All right, just when you thought it couldn’t get any better (or at least that’s what we thought), it has. Talking about the 15th annual Westword Music Showcase here, an event that already includes more than fifty of Denver’s best and brightest and a main stage offering that features Built…
As music critics, the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, “What are you listening to?” The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation, our latest feature. For the benefit of those who happen to be curious, we’ve compiled a…
Okay, so what exactly are these Fray kids trying to tell us? What is with this pervasive, underlying sense of calamity that’s informed the video representation of songs from their latest record? Do they know something we don’t? In the last video for “You Found Me,” for example, in which…
‘Twas yet another sensational weekend for music in the MHC. Kicked the weekend off by having a few drinks at Casselman’s Bar & Venue on Walnut, the latest addition to the Ballpark neighborhood — or as owner Matt Casselman prefers, “NoDo.” The place has tons of potential thanks to an…
What a wild show last night. When we showed up, the disc players refused to cooperate after the first few songs, meaning we were flying blind and had to improvise, which kept us on our toes. As a result we ended up assembling a greatest hits show featuring some of…
Chris Barber just stopped by the office and laid a hot-off-the-presses, just mastered copy of Mama’s eagerly awaited debut, Bayoutopia. Spinning it right now as I write this. Whoa, Mama! Even on cheap computer speakers, this thing freaking smokes. Asked Barber if there’s any chance we’ll get to experience Mama…
So now that the ballot is finalized for the 2009 Westword Music Showcase, it’s time to start fashioning the lineups for the festival itself. It’s an agonizing process, mainly because we only have a finite number of slots and a wealth of talent to consider. Typically, the way things work,…
Okay, so we know we’re just asking for it when we put this out there, but taking your feedback into consideration, it’s clear that as inclusive and considered as we strove for the nomination process to be, invariably we ended up missing some worthy artists. So far, the acts that…
Ahimsa. Evidently, it’s a “Sanskrit term meaning to do no harm.” It’s also the way that one Mr. John Baxter used to end all of his written exchanges. In the past few days, that word and Mr. Baxter have mysteriously reappeared, both here and on various other local blogs –…
The 2009 Westword Music Showcase ballot has been formulated and will be included in this week’s paper, which will beginning hitting stands in a few hours. Online voting will also begin later this week. In the meantime, though, as faithful readers of the Backbeat blog, we’re giving you the drop…
Just two short years ago, Virgil Dickerson’s long running local imprint, Suburban Home, was struggling. A decline in CD sales forced him to scale back and move operations back into his house. Things were looking pretty dire. Then a funny thing happened: People started buying vinly again, and the once…
Just finished screening Fear Before’s new video for “Fear Before Doesn’t Listen to People Who Don’t Like Them.” If you haven’t seen it yet, take a gander above. Directed by Bryan Schlam, the highly stylized clip recalls a number of similar boiler-plate alt rock performance videos from the early ‘to…
Here what the area’s local-centric specialty radio shows were playing this week. We’re currently tracking the playlists for five different shows: Radio 1190’s long-running Local Shakedown, KTCL’s Locals Only, the Colorado Sound, which originates at KRFC and is re-broadcast all over Colorado, and the Colorado Wave, which is syndicated on…
As music critics, the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, “What are you listening to?” The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation, our latest feature. For the benefit of those who happen to be curious, we’ve compiled a…
So the music business is allegedly in dire straits right now, having endured the sharpest decline in CD sales ever this past year. Yet if you’re paying attention you can’t help but notice that act after act from Denver is being snatched up by various labels at stupefying rate, that,…
Sizzling hot off the wire: Just received word that Green Day will be bringing its 21st Century Breakdown tour to Denver on Saturday, August 15. The tour kicks off on Friday, July 3, in Seattle, and will mark the act’s first roadwork in more than three years. And it’s been…
Behold our latest weekly feature: Moving Pictures. Like a slideshow, only with sound and motion, Moving Pictures is basically just a quick highlight reel of the things we saw during the week or, in this case, over the weekend. This first edition features clips from yet another extraordinary weekend for…
Looks like 3OH!3’s debut single, “Don’t Trust Me,” can now officially be considered a smash, having purportedly sold one million digital copies. For those of you who’ve recently unthawed after being cryogenically frozen for the past decade or so, that is the modern-day equivalent of selling a million CD singles…
Ran into Tim Pourbaix very briefly last night. When we ducked out for a quick smoke in front of the Sputnik, he informed me that his new record is nearly finished as is the Park-Pourbaix project he’s been working on with Ellison Park. No word on when the latter will…
Got there late and didn’t stay for the whole thing — mostly because I’d already had a full night taking in bits of Reverend Deadeye’s set at 3 Kings and SoundRabbit at the hi-dive, not to mention a few too many cocktails — but I was pleasantly surprised to catch…
All right, so I’ve been meaning to make mention of this, but somehow I keep forgetting: Last weekend, I finally saw Seven Pounds, the Fresh Prince’s latest blockbuster, and I noticed something that I’m wondering if anybody else noticed: Without giving the plot line away, there’s this scene in which…
Speaking with Aaron Howell, the frontman of Forth Yeer Freshman, is a lot like listening to his band’s music: the things he says are generally over the top and somewhat ludicrous, yet you get the sense that there’s a certain amount of earnestness attached to his sentiments. In advance of…
