Jimi Hendrix

Donna Grantis of 3rd Eye Girl on what it's like to play with Prince

Prince became a household name after the release of his third album, 1982's 1999. Over the years, his perfectly realized blend of rock, pop, funk and jazz has proved equally popular with audiences and critics. Throughout the '80s, Prince released hit records that broke genre barriers, not just in te ... More >>

Yngwie Malmsteen plays to impress himself first

Yngwie Malmsteen is a guitar god known for his supremely technical fretwork. The virtuosic guitarist burst into the world of international music in 1984 with Rising Force. At the age of seven, Malmsteen says, he saw a documentary about the death of Jimi Hendrix and was so taken in by his musical pow ... More >>

Here's what we're all listening to right now: What's on your playlist this week?

Music is life. Or at least it is for us. When we're not writing about it, we're thinking about it, talking about it or listening to it. These are the things that were in heavy rotation for us this week. What are you listening to? What should we be listening to? C'mon now. Sharing is caring. Don't ho ... More >>

New Denver shows: Fun., Tim McGraw, O.A.R., Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and more

We already told you about a pair of killer shows at Red Rocks this summer, a double bill featuring two generations of shock rockers, Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson, and another featuring the National and Local Natives, but there's a bunch of other new shows this week to tell you about, including a ... 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 >>

Twenty fabled moments in Denver music: #8: The Jimi Hendrix Experience's last show

Over the next few weeks, Backbeat will be finishing our count down of the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, we take a look back at Barry Fey's Denver Pop Festival, a three-night musical event in June 1969 that culminated with the final appearance of the Jimi Hendrix Experien ... More >>

Joe Piscopo on Frank Sinatra and Saturday Night Live

Joe Piscopo joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1980, after honing his stand-up chops at New York's Improv; he stayed with the show until 1985. During his SNL stint, he became known for such original characters as the Sports Guy, as well as celebrity impersonations of David Letterman and Frank ... More >>

The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced turns 45

When he came storming onto the scene, Jimi Hendrix made weepy children out of the world's best guitar players, bringing a primal sexuality and grace to his playing that only a true master of the craft could muster. Guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Pete Townsend had spent nearly the whole ... More >>

Sounds of Blackness: Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in history. Before being gifted with a guitar at the age of fifteen, Hendrix used a broom stick in place of the instrument that would later become his most beloved method of communication. Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in November 1 ... More >>

Geoff Barrow of Portishead on Blue Lines, Banksy, Silver Apples and his act's early success

Portishead​Portishead (due Thursday, October 27th, at 1stBank Center) wasn't the first band associated with the aesthetic of trip hop but it is the most commercially successful with major hits in the 1990s. The thing that made the band so remarkable was that the sound it crafted wasn't one tha ... More >>

The 27 Club? More like the posthumous platinum club: Albums sales spurred by death

​You can go on for days debating the musical mysteries of the so called 27 Club -- which includes Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and now Amy Winehouse -- but one thing is certain: The death of these artists had a profound impact on their subsequent sales. Pearl, for example, was rele ... More >>

Reader: What a pity Jimi had to live among them, and die by them

​Yesterday, we brought you the long and strange story of Michael Fairchild, whose labyrinthine research we stumbled across when we were looking into the seemingly random slew of asteroid movies of the late '90s. Fairchild's theories -- which involve Jimi Hendrix, extrasensory perception, Micro ... More >>

Hendrix and the asteroid movie boom of the late '90s: Michael Fairchild explains the connection

​While we were researching asteroid movies for Monday's honorary tribute to Earth's near collision with an oncoming asteroid, one thing was pretty apparent: In the late '90s there were a relative shit-ton of asteroid/meteorite/comet/basic space-junk-getting-hurled-at-Earth movies. Turns out, M ... More >>

Hard Rock Cafe's 40th Anniversary Memorbilia Tour hits Denver next week

​Hard Rock Cafe's 40th Anniversary Memorabilia Tour bus will be outside the Denver location at 500 16th Street for one day only on Wednesday, June 29, from noon to 7 p.m. The exhibit includes the top forty most iconic pieces of music memorabilia from Hard Rock's collection, including Buddy Hol ... More >>

Bootsy Collins on his unique persona and getting his start in funk playing with James Brown

David Carlo​Bootsy Collins (due tonight at The Boulder Theater), a bass player with a larger than life persona, first came to promience in the James Brown band. After leaving Brown's outfit, Collins was convinced by a friend to go to Detroit, where he hooked up with George Clinton, with whom C ... More >>

Flying the Freak Flag

Tonight: Grant Sabin at the Larimer Lounge

​Colorado Springs' slide guitar-playing bluesman Grant Sabin is truly a throwback. The multi-instrumentalist's baby face contradicts both his gruff voice and his repertoire, which includes not only his own modern work, but tributes to Son House and Jimi Hendrix, as well.

