Nine Inch Nails

Ten tunes to play to when you're getting laid

Like attack ads during election season, the jewelry commercials are set to overdrive. Rose prices have gone up, like, one billion percent. Every you look, it's all pink and red and hearts. Yep, V-Day is upon us. You know what that means, right? It means that after you get all that sappy sentimental ... 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 shouldn't be surprising to find that the most common (and mutually 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 ... More >>

John Famiglietti of HEALTH on being flipped off on tour with NIN, plus Rhino and Pictureplane

HEALTH came out of the circuit of underground bands that played DIY spaces in southern California like Ché Café, Il Corral and the Smell. It was that last place with which the band has become most closely associated. Combining avant-garde electronic music with noise and a frantic post-punk fury, H ... More >>

Groovie Mann of My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult on the act's emotionally charged live shows

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult began as a film idea that Frankie Nardiello and Marsten Daley had that never fully came to fruition. The two met while touring with Ministry, and in 1987, inspired in part by disco, exploitation films, the industrial scene happening around them in Chicago and a mutu ... More >>

The weekend's best live music: Ghostland Observatory, STS9, Warped Tour and more

Welcome to the weekend! Another diverse lineup of musical goodness awaits you. Tonight at Red Rocks, Ghostland Observatory and MiM0SA kick off two nights of electronic goodness that will culminate with a show featuring STS9 tomorrow night. And there's a full slate of rock on tap as well, including M ... More >>

Ministry

Sunday, June 17, Ogden Theatre, 888-929-7849.

DJ Ty Tek branches out with Naked Tree, a new band

Well, now, this is something different. It's roughly the exact opposite of how things usually work. Generally you have musicians dipping their toes in the electronic world before eventually taking a full-on plunge into that side of things. Here, meanwhile, we have Ty Tekavec (you know him better as ... More >>

Full Flavor Fridays presents techno legend Spacetime Continuum, November 25 at Bar Standard

Fan clubs to essay contests: five most effective ways ticket scalpers have been thwarted

​For years, ticket scalpers have been the bane of existence for artists and venues. Directly and indirectly, they've been blamed for everything from rising ticket costs to fewer tours. Over the last few years, though, artists have started to fight back, and they've employed some interesting wa ... More >>

Wilco, Odd Future, Kid Cudi: Who needs a label when you can just start your own?

Wilco's got its own label now, Kid Cudi has Wicked Awesome Records, and Odd Future just launched Odd Future Records. Everyone seems to be moving away from the old model, where the majors handled everything, and have opted to do their own thing. Of course, it's all a bit of a misnomer: While all thes ... More >>

R.I.P. Norio Ohga, the man who helped propel the music CD: a history of the technology

​Former Sony Corporation president Norio Ohga, the man widely attributed for pushing Sony into a new generation that led to the standardization of the Compact Disc format, passed away on Saturday from multiple organ failure. He was 81. While Ohga left Sony in 2000 to focus on music -- namely c ... More >>

Darwin Smith of Darwin Deez on his videos and his informal agenda as an artist

Darwin Deez​ Darwin Deez (due at Larimer Lounge tonight) came to the attention of wider and wider audiences relatively early in the band's career with the release of its singles "Constellations" and "Radar Detector." The videos for both songs revealed a band both eccentric, quirky and capabl ... More >>

Signal Path, Of Montreal and Emancipator filled our playlists this past week

​As people who think about, talk about, listen to and make music, the most common question we encounter is, "What are you listening to right now?" Whether you're looking for recommendations, trying to get a feel for our individual sensibilities, or are just curious, we've compiled a list of al ... More >>

It's 2010, and some members of the music industry still have no clue

​This magical Internet machine has been up and running for a while now, transmitting music from the ether to our ears using a mix of faerie dust and marketing panache. It seems, however, that there is still a decisive split on what this new mystery machine means for the future of music. You' ... More >>

