FRI | DOCTOR P at BETA | 3/14/14 My dubstep has a first name, and it’s D-O-C-T-O-R-P. Having established himself as one of the originators in bringing dubstep to the masses, Doctor P’s early hits still get regular play in the biggest sets. To boot, his Circus Records imprint is…
Hooo buddy. There are shows this weekend in Denver. Who needs Austin when you’ve got the legendary New Orleans Suspects, the even more legendary De La Soul and a bunch of dudes with laptops, right here in your hometown? Not us. We’ll be here, seeing what Chris Adolf is up…
Sleeping in the van. Editor’s note: As she has in years past, Kalyn Heffernan from Wheelchair Sports Camp will be sending us dispatches from the band’s trip to Austin for SXSW. She sent her first report, which you see here, Wednesday afternoon, before a drunk driver crashed into a crowd…
I look at it like I’m leaving a trail of crumbs,” says artist, label founder and Denver transplant Tim Holland about the dense, politically informed content of his lyrics. “I’m referencing books, authors, ideas, concepts and historical moments the same way that Boogie Down Productions, X Clan and Public Enemy…
“All Mom Blues Band,” the second track on I Sank Molly Brown’s The Age of Pretzlcoatl, starts out with a Slint-like bass line but quickly escalates into more dissonant sonic territory as the song progresses. The band also continues to deliver its signature tempo shifts on the just-released album. Caleb…
As the Sky Darkens spent the last year-plus hunkered down in the studio, writing and recording Freedom, its latest full-length. Although the album incorporates every element of metalcore — crunching breakdowns, hellish growls, intricate guitar work and clean vocals — followers of heavier genres should not be discouraged. As the…
“Brightness,” from Cody Yantis’s new album, Resonant Memory, begins with pastoral guitar work and samples of birds and other ambient sounds, giving the track the feeling of a Daniel Lanois song. But by the time “Brightness III” comes through your stereo, the tone has darkened. On “Brightness IV,” the music…
There are only four tracks on King Cardinal’s self-titled debut EP, and all four give a clear idea of what this alt-folk sextet is capable of. Even so, it’s hard to get past the hauntingly beautiful opener, “A Short Trip to Mackinac Island,” because the song demands repeat listens. With…
The best Denver band is playing Red Rocks on July 17, and it will feature songs by and collaborations with Gregory Alan Isakov and DeVotchKa. Tickets are $27.50 to $65 and on sale now. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced the show last month, but the addition of Isakov to it…
Update, 3/12: Frank Ocean has now delivered a check for the full $212,500 to Chipotle. But it wasn’t the one posted to his tumblr on Monday, on which he’d written a certain colorful greeting. “Curiously, the memo line was blank,” says Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold. Original post follows… Frank Ocean…
The MeadowGrass Music Festival’s lineup for 2014 is here. The annual event, which will be held over Memorial Day weekend in Black Forest, will feature over 20 artists in three days at the La Foret Conference and Retreat Center. Topping the line up is Canadian band and Sugar Hill recording…
The distance between classical and folk music isn’t so great for Swallow Hill’s new music-school director. Swallow Hill Music officials announced this week that Uruguay native and Carnegie Mellon University alum Andres Cladera will fill the post. He replaces Michael Schenkelberg, who has held the job since 2007. In his…
For national acts touring through Denver, “the party doesn’t have to stop at the encore,” says Lipgloss co-founder Michael Trundle (boyhollow). Instead, bands can walk across the street from the Bluebird, fresh from playing to a packed crowd, and deejay at Lost Lake Lounge. They did twice last weekend: On…
Fear the gaze of Angel Olsen, whose smirk has a greater effect on a room than the average five guitar-wanker power slides combined. She plays the black box on Larimer Street tonight. Elsewhere, fireworks in the form of Austin’s The Sword come to The Black Sheep, slick bro G-Eazy hits…
Ah, the mosh pit. Keep your club night bumping and grinding and give me a good old fashioned pummeling. That’s where the adrenaline is, where some of the best kinds of release can be found in live music. Plus, there are way fewer boners. Every concert is improved with fewer…
It’s a good weekend for live music in Denver. Let’s start at the end, with Paul Simon’s Graceland collaborator Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Boulder Theater. The day before that, pop clinician Dr. Dog stops by on the same night as the collaboration between knotty rappers Madlib and Freddie Gibbs. There…
FRI | ADAM BEYER at NORAD | 3/8/14 It’s entirely appropriate that Adam Beyer’s techno label bears the handle Drumcode, considering that the techno enthusiast was a drummer in his teenage years before turning to electronic music in 1990, when he purchased his first set of turntables. Although the Swedish…
Though Angel Olsen’s music is often dubbed folk or indie rock, it is too diverse to fit neatly into such broad categories. Whatever it’s filed under, her music, especially her latest album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, is informed by a delicacy of feeling that allows her to channel…
Big Gigantic’s fifth studio album in as many years is a clear sign that saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli has truly stepped into his own world of music. “Clvdbvrst” opens the album with a plethora of styles; from there, listeners are treated to an explosion of jazzy saxophone foundations framing big beats…
With a name like Dwarf Planets and cover art that depicts the sun and two planets, you might guess that the music inside the sleeve has a prog-rock or even new-age influence. But about twenty seconds into “Ice Rain,” the opening cut on this seven-song disc, it’s evident that Boulder’s…
“Soul” is obviously the key word here, and the Soul Pros have plenty of it. Anchored by A-L, a fantastic producer and DJ with a deep understanding of sound, song progression and how to blend samples, Soul’d Out also features two excellent MCs who make A-L’s beats sound even better…
Rarely have a project and album name fit their music as perfectly as Weed Problem and its self-titled release. “Noddy Drug Kits” flows with a buzzy drone that is never fully resolved but just continues to build while hazy, echoing chants undulate amid syncopated crashing guitar and drums. The sprawling…
