Saturday Night Live

Even sobriety can't tame comedian Ben Roy's savage humor

See also: Everybody Loves Ben Roy: Denver comics weigh in on their longtime colleague

The ten best concerts in Denver this week

Ready for another solid week of shows? Good. There's plenty to look forward to this week, a diverse batch of offerings from the jammier side of things with the Disco Biscuits, who's setting up shop in Colorado for three nights, to the long and eagerly awaited Denver appearance of Cat Power to a floo ... 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 >>

Moovers and Shakers 2012: Backbeat writers praise the year's best local albums

See also: Backbeat writers sound off on the year's best national albums

The five best concerts this week: October 22-26

New week, whole new batch of shows. We start off the week with an absolute bang -- Sleigh Bells tonight at the Boulder Theater -- and end it with lauded locals Big Head Todd and the Monsters playing a super intimate show at the Soiled Dove Underground to raise money to give emergency aid to those ba ... More >>

Politics as Unusual

American Idol Top 10: Erika Van Pelt and Lana Del Rey underperform

In the past two weeks, American Idol has eliminated two of its weaker contestants, Shannon Magrane last week and Erika Van Pelt last night. While we're sad to see them go (kind of), what we'd really like to see eliminated is the strange choice of music themes from week to week. A Billy Joel week(rea ... More >>

Review: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros at the Ogden, 3/21/12

EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS @ OGDEN THEATRE | 3/22/12 Fresh off their stint at South By Southwest, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros delivered a strong dose of their tent-revival mania to Denver last night. Strutting a fine line between sunshine hippie cult and televangelist showmanship, ... More >>

Lana Del Rey is both hipster and poseur

Brian Williams to Gawker: "Lana Del Rey had one of the worst outings in SNL history"

​Yesterday, NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams unwittingly -- and probably very much to his chagrin -- became the most visible among Lana Del Rey's detractors following her awkward performance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. He earned this distinction thanks to a note that he sent ... More >>

Thirteen hottest vegetarians, in honor of Hug a Vegetarian Day

Flickr photo​As if vegetarians don't get enough kudos for being greener and more animal-friendly than their meat-eating counterparts, now they get rewarded with hugs. And who doesn't love a hug? Today is Hug a Vegetarian Day, according to PETA2. And since we've been slaving away in our cubic ... More >>

Darrell Hammond says Denver's Comedy Works is his favorite

Inside Jokes

Matt Arnold for Republican Party chair: Will he succeed Dick Wadhams with Army of Darkness?

GOP role model?​Matt Arnold, the man behind Clear the Bench Colorado, has announced his intention to succeed Dick Wadhams as Colorado Republican Party boss -- and it promises to be a take-no-prisoners bid. The profile photo on his campaign Facebook page showcases a chainsaw-wielding Bruce Camp ... More >>

Tracy Morgan or Tracy Jordan? A quote quiz

​Tracy Morgan called Sarah Palin "good masturbation material" last night on national television during a TNT broadcast of an NBA game. Maybe not what the network would have preferred that he say, but a). he was sort of baited and b). this is Tracy Morgan, who is more-or-less completely indisti ... More >>

10 teen pop stars who fell from the public's grace

Smile!​Lindsay Lohan may or may not go to prison (again) because she may or may not have assaulted a staff member of the rehab facility she's staying in. Her parents must be so proud. Oh, wait... never mind. Lohan, whose music career was brief and mostly predicated upon cleavage, joins a panth ... More >>

In honor of Vladimir Putin singing "Blueberry Hill," here are five of the best singing politicians

​If you haven't seen this video of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin singing "Blueberry Hill," stop what you're doing right now and watch it. It's just that amazing. You see, in America, we sing to the president, but in Soviet Russia, the president sings to you (sorry!). Actually, we're pr ... More >>

10 things to do for $10 this weekend, December 10-12, 2010

Hamilton was once quoted as saying, "I can last all night."​Sure, you still need to find a Christmas present or holiday gift for your dad that isn't somehow related to golf, but maybe if you hit up some awesome DJ nights, the Candy Cane Festival or any other event this weekend you'll have a cr ... More >>

Frontier Airlines' CEO Bryan Bedford nearly gets a sh@# shower on Undercover Boss

Bryan Bedford.​Executives have had to do a lot of crappy jobs on the CBS reality series Undercover Boss. But on last night's episode, Frontier Airlines CEO Bryan Bedford may have set a new standard -- by risking a literal shit shower while off-loading what an employee refers to as a "lotta po ... More >>

Top five fictional foods and drinks on television that we'd really, really like to try

A Flickr photo​In cartoon world, Matt Groening brought us Duff beer, and Hanna-Barbera created fast food brontosaurus ribs. In books, C.S. Lewis is responsible for the Turkish delight with which the White Witch tempted Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and we can credit Lewis ... More >>

Steve Martin concocts an unlikely meeting of the minds in Picasso at the Lapin Agile

The Top 10 Jersey Shore Parodies

Jersey Shore is over. The fact that a 10-episode reality TV show needs no introduction and that its conclusion is an event is shocking. Whether the show was so successful because it was Freud's wet dream or because we secretly love stereotypes or because of some unrepeatable Gladwellian cultural coc ... More >>

Jimmy Fallon on Boulder and meeting Adele Arakawa at Burning Man

Jimmy Fallon dressed like a typical Boulder resident. Yes, I, too, assumed that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would be a disaster. But it's actually pretty funny on occasions, as demonstrated by a bit from yesterday's show in which the former Saturday Night Live self-chuckler pretended to do eight p ... More >>

Live From Mars

The Flaming Lips’ Christmas film hits the Boulder Theater screen.

Carlin Continues

Rock On

Comedian Chris Rock offers no apologies.

Oscar-Starved

Killer Climax

Cellar Beware

Don't look in the basement.

Top Five Thanksgiving Songs

Five for Fighting

Just because Jurassic 5's latest disc is titled Feedback doesn't mean the crew's looking for any.

Union Men

The Erasure twosome tries twang.

Erasure

Union Street (Mute)

Call the Cops

Stick it to The Man and avoid this slipshod, ugly mess.

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Focking Wonderful

Streisand and Hoffman save a family -- and a movie, too.

Capitol Idea

Al Gore’s daughter, Kristen, lampoons the power of D.C. in her first novel.

Feels Like Eighty Days

Jackie Chan takes a long trip without going anyplace new.

A Good Buzz

Jim Jarmusch serves the perfect blend: Coffee and Cigarettes.

Still Waters

Dark undertones cloud the satiric musical froth of Urinetown.

See Dick, and Tom, Run

In comedy--and comebacks--it's all about the timing.

Improving Improv

Second City brings first-rate humor back to Colorado.

Deep Bloat

The Farrelly Brothers take a churn for the worse in Osmosis Jones.

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.

Marriage Most Foul

With an uninspired script and all-too-familiar plot, you'll feel like you already know The Story of Us.

Thrills for the week

THRILLS

THRILLS

HIGHLY IRREGULAR

THRILLS