Brooklyn (New York City)

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 >>

Five fast-food meals to stimulate your 4/20 palate

Tomorrow is April 20, which means that you are smoking your "4/20 Eve" stash today in preparation for smoking even more tomorrow. In order to properly pay homage to this greenest of green holidays, you should stay hydrated, stay stoned -- and keep the munchies fed with the best possible eats if you ... More >>

Here's what we're all listening to right now. What's rocking your world this week?

As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it's not surprising that the most common (and favorite) topic of conversation among us is the same: "What are you listening to right now?" Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn't you know it, off we go, on and on about t ... More >>

Eliot Lipp on using a vintage synth live to rough up the edges of finely tuned digital crispness

Producing music since high school, Eliot Lipp found his own voice in hip-hop beats and instrumentals. One of the most recent additions to the Pretty Lights Music roster, Lipp has been notably prolific in cranking out new tracks and mixes. In advance of his three-night Colorado run, which kicks off t ... More >>

Breaking up (with multiple people) is hard to do

My band broke up two weeks ago. For the three or four people who know us and may accidentally find themselves reading this, I won't be discussing why we broke up. Sorry. I know band breakups are really fascinating to everyone who isn't in the band, but it's not really something I can talk about with ... More >>

Backbeat's top five spins: This is what we're listening to this week. What's on your playlist?

As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it's not surprising that the most common (and favorite) topic of conversation among us is the same: "What are you listening to right now?" Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn't you know it, off we go, on and on about t ... More >>

It's hard to take Any Day Now's message seriously

Reader: Bagels at Heidi's Brooklyn Deli are an insult to humanity

It's been a good run, but at the end of November Heidi's Brooklyn Deli will close its original spot in Highland. Brooklyn-to-Denver transplants Heidi and Steve Naples opened the place in the summer of 1997, and today a chain of franchised soup-and-sandwich Heidi's outlets stretch from California to ... More >>

"Stand your ground and pour": How Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver saved GABF

Aisle after aisle, table after table, there was one thing about the 2012 Great American Beer Festival that was different from the event in previous years: There were brewery reps, brewers and, in many cases, brewery owners themselves staffing their booths, hanging out and answering questions. It was ... More >>

Film for Thought

Jewelry designer Pamela Love on mysticism as inspiration and her dream client, Neil Young

NYC-based jewelry designer Pamela Love didn't start out in the accessory business -- her background is in film, and she got work as a stylist for photo and video shoots. But when she found that other artists' works didn't embody her own unique sense of style, Love went off on her her own, designing ... More >>

The Melvins counting on Denver to help them earn a spot in the Guinness World Records book

On Wednesday, September 12, you'll have a chance to become part of history and help the Melvins weasel their way into the Guinness World Records book, which they hope to do by playing shows in all fifty states plus one in the District of Columbia in just 51 days. One can only imagine what sparked th ... More >>

Suckers

Wednesday, May 9, hi-dive, 720-570-4500.

The Worst Moments from SXSW 2012

The last few days, Village Voice Media's indefatigable music staff has been regaling you with stories of the best from SXSW 2012. In the midst of these discoveries, we've been culling another list: the worst shit. The acts that ranged from huge bore-fests to downright lame. Below, you'll find our cr ... More >>

Ready to Die still one of the best hip-hop albums of all time

Notorious B.I.G. died fifteen years ago this week, on March 9, 1997, at age 24, and Ready to Die is the only studio album released during his lifetime. (Life After Death was released fifteen days after his death, on March 25, 1997.) But Ready to Die album contained hits that were rap-wise, ahead of ... More >>

Celebrating the life and rhymes of Biggie Smalls

This week, we're celebrating the life of the late, great Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G., who died fifteen years ago this week. One of hip-hop's most important teachers, Biggie Smalls, as he was affectionately known, empowered corner boys everywhere to tell the story of their struggle ... More >>

Craigslist ad wants suicide girls for new fetish bar concept?

Found at www.suicidegirls.com​Surfing through Craigslist ads is always a fun time, and answering them can be pretty entertaining as well. It's neat -- and telling -- to respond to an ad for a used convection oven and get a middle-aged married man looking for sex, respond to an ad for a part- ... More >>

Colorado beer calendar: Open beery holiday treats at local breweries

Holiday beers are on tap all around town, and you'll find some good ones right at the source -- at the breweries that make them. Some of the wintery wonders you can try include Ugly Sweater at Wit's End Brewing, Winter Spice Ale (with star anise, vanilla soaked in rum, ginger and allspice) at Copper ... More >>

Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill turns 25

​In hindsight Licensed To Ill -- released November 15, 1986 -- came to the table with a virtually infallible recipe: Rick Rubin produced the seminal radio-friendly rap album and Russell Simmons had not only signed Beastie Boys to a then baby Def Jam, but was also managing the three white boys ... More >>

Guess where I'm eating?

