The Jesus and Mary Chain

Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on how to tell when somebody is full of sh*t

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club formed in the late '90s after Peter Hayes left the Brian Jonestown Massacre, when he and his high school friend Robert Been, son of the late Michael Been of the Call, started the band, influenced by acts like the Verve, Loop and the Jesus and Mary Chain. BRMC's self-title ... More >>

Ten Essential albums from the CBGB scene

It's easy to look at what's become of rock music over the last three and a half decades and find countless traces of the CBGB micro-culture and the fast-and-loud aesthetic it cultivated. During their now-legendary years at CBGB, bands like the Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie and Patti Smith were dis ... 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

Oliver Ackerman of A Place to Bury Strangers on the joys of creating Total Sonic Annihilation

A Place to Bury Strangers makes the kind of guitar rock that doesn't just carry melody but is rather a palpable, elemental presence in the room. From early on, the act drew immediate comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, the Cure and Big Black, as critics searched for adequate an ... More >>

The ten best concerts this weekend: Nov. 9-11

Welcome to the weekend! You ready to toss a few cold ones back and get a little loose? Thought so. Us, too. As always, there is ton of good music and a wide variety at that to dazzle and delight you this weekend in our fine city. If you're a completist who prefers to craft your own itinerary, we've ... More >>

Neil Halstead on playing solo without a setlist and being able to react to the audience

Neil Halstead was one of the guitarists and singers in pioneering shoegaze and ambient band Slowdive in the late '80s and early '90s. Taking guitar sounds and often blurring the sonic signature with synths through creative use of delay pedals and loops, Slowdive was more of a dream-pop band through ... More >>

What's in your bag? Anime and spray paint at PrideFest and Comic Con

Last weekend was jam-packed with events all around Denver. The inaugural Denver Comic Con, PrideFest, Juneteenth and Father's Day, to name just a few, brought very diverse crowds out around the city. And that meant that very different fashion styles were seen on the street -- everything from the rai ... More >>

Wymond Miles on Pinkku and Sacred Bones

Wymond Miles (due tonight at Twist and Shout and tomorrow night at The Gothic Theater) hails from Denver's completely unglamorous suburb directly to the east, Aurora. In the mid-'90s Miles started to become involved in the underground music scene in Denver, initially, and most notably, for his exper ... More >>

British punk rockers, The Vaccines, ballyhoo the Buckhorn Exchange as the best food experience while on tour...really?

​Okay, I admit it: I've never heard of the The Vaccines, a British punk rock band that Rolling Stone magazine calls "Hopped-Up Romantics Ruling the U.K. Charts," which is rather strange, since the music mag compares the group of four to Joy Division and the Jesus and Mary Chain, both of which ... More >>

Crystal Stilts at the Larimer Lounge, 5/16/11

Kyle Smith CRYSTAL STILTS Overcasters • Force Publique 05.16.11 | Larimer Lounge While it was a bit of an odd choice for Force Publique to open for a reverb-drenched indie pop band, Cassie McNeil and James Wayne's industrial-tinged goth pop sounded as good as it did when we last caught the duo a ... More >>

Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai on musical roots and the awful Margaret Thatcher

Steve GullickMogwai​ Formed in 1995, Mogwai quickly made a name for itself with adventurous guitar work and a sound that loosened and opened up the imagination. Over the course of the next sixteen years, the Scottish band very much plotted its own course through exploring every sonic whim wit ... More >>

Crocodiles at Larimer Lounge, 1/22/11

Tom MurphyCrocodiles​ CROCODILES With Hearts In Space and Overcasters 01.22.11 | Larimer Lounge With the stage bathed in shifting hues provided by Shane Williams, Overcasters opened its set with a new song -- something a little more on the bluesy and noisy side of the band's repertoire. Whil ... More >>

Crocodiles

Saturday, January 22, Larimer Lounge, 303-291-1007.

Shaun Durkan of Weekend talks about Sports and the foibles of music journalism

​Formed in 2009, Weekend started out as a trio comprised of guys from punk and hardcore bands in the Bay Area who wanted to do something with a broader sonic palette. Often compared to My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain, Weekend doesn't really sound like either so much as a pop ban ... More >>

Liars

Saturday, July 24, Bluebird Theater, 303-830-8497.

