Ian Cooke pauses and chuckles when asked where his musical career might be right now if he had never met friend and longtime collaborator Ian O’Dougherty. “I think I may have gone to California and tried to score films,” he guesses. “Singing and songwriting was always something I was planning…
Categorizing music is inevitable, even necessary in some cases, but the desire to describe a band using predetermined genres sometimes has the effect of creating more questions than answers. Such is the case with Modern Goon, a three-piece Denver band that includes two high-school English teachers and members of now-defunct…
We’ve all been there. Maybe you’re at a sweaty club digging the close, hot vibe when your eyes meet for just a split second. Then it happens again. And again. But you don’t act on your instincts. Or you could be outside under that big, blue sky at Red Rocks,…
Driving into Longmont from Denver on Highway 119, you will see a vast, seemingly abandoned factory complex that looks like it hasn’t been used in decades. This sight wasn’t so uncommon in Denver at the turn of the century, but now, it’s largely unheard of. The city is changing, and…
What’s left to be said about Ben Harper, the genre-blending, Grammy-winning, rock and blues monstrosity? Not a lot apparently. Despite playing what is bound to be a career-high show at Red Rocks on Tuesday Harper was less than verbose in our pre-show interview. Still, he managed to namedrop a slew…
Just before the Denver Beauty Bar closed after a five-year run in April, co-owner Mike Barnhart said he wanted to explore other options for the space, at 603 East 13th Avenue in Capitol Hill (which was once the long-time home of the Snake Pit). Now, Barnhart and his business partner…
The Vanilla Milkshakes and front man David McGhee have had a long and rocky journey — one our Tom Murphy detailed earlier this year. Back then, the band had plans to record a new album with Calvin Johnson — the founder of K Records and the band Beat Happening. That…
Denver is getting another music festival: The Larimer Block Party, which will shut down the 2700 block of Larimer Street on Saturday, September 26. Headliners include Del The Funky Homosapien, BADBADNOTGOOD, Joywave and Sango (view the full lineup below), all playing on an outdoor stage in the street. The surrounding…
In another era, let’s say twenty years ago, an artist like Colleen Green would have been a mainstream star, at least in the alternative rock world. In fact, her music is a little reminiscent Veruca Salt. Even today, in a time when the music industry is in flux, Green still…
Concert promoter and DJ Joshywa Schrader was one of the mainstays of the Denver and Boulder goth scene in the 1990s and 2000s, though he hasn’t organized any shows for the past four years. But when Schrader was given the opportunity recently to book a show with Australian band Angelspit…
“Just scrub the insides of your cheeks like you’re brushing your teeth for a good twenty seconds,” said a smiling volunteer, handing out cotton swabs to attendees of the recent Underground Music Showcase. That volunteer was working for the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation, a nonprofit that works to get people…
Tonight — September 8 — legendary experimental rock band Faith No More brings the weird and the wonderful to Red Rocks with opener Gogol Bordello. FNM started in 1981, shortly after high-school friends Roddy Bottum and Billy Gould moved to San Francisco, where Bottum attended San Francisco State University as…
As tailgaters slowly trickled into Red Rocks around 7 p.m. Sunday night, Nathan & Stephen singer Nathan McGarvey, sporting a hot-pink bandana with black stars, looked out at the crowd — which, up front, was thick with current and former Illegal Pete’s employees—and earnestly shouted, “This is Red Rocks! Did…
Over the next three weeks, the Flobots will visit fifteen towns across Colorado, playing everything from a fundraiser to a street party, hosting workshops at museums and having a powwow and song-sharing session with the Ute tribe. The tour is the first run of a pilot program from state agencies…
Los Angeles-based songwriter Colleen Green performs at Dryer Plug Studios this Sunday, September 6, with Future Single Mom, Safe Boating is No Accident and Male Blonding. An East Coast native, Green moved to Oakland in 2008 and became part of the garage punk world in the Bay Area as a…
Denver’s infamous White Party, which gets its name from the fashion rule about wearing white after Labor Day, celebrates its 13th anniversary this year with a star-studded line-up. This year’s White Party, sponsored by 3Deep Productions and Ciroc, will take place as usual at Club Beta, on September 6, the…
Jazz Aspen Snowmass: Labor Day Experience celebrates its 25th year this weekend. The music event, organized by the non-profit of the same name, takes place in Snowmass Village. As the event has evolved and streamlined over the years, the Labor Day Experience features two main acts each night, with a…
The Sunnyside Music Festival — one of only a few located in a park within Denver’s city limits — returns to Chaffee Park at 44th and Tejon Streets on Saturday, September 12. The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and features seven local artists, including standout funk act…
San Diego-based electronic band Prayers performed at Riot Fest on Friday, August 28, and proved to be one of the most electrifying acts of the entire weekend. When Rafael Reyes and Dave Parley took the stage, there was a relatively sizable crowd assembled in front of the Radicals Stage setup…
Hall & Oates is performing tonight at Red Rocks. As the most commercially successful duo in rock, Hall & Oates have been part of the mainstream musical landscape since at least the time of their second album, 1973’s Abandoned Luncheonette. And unlike much of the music of the duo’s ’70s…
Megan Burtt brought the best of the Colorado music scene in Denver to the Oriental Theater this weekend. It was a celebration and release of her latest album The Bargain. The energy was explosive as it is the final Denver show for Burtt for a year, as she continues on…