Seraphim Shock in top form at Gothic Theatre over the weekend

Tom MurphySeraphim Shock's Charles Edward looked like a vampire superhero turned pop star.​ SERAPHIM SHOCK The Siren Project • Lola Black 08.27.10 | Gothic Theatre, Englewood Used to be you could count on the opening bands at a Seraphim Shock show to be pretty awful. But in the last severa ... More >>

Elvis's autopsy tools and five more of the grisliest celebrity death souvenirs

​Today is the anniversary of Elvis's death in 1977, and last week, an auction of possibly the most gruesome memorabilia of all time was planned to capitalize on the King's untimely demise. The very same autopsy/embalming tools used to prep the King's final appearance, plus the toe tag identify ... More >>

The Border is back in business

Top Ten Cover Songs of the Decade

Arcade Fire goes undercover.​There have been billions of songs written in the last decade but sometimes it's not the new ones that matter, it's the reimaginings. Some people argue a great cover song is decided by it's accuracy to the original, others want something new to be brought into the m ... More >>

Top Ten Indie Rock Songs of the Decade

The chills-inducing men of Midlake​To some, indie rock is an aesthetic, something between Sonic Youth and Pavement that's played by people with in mop-tops and ringer t-shirts with cans of Pabst atop their amplifiers. Others, meanwhile, might define indie rock literally as music recorded and p ... More >>

Music as a weapon: Make it stop for chrissakes! This is torture, man.

SoKabs (via Flickr)​Did you see this yet? We just caught a link to this on Twitter (thanks, MyBodySings), a list of artists whose music was used "during the detention and interrogation of" to torture "prisoners at Guantanamo and other US facilities"? The list, published by the National Security Ar ... More >>

Nine Inch Nails, Death Cab for Cutie, Rod Stewart shows announced

In addition to the My Bloody Valentine and Phish shows that we already reported, there were a lot of other concert announcements this week, including Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction at Fiddler's Green on Tuesday, May 26, Death Cab for Cutie at Red Rocks on Tuesday, July 14 and Rod Stewart at Fi ... More >>

Holding on by letting go, part one

Bands in Denver are lucky. Getting gigs and building a fanbase locally are actually pretty easy. There's no shortage of small and midsized venues where a nascent group can cut its teeth, build the buzz and start to plot its graduation to theaters. But how do you get your music into th ... More >>

Mile High Makeout: The rise of Meese

Last week, I attended Meese's whiskey-and-magazine sponsored show at the b.side Lounge in Boulder. The free event only allowed about 100 people into the Lounge's less-than-optimal room, making for the most intimate show this skyrocketing group will be giving for a long time to come. While the b ... More >>

Pigging out on baby back pork ribs

Meese's Atlantic Debut Nearing Completion

Peter Murphy

Murder by Death

Friday, May 9, Bluebird Theater, 303-830-8497.

Mile High Makeout: Tasting the Cookie

On the Download

The best in legitimate, artist-approved exclusives.

Taking the World On

After five months of interest, Meese signs with Atlantic Records.

Blue Ice

A good goth night is hard to find.

James Murphy and Marcus Lambkin

The Church

Darkness Prevails

I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness sheds light on its latest disc.

Pop Rocks

Ten albums that will snap and fizz in your earbuds all winter long.

Ghost in the Machinist

Christian Bale chases phantoms and loses sleep in Brad Anderson's latest.

Dillinger Escape Plan

Miss Machine (Relapse)

Retroactive

W.A.S.P.

The Beatdown

All I need is the air that I breathe.

Broken Spindles

Fulfilled/Complete (Saddle Creek)

New Men, Blue Men

Azure like it

Trans Am

TA (Thrill Jockey)

Nine Inch Nails

And All That Could Have Been (Nothing)

Summertime Rolls

It's the time of the season to check out some local releases.

Judgment Day

Backbeat contributors offer up their favorite recordings of 1999.

Playlist

Ol' Dirty Bastard, Richmond Fontaine, Basement Jaxx, Barbra Streisand

Feedback

Feedback

SHLOCK OF THE NEW

THEY CALL HIM MISTER MANSON!

THE LEADER OF MARILYN MANSON WANTS TO BECOME EVERY PARENT'S NIGHTMARE.

THRILLS