List of Lists and Other Assorted Goodies

Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: To count down the end of the year, how about lists counting down the best things of the year? Yay! This list is by Grant Snider, and so is this accompanying cartoon…

Top 20 Colorado Hip-Hop Tracks of 2007

To anyone who says there isn’t any dope hip-hop coming out of Colorado: you need to have your ears checked. I’ve compiled a list of what I think were the 20 hottest songs from Colorado hip-hop artists in the last 12 months. They range from mixtape joints, freestyles, album cuts,…

Friday Rap-Up: Jay-Z, Skillz, Remy Ma, Free Mixtape!

Jay-Z fades to black Everyone in the hip-hop world pretty much knew it was going to happen, but Jay-Z made it official on Christmas and turned in his two weeks’ notice as president of Def Jam Records. “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have served as president of such a culturally-defining…

A Hazy Shade of Christmas

After listening to a cumulative 41 hours of 97.3 KBCO’s online streaming Christmas music over the past few days, I found myself grappling with a very important question: Where was “A Hazy Shade of Winter” by the Bangles? Well, that’s not a Christmas song, you may counter. But you’d be…

Year’s to You

Over the past decade, year-end critic’s lists have multiplied faster than the worry lines on Ben Bernanke’s brow. By now, both the Internet and the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble are brimming with head-spinning, eye-glazing permutations of praise. If you want to parse the ranking of those records in…

Moovers and Shakers 2007

Earlier this year, I marveled at how my entire iPod playlist was devoted exclusively to the music made here. That was back in February, and considering that we were only two months into the new year, that might’ve seemed like a moment of breathless hyperbole. At the time, the ink…

Critics’ Picks for 2007

Music critics are completely full of crap. Or they’re insightful, intuitive and completely reliable. It all depends on your perspective and individual sensibilities, I guess. A while back, I pointed this out to my friend Ian, a local engineer who makes records for a living, encouraging him not to take…

Over The (Long) Weekend … Sleeper Horse and Kingdom of Magic @hi-dive

Sleeper Horse and Kingdom of Magic Saturday, December 22 hi-dive Better than: Staying home to get all that gift wrapping done. Saturday night was like the return of Denver’s lost sons. Former Denver residents Jonathan Byerley and Gann Matthews graced the Lion’s Lair stage, along with Blue Light. Meanwhile, in…

Best 2007 – St. Louis: Jay Farrar’s Chant and Strum

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Many St. Louis musicians hightail it out of the city as soon as they…

Best 2007 – Orange County: Aquabat Gets Eastbound and Down

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Christian Jacobs lives in a world of boldfaced, DayGlo images, a realm in which…

Best 2007 – Los Angeles: Margaret Cho’s Sensuous Sides

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Margaret Cho has had her own TV show, a couple of best-selling books, a…

Best 2007 – Los Angeles: Dave Navarro Covers the Spread

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Looks like Dave Navarro is going to be all about instant gratification next year…

Best 2007 – Phoenix: Jordin Sparks’s Idol Thoughts

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Arizona native Jordin Sparks has the distinction of being the youngest American Idol winner…

Best 2007 – San Francisco: David Harrington’s Foreign Policy

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. San Francisco’s world-renowned Kronos Quartet has charted an impressive course around the globe, commissioning…

Best 2007 – Minneapolis: Al Franken’s Stump Songs

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Former Saturday Night Live cast member, screenwriter, New York Times best-­selling author and St…

Best 2007 – Miami: DJ I-Dee’s Tracks to Relax

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Unlike, possibly, 90 percent of his neighbors, turntable wunderkind Isaac DeLima did not, in…

Best 2007 – Houston: Teeing Off with Scarface

As touted in this week’s Backbeat, music editors from across the country asked luminaries from our respective towns to tell us what music they loved this year. Their picks appear below and on the subsequent pages. Remember how everyone thought Snoop Dogg wearing golf gear in 2004’s Starsky & Hutch…

QOTSA Rock Rehab and Other Assorted Goodies

Here’s a selection of the best of last week’s music blogging from around the Village Voice chain: Enjoy this interview with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, where he recounts playing ambiguously pro-drug songs at a rehab center and getting into a pissing match with his label head…

Hide the Beer, the Pastor’s Here!

I’ve officially been on vacation since five o’clock on Friday, and, man, all I can say right now is damn it feels good to be a gangsta. I’m doing absolutely nothing, like it’s my job, and I’m digging every minute. Been a hell of a weekend so far, from playing…