The National and Sharon Van Etten recorded a song for the Win Win soundtrack. It leaked yesterday, but Fox Searchlight has pretty well scrubbed the legal-ish streams. Regardless, the two artists are a good fit, Matt Berninger’s sleepy baritone makes a seamless companion for Van Etten’s own honeyed hum. The…
A couple weeks ago, we told you about Hulu’s bracket to determine the best show on television. On opening day of the actual March Madness, the contest is down to eight and the results are a little surprising: Not exactly populist, not exactly critical consensus. We originally thought this was…
Backbeat approved post-punk band Makeout Point broke up a couple months ago. A sad day for Denver music fans, but several of its members are brewing up another project: Bizarre Learning Center. So far it’s a tumblr and the promise of demos, but there’s plenty to start getting excited about…
When Heather Frost first saw the script for Bingo: The Winning Musical, she remembers thinking, “Wow, this is a great opportunity. It’s never been done in Colorado, and it’s got that fun, sort of silly entertainment value while still having a wonderful message of friendship running through the whole thing.”…
The Catch-22 of UFO naysaying is that UFOs are the products of highly sophisticated races, built expressly so that bumbling simpletons like you and I see a commercial airline or a speck of dust on a camera. Fortunately, YouTube user magnetflipper isn’t fooled. He or she has been filming aliens…
File-sharing site LimeWire is currently at the frontlines of the battle over online media distribution. LimeWire already lost the suit brought against it by thirteen record companies; the site is boarded up; and now it’s negotiating damages. This is where things get interesting for the casual observer, because we’re getting…
A bunch of old white dudes and Darlene Love got trophies yesterday at a fancy hotel in New York. We’re referring, of course, to the inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an institution that exists to reaffirm our canonical certainties. This year’s class: Love, Tom Waits, Alice…
Denver B-Cycle opened yesterday for its second season. This year, the bike sharing program has made some significant improvements, most notably to the kiosk technology. Full-color screens and on-board computers (last year everything was done over a network) will make things faster and more intuitive. Yesterday, we took a pair…
Formerly Vonnegut, Take to the Oars has gone through plenty of changes since the first incarnation of the band in 2005. Since then, it’s locked in a steady lineup and defined a solid identity with its new moniker. American Volume, the group’s full-length debut, is a long wail of guitar…
As the labor protests wage on in Wisconsin, several prominent musicians have taken to using their art to express their support. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats recorded a hundred-year-old folk song “There is Power in a Union,” and Steve Earle rereleased a single of his own to benefit The…
MARNIE STERN & TERA MELOS Lil’ Slugger 3.12.11 | Moe’s Original BBQ The self-described week-long Marnie Stern Birthday tour came to Denver last night, and while it wasn’t Marnie Stern’s actual birthday, bassist Nithin Kalvakota predicted that when it is later this week in San Francisco, he and drummer Vince…
This weekend, Denver will host the largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade this side of the Mississippi. 250,000 people showed up last year, and there’s no reason to believe there will be any less mayhem this year. Make sure you know where you’re going and when below. Plus, a little video…
American Idol reunited JLo and Diddy last night, when the latter came to perform on the show now judged by the former. In case you need a refresher, the two had a very public, very volatile relationship ten years ago…
Tweet Psych uses keyword algorithms to create psychological profiles of anyone with a Twitter account. Lady Gaga, for example, evidently tweets about sex 681% more than the average person. We have our doubts as to the usefulness of this thing beyond gimmickry, but what a fun gimmick it is. Judge…
Jim McTurnan & The Kids That Killed The Man, the subject of this week’s feature, will officially release its debut album, Joie De Vivre, on Saturday at the hi-dive. It’s a thrilling nine track affair, clocking in at just under thirty minutes. McTurnan told us he set out to make…
The largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade west of the Mississippi started 49 years ago in the most unassuming way possible: Three men drinking in a bar decided there should be a parade, so they took to the streets. In the half-century since, Denver’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade has become a…
After a hugely successful first season that logged nearly 103,000 rides, Denver B-Cycle officially reopens today after a three-and-a-half month hiatus. The bike-sharing program, which now comprises fifty kiosks and 500 red bikes around the city, has made several improvements since last year. Each kiosk now has a full-color LCD…
Facebook dove into the movie streaming arena with The Dark Knight yesterday and people flipped out: Netflix’s stock, in particular, took a significant dive. But what evidence do we have that this will actually work on a large scale?…
This week’s sign of the music industry apocalypse: Atlantic has signed singing hobbyist Gwyneth Paltrow to a $900,000 deal. This, of course, is total batshit lunacy for every reason, starting with fact that there is no way this relationship is worth $900,000 to either party and ending with the fact…
Tonight, The Denver Public Library’s Rare and Rarely Seen Hitchcock series comes to a close with a screening of Marnie. One of the director’s final films, the movie deals with a psychologically damaged union between characters played by Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren. Their strange marriage reaches an emotional breaking…
Zach Tipton’s output over the last couple of years as I Am the Dot has been both prolific and awesome. The project has been confined to half a dozen EPs up to this point, but 2011 brings with it bigger things. Last month, Tipton released A Collection of Songs, compiling…
Newcomers Traitors to the Queen take their synths on a ride through Pro Tools en route to something like the odd love child of Death Cab for Cutie and Radiohead. Seems, crazy, yes, but remember: Both bands are sad — make that all three. But life is working out just…
