Editor’s Note: Trawling the Small Print is a new feature wherein we squint hard at big festival lineups and spotlight a few gems that may have been hidden below the headliners. Saturday is the Day of Rock in Denver, a one-day festival this Saturday, May 28, aims to benefit Amp…
When this scribe was a blossoming wee headbanger in the late 1980s and early ’90s, air guitar was what we did instead of dance when we went to clubs underage. It was the tribal ritual for the terminally uncool — those of us without any sense of rhythm and next-to-no…
These lists, dear readers, are always going to be subjective, and putting together a list of ten of the best bluegrass bands in the metro Denver area is a tall order, because there are so many, and many worthy of distinction. When we delved into the world of this most…
The Violent Femmes put out a new studio album in March, their first since 2000’s Freak Magnet. That’s been a massive gap for a band that previously averaged an album about every three years. But band members have come and gone, and the group took a break between 2009 and…
When Indianapolis indie-folk-pop duo Lily & Madeleine emerged with their self-titled debut album in 2013, much of the focus in the press seemed to be on their tender years. As they faced a hungry media for the first time, the fact that Lily was sixteen and Madeleine was nineteen seemed…
Electronic music is alive and well here in Denver, in all of its many glorious forms. Everything from house and techno to dubstep and glitch-hop are well represented here in the Mile High City. What’s more — Denver music fans know their shit and won’t accept any second-rate DJs. That…
In February, we predicted a big year for former You, Me and Apollo singer Brent Cowles. And it wasn’t only us. In that same article, Cowles himself said, “I haven’t been this excited in a long time. Just about everything that’s happening. I have this feeling under my skin that it’s…
We know summer’s here when the festival bills and outdoor series lineups start to get announced, and as is the norm, the Hudson Garden Series is offering some wonderful bills for those partial to nostalgia-based classic rock and soul. Here are ten of the highlights. 10. Jefferson Starship Sunday, June…
When you’re in a band, starting at the bottom and perhaps still learning your trade, few things are more rewarding than gaining the respect of your peers. If one of those peers happens to run a record label and wants to sign you, then all the better. That’s pretty much,…
Any city worth its salt has an amazing art scene, and any art scene worth taking notice of has a tight-knit artistic community. Taking that logic up another notch, an artistic community that wants to be taken seriously needs a place to meet, to exchange ideas and to bounce off…
Jam bands. Historically, Coloradan music fans just can’t get enough of them. Whether it’s the groups who approach the genre from the past through the lenses of bluegrass or roots, or the contemporary and experimenting with electronica, there’s a good chance that their skills will find welcoming audiences here. Red…
Is there anything that screams “1970s hard rock” more than the sound of a Hammond organ? It’s the use of that instrument, plus some mighty big riffs and singer Suzanne’s huge voice, that makes Space in Time sound so epic in a classic Deep Purple/Black Sabbath/Jethro Tull/insert-your-own-’70s-rockers way. The band…
Ah, Natalie Tate. The Denver artist who has a voice capable of calming the most batshit-crazy of loons. She describes herself as merging “the roots sensibilities of her Colorado home with the planes of a more ethereal land,” and that’s pretty accurate. Seamlessly blending traditional singer/songwriter fare with trip-hop/trance, Tate…
At the end of March, we published the first “Broke Music Fan’s Guide to Denver,” packed with handy hints and tips for enjoying live music on the cheap in this great region. We want this to be a regular thing, so allow us to present our guide to the dollar-saving…
Back at the beginning of March, we interviewed notoriously politically active punk band Anti-Flag prior to its show at the Gothic Theatre, and frontman Justin Sane was more than happy to discuss the merits of his favorite presidential candidate. “Sanders is a person who has a track record of fighting…
Since 1981, Birmingham, England-based extreme metal band Napalm Death has consistently redefined and reinvented what it means to create heavy music. Pioneers of the grindcore scene, the men of Napalm (of which there have been many over the years) have made it their business to melt faces and create as…
Band reunions and reincarnations can get downright weird. We’ve only got ourselves to blame. Really, this shit is nobody’s fault but our own. The most hardcore of the hardcore music fans are like an even more twisted Dr. Frankenstein, because we won’t accept death. We’re just not having it, and…
What is Denver hip-hop? What does it sound like and what does it stand for? There is a lot of discussion surrounding these questions, trying to pin labels on the Colorado hip-hop community. While definitive answers are in short supply, talent is not. As an introduction, here are nine hip-hop…
Iron Maiden formed in 1975, meaning that last year the band turned forty. So how is it, pray tell, that guitarist Janick Gers is still stretching his leg up to the top of his amp stack with alarming regularity? How is it that they all still appear to be in…
April 16 is Record Store Day, the day of the year when people are supposed to celebrate the culture surrounding independent record stores. According to the Record Store Day website, the idea was raised at a gathering of record store owners back in 2007, and ultimately turned into a real…
The good people at the Humane Society of the South Platte Valley and the Longmont Humane Society host a whole bunch of animals that are available for adoption. Some of them bear a slight, and we stress “slight,” resemblance to some of our favorite people with animal tendencies: rock stars…
Dead & Company are returning to Colorado this summer with a special performance at Folsom Field in Boulder, but any time is ripe for fans of the Grateful Dead to eat up the band’s music and history. To answer that call is Buzz Poole’s examination of the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead. …
