Chance the Rapper took the opportunity to shoot a video for the song “How Great” on September 20 while passing through Denver as part of his ongoing tour. The hip-hop star used a choir of local singers, and the video was shot using nine iPhones. One of the singers involved…
On Friday, November 4, the Open Media Foundation hosts its next monthly free Open Music Session event, which will feature musical guests the Hang Rounders and comedian Timmi Lasley. Last month, the October 2016 Open Music Session welcomed Jux County, a band recently profiled in Westword and self-described as “punktry.”…
It’s strange to think that it’s been fifteen years since San Francisco’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Club released its B.R.M.C. debut album. Back then, rock and roll was wallowing in a garage-rock revival led by Detroit bands like the White Stripes, Scandinavians like the Hellacopters, and Australasians like the Datsuns. The downside of…
Since co-founding members Chris Ross and Myles Heskett left 1970s-tinged Australian hard-rock band Wolfmother in 2008, it has been less a band in the conventional sense and more the musical outlet of sole remaining original member Andrew Stockdale. The singer and guitarist plays nearly everything on new album Victorious, with…
G. Brown was a budding music journalist in his late teens when he first made his way up to Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It was 1973 and, following a riot at a Jethro Tull show in ’71, the authorities had banned “harder” rock bands from performing at the venue. So Brown…
You’re a Chicago-based indie record label and you’ve discovered that your stockrooms are overflowing. Traditional record stores can’t put all of the releases on display, so the challenge is putting about 300 different pieces of vinyl, each by a largely unknown artist, in front of the eyes of the record-buying…
Music fan or not, it seems like everybody in the civilized world is becoming increasingly reliant on their phones, with the iPhone still firmly atop the “hip and techy” tree. And those of you addicted to your iPhone don’t need to be told about the countless apps, but there’s a…
In 1991, three of the “Big Four” of thrash metal embarked on a tour that has since been hailed as a high point for the genre, dubbed the Clash of the Titans. Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth — all potential headliners in their own right — laid waste to venues across the…
A few weeks ago, we published a list of “The Ten Finest Tribute Bands in Colorado,” and this is a sequel of sorts. Every city needs its cover bands, those groups that play out-of-the-way bars on a Thursday night, or weddings and corporate events, giving the audience exactly what they want…
On Friday, October 7, the Open Media Foundation hosts its next monthly free Open Music Session event, which will feature musical guests Jux County and comedian Brent Gill. Last month, the September 2016 Open Music Session welcomed bluesy pop-rock band the Symbols, a band that actually describes its own music…
When Chicago metal band Disturbed emerged with debut album The Sickness in 2000, having formed as Brawl in 1994, the hard rock-loving world was nu-metal crazy. Bands like Korn and Coal Chamber (yes, even Coal Chamber) had convinced everyone that going severely bass-heavy and adding an element of hip-hop to the vocals…
America’s love affair with British rock and roll is long and storied. From the moment the Beatles washed up on these shores, American fans began flocking to bands like the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Kinks, later discovering the colorful antics of the Sex Pistols and T. Rex, not…
Since forming 1993 and putting out a self-titled debut album in 1995, Garbage has not been a band to take the easy road. Famously composed of three guys known primarily for their production work prior to this band, it was Steve Marker who spotted Shirley Manson singing with Scottish alt-rockers…
English singer and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier can barely believe what’s going on in his life right now. In 2011, he was seventeen and making split-screen YouTube videos of himself playing a variety of different instruments while covering songs like Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.” But the Internet’s…
Tribute bands. Love them or loathe them, they’ve been big business for years now, and as nostalgia tightens its grip on music fans, they’ll likely go on and thrive. People love going out, paying $5 or so for a ticket, and catching a band playing faithful versions of songs they…
The High Elevation Rock Festival at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on Saturday, September 10, puts forth quite the smorgasbord of heavy music. Local alt-metal chanteuse Lola Black and hairy Southern metallers the Texas Hippie Coalition sit alongside industrial pioneers Ministry and metal giants Avenged Sevenfold. And somewhere awkwardly in between it…
Proggy pop-rockers Toto were forced to cancel their Denver show at the Paramount Theatre on Sunday night after singer Joseph Williams, son of Star Wars composer John Williams, was taken to a local hospital. Williams said on the official Toto Facebook page that, “Last night in Denver I experienced my…
The great thing about writing about music for a publication like Westword is you never really know what’s going to land itself on your task list from one day to the next. Never is that more true that right now because, just as we were winding down in preparation for…
It’s been ten years since local indie-folk band Paper Bird formed, and just under that since its celebrated debut album, Anything Nameless and Joymaking, was unleashed. The band has managed to maintain commendable traction since then, and the musicians are about to celebrate their decade in existence by releasing their…
On August 17, the website Blabbermouth.net reported that Denver thrash metal band Havok had been kicked off of a tour with Megadeth, just as it was about it hit Mexico. The tour, which also features Suicidal Tendencies, Amon Amarth and Metal Church, was just the latest in a series of…
The summer is coming to an end and that means the beautiful, scorching-hot Colorado weather is going to turn into a beautiful, less-scorching Colorado fall. In just a few weeks, the summer schedule at Red Rocks, Fiddler’s Green and Hudson Gardens will be done for the year, and the outdoor…
It’s been a while since music fans depended on TV channels like MTV to get their fix of new and favorite music. Today devices like Roku and Apple TV are becoming increasingly popular as people realize that the big cable companies are charging a hell of a lot of money for…
