A clarion call to all Rocky Mountain a cappella groups

There’s no denying that Denver’s cachet as a top music city is quickly becoming recognized across the country, but in case any lingering doubts remain, we just received word that the Harmony Sweepstakes, one of the world’s top a cappella music competitions, has once again chosen Denver for it’s 2010…

Q&A with Ralf Dietel of Krashkarma

Anyone remember powerhouse industrial metal bands like Thrill Kill Kult and Stabbing Westward back in the day? Krashkarma sure does and has become torchbearers for the style. In advance of the band’s three-night-stand in Colorado (Saturday, October 31 at Union Station in Colorado Springs, Sunday, November 1 at Hodi’s Half…

Breaking news: Bianchi brothers sell Cervantes and Quixotes

The leaves in the trees aren’t the only thing changing in Denver. We received late confirmation that Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom and Quixotes True Blue next door have indeed been sold. Rumors have been swirling for a few weeks that a deal was in the works, and last night it was…

MP3 Freeloader: “Black Crosses” by Strung Out

I grew up on a steady diet of metal and skate rock in my formative years along with a total obsession with skateboarding; so bands like Strung Out earned plenty of boombox time back in the day during the endless skate sessions I had with my friends. Fourteen years and…

This Just In: Railroad Earth to play a three-night stand in Boulder

Coming off a pretty impressive summer of high profile Colorado appearances, including a return to Telluride Bluegrass Festival, a packed tent at Mile High Music Festival and a stop at Red Rocks with the Allman Brothers, acoustic jam band Railroad Earth could almost call Colorado their second home. Add in…

Q&A with Frank Turner

There is a long tradition of ex-punk rockers trading in their power chords and electric guitars for the idyllic green pastures of folk music. Frank Turner of Winchester, England made that very leap a few years ago after the breakup of his progressive hardcore band Million Dead had reached its…

Monolith Q&A: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are definitely one of the more buzzed about underground bands to come to Colorado this summer and deservedly so. With a briskly selling headliner show at the Planet Bluegrass Wildflower Pavillions in Lyons on Friday September 11 and a hotly anticipated appearance at Red…

Q&A with John Osborne of KingBilly

“This is the best ever job that doesn’t make any money” says Donny Fallgatter, frontman for Nashville’s young country rockers Kingbilly. It’s unlikely that KingBilly will be broke for much longer, though. Riding high with the popularity of its latest music video on the popular country music channel GAC and…

Q&A with Brandon Whalen of My Body Sings Electric

While the Warped Tour has grown up and is now it’s fifteenth summer, most of the bands and fans are as young as ever. Unlike most of the poorly selling dinosaur exhibits posing as rock concerts traipsing across the country these days, the Warped Tour year after year gets more…

Q&A with Derek Vincent Smith of Pretty Lights

In this week’s paper, we featured a short Q&A with Derek Vincent Smith of Pretty Lights, an act whose last two albums have surpassed 110,000 digital downloads. As with most of our Rough Mixes interviews, the piece only told half of the story. The Pretty Lights mastermind sat down recently…

Mile High Music Festival Q&A: Band of Heathens

Although acts such as Tool, Widespread Panic and the Fray are clearly the main draw at this weekend’s Mile High Music Festival, it’s support bands like Band of Heathens, slated to perform on Saturday, that demonstrate the prodigious depth of the fest’s lineup. Boiling down Band of Heathens sound to…

Phamily Reunion Festival aims to cater to Phish fans

When tickets to the four nights of Phish at Red Rocks went on sale a few months ago, they sold out about as quick as it takes me to lose a game of washers (the new backyard game sweeping my neighborhood)…yeah, pretty fast. Of course, the concert announcement and subsequent…

MP3 Freeloader: The Nautical Mile Sunday, July 5 at hi-dive

There is definitely a critical mass of precocious radio-friendly pop rock bands along the front range. Add Boulder-by-way-of-Ft Collins band Nautical Mile to the rapidly expanding roster of bands vying for your attention. Featuring Rachel Cummings providing the frontman, er, frontwoman duties (and doing a damn fine job I might…

Westword Music Showcase reviewed: La Rumba

See more photos from La Rumba at westword.com/slideshow. Alan Baird Project, 12:00 p.m. It’s never easy being the first band to play at an all-day event. Typically, bands that are booked to perform early in the day have to work a lot harder to get the word out and rally…

John Scofield’s Piety Street Band

Ask any guitar player if he recognizes the name John Scofield, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single six-stringer who doesn’t. Based on his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the ’70s to collaborations with modern music pioneers Medeski, Martin and Wood in the 21st century, Scofield’s…

Circle Number Dot seeks new bassist

Ah, what is it about the changing of the seasons that brings changes in lineups? One of the more compelling hard rock bands on the front range, Circle # Dot, fronted by former drummer turned frontman Matt Card, is seeking a bass player. If you like bands like Clutch and…

Little Fyodor celebrates a quarter-century of zaniness

Colorado’s very own outright zany and just plain weird torchbearers of the Dead Milkmen school of punk rock, Little Fyodor and Babushka, celebrate their twentieth anniversary as a band this month. Frontman Little Fyodor also celebrates his 25th year as a radio DJ at longstanding public-radio station KGNU, headquartered out…