The Black Keys

Thursday, June 3, Fillmore Auditorium, 303-830-8497.

Memorial Day Playlist: Ten patriotic (and vaguely patriotic) songs that don't suck

​ As we all prepare to take time out from our hurried lives to remember the brave men and women of the armed forces who fought (and continue to fight) to keep us all free to live our lives as we please, we came up with a list of ten tunes to cue up this Memorial Day as you fire up the grill. ... More >>

Sharon Jones, Erykah Badu top sellers at local record stores

​While there were no clear winners across the board at local record stores, Erykah Badu took the top spot at Albums on the Hill, while Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings' latest effort, I Learned the Hard Way, claimed the top slot at Twist & Shout for the week ending April 11. Dr. Dog's Shame, Sham ... More >>

Broken Bells, Jimi Hendrix top sellers at local record stores

​The Broken Bells' self-titled debut, which features the duo of Danger Mouse and the Shins' Mercer, was a strong seller at local record stores for the week ending March 28. Jimi Hendix's Valleys of Neptune, a new album made of a dozen unreleased tracks that the guitarist recorded four decades ... More >>

Flobots, Gorillaz top sellers at local record stores

​Flobots' Survival Story, released last week on Universal Republic, grabbed the top spot at Albums on the Hill, while coming in second behind Ludacris' Battle of the Sexes at Independent Records. Gorillaz's Plastic Beach was also a strong seller for the week ending March 21. See the full brea ... More >>

Gorillaz, Jimi Hendrix top sellers at local record stores

​On Plastic Beach, the Gorillaz first release since 2005's Demon Days, frontman Damon Albarn recruited a hell of a guest line-up, from Lou Reed and the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon to Mos Def, Bobby Womack and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The album, which was released last week on Virg ... More >>

Experience Hendrix

Sunday, March 14, Paramount Theatre, 1-866-461-6556 (SOLD OUT).

Chef and Tell part two: Michael Long of Opus

Opus executive chef Michael Long​This is part two of my interview with Micheal Long, executive chef of Opus. To read part one of this interview, click here. Culinary inspirations: Norman Van Aken. I'm a south Florida guy, so when I came out of CIA in 1990 and moved back to Florida, Norman wa ... More >>

Wicked Garden launches Night of Bad Decisions tomorrow night

When Wicked Garden opened last Halloween on Larimer, some folks were hoping it might be Denver's answer to Hollywood's Viper Room. But it takes a little more than throwing up a few '80s album covers, pictures of Jimi Hendrix and Angus Young and painting quotes from Aerosmith songs on the wall to pul ... More >>

Was Jimi Hendrix a Mexican?

Live Review: Experience Hendrix at the Paramount Theatre

This Just In 9/11-9/17

Rearview: The Week in Review (7/12/08-7/18/08)

Aged Gracefully

Laughing is good for this old soul.

The Jimi Austin

Draw Your Lines
Self-released

Top Music Turkeys and Other Assorted Goodies

Westword's top DVD picks for the week of September 15, 2005

Drunk of the Week

Gil Evans

The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix (Bluebird)

Tha Liks

X.O. Experience (Loud/Columbia)

Best impromptu karaoke in a Mexican dive bar

Satire Restaurant & Lounge

Give the People a Hand

A new generation is rediscovering one of Denver's strangest bands.

Instrumental Asylum

Swingin' Sting? Bluegrass Bruce? Rhapsodic R.E.M.? CMH Records has given Eighties faves a musical makeover.

Just the Ax, Man

The Atomic Bitchwax and Nebula are among a new breed of bands putting the wank back into guitar rock.

More Songs of the Century

Part two of a pre-millennial trek through a hundred years of pop music.

ALTERNATIVE TO WHAT?

SO FINE

THE MOST MEMORABLE ALBUMS OF 1994.

LETTERS

STAIRWAY TO HELL

OUR LIST OF THE MOST OVERPLAYED CLASSIC-ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME.

A LIGHTER SHADE OF BROWN

MOUTHING OFF

PLAYLIST