Alicia Keys

Ten Grammy awards that you don't see on TV but that are totally worth being televised

The Grammys are supposed to be "music's biggest night." Unfortunately, the only person who truly believes this is the copywriter who came up with that tagline. There are easily five festivals every year with stakes to the same claim. One of the highlights of this year's Grammys was a Bruno Mars/Stin ... More >>

A Joyous Noise

New shows: SnowBall Music Festival adds STS9 and other acts, the Pharcyde at Fox and more

New week, new year, new show announcements -- the biggest one this week involves STS9. Fresh off a three-night New Year's Eve run at the Fillmore comes word that the outfit has been added as a headliner at this March's SnowBall Music Festival. We've got the full run down on that below, as well as wo ... More >>

New shows: Justin Bieber adds another date at the Pepsi Center, Imagine Dragons and more

Did you totally blow it? Did you dawdle and miss your chance to pick up tickets to Justin Bieber's now sold-out concert at the Pepsi Center next month? Is your darling niece bummed with you beyond all recognition? Good news for you: You get a do-over -- well, sort of. The Biebs just announced anothe ... More >>

New Shows: Furthur at 1STBANK, 420 show at Red Rocks with Slightly Stoopid, Cypress Hill

Big news on the concert front this week: Furthur, always a local favorite, returns for a series of dates in Colorado, one at the Ogden, followed by three back-to-back nights at 1STBANK Center. Equally as big is word of a 420 show at Red Rocks featuring Cypress Hill, Slightly Stoopid and Tribal Seeds ... More >>

Top 7 goes Gaga, and Jessica Sanchez is still around, but probably won't be past tonight

Last night's episode of American Idol saw the Top 7 tackle a new set of songs -- one produced between now and the turn of the century and one school classic. Some performances worked, some didn't, but there was certainly a lot of Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys for one episode.

White Rabbits: "It was more important to be emotionally visceral and in the moment'"

White Rabbits (due tonight at the Bluebird Theater) moved from Columbia, Missouri to Brooklyn within a year of forming in 2004. The group's music had, from the beginning, an ineffably energetic spirit that could be heard by broader audiences first with its 2007 debut album, Fort Nightly. But it was ... More >>

Prince is a shining example of creative blackness

The day has come for us to celebrate the Purple One. Prince Rogers Nelson is as provocative as he is talented. A startlingly prolific songwriter and a virtuosic musician, Prince has written a slew of mesmerizing songs over the course of his career, both for himself and for other artists too numerous ... More >>

American Idol is back, with a new host of hopefuls

If the hat Steven Tyler wore during last night's premiere of American Idol is anything to go by, it's going to be an interesting season.​Nearly eight months since Scotty McCreery became America's latest Idol in May 2011, it's good to have the cast of American Idol 2.0 back in action. To wit, R ... More >>

The Fray films video for "Heartbeat," the first single from its new album, Scars and Stories

Update (2/7/12): Isaac Slade and Joe King give a track-by-track breakdown of Scars & Stories, the Fray's new album. Update (11/22/11): The full "Heartbeat" video and the Scars and Stories cover art has been added below. And so it begins. The Fray is now in full-on promo mode, ramping up for the r ... More >>

A first look at Foodchain's video for "Dear Industry," the first single from Brunch

Foodchain's new video for "Dear Industry" is a solid visual adaptation of the Alicia Keys-sampled joint from Brunch, the outfit's latest project, released on 11.11.11. Opening with crew shots of the fellas milling about town and interspersed with performance footage filmed at this past summer's Glob ... More >>

John Legend on the resurgence of soul, touring with Sade and the foibles and fortunes of fame

Catch John Legend tonight at the Pepsi Center with Sade​John Legend considers everything, especially when he's being interviewed. He pauses long enough for you to imagine him considering several inferior answers and tossing them before choosing one that sounds just right. Back in the fall of 2 ... More >>

MTV's top five greatest on-air rap moments

​Oh, MTV. There has been no greater platform for fuckery's finest and the brilliance of unfiltered musician craziness than Music Television's many segments. Whether drunken freestyles, acceptance speech interruptions, or classic moments in live performance, hip-hop rightfully lived and thrived ... More >>

Video: American Idol takes over Invesco

One of the best parts about living in America is freedom. The freedom to sing, dance, play in the streets, wear duct-tape skirts, paint your face for televised events and, most importantly, worship false idols. That's right, American Idol has invaded Denver yet again in search of that one voice, th ... More >>

La Toya says Michael Jackson was murdered: Top five other music myths and conspiracies

​In an interview with CNN yesterday, La Toya Jackson stated rather bluntly that she believed her brother was murdered. "I would never, ever think differently," she said. "Michael told me that they were going to murder him." It's not that outrageous of a claim, but it's also one of those things ... More >>

Celebs blackmail fans with Twitter embargo to raise money for AIDS orphans

Keep A Child AliveAlicia Keys is dead!​Celebrities don't really owe the world anything. They do what they do and we treat them like royalty for it and ask nothing in return, except these days for maybe a tweet every couple hours to let us know what they are doing and thinking throughout every ... More >>

Drake

Tuesday, November 2, Wells Fargo Theater, Colorado Convention Center, 303-830-8497.

