Not unlike The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne last Saturday night, Tom Araya, Slayer’s ass kicking bassist/vocalist, talked to the Fair crowd about the importance of remembering to share the love about halfway through the band’s set. Then he and his band melted the faces off the people in the front…
New Wave has gone country. Yesterday members of long-running rock band the Pretenders stopped in to Rockmount Ranch Wear, the downtown Denver purveyor of classic Western wear that frequently draws celebrity visitors. “We never know who is going to walk in the door,” Steve Weil, president of Rockmount Ranch Wear,…
Post-punk since the ’90s has been largely shaped by the music of two bands: Joy Division and Gang of Four. The furious energy, disciplined songwriting and angular guitar work of Gang of Four are clear and direct influences on the likes of the Faint, the Rapture and every band that…
Theater Electronic-music imprint Always Human TapesTheater is putting on a showcase of its artists over three days at the ATLAS Black Box Theater on the CU Boulder campus and at 1010 Workshop in Denver. Ryan Wurst founded the label in the summer of 2013 while earning his master’s degree in visual…
Last month, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds released the dark and deeply poignant album Skeleton Tree, along with the album’s companion film, One More Time With Feeling. Cave and company will stop at the Paramount Theatre on Sunday, June 18 as part of a nineteen-city North American tour. Tickets go on sale…
The definition of “pop music” is a constantly evolving — as a genre, it’s easily impressionable and malleable while also being a great fortune-teller of what and how the rest of popular culture will present itself in the moment. That’s also what makes pop music so wonderful — it is…
Halloween in Denver seems to inspire more holiday-themed musical events than any other holiday outside of the Fourth of July, and one list of things to do just wasn’t enough. What follows are ten more of the best concerts/musical happenings for the season of the witch — in chronological order. 1. Halloween…
Chance the Rapper took the opportunity to shoot a video for the song “How Great” on September 20 while passing through Denver as part of his ongoing tour. The hip-hop star used a choir of local singers, and the video was shot using nine iPhones. One of the singers involved…
If you scroll back a couple of weeks on Mac Miller’s Instagram, past the concert shots and fashion portraits, you’ll find a photo diary of the Pittsburgh rapper’s recent trip to South Africa. There, nestled among photos of beautiful beaches, mossy mountains, the Mandela House and zebras, is a minute-long…
San Francisco-based producer Charlie Yin, who performs as Giraffage, keeps things playful, including his upbeat, electronic pop songs and R&B remixes. Scroll through his recent Facebook entries, and you’ll find a photo of Yin eating grapes, an announcement that he’s working on a new album, and stream-of-consciousness musings on his About page, including thoughts…
Last week, the Pretenders released the Dan Auerbach-produced album Alone, the band’s first album since 2008’s Break Up the Concrete. Fans who purchase the album at Twist & Shout (at the in-store register, not online) can get a wristband to see the Pretenders play an acoustic set at the store at 7…
Pop star Elle King passed through Denver last weekend and changed lives — not through her performance but through marriage. King, best known for her infectious 2015 single “Ex’s and Oh’s,” is currently playing a run of dates called the Ministry Tour, and she’s offered to officiate a wedding during…
The leaves are changing and temperatures are dropping, which can only mean that ski season is quickly approaching. And while skis and snowboards are getting dug out of closets and storage units all over the Front Range, the mountains are about to be alive with the sound of music.Yes even…
“We had been the good kids for so long, but I was so full of angst and pissed off, too.” These aren’t the words of a sullen teenager; this is Joel Madden admitting that he and the members of Good Charlotte were just as emo as the rest of us…
Editor’s note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…
Over the course of her 55-year-long storied music career, folksinger and activist Joan Baez has been fearless in standing up for what she believes in, both on stage and off. She marched with Martin Luther King Jr. on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963, got arrested…
Be still, tween hearts across the Front Range. No, really, be still. Charlie Puth, the pop singer-songwriter behind the single “Marvin Gaye” and the hook of massive Wiz Khalifa hit “See You Again,” has fallen ill and cancelled the rest of his current tour — including his scheduled show on…
The musicians of duo In the Whale have established a bit of a reputation as road dogs over the years. Based out of Denver — when they are not living on the road — the two have risen in the ranks of the local rock scene, while inciting some controversial accusations…
On Friday, November 4, the Open Media Foundation hosts its next monthly free Open Music Session event, which will feature musical guests the Hang Rounders and comedian Timmi Lasley. Last month, the October 2016 Open Music Session welcomed Jux County, a band recently profiled in Westword and self-described as “punktry.”…
While there are a pair of huge shows at the Pepsi Center — Tool and Stevie Nicks — this week, there are a lot of other shows on tap this week that are just as worthy, whether it be Nelly, Margo Price, Meshuggah, Marillion or LVL UP. See our full list…
Marillion may not be a name familiar to a lot of people who didn’t pay attention to progressive rock in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the veteran progressive-rock band pioneered the concept of crowdfunding for tours and albums starting in the late ’90s. Marillion released its earliest recordings in 1982…
Last weekend, MartyParty’s fast set rocked the otherwise laid-back Block Festival in downtown Denver, and afterward, Westword got to chat with Martin David Folb, the sole DJ behind MartyParty and one half of the duo known as Pantyraid. MartyParty, which Folb describes as “drum and bass, which has now turned into halftime…
