Best Purveyor of Electro-Pop 2008 | Jen Pumo | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Purveyor of Electro-Pop

Jen Pumo

Adding electronics to traditional songs isn't exactly new. Decades after the form's pioneers began experimenting with Moogs and other doodads, however, many musicians still find it difficult to use this technology in an expressive way. Not so Pumo, whose most recent disc, All Over the Moon, finds her and collaborator Graham Pearce using the inherent chilliness of electronic accoutrements to enhance the atmosphere of such compelling tracks as "Sandstone" and "Space Girl." For both her sound and her future, the sky's the limit.

Best Reason to Go to Boulder for a Show — Still

Fox Theatre

Brandon Marshall
It may seem redundant to continue heaping praise on the Fox Theatre year after year. After all, the venue hasn't undergone any major renovations in recent memory. But it doesn't need to, because the Fox is still the best place along the Front Range to see a show. The sound is flawless, the sightlines unobstructed, and the talent is as compelling, relevant and diverse as ever. Nothing's changed at the Fox — and that's a good thing.

Best Reason to Go to the Springs for a Show

Piano Warehouse

The Piano Warehouse, which is located in Colorado Springs's arts district, hosts semi-regular, all-ages shows whose cover donations go directly to the bands. While a lot of those shows are punk rock, the venue welcomes performances from a full range of underground musicians. And it's truly a piano warehouse, with the bands setting up on one side of the spacious room and the audience mingling amid the piano models. We can make beautiful music together.

Best Reason to Stop Smoking and Start Exercising

Monolith Music Festival

Monolith was a killer last year. But to truly enjoy it, you had to be in good — if not great — shape, because more than half the stages were located at the top of the stairs that ring Red Rocks. Sure, we could have just plopped down and enjoyed the offerings on the main stage, but then we'd have missed incendiary performances from local heroes and other up-and-coming indie acts. After the fourth or fifth trek up those endless steps, it became clear that the pack-and-a-half daily habit we've been nursing isn't such a hot idea. We've since quit and are now in training for this year's festival. If you're considering attending, you should follow suit.

Best Record Label

Rope Swing Cities

Since its launch a little over two years ago, the quirky, eclectic Rope Swing Cities has issued nearly thirty releases in a variety of genres, ranging from the spacey electronic abstractions of Loafeye and the intricate mind-fuck programming of Ten to Tracer's IDM soundscapes and the emotional indie rock of Roger, Roll. Every release is distributed as a free download from the label's website, with select high-profile releases getting deluxe, limited CD treatment. A well-kept Denver secret, Rope Swing Cities has nonetheless established itself as a place for adventurous listeners to discover something new without risk, carving out a fantastic niche for itself even as the traditional concept of a label becomes more irrelevant.

Best Recording

Ian Cooke
The Fall I Fell

Next to death, unrequited love is perhaps the cruelest of life's inventions. Few things are as euphoric as the rush of endorphins you feel the first time someone truly steals the breath from your lungs — or as soul-crushing as later realizing that the one you love doesn't love you. On The Fall I Fell, Ian Cooke does a masterful job of articulating the poignancy of such a scenario over the course of a dozen tracks. From the chamber-heavy instrumentation to Cooke's unique vocal style, this disc is as compelling musically as it is thematically, and its packaging was both unique and perfect. Hands down, Fell was the best local recording of the past year.

Best Reinvention of Theater

Heritage Square Music Hall

What you'll see at Heritage is unlike anything you'll see anywhere else. It's pure silliness, pure Colorado, pure pleasure, an odd mix of dramatics, song, utter craziness and actors just sort of palling around with the audience. Veteran T.J. Mullin writes a lot of the material and delivers his roles with laid-back but assured humor. With the exception of Kira Cauthorn, who's rapidly adjusted to the nutty style required, most of the actors have been around forever. Annie Dwyer, a fearless and inspired clown, supplies much of the energy and lots of surprised laughter. Rory Pierce knows how to be manly and also how to show off his legs in a dress; Alex Crawford is a mean percussionist and a dry-lipped funnyman; and nothing would work as well as it does without the vigorous and nimble musicianship of Randy Johnson.

Best Remount

Titus Andronicus! Buntport Theater Company

The conceit of this sendup of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's bloodiest and most incoherent of plays, is that a wandering troupe of five actors is presenting it as a musical. Buntport actually got us through the entire plot, using a board with caricatures and lightbulbs to tell us which of the five actors was playing which of the several dozen characters at any given moment, a van that moved from place to place on the stage, all kinds of goofy props, and the company's usual combination of literacy and lunacy, playfulness and skill.

Best Research Project

Eight Painters & Sculptors
Victoria H. Myhren Gallery

Victoria H. Myhren Gallery director Dan Jacobs organized a history-gathering project based on eight past members of the University of Denver's art faculty, including some of Denver's best-known artists. The lucky eight were Vance Kirkland, Arnold Rönnebeck, Louise Rönnebeck, John Billmyer, William Sanderson, Otto Bach, Mina Conant and Marion Buchan. Art-history grad students Petra Sertic, Laura Fry, Neely Patton, Jillian Desmond, Lauren Fretz and Kristin Bonk, as well as undergraduate Alisha Stovall, did the legwork for Eight Painters & Sculptors at the University of Denver, constructing a factual record of the department's history by combing old records and bulletins. Some of DU's best art teachers were examined in this important endeavor, and some of its best students deserve all the credit for its success.

Best Riff on Animal Sculptures

Walk in the Park
Plus Gallery

Animals are a well-established topic for sculptors, and many examples can be seen around town in the form of metal or marble horses, stags, lions and eagles. Last fall, California artist Michael Whiting brought his own menagerie to the Plus Gallery for Walk in the Park, which featured constructivist renditions of a doe, a buck, a squirrel, a rabbit, a mouse — and a man and a woman — creating a hard-edged, dusty-colored Garden of Eden. Typically, sculptures of animals are meant to convey strength and beauty, but Whiting made the best of this tradition by instead casting them as players in a conceptual installation.

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