The Eight Best Shows This Weekend in Denver

There are some punk rock bands playing next to the football stadium this weekend. Perhaps you’ve heard. There are plenty of options for those not headed to Riot Fest, including the inaugural Cloak & Dagger fest, with an impeccable lineup full of some of dance music’s most interesting up-and-coming artists…

Failure’s Ken Andrews on the Absurdity of Hair Metal

Failure is slated to perform at Riot Fest this Friday, September 19th. Though the band enjoyed a great deal of popularity during its first run before splitting in 1997, its influence has loomed large on a good deal of guitar rock that has come along since. If someone writes a…

Radke May Be the Best Band at Riot Fest Not Playing the Main Stage

While a lot of the focus during Riot Fest this weekend will be on the headliners playing the May Farms stage and the Byers General Store, the festival includes up and coming bands, local and otherwise, worthy of attention. These are generally not the bands riding in large tour buses…

The Nine Types of People You’ll See at Riot Fest

Riot Fest isn’t just for the punks anymore. This festival, coming to Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High this weekend, is bringing an eclectic, loud lineup, and there will surely be a diverse crowd roaming the Byers-themed parking lot. To help you prepare, and maybe even dress, we’ve rounded…

Les Claypool of Primus on the Benefits of Folk Music

Les Claypool and Larry Lalonde will be signing copies of Primus: Over the Electric Grapevine, an oral history of the band, at Tattered Cover on Thursday, September 18, at 7 p.m.. Primus is also slated to perform at Riot Fest on Friday, September 19. Formed in 1984 in the San…

Why Did SoundCloud Suspend ThisSongIsSick.com’s Account?

Earlier this week, the popular Boulder based electronic and hip-hop music blog, ThisSongIsSick.com announced that Soundcloud, the audio distribution platform has temporarily suspended their account, which blog creator Nick Guarino said gets approximately 1.5 million listeners every 24 hours…

What Swallow Hill Music Is Looking For in its New CEO

Earlier this month. Swallow Hill Music announced that CEO and Executive Director Tom Scharf was resigning after seven years of running the Denver-based nonprofit organization that runs music education programs and organizes many concerts in the area. Scharf last day is September 30, and the organization is hoping to have…

Itchy-O Plots World Domination With Jello Biafra

It is impossible to ignore Itchy-O. At full capacity, the band comprises 32 members, all dressed in matching costumes, all masked, delivering truly alien vocals and playing marching-band instruments along with guitars, basses, taiko drums and electronics attached to portable amplifiers. There is also a Chinese lion named Larry. “I…

Allout Helter on the Value of Riot Fest to the Local Scene

Allout Helter began in 2008 as a melodic hardcore band with some metal chops. In 2010, the group put an ad on Craigslist for a lead vocalist and attracted the attention of Ross Hostage. Hostage had spent the previous decade playing in Action Friend and Suburban Hostage. He brought a…

The Gondola Sessions Will Make You Long for Winter in Colorado

Filming live music outdoors can present all kinds of problems, from moving clouds obstructing your light to changes in the wind messing with your sound. But if it all works out, you have the opportunity to give the music a remarkable backdrop. With The Gondola Sessions, filmmaker John Austin set…

Eleven Famous Musicians Who Recently Moved to Colorado

With the legalization of cannabis for recreational use starting January 1, 2014, Colorado has become a destination for touring bands. However, a steady stream of artists have been moving to the state for years. Some seem to use it purely as a base of operations, but some have engaged with…

Miss America by Wheary and Syntax Physic Opera Are a Perfect Match

The best new band in town at the best new bar in town. That’s a bold statement, but it’s that statement that lingered as Miss America by Wheary, a new project featuring Joseph Pope III, Julie Davis, Nathaniel Rateliff, James Han and Patrick Meese finished its set at Syntax Physic…