Concerts

I remember banging around the streets of South Nashville, shirtless, in a pair of Umbros and some beat-up Air Jordans with my head shaved and a fucking rat tail down the middle of my back,” recalls Justin Townes Earle of his less than glamorous childhood. “I don’t ever want to…

It might be hard to believe that Nick Oliveri has a soft side. The maniacal former member of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age — and current leader of the vicious Mondo Generator, as well as an occasional member of the Dwarves — has long been infamous for his…

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was poised to become the next biggest thing after the Arcade Fire back in 2005 when the band’s widely praised, self-titled debut was released — a dizzying possibility that seemed to come as much of a surprise to the act as anyone else. As it…

Listening to the music of the Growlers is a bit like listening to oldies radio before that format was taken over by music from the ’80s rather than being dominated by classic pop songs from the late ’50s through the mid-’60s. There’s a touch of rockabilly, a hint of early…

Before piano rock became all the rage on pop radio in the last decade, Billy Joel and Elton John had already created the template. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, the music of Joel and John was so pervasive on radio and anywhere else music could be heard that you’d have…

The character of Jeff Suthers’s songs has been cinematic in nature going back to his time with Volplane. This, the first of four new Orbiteer releases, has Suthers using sound like a painter uses oils and acrylic, similar to Stan Brakhage’s manipulation of film and the way Kenneth Anger utilized…

Synthesizers and yelping are all the rage, and while those things are present on Artificial Heart, the Sunset Curse is about more than the zeitgeist. The first thing you notice about Heart is that it’s easy on the ears. A line of lush keys, eight-bit bleets and don’t-stop drum lines…

Sometimes luck and trouble go hand in hand; other times it takes a bit of both to balance things out. While the folks in Tequila Mockingbird had a few troubles and struggles during the two years it took to make their third, fittingly titled disc, it might have been a…

You know how there are certain institutional brands whose mere association serves as an unspoken endorsement? The renown is such that even a slight mention implies quality. In music, for instance: Matador’s releasing the record? Oh, then it’s gotta be good. Or: That guitarist is playing Orange and wearing a…

Battling is a fundamental aspect of emceeing, one of the four essential elements of hip-hop. An underground ritual that rappers engage in to develop their wordplay skills and increase their stature, battles are often pressurized situations, in which the rappers ad-lib against other MCs, spitting rhymes off the top of…

Quick: When you think of classical music, what are the first things that come to mind? Okay, time’s up. We’re gonna guess you conjured up images of stoic academicians playing stodgy, archaic music by dead guys for a roomful of well-heeled intellectuals within the impeccable confines of a sterile music…

In a world gone mad for hard-charging electro bangers and other fist-pumping, brain-bleed-inducing insanity, Jamie Jones is a breath of fresh air. His tracks and mixes work slower tempos and subtle grooves into brooding, slow-burning slices of understated funk. His style is based in deep house and classic techno, with…

There’s a few ways to tell how good an open stage is going to be when you walk in. The most obvious, of course, is by the caliber of talent the night attracts, followed closely by how the number of people that have signed up to perform. To that end,…

As far as startling revelations go, news that MTV has dropped “Music Television” from its brand ranks right up there with the shocking results of Michael Jackson’s recent autopsy, which revealed that the King of Pop was indeed rather gaunt at the time of his death. Anyone who’s caught even…

OMFG! If you’re wondering what the coolest thing we’ve seen all day is — well, ahem, aside from ourselves in the mirror this morning (har-de-har!) — it’s this: Vintage clips of Prince rehearsing crica1984. Not sure how these clips (which, be forewarned, resemble surveillance video) were procured or why/how they…

“crazy fast difficult hardest custom song ever on drums cephalic carnage death metal guitar hero rock band fun double bass.” Those are the tags listed on YouTube in association with the custom drum chart for this Cephalic Carnage song, “Divination & Volition.” But those same words could just as well…

Aside from Red Rocks, there’s only a handful of stages that merit inclusion on any performer’s bucket list. We’re talking about places that are so revered they’re considered hallowed ground, the type of places in which artists dream of performing at for their entire lives. CBGB’s before it became a…

File under: Required reading from the Denver music blogosphere. The hifalutin scribblers at the Donnybrook Writing Academy introduced a brand new column today that we can only assume will also become required reading: Backlog is the handle Rbt. B. Rutherford, he of Everything Absent or Distorted (a love story) fame,…

Our Denver Rock Atlas feature is precisely what it sounds like, a compendium of storied Denver venues, past and present, in which we pick a place and share our favorite memories of the joint. After you read our memories, please feel free to share some of your own. The summer…

Happy Presidents’ Day! We hope you’re one of the lucky few who actually get the day off (looking at you, bank workers, mail deliverers and other governmental types), and we hope you spend the day in deep contemplation of our nation’s great leaders (that is the point of Presidents’ Day…