Britt ChesterBehind the “Big G Hive” created by Brown Note ProductionsBrown Note Productions, Inc. is among the best lighting companies in the country, at least according to its new trophy. The Thornton-based production company won the Parnelli Award for “Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year” for 2013. The Parnellis,…
Method Man and Redman, who were recently immortalized on the cover of High Times with their faces carved into an imaginary “Mount Kushmore,” played a sold-out show on 4/20 at Cervantes’ Masterpiece. No surprises there. Also Leftover Salmon was playing in the street right outside, with members of Little Feat…
Record Store Day is all about showing the love for your favorite bands by hitting the shops and making a purchase. Westword decided to hit the checkout lines at Wax Trax and Twist & Shout and put people on the spot. Hey, you! You just bought a bunch of stuff…
The most superfluous smoke machine in the world was employed during Wiz Khalifa’s 4/20 set at Red Rocks. Partway through the Pittsburgh rapper’s performance, someone backstage turned on the thing, and its output was immediately subsumed into the cloud of pot smoke cascading down from the stands. There’s weed at…
Even diehard rap fans will tell you: There’s something about recorded rap music that often doesn’t translate well to the stage. It makes sense for a lot of artists; for those who rely on a carefully chosen vocabulary, much of what makes an artist great can get completely lost in…
OM is often lumped in with the genres of “stoner rock” and “doom metal,” and it seems likely to be not coincidental that its tour ended on April 20th in Colorado. But the band’s 4/20 show did not seem to have either a stoner or doom vibe to it. Washingtonians…
Oakland resident Kimchi Truong was 24. She passed out on the Coachella grounds last weekend, likely due to an overdose. Her death, Thursday, was shocking. But what’s really shocking is that this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. This story is about very young people doing a shit-ton of…
Record Store Day is once again upon us, with its candy-colored vinyl and improbably in-store performances and endless lines. Like anything that becomes popular, the holiday is starting to develop detractors among music fans who see it as everything from a pain in the ass to a gimmicky, patronizing tourist…
Magic Cyclops returns from the rumors of his premature 2011 death to perform at Wax Trax Records this Saturday, April 19th for Record Store Day. For the occasion he is also releasing a limited edition of his “Captain Badass” single on square vinyl. That night he will reprise his performance…
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver asks a Colorado band or musician four questions and then draws their conversation. We call the resulting comic “4 Questions: Comic Strip Interview” because we have no use for obscurity. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and even buy it…
Easter is upon us. The holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of the Christian messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Pontius Pilate washed his hands, the Roman emperor Tiberius probably heard nothing about the incident from a far-off province of the empire. To Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and Josephus he was not…
A year ago, local music icon and ColfaxAvenue.com webmaster Jonny Barber released the first volume of his Colfax-themed compilation that included acts like Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Five Iron Frenzy and Andy Palmer. Now Barber is set to release the second installment of the Colfax Compilation on Tuesday, April 22,…
The Knife (due Monday, April 21, at The Fillmore Auditorium) from Stockholm, Sweden, is an experimental synth pop duo comprised of Karin Dreijer Andersson and her brother Olof Dreijer. Since the project’s founding in 1999, it has explored unusual rhythmic ideas. Its 2003 album Deep Cuts garnered the group an…
Clyfford Still was one of the 20th century’s most innovative artists. That doesn’t mean the artist didn’t have a love for music. Still’s fondness for blues, jazz, classical music and more is part of the inspiration behind the live performance series set to hit his eponymous Denver museum this summer…
Riot Fest expanded its reach to Colorado last year, bringing The Replacements, Guided By Voices, FLAG and many more to May Farms. The Chicago-based festival, celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, will return to Denver this fall with the help of local concert promotion company Soda Jerk Presents. Riot Fest…
No other musical genre (aside from reggae) has a stronger connection to the cannabis lifestyle than heavy metal, hence the term ‘stoner metal.’ But of course, this term describes a subgenre that can encompass different types of metal music and mean different things to different folks; whether you’re into that…
As one half of the propulsive rock band In the Whale, Nate Valdez spends his nights moving crowds in darkened bars. But by day, he works as a mortician, preparing bodies for funerals. It’s an occupation once held by his grandfather. Read the rest of his story in this week’s…
OFF! (due Saturday, April 19, at The Marquis Theatre) is a bit of a hardcore supergroup, founded by Keith Morris formerly of Black Flag and Circle Jerks and Dimitri Coats who was best known as a member of heavy rock band Burning Brides. The two became friends not long after…
Nate Valdez is good with fingers. Take, for example, his care when removing jewelry from them. First he coats a finger with wax. Then he ties a string around its base and wiggles it up slowly behind the ring it’s wearing until the ring slinks off the tip at the…
The world continues to burn, propelling artists such as Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and La Bouche to the top of the charts. Meanwhile, some of the most brilliant artists sit silently in obscurity. Sometimes people discover them years later and bring them to light through covers, or a hip-hop artist…
Over the weekend, the Summit Music Conference and Showcase took over Casselman’s for a day. A panel consisting of people with ties to Sirius/XM Radio, Warner Music, Atlantic Records and more discussed ways artists in Denver can help the hip-hop scene ascend to new heights. There are those in Denver…
The members of Steele and Colfax are indebted to one of Denver’s most unique stretches of road. Indeed, it only takes looking at the title of the quartet to get a sense of their local roots. The place where the band played their first rehearsals is right there in the…