Drake's "Fireworks," Thank Me Later's latest leak: Does it live up to its name?

​ With close to six months of postponed release dates under its belt, two official videos already out in advance of its supposed release on June 15, and almost every one of its tracks leaked all over the internet, Drake's much anticipated first full-length, Thank Me Later, has generated a ton ... More >>

Do you have a Denver State of Mind? KS-107.5's Larry Ulibarri, Sarah Snead and Hypnautic evidently do.

We're not going to even try and lie: We haven't caught KS-107.5's morning show in a minute, so we have utterly no idea what in the Sam Hill possessed Larry Ulibarri to try his hand at rapping. But Jeez-o-pete if we didn't get a jolt and a half out of seeing homie spit some verses about our beloved h ... More >>

Tonight's MTV Hope for Haiti Telethon has roots here at home with mGive

As you've undoubtedly heard by now, tonight the biggest names in entertainment are coming together for MTV's Hope for Haiti Telethon, a unified relief effort to raise much needed funds for the disaster torn country, devastated by the recent earthquake. The relief effort is wide reaching and beyond m ... More >>

Young Money still on top at Independent Records

​While Vampire Weekend's Contra is dominating the charts nationally and locally, it came in second to the Lil' Wayne-produced Young Money's We Are Young Money, which has sat at the number one slot at Independent Records for a month now. Snoop Dogg's Malice N Wonderland, Gucci Mane's State vs. Radr ... More >>

Young Money tops charts at Independent for third week in a row

​Although Lil Wayne is heading to prison next month after pleading guilty to gun charges, the rapper's gotta be pretty damn happy with how well Young Money's We Are Young Money is selling. It's number twelve on Billboard's Top 200, and locally, it's on top of Independent's top sellers for the thir ... More >>

Young Money grabs top spot at Independent Records again

​Lil Wayne's hip-hop project Young Money nabbed the top spot at Independent Records for the second week in a row with We Are Young Money, which features Nicki Minaj, Drake, Jae Miltz and Lil Twist. Snoop Dogg, meanwhile, came in second with Malice 'N Wonderland and Eminem's Relapse: Refill came in ... More >>

Flaming Lips grab top spot at Wax Trax

​The Flaming Lips' latest effort, Embryonic, grabbed the top spot at Wax Trax, while Alicia Keys' new disc, The Element of Freedom, came in second for the week ending January 3. The Felt Pilotes' Wonderful Summer, Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream and the This is Gothic: The Bat Cave Anthology compi ... More >>

Young Money top seller at Independent Records

​Young Money, a hip-hop collaboration lead by Lil Wayne, grabbed the top spot at Independent Records for the week ending December 27. The group's We Are Young Money features Nicki Minaj, Drake, Jae Miltz, Lil Twist, Gucci Mane and more. Eminem's Relapse checked in at number two, while Mary J. Blig ... More >>

Alicia Keys top seller at Independent Records

​Alicia Keys grabbed the top spot at Independent Records with her fourth studio effort, The Element of Freedom, released last week on J Records. Gucci Mane, who was on top last week with The State vs. Radric Davis, slipped to number two, while Snoop Dogg's Malice 'N Wonderland came in third for th ... More >>

Hey, DJ! Q&A with DJ Bedz

Michael Martin​Every Friday we spotlight the hottest cats behind the decks in the MHC, grilling them to gain some insight on what it takes, exactly, to get the party rocking, to find out about their most treasured crate digging experiences and what they really think when we stumble up to them half ... More >>

Alicia Keys

Wednesday, September 17, Wells Fargo Theatre, 303-830-8497.

Herb’s

A hit in the Ballpark neighborhood.

Mask Minded

Grammy Suckfest Celebrates Half Century of Lameness

The Live Magic of Ghostland Observatory and Alicia Keys and Other Assorted Goodies

Best 2007 - Phoenix: Jordin Sparks's Idol Thoughts

Sanity Claus

Separating holiday-music gifts from seasonal disorders.

Alicia Keys

As I Am
J Records

MTV's VMA Experiment is an Embarrassing Catastrophe

What Garry Didn't Know

Strange but True

A year of dysfunctional family values -- and missing panties.

The Radiators

Thursday, December 15, Fox Theatre, Boulder, 303-443-3399; Friday, December 16, and Saturday, December 17, Quixote's True Blue, 303-297-1772.

Westword's top DVD picks for the week of October 11.

Off Limits

Monkey Business

John Legend

Get Lifted (Columbia Records)

The Beatdown

All hail the return of royalty.

Carina Round

The Disconnection (Interscope Records)

Janet

Damita Jo (Virgin Records)

Alicia Keys

The Diary of Alicia Keys (J-Records)

Nas

God's Son (Columbia)

Backwash

Mongolian throat singers bring very, very old-timey music to Denver.

Discmania

Backbeat writers revisit their favorite albums of the year.

Christmas Seasoning

Hark! The Herald Angels are practically the only group without a holiday CD this year.