Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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As thriving as South Broadway is today, it wasn't always that way -- the Mayan was almost razed

These days, South Broadway is a thriving nightlife district that has undergone a cavalcade of changes in the past few years. As much of a makeover as the strip has had, though, not everybody's stoked with the changes. If you've logged on to Facebook, you've no doubt seen posts from some people expre ... More >>

Clear Creek Rapidgrass Music Festival lineup

Dig your bluegrass? Banjos and mandolins make your heart swell? Great. You're gonna love this shindig, two days of banjo goodness up in the hills: Clear Creek Rapidgrass is slated to go down on the first weekend of July at the Shelly/ Quinn Baseball Fields in Idaho Springs, on Friday, July 5 and Sat ... More >>

Calling all Jane Austen fans! The sold-out Sense & Sensibility The Musical adds a date

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen fans will find a way to experience her work -- and now Denver has another option. After the Stage Theatre at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts sold out the entire run of Sense & Sensibility: The Musical, the troupe has added one more da ... More >>

Prairie dog poisonings not the only things angering Stapleton residents

This week's feature, "The Dogs of War," reports on the ongoing campaign to manage -- and, in some cases, exterminate with poison -- prairie dog colonies in the emerging Stapleton community. Master developer Forest City and city park managers are battling to protect natural-looking (but not quite nat ... More >>

Pusha T

Tuesday, May 14, Ogden Theatre, 888-929-7849.

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The Watching Hour launches summer series with Requiem for a Dream

On the surface, Darren Aronofsky's bleak masterpiece Requiem for a Dream, the screwball musical nun-comedy of Sister Act and a spaghetti Western from Thailand don't have much in common. In the eyes of Denver Film Society programming director Keith Garcia, they all share one important trait: They're ... More >>

Do drugs make musicians more creative?

Do drugs fuel creativity? Is an addled mind essential to making great music? Does sobriety cause creative impotence? What if Jimi Hendrix had suddenly decided to enter a twelve-step program? Would Are You Experienced? have sucked? To answer this nagging question, you have to take a look at rock's re ... More >>

A rundown of the rap world's favorite drugs

Drug culture isn't relegated exclusively to rock, obviously. For its part, the rap game is equally loaded with drug references of all kinds, from Promethazine and DMT to LSD and PCP, and likewise addled with its own cautionary tales and fatalities. While there's nothing as concrete to suggest that d ... More >>

The ten best concerts to see in Denver this week

SHABAZZ PALACES @ LARIMER LOUNGE | MON, 5/6/13 In the first half of the '90s, Ishmael Butler went by the moniker "Butterfly" as part of the rap trio Digable Planets. After the outfit's 1995 split, the group performed one-off shows here and there, but since 2009, Butler has released music with Tendai ... More >>

Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company announces eighth season -- including a world premiere

The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company has just announced its upcoming season, the eighth for this troupe, and it's an intriguing one that includes three regional premieres and one significant capture: And the Sun Stood Still, a play about Copernicus and his struggle to publish On the Revolutions of t ... More >>

Ten best hip-hop shows in Denver this month

FLOBOTS @ AGGIE THEATRE | FRI, 5/3/13 Half a decade after releasing the platinum single "Handlebars," which made rounds on radios across the country, the Flobots have grown significantly, both as a musical group and as a philanthropic force within the Denver community. Since parting ways with Univer ... More >>

Zac Brown Band's Jimmy De Martini on genre-bending country songs

Colin Livingston's Art Bucket turns commerce on its head at Plus

See also: Photos: Four exhibits at Plus Gallery and Spark Gallery focus on conceptual art

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The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival celebrates the merging of two art forms

The idea for The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival began when poet and filmmaker R.W. Perkins realized he was the guy who could make it happen. "I'm a video poet and had a lot of success with my stuff overseas -- I was noticing a lot of really talented filmmakers being showcased in Germany and the ... More >>

Space Jam

Zac Brown Band's Jimmy de Martini on going from an airport shuttle to touring in eight buses

Jimmy De Martini's musical background is rooted more in Jimmy Page than Jimmy Dean, more in the work of rock acts like Guns N' Roses than contemporary country artists like Alan Jackson. But for nearly a decade, De Martini has played fiddle for the Zac Brown Band, one of the most commercially success ... More >>