Giving belated props to Black Tambourine, who paved the way for the Girls -- Vivian and Dum Dum, respectively

​ With shit like the Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls blowing up lately, I've been trying to trace the all-to-familiar sound back to at least a semblance of its roots. While I could name off a hundred bands I thought these bands sounded like, I couldn't quite nail it. A couple weeks ago, Slumbe ... More >>

Spoon brings Transference to life, avoids playing it safe at the Ogden

​ Spoon • Deerhunter • Michachu and the Shapes 04.6.10 | Ogden Theatre There are so many people crammed into the Ogden that it's difficult to see the stage. The guy in front of me is rubbing against me so often I'm wondering if his girlfriend is going to get jealous. If the place is stil ... More >>

Backbeat writers weigh in on the year's best national releases

Top Ten Best Soundtracks of the Decade

CQ took itself seriously despite its absurd premise.​Movie soundtracks are a difficult beast to master. They have to take an already existing song and apply it to a new medium in a new context. This often works with varying results, and many songs are so overused in soundtracks, they've lost a ... More >>

Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of December 1, 2009

​As music critics -- and people who generally think about, talk about, listen to and make music -- the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to right now?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation. For t ... More >>

Top ten reunions we'd rather not see

Better Than Ezra ​There have been a lot of bands in the history of the universe and most of them, at one point or another, have broken up. Surprisingly, we've found the majority of them have reformed despite themselves. Another surprise is the amount of bands still playing -- Better Than Ezra, Sev ... More >>

Box Elders

Tuesday, October 13, Bender's Tavern, 303-861-7070.

The Postmarks

Monday, October 5, hi-dive, 720-570-4500; Tuesday, October 6, b.side lounge, 303-473-9463.

Monolith 2009, Day One: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Girl Talk, Of Montreal, the Walkmen and more

Autovaughn, by Aaron Thackeray​ Is this thing on? We're live from Red Rocks for Day One of Year Three of Monolith, the indie-hipster-Urban-Outfitted-neon-fest that marks the end of the Colorado music-festival season. The lovely promotional folks at Madison House have moved the media tent fro ... More >>

Dualistics unveiling new tune tomorrow at hi-dive

The Dualisitcs have been on something of a hot streak for the past six months. They kicked off the year with a brand-new EP that drew great buzz, a solid review and warranted a feature from us. They followed that up a few months later with a Nirvana cover show that had everyone stoked (sorry I misse ... More >>

Glasvegas

Thursday, April 9, Bluebird Theater, 303-830-8497.

Live Review: Magnetic Fields at Boulder Theater

The (literally) deafening buzz of A Place to Bury Strangers

Welcome to the weird, wonderful world of Bradford Cox's Deerhunter

Over the Weekend...A Shoreline Dream, Astrophagus, Overcasters, Widowers, Astra Moveo, Red Orange Yellow, Cat-A-Tac, Hot IQs and Hearts of Palm @ Westword Music Showcase

Swervedriver

Friday, May 23, Marquis Theater, 1-866-468-7621.

45 Second Reviews

Mini Reviews

Mini Reviews

Last Night: Vonnegut, The Frequent Sea and Stars of Track and Field @ hi-dive

This Weekend: Cowboy Curse, Cat-a-tac and Apples in Stereo @ Bluebird Theater

Yes, Dears

Being in a band can be a family affair. Ask these Canadians.

Brian Jonestown Massacre

Saturday, September 16, Boulder Theater, Boulder, 303-786-7030.

The Warlocks

Surgery (Mute)

Colder Than Fargo

Blue EP (Self-released)

The Raveonettes

Pretty in Black (Columbia)

Now Hear This

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Take Them On, On Your Own (Virgin)

Deathray Davies

Midnight at the Black Nail Polish Factory (Glurp)

D.O.L.L. Parts

The members of Division of Laura Lee use musical ingredients from plenty of countries -- but not their own.

The Apples in Stereo

Velocity of Sound (Elephant 6/SpinArt)

PLAYLIST

THRILLS

PLAYLIST

LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE

TWINS SPEAK

AFTER YEARS OF SILENCE, THE COCTEAU TWINS DISCOVER THAT THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.