: the abundance of weapons-grade duck face, the rolling suitcase art—and beyond the moonlit deadpan of say, "IDC, " lies, at the very least, an honesty and an intimacy and an emotional brilliance that galvanizes everything they do together. Which is a fancy way of saying: They're funny, but they're also capable of being vulnerable. "Giant Vagina" and "Pussy Weed Beer, " two highlights from their aptly titled 2013 debut, No Regerts, were immediately preceded by a sublime yet easily overlooked cut named "Happiness." I saw a younger, still unsettling version of myself all across 2015's Time to Go Home. This June marks the release of I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, their third and finest full-length to date. Recorded live in July of 2016, with producer Matthew Simms (Wire) at Jackpot! in Portland, Oregon (birthplace of some of their favorite Elliott Smith records), it's a dark and uncommonly beautiful set of moody post-punk that finds the Seattle outfit's feelings in full view, unobscured by humor. There is no irony in its title: Before she had Chastity Belt, and the close relationships that she does now, Shapiro considered herself a career loner. That's no small gesture. I can make as much sense of this music as I can my 20s: This is a brave and often exhilarating tangle of mixed feelings and haunting melodies that connects dizzying anguish ("This Time of Night") to shimmering insight ("Different Now") to gauzy ambiguity ("Stuck, " written and sung by Grimm). It's a serious record but not a serious departure, defined best, perhaps, by a line that Shapiro shares early on its staggering title track: "I wanna be sincere." When asked, their only request was that what you're reading right now be brief, honest, free of hyperbole, and "v chill." When pressed for more, Truscott said, "Just say that we love each other. Because we do." This is who they are, this is why I love them. Dead Sullivan. American Grandma.

Thursday, 5/3; Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM. This event is 16 and over.

Friday, 5/4; Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 9:00 PM; Nina & the Hold Tight, the Bright Silence. This event is 18 and over. "By combining emotionally propelled lyrics, catchy melodic hooks, and driving drum beats, Chloe and her four piece band create a high energy and engaging live show experience. This songwriter / artist pulls musical inspiration from artists such as James Bay, Racing Glaciers, Bastille, OneRepublic, and Kaleo. The Phoenix, AZ native, currently based in Denver, CO, has created an impressive Alternative Pop repertoire. By pulling influences from folk, blues, and rock, she has a taste of something for every listener. Chloe is relentlessly making breakthrough moves into the local music scenes as both a solo performer, and with her backing band." Nina & The Hold Tight. The Bright Silence: Colorado born singer Kevin Johnston founded Bright Silence (which MTV's John Norris calls "Rousing, anthemic and remarkably intimate") in Brooklyn in 2010. Emerging from NYC's open-mic-singer/songwriter scene, Johnston has performed original songs on Jimmy Kimmel Live, worked with Kjartan Sveinsson (Sigur Ros) singing a 2-month-long piece of music at NYC's New Museum and performed to a sold-out Red Rocks crowd with Ian Cooke Band paying tribute to Prince. Between frequent European tours, long stays in Germany and the release of their sophomore album Time Is New (w/ guitarist Kirk Schoenherr & bassist Tim Lappin of Chet Faker aka Nick Murphy) and drummer Zach Jones (Sting, Secret Someones, A Great Big World). The new Denver chapter of Bright Silence are excited to be digging back into the Colorado music scene in support of Time Is New which Bandwagon Magazine calls "wide-eyed, optimistic, frequently lifting into pure moments of rapture".

