Weekend’s best dance bets: Ana Sia, Matt Darey, Hipp-E and more

Weekend’s here! Feel like cutting a rug? As always, we’ve got you covered. This weekend’s Dance Card is brimming: Ana Sia, the glitch-hop/dubby darling of the West Coast, headline Casselman’s on Friday night, and there are a ton of other options, including Icicle, Matt Darey, the return of Hipp-E with…

Review: El Ten Eleven at the Fox Theatre, 2/1/12

El TEN ELEVEN @ FOX THEATRE | 2/1/12 El Ten Eleven lit up the Fox Theatre last night on its second stop in Colorado. Frontman Kristian Dunn had a Wal fretless bass and 1977 Carvin double neck guitar/bass to choose from with an array of guitar pedals at his disposal,…

The Lumineers debut full-length due out on Dualtone on April 3

On the heels of rounding a list of the 20 Best New Bands of 2011 compiled by Paste Magazine, The Lumineers have announced plans to release their debut full-length on Dualtone Records, the imprint that’s currently home to a half-dozen other artists including Brett Dennen and Guy Clark. While the…

R.I.P. Don Cornelius

On this, the first day of Black History Month 2012, there’s some sad news coming out of Los Angeles: Don Cornelius, a legend who changed television forever, was found dead this morning at his home of an apparent suicide. The 75-year-old Chicago-bred civil rights-inspired journalist was the epitome of soul…

The Legend of Zelda Symphony at Boettcher on April 7

Gamers and Geeks, rejoice! Here’s another reason to leave the house besides MileHiCon and the occasional run to stock up on Mountain Dew and pizza bagels: The local premier of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, a four-part symphony celebrating the storied franchise’s theme music over the years,…

Review: Los Campesinos! at the Bluebird Theater, 1/31/12

LOS CAMPESINOS! @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 1/31/12 Los Campesinos! is a band weathered by fine lines. By attending one of the Welsh septet’s shows, you are, whether you know it or not, crossing one of your own in the sand. You are saying that you prefer precociousness to pretense, that…

Talk nerdy to me at Bop Skizzum’s first annual Nerd Prom

Hey, all you super-squares, time to dig out that sparkly prom dress with the puffy sleeves and the ill-fitting leisure suit. Run to that dusty box in the closet to bust out the retainer, the horn-rimmed glasses and the D&D magic decoder ring. No room for hipsters here: This party…

Meshuggah at the Ogden on May 11

Rejoice, metal heads! On Friday, May 11, Meshuggah is slated to hit the Ogden Theatre for a show in support of its forthcoming album, the eagerly anticipated followup to 2008’s Obzen, due out on Nuclear Blast on March 27. The Swedish metal masterminds will be joined at the Ogden by…

The Civil Wars at the Ogden Theatre on May 23

Holy smokes! With the ridiculous number of enticing shows coming to town this spring, you might want to stock up on some five-hour energy and consider getting a second job. Here’s yet another show to be completely stoked about: The Civil Wars at the Ogden Theatre on Wednesday, May 23…

Mastodon, Opeth and Ghost at the Fillmore on April 23

This should be pretty killer: In support of their latest albums, Heritage and The Hunter, Opeth and Mastodon — two acts that recently headlined the Ogden Theatre and are certainly no strangers to the Mile High City — are preparing to hit the road together on the aptly named Heritage…

Tech N9Ne at the Fillmore on May 18

Tech N9Ne is coming back to Denver. Again. If it seems like he was just here, it’s because he was. This past November. At the Fillmore Auditorium. And before that he was there in July. And December before that in Boulder. Tech N9Ne is here so often, in fact, you’d…

Club Dreams has one of the hottest hip-hop nights in Denver

“I don’t care! He’s not gonna be talking to me all crazy!” Arms flailing, head whipping back and forth, a young woman is being carried through the sweeping front doors by a hulking security guard who ignores her protests and beating fists. Setting her down gingerly on her teetering heels,…

Cass McCombs

In 2007, singer-songwriter Cass McCombs told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wants his tombstone to read “Home at Last.” McCombs’s subtle and sardonic humor, enmeshed with a poetic truth, also informs his songwriting. Although he doesn’t really sound like Roy Orbison, his lushly evocative tunes resonate with the same…

Ryan Adams

If you ignore the fact that any of his sadder, sappier new material could be about his wife, a post-Walk to Remember Mandy Moore, Ryan Adams remains one of the most listenable and versatile singer-songwriters just this side of Americana. Three years ago, he married Moore, sobered up, disbanded his…

Lotus

The jazzy electronic quintet Lotus, known for its precisely timed improvisations during live shows, is celebrating its thirteenth year together. This weekend, fresh off the release of its most recent effort, Lotus, the band, which is signed to Boulder’s SCI Fidelity records, is kicking off a tour that will culminate…

Children of Bodom

Having changed its name from Inearthed to a reference to the infamous Lake Bodom murders of 1960, this Finnish band continues to defy easy categorization in any specific subgenre of metal. The band’s precision and furiously fast and melodic riffing are clearly influenced by the new wave of British heavy…

The Fray

On past albums, the Fray’s stock-in-trade has been crafting earnest, piano-based tunes that successfully capture and articulate the simple yet complex interpersonal issues that life brings. Tracing both the exhilaration and despondency of love, these portraits also tended to expose the vulnerabilities, uncertainties and insecurities we all face. Drained of…

In the Whale

There’s a lot of Eagles of Death Metal influence happening here. In the first two songs alone — one called “Woman” and the other “34-28-32,” detailing her ideal measurements — In the Whale’s Eric Riley and Nate Valdez take on the brazen, balls-out machismo of bands like Queens of the…

Le Divorce

The Sting and the Light, Le Divorce’s latest effort, starts off with “Six Feet Under,” a bit of a rocker that quickly evolves into a surprisingly straight ahead pop song with jazzy undercurrents. In “Under Boxcars,” a breezy melody meets textured rhythm, while the layered atmospherics of “Splinter Song” evoke…

Concept One

Concept One has poured the past four years of his life into one thematic project: Beautiful Disaster, his brand-new, fifteen-track full-length. Dark and intimate in some places (“All Gonna Die”) and triumphant and motivated in others (“We Run This Shit”), Disaster serves as the ideal showcase for the American Trash Republic…