Whoa! Did y’all happen to catch a glimpse of who’s being touted on MySpace’s music page today? Both 3OH!3 and Flobots are featured prominently: The former is previewing tracks from its forthcoming album, Want, while the latter is the subject of the site’s Who Knew feature. To paraphrase Pete Wentz…
After months of polling, tonight is the big night, when we’ll announce the winners of the 2008 Westword Music Showcase. Please join us at at the Bluebird Theater this evening at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!…
Photos by Chris Velarde Wolf Eyes and Aenka Tuesday, June 25, 2008 Hi-Dive Better Than: Soft-rock Wolf Eyes are hard to describe without superlatives. They’re one of the loudest, heaviest, most intense onstage and most approachable offstage bands out there. Phrases like “from the primordial ooze, they emerge” or “like…
So Jason Hayes from the Last Seen and I were standing around smoking outside the Atomic Cowboy this past Friday night before the Fluid show, when he presented me with a hypothetical proposition: If I were to form and front a band right now and could choose any musicians in…
Rose Hill Drive’s new record, Moon Is the New Earth, which we reviewed in last week’s issue and which earned three stars in the latest issue of Spin, hits stores today. After the jump, check out the outfit’s rad new video for “Sneak Out,” directed by former Boulderite Mendel Rabinovitch…
Flobots’s music has been characterized as a lot of things. Socially conscious? Check. Political? Sure. Insurgent? Sure. Incisive? Most definitely. But Spirtual? Perhaps to some, I guess. Christian? Uh… really? That’s a new one. Nonetheless, that’s exactly how eMusic — or somebody, CD Baby maybe? — has classified Platypus, the…
Photos by Soren McCarty. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Red Rocks Amphitheater Saturday, June 21, 2008 Better Than: Being at Stonehenge for summer solstice. As the electrifying frontman of Led Zeppelin nearly three decades ago, Robert Plant was the epitome of the über-rockstar. But Saturday’s show with bluegrass queen Alison…
Photo by Tom Murphy. Broken Spindles, Red Orange Yellow and We Are! We Are! Saturday, June 21, 2008 Larimer Lounge Better Than: Anything else going on in town this night. I got to the show a little late, and was relieved to find that We Are! We Are! hadn’t played…
Lately, a lot of people have been asking me where I’ve been. Once a fixture of the scene – whatever that might mean to you or your mom – I seem to have disappeared. A Facebook friend – yes, I’m over thirty, and I Facebook (I also verb) – recently…
LOCALS ONLY Being a hip-hop artist in Denver is one of the toughest gigs in town. Not only is it difficult to find a venue that will allow hip-hop shows, let alone take home a piece of the bar and door, but it’s really hard to find an audience who…
Photos by James Mitchell Evans. Creative Music Works Thursday, June 20, 2008 Denver Art Museum Better than: A typical Thursday night at the DAM Last night, I walked into what has to be one of the strangest events that the two-year old Hamilton Building in the Denver Art Museum has…
Tom Waits played a extraordinary show in Phoenix at the Orpheum Theatre this past Wednesday night as part of his twelve-city “Glitter and Doom” tour. As far as we’re concerned, Waits is a god among men. The guy doesn’t tour a lot and his shows have taken on the holy…
There are a handful of male vocalists in the modern era who possess truly breathtaking voices: Andrea Bocelli, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Luciano Pavarotti immediately come to mind. There are fewer still with that kind of otherworldly talent in the rock arena: Jeff Buckley, Chris Cornell and, some would…
There’s a handful of male vocalists in the modern era who possess truly breathtaking voices: Andrea Bochelli, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Luciano Pavoroti immediately come to mind. There are fewer still with that kind of otherworldly talent in the rock arena: Jeff Buckley, Chris Cornell and, some would argue,…
Crystal Castles, MM/DD/YYYY and Picture Plane June 16, 2008 Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom Crystal Castles have been the subject of a lot of hype: Plenty of internet savvy music buffs have read the charming stories about the band’s inception having been a joke for the benefit of a few friends that…
On this week’s Spiral, the fellas catch up with three-fifths of Mustangs & Madras and find out how the band hooked up with the Latest Flame imprint, how it got screwed over on a pair of ill-fated European tours that fell apart thanks to a flakey band that didn’t keep…
Photos by Jon Solomon and Aaron Thackeray. First show in fifteen years, eh? Pshaw! Could’ve fooled us. Last night, the Fluid played a (not so) secret show at the Larimer Lounge and sounded every bit as tight and vital as it did the last time we saw the band back…
Paid Dues Festival featuring De La Soul Friday, June 13, 2008 Fillmore Auditorium Better than: The wack hip-hop at KS107.5’s Summer Jam Eleven hip-hop artists in six hours: Could you ask for a better night? Not to mention, Denver is only one of four cities slated to get the Festival…
Photo by Tom Murphy. Seraphim Shock, Bad Luck City and the Mansfields Friday, June 13, 2008 Gothic Theatre Better Than: Most of the Seraphim Shock line-ups I’ve seen. Even though Sid Pink didn’t, as is customary, host this show – which meant no “Think Pink” game show in between sets…
Photos by Tom Murphy. The Black Angels and the Warlocks Saturday, June 14, 2008 Bluebird Theater Better Than: The rest of the new wave of neo-psychedelia. The previous time I had seen The Warlocks was nearly three years ago at Larimer Lounge. While the music was stunningly beautiful and powerful,…
Photos by James Mitchell Evans, Soren McCarty and Bert Ross. Westword Music Showcase Saturday, June 14, 2008 Outdoor Stage Better Than: For the cost, any show in Colorado this summer On a blisteringly hot summer day, the outdoor stage at Westword’s 2008 Music Showcase reverberated with a consistently blisteringly hot…
A Shoreline Dream lives up to its name. (Photos by Tom Murphy) Westword Music Showcase Saturday, June 14, 2008 Bar Standard Better Than: Last year’s lineup. By the time we were allowed in to Bar Standard, the first band of the afternoon had already started. A Shoreline Dream is probably…
