My Body Sings Electric, appearing at the Westword Music Showcase this weekend, has come a long way since first being founded in 2007 and alienating early audiences with its heady brand of rock, now performing on the mainstage at the Showcase. In our cover feature this week, you can read…
This weekend at the Westword Music Showcase for the first time anywhere, the Colorado Symphony will perform songs from Beck’s Song Reader. But not only does this mark the world premiere of these pieces, which were arranged by Jump, Little Children’s Jay Clifford, it’s the first time a professional ensemble…
The nineteenth annual Westword Music Showcase — otherwise known affectionately as the hottest party of the summer — is here! Our little celebration is all grown up now, and the party just keeps getting bigger. This year’s edition, featuring more than 150 artists performing on sixteen different stages, is no…
The first hints that My Body Sings Electric was pissing people off came long before the brutal reviews. Shortly after getting together in 2007, the band’s members went out of their way to be as self-indulgent and strident as possible. They specialized in making “musicians’ music” — songs with experimental…
By Dave Herrera and Britt Chester Update, 4:24, 6/19/13: The identity of the deceased man found at the Sonic Bloom Festival in Georgetown this past weekend has been released. According to Captain Bruce Snelling of the Clear Creek Sheriff’s Department — who also spoke with us yesterday about the unrelated…
So if you can’t tell by our wall-to-wall coverage, we’re pretty damn geeked about the Westword Music Showcase this weekend — and for good reason. It’s our absolute favorite time of year, the time when we get to put the spotlight on our beloved scene and — more important –…
If you haven’t picked up your tickets to the Westword Music Showcase yet, dig it: We’ve got the total hookup. Today only, you can buy tickets for $20 with a special promo code. Don’t sleep. Prices are increasing every day from now until the Showcase, so if you want to…
A couple of quick lineup changes to let you know about this weekend: Nunchuck, featuring Chuck Morris of Lotus, has been added to the main-stage lineup at the Westword Music Showcase this weekend. On a related note, due to unforeseen and uncontrollable circumstances, Nick Waterhouse will no longer be appearing…
JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 6/15/13 Saving one of the most blistering numbers of the show for the end of the set, Jon Spencer and the Blues Explosion cut loose with “Blues X Man.” Making his way to the front of the stage amid a squall of…
GETO BOYS @ SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 6/14/13 Stepping on stage with an eager swagger, lead by Donny Hathaway’s “Little Ghetto Boy,” Scarface was the first of the Geto Boys to greet the crowd. The rapper, who visited Denver on his own last fall, announced that all three member of…
DEVOTCHKA & THE COLORADO SYMPHONY @ RED ROCKS | 6/14/13 Sharing the spotlight with an orchestra of more than fifty members, DeVotchKa ran the risk of getting lost in the shuffle on stage at Red Rocks. Then came the aerialists, who climbed high above the stage via slim stretches of…
HAVOK @ MARQUIS THEATER | FRI, 6/21/13 Hot on the heels of its European tour with Cephalic Carnage, Suffocation and Fallujah, Havok is preparing for the release its new album, Unnatural Selection, next Tuesday, June 25. The ten-track album, the band’s fourth release overall and the followup to 2011’s Time…
There’s some great live music this weekend. We’ve already given you a full rundown of the ten best concerts in Denver and the best EDM, but if don’t feel like leaving the house, or you can’t find a sitter or whatever, you can still get your live fix. Bonnaroo kicks…
Nearly four years after transforming the Monarck into the Oak Tavern, Lotus Concepts’ Francois Safieddine has closed the venue and his 24K club upstairs last weekend. Paulina Szafranski, president of marketing for Lotus, says that Safieddine, who owns the building at 1416 Market Street, doesn’t have any plans for the…
ERIC PRYDZ @ THE CHURCH | FRI, 6/14/13 Eric Prydz’s biggest hits so far have both incorporated famous work by other musicians: “Call on Me,” from 2004, samples Steve Winwood’s “Valerie,” and the 2006 track “Proper Education” is a remix of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.”…
DEVOTCHKA & COLORADO SYMPHONY @ RED ROCKS | FRI, 6/14/13 Teaming up with an orchestra can sometimes be a thin attempt to disguise a creative lag, but in this case, the pairing has produced an inspired, brilliantly structured melding of two aesthetics that relies less on contrast than it does…
A few months before the Alarm was to hit America for the first time as the opening act on U2’s War tour in 1983, singer Mike Peters met Big Country frontman Stuart Adamson when they joined U2 for a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” at the Hammersmith…
On the Gristle Gals’ debut, 2010’s On the Lam, the gypsy-folk-tinged songs were mostly percussion-less, fueled primarily by a trio playing acoustic instruments. In contrast, one of the most notable things about the act’s sophomore release, Sweet Pea, is that the outfit is now calling itself a band. On opener…
Head for the Hills uses misdirection like a veteran magician on Blue Ruin. The album kicks off with “Take Me Back,” an easygoing, rambling ballad steeped in traditional bluegrass. The rest of the record, however, is a surreal, heady and innovative fusion of styles. “Never Does” offers a dark and…
“Let me tell you what it feels like,” begins Thomas Tha Franchise’s Caffeine Dreams, a reference to Hoodie Allen, a clear influence to whom Thomas also nods in “Thumbs Up.” Both Thomas’s and Allen’s songs are anthemic, suitable for bumping in cars and at frat parties. Like Allen, Thomas has…
On Westerner, Tjutjuna’s latest album, it seems as though the band is creating the musical equivalent of a moving sculpture crafted to give the semblance of life. “Mousetrap” is like a psychedelicized Neu! song, but with uncoiling whorls of bright drones and tones, while the pounding, pulsating rhythm of “Heavy…
Native Daughters was formed just before local guitarists Eddie Maestas and Thomas Chagolla wrapped up their affairs in the inventive and cathartic post-hardcore band Mustangs and Madras. The two wanted to start a heavy instrumental band inspired in part by Isis and Neurosis, so Chagolla switched to drums and they…
