Tour Kick Off!!
I remember at Tiny Telephone we ordered Chinese and my fortune cookie said, ‘If you don’t do it excellently, then don’t do it at all,’” muses singer Kyle Gray about recording Rubedo’s debut full-length, Massa Confusa, in San Francisco. “And Ikey just started laughing hysterically.”
Indie rock eccentrics Rubedo are also capable of musical brutality, as evidenced by nearly prog-rock tunes like “Guise of a Traveling Scholar” from the trio’s long-awaited debut album, “Massa Confusa.” However, the album also proves that this threesome, which has been noisily knocking about the Denver music community for years, is capable of nearly anything. With a ’90s-esque lo-fi disregard for studio polish and perfection, Rubedo rambles through genre after genre on its album — swaying, rocking, screaming, crying, laughing, living and dying with undeniable power and passion. Alex Trujillo’s lush guitars, Gregg Ziemba’s cracker-crisp drumming and Kyle Gray’s noisy synths seem capable of creating infinite textures and infinite worlds. Gray’s earnest, emotive vocals give the otherworldly proceedings a human heart. The album’s staggering diversity makes it difficult to pick just one representative track (we’d originally picked five!), but my love for the films of Francois Truffaut ultimately forced me to offer “Antoine Doinel” for your purloining pleasure. Check it out, then pick up the whole album for yourself this Friday, May 4, when the band plays at Unit E (1201 Santa Fe, Denver). Achille Lauro, Hindershot and Cougar Pants (featuring Robin Walker) share the bill.
