A few weeks ago, I made the six-hour trek to Santa Fe to see Denver band Rubedo play at the recently opened Meow Wolf Art Complex (full disclosure: My boyfriend, Gregg Ziemba, is a founding member of Rubedo). As a sort of sister city to Denver, Santa Fe has long…
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…
Last Saturday, June 25, marked the biggest festival in the 22-year history of the Westword Music Showcase, which spanned more than a dozen stages around Denver’s Golden Triangle and featured nearly 100 local bands and artists across many genres. This lineup was drawn from the finalist nominees for the 2016…
Ryan Chrys has long been a fixture of Denver’s music scene. His past bands include Spiv and Demon Funkies. But with his new gig, Ryan Chrys & The Rough Cuts, he’s returning to his country roots. Sort of. “My mom plays guitar and sings,” Chrys offers. “Growing up, she’d sing…
If there ever was a weekend to embrace your inner hippie, this Fourth of July weekend is it. While there’s big shows like Dead & Company and Umphrey’s McGee (each in town for two-night stands), there’s also Dead tribute acts Dark Star Orchestra and Shakedown Street as well as Blues Traveler’s…
Today, Colorado-based prank-call artist Longmont Potion Castle releases a career-spanning box set of his recordings. Before the Jerky Boys began their long career as high-profile prank callers, there was Longmont Potion Castle. LPC’s debut release was a 1987 cassette called Butcher the Paleontologist under the moniker Implement of Prognosis, and…
After the final open-mic comedy night at the Squire Lounge this past Tuesday, June 28, Big City Drugs hit the stage and played frayed punk rock with a shambolic energy worthy of The Exploding Hearts. Add to that a mutant rock hybrid sound suggests influences like Reatards, Dead Boys and…
English Two-Tone ska band The Selecter will be at the Gothic Theatre on Saturday, October 8. Tickets ($25-$40) go on sale Friday, July 1, at 10 a.m. The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band and Supersuckers co-headline the Gothic Theatre on Friday, October 8. Tickets ($20-$22) go on sale Thursday, June…
Though Swedish pop group Peter, Björn and John took a five-year hiatus from making music, only to return with the new Breakin’ Point, they were still hard at work during their break. In those five years they created a collective art space called INGRID, formerly home to a studio where one…
Son Little, aka Aaron Livingston, has created a sound that many have called “genre-bending.” It canvases notes of old soul, and Livingston’s vintage vocals breathe life into a style reminiscent of Otis Redding. He steps into the political sphere of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Four Dead in Ohio” on songs…
This Friday, July 1, the Open Media Foundation hosts its monthly free Open Music Session event, which will feature musical guest The Take, as well as comedian Zac Maas. Last month, the Open Music Session was once again a two-for-one night, as hip-hop acts Sole and Mikrofone Rob joined forces…
Jazz saxophonist Mark Fox was never really an inside player. Rather, he came in from the far outside, immersed in the music of avant-garde jazz innovators like Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and David S. Ware before ever checking out Charlie Parker. The album that set Fox down that…
If there are two major growth industries in Colorado right now, they are marijuana and music festivals. The scene has exploded, and many small towns are following the long-ago lead of places such as Telluride, Vail and Aspen by creating a calendar of events to draw visitors and boost their…
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. …
Denver-based Sailor Records, which is celebrating its first five years this weekend, started as both a labor of love and a tax write-off. When founder Oscar Ross put out the first album by his hard-rock band Lords of Fuzz in 2010, he did it just to have an imprint on…
The 22nd Westword Music Showcase, on Saturday, June 25, was one for the ages, featuring for the first time two main stages, as well as nearly 100 local bands who played hard through power outages and a short rain in the Golden Triangle. With so much to hear, see and…
Lita Ford, the Babys and the Sweet — the three sets of musicians that made up Sunday night’s killer bill at the Hudson Gardens, the fourth show in this year’s summer concert series, have stories coming out of their collective wazoos. From splits and reunions to abusive relationships to the…
On Tuesday, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals return to Red Rocks, while Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band (featuring Todd Rundgren, Steve Lukather, Richard Page, Gregg Rolie, Warren Ham and Gregg Bissonnette) play at the Paramount. Brand New and Modest Mouse co-headline Red Rocks on Wednesday, and Zeds Dead…
Heads up! The 2016 Westword Music Showcase is tomorrow, Saturday, June 25! If you want to buy a ticket the day of the show, prices increase to $55 for General Admission and $125 for VIP. Now here’s how to survive the day of fun and exhausted eardrums: We’ve all been…
Lita Ford first came to prominence in 1975 as the guitarist for the Runaways. Ford was born in England but grew up in Long Beach, California where she was exposed to late ’60s and early ’70s rock and roll, inspiring her to learn to play electric guitar. Though Ford was…
Bar Standard, located at 1037 Broadway, will host a range of local Denver musicians at the 2016 Westword Music Showcase. This modern-day speakeasy is known as a popular spot to hear some of Denver’s best DJs on the weekends while enjoying the view of Denver’s skyline from its two patios…
With close to a hundred local bands performing at the Westword Music Showcase this weekend, it’s easy to sample a broad base of the music happening in Denver today. Perhaps you’ll see a band for the first time and that performance will inspire you to vote for that band in…
