Remember back in the day when you got home from school all psyched to watch some sweet, violent cartoons only to find that the dreaded After School Special? Buzz kill. It was even more of a bummer when our musical heroes took it upon themselves in the ’80s and ’90s…
FRI | ICHISAN at BAR STANDARD | 2/28/14 It’s not often that artists like Ichisan get a chance to play in this part of the world, so dance lovers in Denver should be stoked that he’s headed here. The Slovenian musician began his musical career on stringed instruments — specifically,…
FRI | PENTAGRAM at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 2/28/14 If you’ve seen Last Days Here, you’re familiar with the frustrating tale of Pentagram. Formed in Virginia in the early ’70s, the pioneering psychedelic metal band should have, by all accounts, realized massive worldwide fame. Instead, success evaded the outfit, thanks…
Music is life — or at least it is for us. When we’re not writing about it, we’re thinking about it, talking about it or listening to it. These are the things that were in heavy rotation for us this week. What are you listening to? What should we be…
Grassroots California is easily the coolest hat company in the world. With over one-thousand designs, the company that Ryan “Ruga” Connelly started in Venice Beach, selling his hats on the boardwalk, has grown to become the most in-demand lid dealer in the world over the course of the past five…
FRI & SAT | CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE TRIO at DAZZLE | 3/7-3/8 One of the best bassists in jazz today, 41-year-old Christian McBride has been playing professionally for more than half of his life. He got an early start as a teenager with Bobby Watsons’s group and then went on to…
Since releasing the last Pat Metheny Group album, 2005’s The Way Up, guitarist Pat Metheny has been quite busy exploring quite a few different paths, including his Orchestrion Project, two albums with pianist Brad Mehldau, a solo disc, a trio record, an album of John Zorn’s Masada material, 2012’s Unity…
I feel like simplicity is being strived for in the mainstream,” says Ronnie Weberg, “but we are seeing a progression into more intricate and intelligent music.” Weberg, who makes music under the name Unlimited Gravity, got his start producing hip-hop beats in high school. A shared interest in bass-driven music…
Surprisingly, spoken word is not often successfully combined with rap. On Nightdreams & Daymares, however, Bianca Mikahn does a flawless job of bridging the two. Pulling from deep wells of assonance, consonance and rhyme, Mikahn dances in the ebb and flow of Dile’s dreamy production, her free association finding and…
It’s clear that the members of We’s Us put a lot of care, attention and craft into their self-titled full-length. The evidence lies in the complex melodies, nuanced effects and layered sounds that mark each of the album’s fourteen tracks. A lengthy stretch of effects-laden guitar lines and augmented chords…
It’s fairly evident from “Jackson Town,” the opening cut on the Railsplitters’ twelve-song, self-titled debut, and tunes like “Lonesome Feeling” and “Blue Moon” that the Boulder-based quartet has a respectable handle on traditional bluegrass. But elsewhere on the disc, it’s clear that bluegrass and roots are also something of a…
On his new EP, Man Mantis demonstrates how a year or two of experimentation across a handful of singles has sharpened his creative output. Compared to the material on his last album, Cities Without Houses, the rhythm palette has been expanded, and the sense of space within arrangements has improved…
Back with another edition of In the Mix, a feature in which we spotlight new dance tracks and mixes from local producers and DJs. Although we’ve got one original track, this week’s edition is pretty much devoted to remixes of other tracks. Two Fresh brings a fresh flavor with its…
Electric Six (due Friday, March 7, at the Larimer Lounge) formed in Detroit in 1996. Not content to strictly follow any particular style of rock, the band has forged its own strange and surprisingly original path. Its greatest commercial and popular success came in 2003 with its debut, Fire, which…
When Andy Roberts moved to Colorado a few years ago, he immediately recognized the scene here as something he wanted to be a part of, which ultimately birthed the idea for the Denver Winter Showcase. Now in its sophomore year as a techno/house music party, the festival is totally geared…
Sonic Bloom, the mountain music and arts festival that has made its home at Shadows Ranch in Georgetown, Colorado, for the past few years, has announced a new location: American Safari Ranch in South Park, Colorado. No word on what prompted the move, but it could have something to do…
Being recognized as a top singer for two years running by American Idol seems like it should be a high point in a vocalist’s career. For Auroran Devan Blake Jones, the experience was more painful than if he had never tried in the first place. But he credits his time…
SKINNY PUPPY at OGDEN THEATRE | 2/24/14 The outrageous outfit Ogre is seen wearing above is just one of many he donned during his band’s show last night at the Ogden Theatre. Over the course of the show, the Skinny Puppy vocalist changed costumes at fairly regular intervals, the most…
After a few years of songwriting collaboration with Max Creek’s Scott Murawski, Mike Gordon’s latest effort is finally ready for consumption with the release of his new album, Overstep. Over the years, the man also known as the bassist of Phish has released numerous albums with his own band, each…
EELS will be at the Gothic Theatre on Wednesday, May 21, with Chelsea Wolfe. Tickets are $30.75 and go on sale this Saturday, March 1, at 10 a.m. Umphrey’s McGee returns for two nights, the first at the Boulder Theater on Friday, July 4, (tickets are $45/$50), followed by Red…
Formed in 1982, Skinny Puppy (due tonight, February 24, at the Ogden Theatre) is a pioneer of electronic industrial music. The band’s dark aesthetic and its visionary amalgamation of rhythm, texture and tone cast an indelible shadow on virtually all industrial music that followed in its wake. Throughout its career,…
JJ GREY & MOFRO at FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 2/21/14 This show at the Fillmore offered a full night of funk in various forms, from the cowfunk stomp of Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers to the slick and polished Motown meets Shel Silverstein funk of Keller Williams, culminating with JJ Grey…
