Rutherford Belleview says the Widow’s Bane, his theatrical, dark, Americana-flavored, self-styled “zombie death polka” band, began sometime around 1700 A.D. “The name ‘The Widow’s Bane’ is from where we originally met, which was a ship,” the accordion player explains. “We were a house band on the Devil’s ship. We weren’t…
David Sugalski, a Philadelphia native with a business degree from the University of Colorado, has carved out a respectable career for himself in dance music. Better known in EDM circles as the Polish Ambassador, Sugalski is creating music that reflects his life while constantly evolving as an artist and finding…
“Gangsta of War” is the perfect intro to a tape that essentially sounds like a secret early recording made by a now-well-known Warp Records project. Or it could be Art of Noise doing its best imitation of gangsta rap. The hypnotic yet syncopated drum-machine-generated beats, punctuated by bass and urgent…
Although the Raven and the Writing Desk has created some richly textured songs that vary in style and tempo, when it comes to aesthetics, there’s little about the group’s new EP that’s groundbreaking. There’s no doubting the bandmembers’ musicianship on songs like “Cutting the Lime,” which impressively blends a Little…
Considering that its moniker is borrowed from a Native American term meaning “wild with madness,” it’s not surprising that Musuji is a bit unhinged musically — but the band doesn’t stray too far out there. From the get-go on this ten-song album, the quartet shows off its heavy side. On…
As a teenage guitarist, Jeff Scroggins fell in love with rock and roll, especially with players like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck — but at nineteen, he picked up a cheap banjo at a garage sale, then ended up trading in his Les Paul for a better banjo…
If you haven’t heard yet, Riot Fest, the incredibly popular festival founded in Chicago in 2005, is expanding to Colorado. There’s no word yet on the lineup, but if the roster of acts (Motörhead, Public Enemy, Bad Brains, Guided by Voices, the Dismemberment Plan, Dinosaur Jr. and Surfer Blood, among…
Wampire is a five-piece whose music doesn’t seem fixed to a particular musical period, especially the current era. If anything, the band’s gently swirling, swaying melodies are buoyed almost imperceptibly by a distinct if informal structure that keeps the music from wandering completely where it will. It’s almost like psychedelic…
FEAR @ ” target=”_blank”>MARQUIS THEATER | 6/4/13 With his characteristic enigmatic smile, Lee Ving looked up at the crowd after making sure his guitar was ready to go and said, “This is a classic sing-along,” before he and the band went into “I Love Livin’ in the City.” With that,…
Cash Money Records, the label founded by Bryan “Baby/Birdman” Williams in 1991, rose to prominence in the hip-hop scene with its signing of the Hot Boys, consisting of B.G., Young Turk, Lil’ Wayne and Juvenile. Since then, the group has become one of rap’s premier labels, having piggybacked Lil Wayne’s…
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…
Stylistically, rap has exploded, and the pieces fall everywhere from the mind-bogglingly complex to the unbelievably simple, from the brazenly dissident to the unapologetically mainstream. Rappers’ influences seem to come from everywhere, but the stylistic differences between an Aesop Rock and a 2 Chainz are so stark, they got us…
DADA LIFE @ 2013 WESTWORD MUSIC SHOWCASE | SAT, 6/22 The craze surrounding Dada Life is well deserved. The act knows how to throw the wildest party in the EDM game. Banana suits, inflatable champagne bottles, champagne showers and stage diving are just some of craziness that comes with this…
ALICE COOPER / MARILYN MANSON @ RED ROCKS | 6/3/13 The moment everyone was waiting for and had to guess was coming came at the very end of the show, when Alice Cooper came back on stage for his encore. As the familiar strains of “I’m Eighteen” drew cheers from…
THE EAGLES @ PEPSI CENTER | SAT, 10/5/13 The Eagles, who just released the three-disc documentary History of the Eagles, hits the Pepsi Center on Saturday, October 5. The band will be performing classics spanning their entire career, as well as tunes from the bandmembers’ solo catalogues. Tickets, which start…
THE XX @ FILLMORE AUDITORIUM | 6/3/13 Clad in black and appearing every bit as mysterious and guarded as their music implies, the xx stepped on stage, strapped on its gear and began playing “Try” from its sophomore album, Coexist. The siren-like drone from Jamie Smith’s synthesizer set the tone…
ALICE COOPER & MARILYN MANSON @ RED ROCKS | MON, 6/3/13 Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson at Red Rocks. Sweet Jesus! How this totally obvious and sure-to-be-awesome pairing has not happened before now is anybody’s guess. The music world’s O.G. shock rocker and his direct artistic descendent are slated to…
TAYLOR SWIFT @ PEPSI CENTER | 6/2/13 Taylor Swift knows what people say about her. She’s heard it all — the rumors, the criticism, the constant derision. She knows, as she acknowledged a few times during her performance at the Pepsi Center last night, but she doesn’t care. Why should…
GETO BOYS @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | SAT, 6/22/13 When it comes to the history of hip-hop in the Dirty South, it begins with Geto Boys and their self-titled, Rick Rubin-produced debut. The group had existed, though with a different cast, since ’86, but it wasn’t until the turn of…
So the Westword Music Showcase is less than a month away, and we’re all the way hyped about this year’s lineup. You can get a sneak peek of what we have in store for you tonight at our pre-party at Stoney’s Bar & Grill featuring SHEL, Go Star, Foxfield Four,…
TRIBUTE TO CHET BAKER @ DAZZLE | WED, 6/5 Last month marked the 25th anniversary of legendary trumpeter Chet Baker’s death after falling out of a hotel room window in Amsterdam. So in honor of Baker’s life, local trumpeter Justin Peterson is presenting a new concert series, “I Miss You,…
It took decades, but Joan Baez has finally overcome her stage fright. The legendary folk singer and activist, who initially found fame during the folk renaissance of the 1960s, partnering with Bob Dylan on stage and fighting for a wide range of causes into the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, says…
