“Hard work. Sweat equity. Pounding the pavement. Making connections.” The opening lines of Love.45’s bio might as well be the band’s manifesto. Two years ago, the act issued its self-titled debut on Rock Ridge Music, the imprint co-owned by 3 Doors Down guitarist Chris Henderson. Love.45 was brimming with at…
A lot has changed since Luke Davis and his bandmates in Furious George and the Monster Groove last graced a Denver stage eight years ago. Back then, a Democrat was in the White House, the idea of paying more than two bucks per gallon of gas seemed preposterous, and everyone…
All right, ten bucks to anyone who can explain how the Deftones have managed to remain salient years after their so-called nu-metal contemporaries were either toe-tagged or devolved into shameless parodies of themselves. On their latest effort, Saturday Night Wrist, Chino Moreno and company sound every bit as vital as…
Perception is relative. While selective memory suggests that prior to the Fray (which will open for the Rolling Stones next month in Philadelphia), few local groups made much of a dent nationally. Fact is, though, Denver and Boulder have always had bands on the verge of breaking through. Go back…
The Hold Steady kicks it up a couple notches on Boys and Girls in America, the followup to last year’s acclaimed Separation Sunday, with sharper riffs and smarter transitions augmenting Craig Finn’s reliably compelling narratives. Finn revisits the hapless misfits who populated Separation Sunday on songs like “First Night” and…
Dave Solzberg has everyone convinced that I used to play with the Rolling Stones. “A lot of people really don’t know this,” he says, “but the Rolling Stones, all throughout the ’70s, had a ukulele player.” It’s a Saturday afternoon in early October. I’m at Dog House Music in Lafayette,…
Mercy, Planes Mistaken for Stars’ sixth release in as many years and its debut on the Abacus imprint, is every bit as caustic and brooding as anything the act has ever done — only more primal, focused and terrifyingly intense. Thanks to the stripped-down production of Matt Bayles, the serrated…
Outside of perhaps the Hold Steady — which shares a proclivity for Bruce Springsteen — nobody plays straight-up rock these days as convincingly as Lucero. Led by Ben Nichols’s gravelly croak, Lucero has finally produced the definitive rock record it’s been edging closer to since leaving behind the alt-country leanings…
P-Nuckle is awesome. Just ask Chris LaPlante. This summer, the frontman made a bold proclamation at the Westword Music Showcase awards ceremony that stirred the ire of a few fellow nominees. When P-Nuckle was announced as the winner in the reggae/ska category, the frontman held up the award and zealously…
TV on the Radio’s latest effort is a tad overwhelming at first. But after taking the time to fully absorb the layers and layers of incredibly dense textures woven by guitarist/producer David Andrew Sitek, it’s clear that the baby justifies the labor. Wading through the fractured, shape-shifting aesthetic is made…
The Fray’s road to recognition was unbelievably swift. The band, which is slated to headline Red Rocks this Saturday, September 30, achieved platinum status last week, barely a year after releasing its Epic debut, How to Save a Life, which features the ubiquitous hit single “Over My Head (Cable Car)”…
They may get sand kicked in their faces and have their lunch money stolen, but yes, damn it, artists have muscles, too. Their muscles are their creativity and God-given almighty talent. And just like the meatheads toning their freakish pecs at the Denver Athletic Club and sweating buckets of Gatorade…
The techtonic plates continue to shift along Denver’s increasingly competitive concert scene. Although no official statement has been released, Chuck Morris will be vacating his current post at Live Nation to join his proteges, Don Strasburg and Brent Fedrizzi, at the new Denver outpost of Anschutz Entertainment Group. Morris, one…
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a house show — since back when there was a Democrat in the White House and emo was all about sporting a pair of thick, black-plastic specs and a cardigan and sharing your innermost thoughts with strangers on LiveJournal rather than MySpace…
“You a faggot?” demanded a mouth-breathing redneck of diminutive Photo Atlas frontman Alan Andrews. “What?” Andrews responded, flashing a look of complete bewilderment. “Your hair and the way you were dancing,” Hoss continued. “You’re a faggot, right? You like to suck dick?” Watching this exchange unfold in the gymnasium of…
Matt Fecher would make a great politician. When asked even the most innocuous of questions — like how the upcoming South Park Music Festival will be different from last year’s, for instance — he pauses, then carefully chooses each word of his response so as not to alienate anyone even…
Federal Boulevard stretches almost thirty miles down the spine of the metro area, from Bowles Boulevard in Littleton, where the Southglenn Luncheon Optimist Club keeps the last mile litter-free, to north of 120th in Westminster, where the Belger family handles clean-up duties as the road loses its U.S. Highway 287…
In an absolutely brilliant act of subversion (headslap! — why the hell didn’t someone think of this before?), Banksy, one of the world’s most infamous and prolific grafitti artists, has directed his aim towards the most vapid and inexplicable of American celebrities, the would-be-pop princess who is Paris Hilton. A…
Props to whoever was responsible for putting together the Subversiv* Records Tour flier that we snagged from a lamppost at 11th and Broadway this morning. Although the handbill hyping a July 14 date at Old Curtis St. featuring Epic, Brzowski, Matre, DJ Chaps, K the I and Ancient Mith was…
I think I just offended Gerald Albright. The saxophonist is behind the wheel of his truck, talking on his cell phone about the artists who influenced him when he was growing up in South Central Los Angeles. He mentions both Maceo Parker and Cannonball Adderley as early touchstones in shaping…
The concert business in Denver just got a hell of a lot more interesting. Last week, Brent Fedrizzi and Don Strasburg, two of the region’s most well-regarded talent buyers, resigned their Live Nation posts. And soon after, Strasburg was named vice president and senior talent buyer for Anschutz Entertainment Group…
The concert business in Denver just got a hell of a lot more interesting. After last month’s announcement that Live Nation planned to acquire House of Blues, things had calmed down — but now a tidal wave looks to be forming on the horizon, one that could have epochal implications…
