Best Band to Listen to After a Day on the Slopes 2024 | Shady Oaks | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Band to Listen to After a Day on the Slopes

Shady Oaks

The psychedelic blues rock of Shady Oaks is the perfect accompaniment for drinking a beer at a cozy tavern after a day of skiing or snowboarding. The five-piece, complete with a five-string electric violinist, also doesn't shy away from country inflections that, along with rock and Western influences, make the band's sound uniquely Coloradan. It's just what you need after a long day on the slopes...especially if you're sitting in traffic on I-70. The group's latest singles are sure to quell any simmering road rage.

shadyoaksband.com

Best Psychedelic Surf Rock

The Crooked Rugs

The Crooked Rugs have been rocking out of Fort Collins since 2019, and each of the band's releases has shown an ability to dip into varied genre pools while maintaining a cohesive sound. Whereas 2022's Tales of the Great Western Sky added Western elements to its psych rock, the group dabbled in shoegaze and prog rock for Metropolis, which was released last March and takes listeners on a winding psychedelic journey they won't want to end. Crooked Rugs shows are just as amazing: The band plays in Denver often, and will be taking to the road this year to spread its acid-tinged sonics far and wide.

thecrookedrugs.com

Best Music for Mountain Toking

In Plain Air

In Plain Air is a three-piece psychedelic-rock band that began releasing music in 2022. It's just the thing to listen to when you're getting a little high...and you're already up high. The band's 2023 EP, Sunnyside, is a musical blend of dreamy guitar riffs that could easily send you into an alternate dimension (in a good way) when paired with the right strain. When your brain's buzzing, you want to avoid anything that might send you too far over the edge, but Plain Air's sonic sweet spot is sure to keep you in check.

@inplainairband

Best Psychedelic Latin Music

Ritmo Cascabel

Ritmo Cascabel has blown us away with raucous concerts in which every audience member is absolutely immersed in the band's blend of psychedelic rock and cumbia. It's a sound unique to the five-piece, and it came from studying chicha, a Peruvian form of cumbia that began in the '60s and meshes cumbia, Andean music and vals criollo with surf and psych rock. Having formed just before the pandemic, Ritmo Cascabel released its Ritmo EP in 2022, but the band fully realized its sound on its self-titled debut album, released last August. Just one listen and you'll know it's a band you have to see live.

ritmocascabel.bandcamp.com

Best Family Affair

iZCALLi and EL CRO

Ever wonder why local Latin bands iZCALLi and EL CRO are often on the same bill? Both bands put on energetic, entertaining shows — EL CRO dishing out its "rock mexicano hecho en Denver" ("Mexican rock made in Denver") and iZCALLi putting on fiery performances filled with everything from time-traveling fuzz rock to bilingual ballads — but there's more to the story than that. EL CRO happens to be headed up by the father of Miguel and Brenda Aviña, the guitar-wielding siblings at the heart of iZCALLi. This family makes beautiful music together, and Denver music fans are the lucky recipients of its well-honed talents. Catch iZCALLi and EL CRO together again at Levitt Pavilion on June 7.

izcallirock.com

Best Pop Musician

Grace DeVine

Dreamy and ethereal, Grace DeVine is Denver pop royalty. But don't be fooled by her catchy hooks and addictive, layered beats: The artist's lyrics are earnest, sometimes heavy, and confront the highs and lows of life with intentionality and creativity. DeVine released the EP Taste of Heaven last September with a concert at Globe Hall, and her pipes were just as heavenly in person as they are through headphones. Denver has a true lyrical genius in Grace DeVine, and we can't wait to see what she puts out this year.

@gracedevinemusic

Best Funky Disco Concerts

Boogie Lights & the Boogie Bunch

If you haven't caught Boogie Lights, you're missing out. Mark Henrichs brings together the worlds of funk and disco with his project, and now his collaborators are along for the ride in the Boogie Bunch, which includes vocalists Abi Clark and Mandy Haupt, rapper/singer Andrew Leerson (aka Deezy Le Phunk), Ricky Feria (aka Rix) on guitar, Dan Chando on keys, Ty Martinez on sax, Kylee Lund on trumpet and Melissa Joy on violin. They debuted with a sold-out show at Globe Hall last March and released The Boogie Bunch in October. The Boogie Lights sound is intoxicating, and while you'll be listening to it constantly through your headphones, there's nothing like hearing it live while dancing the night away.

boogielightsmusic.com

Best Sexy, Jazzy Electronic Music

The Orchestrator

Brandon Theis started his multi-instrumental project the Orchestrator from the ground up, teaching himself how to play saxophone and mix and master his tunes — which also include him on guitar, drums and keys. Since 2021, he's released dozens of singles and an EP, with "Jazz Wobbles" racking up more than a million streams on Spotify and his song "Alissa," named for his wife, hitting number one on the iTunes jazz charts. He's sold out multiple venues and even had Afroman as an opener at the Summit in January. The music is funky yet soothing, head-bob-inducing and flush with sexy trills from the sax balanced by beats that go from oozy and dub-inspired to hip-hop-adjacent.

theorchestratormusic.com

Best Metal EDM Artist

Rod Wess

Denver loves itself some metal and EDM. Both scenes continue to thrive throughout the city within their respective lanes. But there hasn't been a lot of crossover between the two...until longtime guitarist Rod Wess decided to start mixing EDM with his first love, metal. Formerly of death-metal band Distant Haven, Wess got turned on to EDM in the early 2000s and became a DJ. Armed with his ESP LTD guitar, he now makes drum-and-bass-infused shred metal that appeals to EDM acolytes and metalheads alike, especially live. Recent singles "Shaolin Tactics" and "Crank 'n' the Foot" are bass-heavy bangers that also showcase Wess's affinity for hip-hop, including the Wu-Tang Clan. For good measure, Wess, a self-professed classical music nerd, sprinkles in scales that would make Mozart and Vivaldi headbang.

rodwess.com

Best Metal Album

Sparagmos
Spectral Voice

Death doom isn't the sexiest extreme-metal subgenre. Found at opposite ends of the music spectrum, death and doom metal typically don't have much in common. But Spectral Voice makes the unlikely marriage work so well that most people don't even question it. Take the band's second full-length, Sparagmos. It's nearly 46 minutes in length but is divided into four songs (such is death doom). It's clear that drummer /vocalist Eli Wendler, guitarists Paul Riedl and Morris Kolontyrsky and bassist Jeff Barrett are completely dialed in on Sparagmos, constructing a foreboding and sinister atmosphere throughout, especially on "Red Feasts Condensed Into One" and "Death's Knell Rings in Eternity." The cherry on top is the album's title: a Greek word for the Dionysian practice of tearing someone apart.

spectralvoice.bandcamp.com

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