Tony Bonacci

Cursive (due this Sunday at Larimer Lounge with Ume) was one of the most popular and influential bands to have come out of the underground scene in Omaha, Nebraska, the same one that spawned Bright Eyes, the Faint, Azure Ray and Tokyo Police Club and Saddle Creek Records. Beginning in 1995, Cursive's brash, angular music coupled with sharp lyrics struck a chord with audiences who had maybe outgrown basic punk rock but not the defiant spirit found there as well as within Cursive's oeuvre.

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​As the summer festival season approaches, there are a number of things to consider when deciding on which festival to attend. First of all, how far is it? When is it? How much is it? Is it worth my time? Who's on the bill? Jam fans, rejoice! There's a brand-new festival making its debut this year just for you, called Phibstock. The event is going to be held in the gorgeous but secluded South Park Basin in Hartsel, Colorado, a mere two hours from Denver.

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Catch DJ Cavem today at Auraria Campus from noon until 4.

​DJ Cavem, the local O.G. (organic gardener), has been literally feeding the community through events geared toward the "green" movement for years. Using a hip-hop agenda (even rocking with a children's choir), Cavem has broadened his audience to include discussions that involve enhancing the community through the one thing that binds us all: food. Now headed to Africa to continue the movement as a Bold Fellow, the MC is holding a fundraiser this afternoon on the Auraria campus from noon until 4 p.m., with performances galore.

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​Celebrating the life and legacy of J Dilla, the super producer from Detroit, has become a yearly occurrence since his passing from Lupus in 2007. Started by New York DJ Dee Phunk, the Donuts are Forever parties have been going strong for the past five years. Recent Denver transplant, audio engineer Neon Brown has attended those parties for years, and this year he's partnered with Beauty Bar for a Tribute to J. Dilla.

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Tom Murphy

Tantric Picasso at The Bluebird Theater

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TANTRIC PICASSO @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 2/2/12

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Sometimes when bands come out on stage and look like they dressed for the show it can seem like a put-on. But when Tantric Picasso came on they looked like a band that had stepped out of a door to the early 1970s before the whole hippie thing had been discredited and rock bands could still express ideals and spirituality without seeming insincere.

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Update (12/5/12): Full review and setlist from the show just posted.

Pax-Am Records

Update (12:53 p.m.): So check this out: A couple more things you should know here: First of all, Friday's show has been postponed until tomorrow night (Saturday) due to inclement weather (shocker, we know). Secondly, whatever sensationalist malarkey you've read about Ryan Adams being some sort of uptight, humorless curmudgeon or whatever, we're happy to report that that's complete bullshit. Dude is every bit as amiable as you'd imagine. Oh, sure, he probably gets grumpy every now and then, but don't we all? We can tell you this first hand because we just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago.

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Catch Molina Speaks's Bronze Future chapbook release party tomorrow at Grohaus.

​If you manage to survive today's snowpocalypse, there's plenty of party goodness happening in the Mile High City this weekend. It's Bob Marley's birthday, in case you feel like celebrating. Oh, and speaking of celebrations, Tooey's will toast to the Clinton-era at the Aquarius edition of the '90s House Party, and the Analog Space crew represents the underground, literally, at the Meadowlark. Page down to the get full run down on the weekend's best party bets.

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​Tantric Picasso (due Thursday, February 2 at the Bluebird Theater) started in 2008 among a group of friends who met at school, which is typical enough, but in naming the band, the fivesome created a personal mythology (partly detailed below) that is somewhat embodied in the name with hints of the esoteric knowledge, mysticism, sex and magic and the spirit of artistic experimentalism that those words imply when brought together.

Musically, the band's richly expansive songs blend together blues, psychedelia, funk, power pop and electronica in a way that also doesn't sound like it was created by a bunch of dilettantes trying to please every taste. The band's new album, Make Your Love Bigger, reflects its recent absorption of Latin rhythms.

We recently sat down for a chat with the group's rhythm section, Pablo Cruz and Matt Tanner, about the unique way it came up with the name, an especially significant and spiritually stirring trip to Portland, Oregon, that set the band on a new path and the group's goal of connecting with the audience in a deep and meaningful way.

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Tiana Matsuko Bernard

Negative Degree is sweating to the oldies.

​Negative Degree, one of the more active hardcore bands in the Denver punk scene for the past year or so, is part of a small wave of new local bands playing hardcore punk music, which first sprang up in basements in the '80s and has been romanticized and gold-plated in more than a few books and documentaries in the past few years. We spoke with bass player Mark Masters over a pizza the day after a sweat-soaked house show in Five Points about the band, which releases a vinyl version of its demo tape on Saturday at Old Curtis Street (2100 Curtis Street) and the band's upcoming tour.

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LOS CAMPESINOS! @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 1/31/12

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Los Campesinos! is a band weathered by fine lines. By attending one of the Welsh septet's shows, you are, whether you know it or not, crossing one of your own in the sand. You are saying that you prefer precociousness to pretense, that you listen to blunt honesty and bold drama, that you're cool with your rock bands sounding and looking more than a little bit cute. And if you and your bespectacled face made it to the Bluebird last night for an earnest, strangely Buzzcocks-esque take on all of these qualities, you will notice that you are still a fan.

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