John Cage

100 Colorado Creatives: Mark McCoin

#77: Mark McCoin Experimental musician and multimedia artist Mark McCoin has paid his dues many times over, contributing a free-thinking, collaborative style of creativity to the Front Range scene over three decades. He's worked with a who's-who of the local avant-garde, and in the last of those dec ... More >>

Yoko Ono on being involved in the avant-garde and using art and music for social change

Before Yoko Ono even met John Lennon, she was an active and influential figure in international avant-garde art and music. In the 1950s, she went to school at Sarah Lawrence College, during which time she rubbed shoulders with the likes of La Monte Young. Her mentor was the godfather of minimalism, ... More >>

Gateway acts: How Beck opened up a whole new world to an evangelical boy from the Midwest

Gateway acts is a new ongoing series on Backbeat in which we examine the music that served as an entry point for our burgeoning musical obsessions, a gateway drug that tuned us in and turned us on. Today, Josiah Hesse gives up the goods on his Beck jones. There is no way to listen to the music of ... More >>

Dan Deacon on not having a rider asking for snacks and touring as self-sufficiently as possible

Although the great majority of our interviews take place in advance of a show, every now and then we get a chance to hang out with an act when in comes through town. Such was the case yesterday with affable and intelligent Dan Deacon, who took time out of his day to chat with us about a variety of s ... More >>

Laurie Anderson

Wednesday, April 25, Boulder Theater, Boulder, 303-786-7030.

Deconstructing the Beatles: Scott Freiman on how "A Day in the Life" is like Frankenstein

Besides blowing the mind of everyone who ever heard it, Sgt. Pepper broke a lot of ground: The album radically expanded the concept of what pop music could be, in the process inventing the studio technology needed to make it happen. There's probably not another person alive who can articulate what t ... More >>

The Kevin Costner Suicide Pact doesn't stick to a script

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Network Awesome is here to remind us what television was like before it sucked

​This week, Nickelodeon has been running some of its favorite shows of the '90s, finally tapping into what the Internet has been saying all along: People like old television programming. And, as Netflix continues to make its customers increasingly irate with price increases (information releas ... More >>

Kate Bush gets approved to use James Joyce soliloquy: Five songs that skipped that step

James Joyce playing "Stairway to Heaven"​The James Joyce estate is well known for its nearly-impossible-to-break hold on the copyright of his works. Case in point, 22 years ago Kate Bush asked to use a soliloquy from Ulysses in one of her songs and was denied. Most people would just give up, b ... More >>

Bull of Heaven works to provide enough music for several lifetimes

​Most bands will go through their lifespan recording a few hours worth of music. The lucky ones might end up getting a single day's worth of music cut to tape. Composer Clayton Counts and Git Some's Neil Keener of Bull of Heaven have already recorded more than most musicians will in their enti ... More >>

Ten songs proven to make you cry -- if you're British

​Hey, ladies, think your male friends are resilient to emotion? Perhaps you've never seen them tear up, save for that lone teardrop that forms at the end of Rocky IV. Well, if you're looking to evoke a little emotion from a partner, a recent study suggests you can do it with a song. The stu ... More >>

The Music Man

Wet Hair

Wednesday, December 10, Rhinoceropolis, 303-641-9809.

Live Review: Stereolab at Gothic Theatre

Live Review: Yerkish, The Skivies and New Ancient Astronauts at the Falcon

Slight Harp

Rhinoceropolis

Best 2007 - San Francisco: David Harrington's Foreign Policy

The Horace Van Vaughn

hi-dive

Tartar Lamb

Saturday, January 13, West Side Books, 303-480-0220.

Various Artists

OHM+: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music: 1948-1980 (Ellipsis Arts)

Chad VanGaalen

Friday, September 9, Larimer Lounge, 303-291-1007.

Dangerous Sounds

The Experimental Playground blasts classical-music cliches.

Best Avant-Garde Composer

Michael Andrew Doherty

Lazy Like a Foxx

Breakin' All the Rules packs all the fun of a mediocre sitcom.

Wired Science

From laptops to insects to wineglasses, j.frede's sonic experiments leave no sound untweaked.

Consumer Aborts

Don't look for DJ Spooky's new CD in his slot at the record store. It's not for sale.

White Riot

Jewish potty-mouth MC Paul Barman makes a brilliant hip-hop oddity.

Strange Vibrations

Sound tumblers Chris Cutler and Thomas Dimuzio flirt with the fault line.

Too Smart for Their Own Good

The Tragically Hip doesn't believe in dumbing down its music to reach wide audiences. As a result, it's the most popular band in Canada.

Art Beat

Michael Paglia's brief sketches of what's happening in the Denver art scene.

Sage Advice

KBCO's Bret Saunders is taking on the shock jocks -- and winning.

Postivly Negativ

Sampling ad infinitum with America's sonic outlaws.

Welcome to the Terror Drone

Sound artist j.frede welcomes electronic experimenters, ambient minimalists and sonic terrorists into his life and his gallery.

Trischka's Treat

The banjo champion makes music that's finger-pickin' good.

Sound Mind

Plumbing the depths of Ron Bucknam's solo subversion.

Feedback

Thrills for the week

Strings Attached

Colorado Springs composer Stephen Scott on a different way to play piano.

Feedback

COOKING WITH BAKER

NOISE TOWN

FRANKLY SPEAKING

THRILLS

STATE OF GRACE

SINGER-SONGWRITER JEFF BUCKLEY WEARS HIS AMBITIONS ON HIS SLEEVE.

INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PLAYLIST