Friday, 6/1; Doors: 8:30 PM / Show: 9:30 PM; Tyler imbrey's ghost revue, house with a yard. This event is 16 and over. "We borrowed the name from a Josh Ritter album," Animal Years singer-songwriter-guitarist Mike McFadden says of his band's moniker. "Originally, we just liked the way the phrase sounded. But the more we thought about it, the more it meant to us, and we started saying things like 'Live your life in animal years.' If you knew that you'd only be around for a few years, you'd do things differently. That's how we try to operate as a band; we try to go for it every day, like we're gonna die tomorrow." That level of urgency resonates throughout Far From Home, Animal Years' first eOne release. The five-song EP -- produced by Ryan Hadlock, renowned for his work with the Lumineers, Brandi Carlile and Vance Joy -- offers a consistently compelling distillation of the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Baltimore trio's irresistibly anthemic, unfailingly uplifting songcraft, which ranges from the fist-pumping infectiousness of "Caroline" to the introspective warmth of "Friends" to the bittersweet buoyancy of "Home (I Was Born)." McFadden's catchy, emotionally direct songwriting is matched by the band's exuberant performances, which combine McFadden's openhearted vocals and surging acoustic guitars with the punchy rhythmic kick of bassist Anthony Saladino and drummer Anthony Spinnato. "Someone once described us in a review as 'singer-songwriter music with the amps turned up,'" McFadden notes. "The emphasis is on the songs and the songwriting, but we're definitely a rock band. Even if I'm playing an acoustic guitar, I'm playing it through an amp with the distortion on. We're always gonna be louder than the other bands on the bill." Far From Home's memorable compositions and high-energy performances make it clear why Animal Years has already earned a fiercely loyal grass-roots fan base. Without the benefit of a mainstream record label, the band has built its audience the old-fashioned way: through dogged roadwork, winning over one fan at a time. "When we moved to New York, we hit the city really hard, and things just grew organically," McFadden explains. "We naturally evolved from small clubs to bigger ones, and from small tours to bigger tours, with more people coming out each time. Everything has happened really organically, through us just being ourselves and trying to be as honest as we can." The thee bandmates and producer Hadlock recorded Far From Home in the remote environs of Applehead Studios in Woodstock, NY, far from the band's normal urban surroundings. "We really wanted to isolate ourselves in a place with no distractions other than making the record," McFadden explains. "So we all went up to Woodstock and worked in this great studio in a rebuilt barn. We've been demoing stuff for years, but this is the first time the three of us had made a record together. Ryan was really great to work with, and I think that he really brought out the best in us. It was great recording out there in the middle of nowhere; we'd record 12 hours a day, and then all hang out at night." Far From Home showcases McFadden's knack for writing forthright songs that cut to the chase, lyrically and melodically. "On this EP, I wanted to write things that everyone can relate to," he asserts. "Sometimes lyrics can be open to interpretation, but for the most part I want people to know exactly what I'm talking about. All of these songs were written on the road, so a lot of the themes are about being away from home and missing people, and not taking people for granted. "We had four songs that we really liked for the EP, but we knew that we needed one more that would really grab people's attention," he continues. "I was driving back from North Carolina, right at the end of a tour, and I wrote 'Caroline' in the car. Within ten minutes, I had pulled over to the side of the road and recorded the whole thing into my phone. A couple of days later, we made a rough demo, and everybody who heard it said 'Yeah, that's the one.' It's the song that got the attention of our record label, and now it's the first single from the EP." The unpretentious attitude and hard-driving work ethic that define Animal Years were established early on, when Mike McFadden first began writing and performing his own songs in his mid-teens, releasing his first studio CD under his own name while still in high school in Baltimore. That inaugural effort won a good deal of attention, and even gained some local radio play. A second CD, released when McFadden was 18, was even better received by fans and local radio programmers, and soon his songs were being picked up for use in commercials from such advertisers as Coca-Cola and Pennzoil. "That was the driver for me to think about quitting my job in Baltimore and going to New York to start Animal Years," McFadden recalls. "Before I moved to New York, I did another solo album, The Sun Will Rise. At that point, Anthony the bass player suggested that we find a drummer and make it into a band, so we rebranded the CD as an Animal Years release. "It became a real band really quickly," McFadden reports. "When we started the band, we were all working jobs to raise money to make it happen, so we could afford to go on the road and into the studio. The guys started taking an equal part of the work, and everybody started contributing. It took some getting used to, but it was good not being alone and not having to do everything myself. The songwriting is still the same, because that's still me, but everyone's invested in this partnership and we're all getting something out of it." Animal Years' timely relocation to New York proved to be a crucial turning point for the band. "The music scene in Baltimore is really big and varied, but I never felt like we ever really fit in there," says McFadden. "When we got to New York, we felt a lot more at home and got a much better reception. In New York, there're more people, there're more opportunities, there're more venues. You can play a few nights a week and still never run out of places to play." Having already established themselves in their adopted hometown and having won a legion of new friends and fans on the road, Animal Years plan to continue doing what they do best: making music and touching people. "We're planning on hitting the road super-hard," McFadden affirms. "We're definitely willing to put in the work, and make it happen by any means necessary. That's the only way you can do it these days. There are so many other people who are working as hard as you are, so you just have to work twice as hard."

Sunday, 6/3; Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM. This event is 16 and over. A young Australian duo, arising from a small suburb on the South Coast of NSW, combining their passion for the ocean and love of 60s garage for a distinct sound of salty surf rock.

Tuesday, 6/5; Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM. This event is 16 and over. Hailing from the singularly vibrant musical hotbed known as Chicago, Cheer-accident has been a creative, vital force in rock music for over 20 years. They constantly strive to surprise their audiences and themselves through relentless reinvention. From dreamy pop to angular art-rock, Cheer-accident strikes a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio wizardry and the visceral excitement of a well-honed, explosive live rock band. The band is a quintet at its foundation, fronted by Carmen Armillas, whose powerfully emotive voice has recently led CHEER-ACCIDENT down the path of even deeper connectedness with their already-loyal audience. Presenting itself in various configurations, the band's core personnel is frequently augmented by some of Chicago's finest musicians. Their body of work is unparalleled in its ambition and originality, and their twolatest releases, "Fear Draws Misfortune" and "No Ifs, Ands or Dogs" (both on Cuneiform Records), demonstrate how the band continues to improve with each passing year. After their hugely successful performance in 2013's Rock In Opposition Festival in France, they returned to Europe for several shows in July 2014, this time as a streamlined quartet:Dante Kester- bass; Jeff Libersher- guitar, vocals, trumpet; Evelyn Davis- vocals. piano and its innards; Thymme Jones- drums, trumpet, vocals. So good it was to play (special shows, all of them) in front of friends from over the ocean in Poland, France and Germany. And then they came home and largely focused on the monthly releasing of material for their subscription page. No small feat, and they continue to fulfill that particular promise to this day. Currently, the lineup would seem to look mostly like this: Dante Kester- bass, keyboards; Jeff Libersher- guitar, vocals, trumpet, keyboards; Amelie Morgan- keyboards, vocals, oboe; Thymme Jones- drums, vocals, piano, trumpet, noises. Oftentimes, also including: Mike Hagedorn- trombone; Carmen Armillas- vocals; Jim Drummond- swellness; Andrea Faught- everything; D. Bayne- keyboards; Sacha Mullin- vocals; Teria Gartelos- vocals; Laura Boton- vocals; Greg Beemster- vocals; Scott Rutledge- words. And sometimes Why.