From July 24-27, the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase, or UMS, will take over Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood with four days of live music.
The UMS will feature over 400 local and national acts across 20 venues. With so many bands playing this upcoming festival chockful of great live music, we'll be helping you out with our UMS Artist Highlights.
In the days leading up to the festival, we'll give you brief bios and some streamable songs to get acquainted with the UMS headliners, along with some great local tastes too.
Over five albums in as many years, The Men have placed themselves among the upper eschelon of highly prolific rock acts of the 21st century, a list of peers that surely includes Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall and labelmates The Fresh & Onlys.
Formed in Brooklyn in 2008, The Men self-released their first album "Immaculada" in 2010, followed by "Leave Home" on the Sacred Bones label (home to the music of David Lynch, Marissa Nadler and Amen Dunes, among others). Both records are lo-fi noise rock extravaganzas: check out "Leave Home" highlight "Bataille" below:
Next came 2012's "Open Your Heart," which widely expanded on the band's first two albums. While the raucous energy remained, the members incorporated genres like country and shoegaze for a more melodic pill to swallow. Highlights from the band's most adored album to date include the title track:
The following year brought two more critically acclaimed releases: the largely acoustic "Campfire Songs" EP, a few songs from which were re-tooled for the "New Moon" LP.
This year the band released their fifth full-length album, "Tomorrow's Hits." Tracks like "Pearly Gates" feature lively blues piano that brings to mind classic bar rock of the 1970s.
Catch The Men at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 27 at the UMS Main Stage. More details about UMS bands and the schedule is available via Reverb.
And stay tuned to OpenAir for more UMS Artist Highlights!
