Leave the Light on for Me

Wednesday night is now the time to party like it’s 1999 — at the Red Light Dance Party, hosted by Ghost Buffalo’s Marie Litton, aka DJ Lil Thunder. It’s a casual, fun night that features a cross-genre mix of the best dance-floor classics of the final decades of the twentieth…

Demo Derby

All this snow doesn’t suck so much if you can do something fun on it, so dig out the car and head up to Copper to check out the hottest new snowboarding gear from Burton at the annual Burton Super Demo. “The Burton Super Demo is something we look forward…

Resolutions for 2009

It wouldn’t be New Year’s without a slew of ill-considered, soon-to-be-abandoned resolutions, would it? In the spirit of new beginnings, shedding bad habits and picking up a few new good ones, I offer you all this hastily constructed, poorly thought through and largely specious list of my musical resolutions for…

You got your video games in my music

This weekend I stumbled across this story about the convergence of video games and music in our sister paper the Phoenix New Times, and really enjoyed it. I’m quite pleased that two of my great loves — video games and music — are coming together in so many ways, both underground…

Casa Del Soul reunion party tomorrow night

On Saturday, December 27, you can catch up on Denver house-music history when the Denver House Authority brings back the entire Casa Del Soul group — Sense, Foxx, Catt, Ty Tek, Little Mike and Wyatt Earp — for a party at Below Bar (1422 Larimer Street). These guys promoted and played…

Bring On the Future

New Year’s Eve means the future is almost here, and to welcome that sci-fi time yet to come, FM magazine and Automatica Media are bringing The Future Party to the hi-dive and Sputnik tonight. “The future is our theme,” explains FM’s Tuyet Nguyen. “I suppose it sort of plays into…

Her Name Was Lola

The real Lola Montes was one of the wildest characters of the nineteenth century, a dancer, actress and courtesan who was romantically involved with both Franz Liszt and the Bavarian king Ludwig I, who made her a countess. Fittingly, she was memorialized in the 1955 film Lola Montes, by Max…

Disco Biscuit

Congratulations! As of today, you’ve successfully survived the hardest part of the holiday season. The shopping is done, the gifts are given, and the big dinners are over. Now you’re stuck at home, wondering how you can escape your family and wishing it was New Year’s Eve already. Tonight you…

The only Christmas song you’ll ever need

On this fine Christmas Eve, I gift all of you with a link to the finest Christmas song ever recorded, and the only one anyone ever truly needed. It’s a song about the brutal, cold reality behind all of our romantic pretension, and about love that still manages to hang…

Stereogum’s Xmas gift for you

In an admirable show of Christmas spirit, MP3 blog Stereogum has thoughtfully compiled a list of its top 50 downloaded tracks of the year. Even more thoughtfully, they’ve zipped all 50 of the files into one conveniently downloadable archive! Among the gems are a radical Diplo deconstruction/remix of Radiohead’s “Reckoner,”…

Just another metal Monday

Amidst all the Christmas cheer, I’ve been feeling the need for something … brutal. As the days disappear while my task list remains unchanged, I need something intense and powerful to accompany me on my hectic holiday death march. Today, that thing is Nineteen A.D.D., a Denver band that comes…

My top five musical miscellanea of 2008

Every year, as I finish up my mandatory end-of-year lists I’m struck by the fact that each year, some of my most interesting, influential and important musical experiences find themselves homeless, unlisted and unknown. Everyone wants to know the top releases of the year, top shows and similar, obvious categories…

MESS and Sector 7 get down tonight

Tonight at Beta, longtime Colorado scene stalwarts Mother Earth Sound System will be taking over the Beatport Lounge and featuring the techno stylings of Sector 7 (pictured) for your listening and dancing pleasure. What’s that you say? You aren’t familiar with Sector 7? You need a primer to be brought…

2008’s five most memorable shows

I saw some great shows in 2008, along with quite a few not-so-great shows. It can be hard to quantify the best shows — what really makes one show better than another, after all? Is it a killer set list, a virtuoso performance, the accompanying light show? Becasue of that,…

Channeling Santa

You’ll never understand Santa until you’ve walked a mile in his boots, so what are you waiting for? Put on his boots — and his hat, suit, beard and various other festive accoutrements — and join up with a bunch of other St. Nicks for SantaCon 08, a Denver Cacophony…

Swallow Hill is calling the next generation of Denver bands

Just heard that Swallow Hill Music Association is sponsoring a contest for middle and high school age songwriters. They’re soliciting recordings of original works on tape, CD or DVD of acoustic and electric acts from one to four members. Winners will play their songs at a special concert at Swallow…

Sneak peek at the Ideal Fathers’ upcoming EP

For the past couple of days I’ve been enjoying what will probably be one of early 2009’s most interesting local releases, the Complete Waste of Time Travel EP from the Ideal Fathers. I knew when I saw these guys more than a year ago that they had some serious potential,…

Memorialize Monolith on the cheap

Did you miss out on the Monolith festival, but want people to believe you were there? Or maybe you blew all your cash on a ticket and a few $7 beers, leaving you no funds to purchase the appropriate shwag to remember the event by? Or maybe you’re like me,…

Laura Goldhamer is a “Lion” sized talent

Since seeing Laura Goldhamer perform two weeks ago, I’ve been a little preoccupied with her work. Part of it is my girlfriend’s repeated calls for me to find some of Goldhamer’s music for her, but mostly it’s been her songs getting stuck in my head and remembering the very cool…

Board Room

It’s doubtful the typical skateboarder is thinking about how the sweet graphics on his board were designed as he grinds along a park bench or launches into the air off a ramp. Matt Bargell, mentorship director for the American Institute of Graphic Artists in Colorado, hopes to change that with…

Uke Mountain

Ukulele player Scot Livingston got his start with the instrument in a very pedestrian fashion. “I lost my license, and a guitar is hard to carry on the bus,” he recalls. Now, ten years later, his love for the instrument has blossomed into Night of 1,000 Ukes, a program showcasing…