The shoe is black and has a four-inch heel. It entered Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom on Friday for the SnowBall After Party as a piece of clothing. Late in the night, it became a weapon. And soon, it will return to Cervantes’ covered in paint, thanks to Nerf gun artist and…
That’s the big takeaway from Billboard’s current cover story on Colorado-bred Ryan Tedder: He made $2.5 million in 2013 on royalties alone. The lion’s share of it came from songwriting credits on songs performed by Beyonce, Ellie Goulding, Maroon 5, Demi Lovato, The Fray (hey!) and his own band, OneRepublic…
Our thirtieth Best of Denver issue will bring a new cow to your newsstand in a little under two weeks. In the issue, you’ll find several hundred of the best ways to spend time in our city, whether you’re looking for fine art or cheap booze, whether you’ve got three…
The best Denver band is playing Red Rocks on July 17, and it will feature songs by and collaborations with Gregory Alan Isakov and DeVotchKa. Tickets are $27.50 to $65 and on sale now. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced the show last month, but the addition of Isakov to it…
Update, 3/12: Frank Ocean has now delivered a check for the full $212,500 to Chipotle. But it wasn’t the one posted to his tumblr on Monday, on which he’d written a certain colorful greeting. “Curiously, the memo line was blank,” says Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold. Original post follows… Frank Ocean…
Ah, the mosh pit. Keep your club night bumping and grinding and give me a good old fashioned pummeling. That’s where the adrenaline is, where some of the best kinds of release can be found in live music. Plus, there are way fewer boners. Every concert is improved with fewer…
Backbeat has a new music editor. My name is Kiernan Maletsky — I’m a Colorado native who has spent the past three years first in St. Louis and then Dallas. Last Saturday, I filled my sedan with whatever clothes fit once my record collection was in there and made what…
The world’s most maligned former Disney princess is strutting down the stage, leading a platoon of dancers dressed in (more) preposterous costumes, the most preposterous of them a pair of seven-foot foam finger outfits where the dancers’ heads stick out of the knuckles. It’s a direct reference to the moment…
It seems like every month one old-ass act or another is rolling through town. On the plus side, they’ve got all those great hits. On the minus side, they’re often past their prime. Having trouble deciding whether or not you should check them out? Lucky you, we’ve cobbled together a…
In the heady pre-Tha Carter III days, Lil Wayne understood language so intuitively that he could skip through convention and construction and arrive at an expression that made him seem like the only dude speaking in colors, while everyone else was stuck in black and white. That’s why he was…
Courtesy of Bang With FriendsThe banned posters. What could SXSW have possibly had a problem with? “All the single dudes put up your phone. Now all the single ladies put up your phone. Turn to the nearest person with a phone up. Now type in your phone number. Now you…
SXSW is not a music festival so much as it is an experiment in excess. If Coachella is a glass of water that keeps getting bigger until it more resembles a kiddie pool, then SXSW is a flood with a neglected cup somewhere in the middle. The natural result is…
Van Michaels doesn’t make wimpy movies. The filmmaker, who has previously worked under the name Mike Olafson, built a cult fan base in Denver with Gears, Grease and Guns, a documentary about the local rock-and-roll and hot-rodding culture of the 1950s. His new film, a twenty-minute short titled Motor Vixens,…
More than 100 published novels into his career, science fiction and fantasy author Kevin J. Anderson is still finding new territory to explore. After writing eleven books set in the world of Dune, he and Brian Herbert, son of Frank Herbert, are taking a new direction. “We had lots of…
For the tenth year, Denver will commemorate the life of civil rights leader César Chávez with a march. But this year’s celebration will focus on involving a broader spectrum of the community. “César Chávez was able to accomplish what he did because he had all these wonderful qualities as a…
Can’t do much better than the show’s own tagline to describe the Drunken Bachelor Talk Show: “It’s loaded with comedy and music, but mostly it’s just loaded.” Producer Kevin Hart is an old friend of Lannie Garrett’s, and he put together the first edition of the show back in October…
Kevin Anderson has lost track of the number of books he’s written. He knows it’s over a hundred, and when it gets to that point it’s not a matter of not remembering. There are other factors — this one didn’t make it to print, that one was reissued, and it…
Jim Mcturnan & The Kids That Killed The Man, fresh off the release of their excellent album Joie De Vivre, have made a video for standout single “Give Up Suffering.” The conceit couldn’t be simpler. McTurnan explains: “I wanted to use footage of us actually playing as a way of…
Pop-punk stalwart My Body Sings Electric used to lean heavy, but the band heads more toward pop on its latest release. Recorded at Interlace Audio in Portland, Changing Color is a highly polished affair of airtight instrumentation and squeaky-clean vocals. This album would have no problem finding airwaves a half-decade…
Officially today, March 21st, is the first day of Spring. It certainly feels like Spring outside, although this is far from the first day it’s been like this. Ah, the magic of Colorado. Regardless, if you’re looking to breathe deeply while standing in a field or throw a frisbee to…
Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers was the album he didn’t like and the label didn’t want to release. It’s a disaster of pandering, middle of the road pop from a rapper, who, at the very least, seemed full of fight until now. Most of the album couldn’t hold its own in a…
Some people in incorporated Boulder County are dealing with their pesky prairie dog problems by blowing the fuckers up with something called The Rodenator. Other people wish they wouldn’t, since it turns their block into a mini suburban Baghdad, complete with flaming, screaming animals running down the street. In honor…
