The eleven alternative weeklies of Voice Media Group are responsible for a tremendous amount of music writing: This year, we produced thousands of pages of printed stories and tens of thousands of blog posts. We’re proud to present the very best of that work in the second annual Voice Media…
The A-OKs met on the Internet. As frontman Mark Swan notes, “We’re pretty much the billboard band for the success of finding people on Craigslist.” But while the players linked up essentially sight unseen, you’d hardly know it, watching the natural chemistry and sense of camaraderie among them. The initial…
While there are a number of high profile jam-centric New Year’s Eve shows this year, including dates with Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident and Umphrey’s McGee, there are also a ton of other concerts and club events on NYE. We’ve put together a comprehensive list of ways for…
Jello Biafra has had an unmistakable and enduring impact internationally, both on punk and the counterculture. The iconoclast grew up in Boulder and moved to San Francisco in the late ’70s, where he formed the Dead Kennedys and established the Alternative Tentacles imprint. As an outspoken critic of the more…
Welp, we’ve reached the end of another year, and what a year it was here at Backbeat. From delving into extensive Phish analysis and listing the best Swedish Metal bands to running down the best light shows and rap lyrics of all time to offering up a field guide of…
Hot Tuna, featuring former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, returns to the Oriental on Sunday, February 23; tickets are $30 and on sale now. The Bad Plus are due at Dazzle on Tuesday, April 23, and Wednesday, April 24. Tickets are $25 and on sale now. Mountain Sun hosts its…
If you were at Decadence last night, then you already have the drop on the first headliner for this year’s edition of the Westword Music Showcase. In keeping with our longstanding tradition of capping the night off with a blockbuster dance party, Diplo will have the honors this year. Tickets…
Welcome back to another edition of In the Mix, a feature in which we spotlight new dance tracks and mixes from some of the hottest Colorado producers and DJs. We’ve got an eclectic mix on deck this week, with new cuts and mixes from PowTron, Paul Basic, Mux Mool and…
STRING CHEESE INCIDENT at 1STBANK CENTER | 12/29/13 A true switch-up in the pace of the music and dynamics of the String Cheese Incident set came four songs into the set when the band called Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to the stage for a cover…
Update: Contest is over. We’ve picked a winner. Congrats to @fjscar0319. Check your email for details on how to claim your ticket, and thanks to everybody else for the other entries — and for reading Backbeat! Night one of Decadence kicks off tonight at the Colorado Convention Center with performances…
TUES | WU YEAR’S EVE at CERVANTES | 12/31/13 More than just creating a free-associative style that would be emulated ceaselessly throughout the ’90s and to this very day, the Wu-Tang Clan engineered an aesthetic and model for profitability with only a spiritual guide, the GZA, a mastermind producer, the…
Man, oh, man, does time fly. It seems like JAS Aspen Snowmass just happened, and now here we have the lineup for the 2014 edition. This year’s roster of acts includes Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue (due at the Ogden Theatre tonight), Diana Krall, Steve Winwood, who are slated to…
Second only to “Mile High City,” the title of John Denver’s folksy classic “Rocky Mountain High” is the pun we’re seeing the most lately in reporting about our state’s legal weed. For the most part, Colorado has always been particularly proud of the anthem that celebrates our most treasured feature,…
Update, 12/27/13: Contest is over. Congrats to Darkcabal and mtnmc1. You and a guest will be our guests at the show this Monday. Check your email for details on how to claim your tickets. Thanks for all the entries and for reading Backbeat! What better way to finish what was…
FRI | BAUUER at BETA | 12/27/13 Sure, it’s ancient history now, but remember earlier this year when you couldn’t escape the “Harlem Shake” phenomenon. In case you need a refresher, “Harlem Shake” is what happened when a thunderous trap record on Diplo’s Mad Decent imprint put the nation in…
STRING CHEESE INCIDENT at 1STBANK CENTER | 12/28-12/29, 12/31 String Cheese Incident will be presenting its twentieth-anniversary celebration with various openers during its New Year’s run at 1STBANK Center. The group has Bootsy Collins joining forces on Saturday, December 28, confetti rockers Flaming Lips on Sunday, December 29, and the…
Brother Ali is slated to close at the year in Boulder with a two-night stand at the Fox Theatre that kicks off on Monday, December 30, and culminates with a New Year’s Eve performance on Tuesday, December 31. We’ve got tickets to the show on Monday, and would love for…
Welcome back to another edition of In the Mix, our semi-new feature in which we spotlight new dance tracks and mixes from some of the hottest Colorado producers and DJs. This week, we’ve got some great mixes from Kill Paris, option4 and Caveman Sound, Paper Diamond and Ben Samples. Continue…
This year’s installment of the Vans Warped Tour, which features Saves the Day, Mayday Parade, For Today, I the Mighty, the Ghost Inside, Teenage Bottlerocket, is slated to drop by Denver on Sunday, June 15. Tickets range from $28.50-$48.95 and are on sale now. Keep reading to see what other…
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…
Although there’s definitely a place for speed on electronica-driven dance floors, some DJs and producers tend toward slower tempos — an increasingly unusual choice in a scene where garage- and glitch-oriented subgenres seem to rule the day. Artists like Ewan Pearson prove that you don’t have to rely on speed…
In addition to hometown hero Pretty Lights, who just played a rare, highly anticipated warm-up date at the Ogden a few weeks ago, Decadence NYE (December 30 and 31 at the Colorado Convention Center) boasts an absolutely unreal lineup of top-shelf acts including Bassnectar, Beats Antique, Keys N Krates, Tiësto,…