JRebelZ on female MCs finding their own voice instead of playing second fiddle to men

JRebelZ is steadily making a name for herself in the local hip-hop scene. Known otherwise as Jaqueline Rodriguez, JRebelZ came to Denver from El Paso more than a decade ago, and says Nas is the one who sparked her passion for rhyming. We recently caught up with the MC, who just dropped a video for h ... More >>

May brings Maibocks, spring tappings and the start of beer-fest season

Salt Lake City-based Epic Brewing, which announced in January that it will build a 20,000-square-foot brewery and taphouse in Denver, updated its followers on social media this week with a couple of pictures and some potential opening dates. The Facebook pictures (like the one above) show the brewer ... More >>

The ten best diss tracks of all time

Since hip-hop's genesis, beef has been as integral a driving force to the art as bravado. There's been some titanic tangles over the years, from Canibus facing off with LL Cool J to Jay-Z and Nas locking horns with one other, all of which have resulted in some relentless and incendiary rhymes being ... More >>

Celebrate life with art and poetry by Hektor Munoz tonight

The 4 U 2 Place in the King Soopers complex at 1331 Speer Boulevard is hosting a Poetry Art Party tonight celebrating the work of three esoteric artists: Brian Curran, Hektor Munoz and John Watts, all members of the Denver Art Society. See also: - Art for Life with Hektor Munoz - Photos: The 2013 ... More >>

Barry Fey is dead: Towering figure in Denver music scene passes away

We've just learned that Barry Fey, a larger-than-life figure who helped put Denver on the music-business map, has died. At this writing, the circumstances of Fey's death have not been made public, but he has been ill of late. His personal Facebook page features a March 11 post that reads, "I am hap ... More >>

KING

Thursday, April 25, Bluebird Theater, 888-929-7849; Sunday, April 28, Fox Theatre, Boulder, 303-443-3399.

Anthony Jeselnik's five most deliciously offensive moments

Between his standup performances and his Comedy Central show, The Jeselnik Offensive, handsome asshole Anthony Jeselnik has slapped the P.C. button of just about every sociopolitical demographic the world over. Whether you're a liberal female with an eating disorder or a conservative Catholic who su ... More >>

Boston Marathon bombing suspect was a rap fan: Ten song lyrics Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tweeted

Time and distance provide prospective -- isn't that what they say? Sure enough, the further removed we are from the recent Boston Marathon bombing, the more the picture appears to be coming into focus of the two brothers alleged to have conducted the terror plot. From analyzing their online presen ... More >>

Did Daft Punk "Get Lucky" with Pharrell, or vice versa? Examining Pharrell's ten greatest misses

Before it was even released, "Get Lucky," the first single from Daft Punk's forthcoming album "Random Access Memories," set the world on fire. From the fan edits of the track to the sixty second commercial from Saturday Night Live to the album teaser from Coachella, "Get Lucky" generated more than t ... More >>

Killer Comedy

Twenty fabled moments in Denver music, #6: Black Crowes frontman spits on woman at 7-11

Backbeat is continuing to count down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today we take a look back at the time when Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson spit on a woman at 7-11 because she had the audacity not to recognize him. Two months after getting kicked off ZZ Top's tour ... More >>

Hot 107.1 reborn online as Beatgasm.com

In its short life span, HOT 107.1 managed to build a decent following with its EDM format -- decent, but not quite big enough, as the station ended up flipping formats. At first the frequency was unveiled as Pot 107.1, which turned out to be a stunt (what a brilliant format that would've been, thoug ... More >>

The fifty greatest rap groups of all time

There's something great about a hip-hop group. From the beginning, it was never intended to be a solo endeavor; rap began in cyphers at block parties, and the first established rappers were components of a collective centered around the more important DJ. Even now that the rapper is the star, it's n ... More >>

Method Man and Redman at Cervantes', 4/20/13

METHOD MAN & REDMAN @ CERVANTES' | 4/20/13 Appearing to a sold out crowd, hip-hop and weed icons Method Man and Redman turned Cervantes into a backyard house party as the MCs delighted the crowd with classic hits and an energetic stage show that showcased their timeless music. The ballroom served as ... More >>

