It’s easy to think that the Denver music scene is small and insular. If you go to enough local shows, you start to expect to see the same people at every one, and suddenly you find yourself staring at a bartender one night, unsure if you recognize him because you…
The 2015 Westword Showcase is so close we can almost hear it. If you’re new to Denver or just new to this particular festival, we understand that the enormous schedule can seem more overwhelming than exciting. But by following just a few simple pieces of advice, you, too, can be…
Denver musician Macon Terry once joked that he should start working with mediocre musicians, because in Denver, the good ones are always busy or taken. He was being facetious, but he was describing a surprisingly common issue in the local scene.Terry is a songwriter and guitar player in Clouds &…
The opening moments of Surfer Blood’s 1000 Palms sounds nothing like the work of the fresh-faced Florida boys who brought fuzz to surf-pop back in 2010. “Time waits for no one” singer JP Pitts bellows over a menacing, building drum cadence. A minute in, however, the drums break and a…
Denver’s Homebody only has one EP and a live demo to its name, yet starting next week, the band will be heading on a tour that will include stops at three well-established festivals (and one DIY one), traversing the entirety of Canada and hitting every major U.S city on the…
The idea for the new palette-based stage outside at Black Shirt Brewing came from owner Chad Miller’s three-year-old son. His son, who is a musically inclined toddler, was making Miller replay music videos on Youtube for him one night. In one that was played over and over, Miller began to…
Sunday: A day that, especially on a late-May three-day weekend, is made for beer, friends, music and the hope that the deluge of rain will let up for one afternoon. If you didn’t spend your Sunday evening at the Larimer Lounge, surrounded by packs of Denverites, draft beers and the…
It is rare for people to buy tickets to a concert in person anymore, let alone wait in line for those tickets. Tickets these days are more likely a code on your smart phone than a physical item. Rubedo wants to change that, at least temporarily. Tomorrow at noon, the…
FaceMan is currently preparing for the two-day Journey to the Sun Festival, which is centered around a spaceship with a metaphorical message. The Denver band isn’t new to odd concepts; after all, this is the same trio that once played inside a giant shark installation at Lost Lake Lounge and,…
The Downtown Artery, a large space in Old Town Fort Collins that host art shows and occasional GNU music shows is in the process of expanding — by creating a much-needed music venue. “The Downtown Artery is a space that caters to the revival of the working artist,” the space…
Early this year, roughly a month after the members of Denver band Flashbulb Fires announced their breakup, former vocalist Patrick McGuire found himself back on stage, this time alone with an acoustic guitar and a new project: Straight White Teeth. He knew, despite being in an emotional place, that he…
The Raven and The Writing Desk is the same band Denver has known for the past four years in name only. Spouses Scott Conroy and Julia Libassi are still the band leaders, and they are still clinging to the literary name of Raven and The Writing Desk. But beyond that,…
On the advice of the following reader comment left on the story about Wax Trax not participating in Record Store Day, we ended up at the iconic 13th Avenue record store yesterday. I work over at Wax Trax Records and I just wanted to mention one thing that didn’t get…
Rose Quartz has had a busy 2015. The Denver duo spent most of the spring on tour, and now, upon returning to town, have released a music video for the song “Leaving Now” — a single from the EP Axis of Love. The video was filmed all over Brooklyn, and…
Record Store Day is upon us! This Saturday, April 18, live bands will play in parking lots, fans will fill the aisles of your favorite record shop and, of course, there will be insane releases you never knew you needed — like the Clueless soundtrack on pink vinyl, or a…
Red Bull Sound Select is getting ready to host another show in Denver, and for this one, they’ve enlisted the help local collective Souls In Action. Souls In Action, which bills itself as “a Denver-based collaboration of young, hungry, like-minded individuals creating change through music, art and social activism,” was…
Wax Trax, an iconic record store here in Denver, will have more vinyl than you can browse through this Saturday, but nothing in stock will be an exclusive Record Store Day release. Because the store sold an exclusive release online for Black Friday, they were contacted by the head of Record…
Writing a book is hard. Writing a book on something that happened thirty years ago when you’re half way across the world is harder. But for Bob Medina, finding a way to archive and share the Denver punk scene of the ’80s while spending most of his time teaching in…
There may be a foot of snow on the ground, but spring is on it’s way, and with spring comes music festivals. This March many Colorado bands will be headed over to Idaho for Treefort and down to Texas for SXSW. But before our local musicians disappear to the streets…
Here is how reunion tours go, for the most part. The band, long past relevancy decides to get together one last time. Sometimes they make an album that every one pretends doesn’t exist (see: Chinese Democracy) and then set off on a tour far more extravagant then they deserve and…
Macon Terry is sitting on the rooftop patio of Weathervane Cafe, drinking carrot juice. He’s talking about the thing he’s spent most of his life doing, which is playing music. The longtime Paper Bird bassist has been a fixture on the Denver scene for years, also logging time with Gregory…
There are certain nights when Denver seems to reach out and touch perfection, when wandering over to a small venue and seeing some local bands feels like more than that. Instead, it feels like witnessing a moment in movement that will be talked about decades in the future. Friday night…
