Dave Brockie, better known as Gwar frontman/front-alien Oderus Urungus, passed away this morning. He was just fifty years old. His death follows that of guitarist Cory Smoot, aka Flattus Maximus, in 2011, while the band was on tour. Having formed the band of terrifying alien creatures in 1984, Brockie had…
A full crowd, mostly comprising young women, pilled into Cervantes’ last night to support their new idol: Snow tha Product. The buzz the rapper has generated in a short time was evident: The energy at the sold-out show was vibrant. Many people have identified with the rising star, who raps…
When Lorde became widely known following the release of her hit single “Royals,” the term “goth” was quickly attached to her music, and even more to her visual style. Vanity Fair referred her as the Queen of Darkness. Well, the goths didn’t get that memo, and Lorde’s sold-out show over…
Novelty had its moment in hip-hop; vision had its moment; abstraction had its moment. But thanks in no small part to Top Dawg Entertainment and its star, Kendrick Lamar, good old fashioned high-quality rapping is once again the standard of the day. And now, K.Dot’s longtime running mate Schoolboy Q…
At last night’s Science Lounge at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, I asked a grown woman what drew her into a fishbowl full of craft supplies to make her own mini diorama, and this is what she said: “I was like, ooh! There’s glue sticks in there!” Hot…
FRI | MARK FARINA at BAR STANDARD | 3/21/14 Mark Farina plays mushroom jazz, and that’s just the way it is. Seamlessly fusing funk, soul, jazz, and hip-hop into a fluid soundtrack, Farina has grown into a household name at Bar Standard where he regularly plays sets in what could…
Lorde and Robin Thicke are playing the Fillmore this weekend. Oh! Not together. No, it’s a Saturday/Sunday situation. But do you know who would make one exceedingly odd twerking couple? Those two. Elsewhere, the great Tower of Power hits our neighbor to the south, D.R.I. will be yelling at Englewood…
Editor: Kalyn Heffernan is a familiar voice to many regular readers of Backbeat. We’ve written about her band several times over the years. And this week, she’s been sending us commentary on her third trip to Austin for SXSW. Read about why she still thinks it’s worth it to go,…
In March 2013, Spike Network featured Zanzibar Billiards on Larimer Street on its popular reality series Bar Rescue. During the episode, owner Ami Benari and the show’s host, Jon Taffer, nearly got into a full-on brawl. “It was hairy for a few moments, because he made me mad,” Benari says…
Gary Caspa, or simply Caspa as he’s known in the music world, has just transplanted himself, along with his wife, in Denver, Colorado. Could it be because Denver is the mecca of dance music and progressive thinking — two things that seem to go hand in hand these days? Or…
The question feels like a no-brainer, especially considering the fact that Brian Nelson is addressing a group of toddlers. “You guys, we have this big, giant drum over here. You think we should play it?” Nelson has just wrapped up a performance of a song about hot pots and silly…
A loose aesthetic unifies the crackling, fuzzy melodies of the songs on American Haiku’s debut EP, called, simply, e.p. Imagine a band like noise-pop phenom Versus writing lo-fi power pop. Or one of those Louisville, Kentucky, bands from the early ’90s, like Squirrelbait — except with the influence of emo…
With its streams of tone possessed of a slippery physicality, “0001 capillary,” the first song on Formant’s Amino, is reminiscent of the recent work of German electronic artist Pole. There’s a spacious and luminous quality to it, like that of a secret subterranean dance club lit only by dim floor…
On her 2012 debut, Snapshot, Katie Glassman, who has won numerous fiddling championships, clearly showed she knew her way around Western swing, vintage jazz and bluegrass. On her eleven-song sophomore release, Dream a Little Dream, Glassman is more refined both musically and vocally, leaning more toward Western swing with her…
Hip-hop in today’s scene is fast and racy. An electronic overload of new-age sounds floods the market as more and more artists race to keep up with commercial trends. Musa’s latest project, How to Survive When You’re Dead, ignores all of that, creating a modern hip-hop Western that transports the…
In the years since it became Lost Lake Lounge, the strip-mall bar sitting on Colfax just west of Colorado Blvd. has maintained a low-key, log-cabin-like atmosphere; beers were sipped at the front room’s small crescent-shaped bar, and bands played in the back room on the floor. The space has a…
While Jonathan Bitz originally planned to have Syntax Physic Opera up and running by last November, construction delays and having to obtain new permits have extended the timeline. He’s now hoping that his music venue, eatery and art bar open by the end of April. After a five-year stint as…
Editor: As she has in years past, Kalyn Heffernan from Wheelchair Sports Camp is documenting the band’s trip to Austin for SXSW. Today, she’s sent us portraits of each of the four outfits she wore at the festival this year. “I packed a good twenty-plus shirts/tanks, too many hats, shoes,…
It’s not so tough to spot the link between the Arvada Center’s 2014 recently announced concert series and Swallow Hill Music, who partnered with them to construct the lineup. The series owes a lot to the music school’s deep roots in folk music — performances by Don McLean and Judy…
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. An Austin blog asked me to, “describe SXSW in 15 seconds.” I did it with only two words: shit show. But that’s not…
At this show at Seventh Circle Music Collective, Tim Holland (a.k.a. Sole) commanded a crowd that stretched well beyond his (storied) hip-hop roots. In addition to those fans, there were supporters of the punk bands that played on either side of his own set, there were people involved in the…
De La Soul, the iconic Long Island hip-hop trio, performed last Saturday to a capacity crowd at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom. It was “nuts-to-butts crowded,” as my Tennessee friends like to say. Consider now the fact that the group hasn’t released a proper album in five years (2009’s obscure Are You…