The twelve best concerts in Denver this weekend

LUCERO @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | THURS, 4/18/13 Outside of perhaps the Hold Steady -- which shares a proclivity for Bruce Springsteen -- nobody plays straight-up rock these days as convincingly as Lucero. Led by Ben Nichols's gravelly croak, Lucero borrows liberally from the Boss and Lynyrd Skynyrd on so ... More >>

10 things to do for $10 in Denver this weekend (7 free!), April 19-21

Yes, weed is now legal in Colorado. And yes, this weekend is the giant 4/20 celebration. But that doesn't mean that all the fun will be in Civic Center Park.From an alternative 4/20 celebration with music and comedy to Record Store Day to a free theater performance, this weekend is full of events th ... More >>

Maya Jane Coles

Saturday, April 20, NORAD, 303-297-7884.

The fifty greatest rap groups of all time: 50-26

There's something great about a hip-hop group. From the beginning, it was never intended to be a solo endeavor; rap began in cyphers at block parties, and the first established rappers were components of a collective centered around the more important DJ. Even now that the rapper is the star, it's n ... More >>

Slam Bam

Ten acts that clearly worship The Smiths

Few bands in history have cast a longer shadow than The Smiths. They've inspired countless imitators and spiritual successors since they called it quits in 1987. While skinny indie kids moaning about the hardships of life are a dime a dozen, tracking down the successful artists influenced by Morriss ... More >>

Raekwon's thoughts on storytelling in hip-hop

This Friday, Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan is teaming up with DJ Premier to celebrate 4/20 with the legendary DJ Premier at the 420 Extravaganja this Friday, April 19, at HoodLab. This show marks the first time Raekwon and DJ Premier share a bill. We spoke with Raekwon about the prospect of performing ... More >>

Pretty Lights, A Color Map of the Sun: Derek Vincent Smith reveals details of new album

The Daft Punk dudes may be generating all the headlines right now for its forthcoming album, Random Access Memories, on which they flip the script by incorporating analogue instruments and production techniques into producing their new album, but they're not the only ones turning back the clock. Pre ... More >>

The ten best concerts in Denver this weekend

CHUCK RAGAN @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | SAT, 4/13/13 Chuck Ragan first made his mark as the frontman of Hot Water Music, one of the more highly influential punk acts to emerge in the '90s. Fueled by youthful exuberance and inspired in part by the music that surrounding the skateboarding culture of the tim ... More >>

Curtis Alan Jones will be as smooth as Green Velvet at Beta

Eric Greif, Death's longtime manager, on the significance and influence of Death on metal

Founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner, Death helped to codify the aesthetic of death metal alongside early pioneers like Possessed. Schuldiner was sixteen when the band formed and twenty by the time the outfit's debut album, 1987's Scream Bloody Gore, was released. The sonic brutality of the first two ... More >>

Coachella 2013 YouTube schedule and lineup

If you're one of the fortunate ones who's going to Coachella this weekend, feel free to go ahead and skip to the end of this post, where you'll find the full lineup and schedule. If, however, you're a flat broke music lover who'll be attending Couchella, as some clever dude somewhere has coined it, ... More >>

The ten greatest East Coast rappers of all time

The East Coast, particularly New York, is the mecca of hip-hop. It's birthplace and still the most reliable source for pure, uncut, unadulterated rap music. Chronicling the great MCs from the region would result in a list of hundreds. Ranking the top ten proves somewhat limiting, but it's also an en ... More >>

Photos: Civic Center Park is commemorated as a national historic landmark

Mayor Michael Hancock joined state and national representatives yesterday in a ceremony inside the McNichols building to reveal plaques that commemorate Civic Center's new status as a national historic landmark. That honor is determined by the National Park Service and given to areas or buildings th ... More >>

Video: Learn about the causes behind new reality show Mile High Social

If anyone still thinks that Mile High Social, the Denver-based reality show, will be just like all the other reality shows with their drama and negative focus, take a look at this latest teaser. In outtakes from the final callbacks, it's clear that these are real women who are serious about their ca ... More >>

Dirk Verbeuren of Soilwork on playing a homemade drum kit made of cardboard boxes

Soilwork formed in Helsinborg, Sweden, in 1995 and developed out of the Gothenburg melodic death metal mold, incorporating aspects of NWOBHM and other styles of music to forge an angular yet flowing sound of its own. Though clearly rooted in prog, there is enough of punk frayed edges in the band's m ... More >>