Orchard Lounge (due tonight at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom with Mark Farnia and Lindstrom) has been spinning around the country for more than a decade. The trio, made up of Ben Silver and Bethany and Spencer Lokken, stay true the meaning of being a DJ, but recently the three have taken a turn toward making some original music after a decade plus of touring. We spoke with Spencer about tonight's show and what is to come from the Chicago based DJs.

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Robby Krieger and Steve Molitz

When the Roadhouse Rebels come to the Oriental Theater this Sunday night, the act, which features Robby Krieger of the Doors and Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz, they'll be joined by an all-star cast of players, including Oingo Boingo/Mutaytor bassist John Avila, the Black Crowes' Rich Robinson and drummer Joe Magistro. The group will play fresh takes on Doors songs and cuts from Robinson's Through a Crooked Sun, as well as classic soul and rock tunes from the '60s and '70s. We spoke with Krieger about the new jazz album he's working on with two alumni of Frank Zappa's band, playing flamenco guitar, golfing and his time with the Doors.

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Denver's Catheter recently issued its first full-length album in seven years, Southwest Doom Violence, the follow-up to 2005's Dimension 303. The band's latest effort -- bolstering an extensive library of EPs and split releases -- offers a healthy mix of grind, doom, sludge and even crust punk, building on the sound that has earned Cathether worldwide acclaim over the course of its fifteen year existence. We recently caught up with drummer Haroldo Murder during the band's European tour in support of the new album, and he got back to us with answers from the band about the new album, the evolution of grind and being slept on in Denver by everyone from promoters to this very fishwrap.

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Silvia Mautner

This Thursday, May 24, Kool & the Gang is due at the Pepsi Center with Van Halen. While this might seem like an unlikely pairing, the legendary funk/R&B act opening for the equally iconic rock band, Robert "Kool" Bell, Kool & the Gang's founding member, tells us it's working out great. We recently spoke with Bell about how the tour came together, the band's history, the new music that's in the works, a reality-TV show the band is shopping and the musical based on Kool & the Gang songs.

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Chris Stanford

Curren$y has been getting high before it was cool to get high. The New Orleans rapper is releasing his second album this year. Yes, it's only May, but The Stoned Immaculate is set for release in early June, and if you think he's stopping now, you're trippin'. Tonight, Curren$y and Jet Life all-stars make a stop at the Bluebird Theater. We caught up with the NOLA rap fiend yesterday while he was on his tour bus, maxing and relaxing and watching The Godfather. We chopped it up about the new album, inspiration and why he hates the so-called "weed rap" tag.

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Michael Weintrob

Mickey Hart (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) was one of the Grateful Dead's two drummers; along with Bill Kreutzmann, Hart helped weave the unique polyrhythms of the legendary band. Whether as a solo artist, with the Dead or as an activist, Hart always puts his heart and his being into his work, and his active mind has taken him down probably every path that has struck and stirred his imagination.

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The story of Creed (due this Saturday, May 19, at the Paramount Theatre) begins in the mid-'90s, when the band changed its name to Creed from Naked Toddler and embarked on a career marked by hard riffs, mainstream metaphors and Vedder vocals. Not too long after winning a Grammy in 2001, the act nailed itself to a cross with an explosively bad concert in 2002 and eventually disbanded a couple years later. In 2009, the guys came back to life for a national reunion tour and a new, if overtly symbolic, album titled Full Circle. Three years later, the guys are in the midst of another resurrection that involves playing their first two albums in full across the country (Denver gets Human Clay).

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Caroline Desilets

Plants and Animals (due tonight at the hi-dive) began life as an all-instrumental band in Montreal that made sprawling rock epics informed by an improvisational sensibility. But by the time the band was ready for its 2008 debut full-length, Parc Avenue, it no longer seemed to feel the need to explore all directions at once. While that record still showed signs of the trio's origins in more progressive improv, it also displayed hints of where the act would go next.

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Alicia J. Rose

Leftover Salmon (due this Sunday in the middle of 7th and 8th street on Santa Fe between 1 and 6 p.m) has graced the the bluegrass scene with their talents for 22 years and counting. With the passing of Mark Vann, the band hasn't produced an album in eight years. The new addition of Andy Thorn, carried over from Emmitt-Nershi Band, sparked a new interest in touring and inspiration is in a steady flow among the members. The band's new album, Aquatic Hitchhikers, drops May 22, but the band couldn't resist to take over the streets for a little while to show Denver that they still got it. We spoke with Vince Herman and asked him some questions about this new situation they got themselves into.

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courtesy Michael Stein

School Knights in drag for their new music video

School Knights (due tonight at the hi-dive with Force Publique and Mombi) started two years ago in the wake of the dissolution of experimental guitar pop band Weed Diamond. Michael Stein started the project in the waning days of that group as a two piece with Zack Roif. Though the duo's initial sound was far from short on exuberance and punky energy, Stein and Roif felt like the sound could be expanded, and so they brought in Ben Donehower and Morris Kolontyrsky, Roif's bandmates in the Octaves, to add a grater dimension to the songwriting possibilities.

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