The couple behind us were gushing -- positively gushing, I tell you -- over the green chile that spans the plates at this long-standing Mexican joint. But just like I don't get the hoopla surrounding the frankfurters at Coney Island, I definitely don't understand the obsession with the green chile h ... More >>

Oh Target, my Target

Home, sweet Target.​So, I'm moving out. After a commenter on my post last week about yoga declared that I should really get out of my mother's basement if I ever wanted to write about anything other than stretching and poop, I'm more than on it. Not to give this stalker, I mean reader, too muc ... More >>

Hunter Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy on the band's philosophical underpinnings

Brooklyn's Liturgy (due Tuesday, July 12, at the hi-dive with Collapse and Barnacle) started as the solo project of singer/guitarist Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, who started writing the music with a drum machine on which he created the "burst beat" -- a way of taking the blast beat of much grindcore, death ... More >>

Medical marijuana dispensary review: Sailing the sea of green at Mayflower Wellness

​To me, summer is the season of bike rides to Rockies games, barbecues, disc golf, and smoking joints under beautiful Colorado skies. The latter being one of my favorites, I've been looking for new strains to twist up and enjoy, and after checking out Mayflower Wellness's menu online, I hopped ... More >>

Indie thriller Monogamy goes beyond stereotypes

David Sirota on Back to Our Future, Ghostbusters and the decade of "me"

The '80s thing about this picture is that the shower is in a women's locker room.​For much of his career, David Sirota has been a hard-hitting leftist political operative, running campaigns with what former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta once called his "instinct for the jugul ... More >>

Tonight: Air Waves at the Hi-Dive

​Airwaves, the official name of Nicole Schneit and her rotating cast of musicians, began in Brooklyn in 2007 as a full-band extension of Schneit's singer-songwriter beginnings. The minimalist folk-punker's sound didn't change much with the additional instrumentation, as Air Waves still capture ... More >>

Camel's appeal to hipsters is ironic, but not in a good way

​Keeping in line with Camel's historically "urbane" branding strategy, the tobacco company has for the last few months been pushing a series of specially branded cigarette packs commemorating select cities known for their cool: Austin and Seattle, for example, have been highlighted. And while ... More >>

Epicness is epic: Epic Mickey and more new releases this week, November 30, 2010

​As we're nearing the year-end lull, new releases are getting few and far between. That doesn't mean we didn't track down some awesome stuff this week, though -- in fact, if you've got a love for all things Disney, you're in for one hell of a treat, and if you've ever pretended to like physic ... More >>

Woodsman and Gauntlet Hair embark on West Coast tour

​Woodsman and Gauntlet Hair have joined psychedelic forces for a two-week west coast tour, starting November 5. While the former act has already made a few trips to the closest coast, aligning with its fellow ambient wave crashers in Gauntlet Hair will offer a nice taste of what Colorado has b ... More >>

Drink of the week: The only time a Brooklyn is fancier than a Manhattan

See Mogwai's Burning tonight at the Bluebird Theater. It's the next best thing to being there

Renowned Scottish post-rock band Mogwai played a sold out, three-day residency at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York in April 2009. Filmmakers Vincent Moon and Nathanael Le Scouarnec were on hand to capture the finest moments of that residency in stark but emotive black and white ... More >>

How do Mexicans like their coffee?

You Are What You Eat

Another round of cheap, delicious beer at Patrick Carroll's

Yeasayer takes everyone higher at the Bluebird

Sleigh Bells. Photos by Kiernan Maletsky Yeasayer | Sleigh Bells 04.24.10 | The Bluebird Theatre If anyone is getting tired of Brooklyn, it didn't show Saturday -- a pair of the hippest bands from the hippest borough in the world packed the hell out of the Bluebird. We're talking sweaty backs lea ... More >>

The Lumineers

The Lumineers
6cheek Records

High Places

Wednesday, March 31, hi-dive, 720-570-4500.

What are Jay-Z's 99 problems? We know a bitch ain't one.

​ It's well known an this point that Jay-Z (appearing tonight at the Pepsi Center with Sound Tribe Sector 9, Trey Songz and Young Jeezy) has 99 problems, and a bitch, most certainly, ain't one. Curiously, though, until now, no one's really taken a hard look at just what Hova's 99 problems are ... More >>

Crimson and Gold goes for a liquor license tomorrow

Lori MidsonThe former Aroma Cafe space will soon be Crimson and Gold​Aroma Cafe lasted less than a year at 2017 South University Boulevard -- but the brothers who've taken over the space have a restaurant record that stretches back more than twenty years. Kevin and Craig Caldwell, the partne ... More >>

Holy Ghost at Beta

The Antlers

Saturday, February 13, Ogden Theatre, 303-830-8497.

An Avalanche of old tunes

On Sunday night we had the chance to watch the Colorado Avalanche get pummeled by the visiting New York Rangers. While we should have been paying more attention to the game, we couldn't help our ears being caught in familiar sounds. The music selections -- and there were many -- were just awful. Co ... More >>

Gastro Gift Guide: Textiles edition

​Pet peeve: You go over to someone's house for a dinner party, and you go to the bathroom, and there's a fancy pair of hand towels hanging there with ridiculous embroidered gold snowflakes or something, and you can just tell that even though they're towels, and they're hanging there in the bat ... More >>

Life Cycles

Are you willing to lose a car and gain a bike at the Tour de Fat?

Sexy Pizza is good, hot and tasty- natch

Death Vessel

Sketched Out

Heads Up

The Sons Also Rise

A family recipe for success (and, of course, chili) lives on at Sam's No. 3.

Cream Puffs