The MeadowGrass Music Festival’s lineup for 2014 is here. The annual event, which will be held over Memorial Day weekend in Black Forest, will feature over 20 artists in three days at the La Foret Conference and Retreat Center. Topping the line up is Canadian band and Sugar Hill recording…
The distance between classical and folk music isn’t so great for Swallow Hill’s new music-school director. Swallow Hill Music officials announced this week that Uruguay native and Carnegie Mellon University alum Andres Cladera will fill the post. He replaces Michael Schenkelberg, who has held the job since 2007. In his…
For national acts touring through Denver, “the party doesn’t have to stop at the encore,” says Lipgloss co-founder Michael Trundle (boyhollow). Instead, bands can walk across the street from the Bluebird, fresh from playing to a packed crowd, and deejay at Lost Lake Lounge. They did twice last weekend: On…
Fear the gaze of Angel Olsen, whose smirk has a greater effect on a room than the average five guitar-wanker power slides combined. She plays the black box on Larimer Street tonight. Elsewhere, fireworks in the form of Austin’s The Sword come to The Black Sheep, slick bro G-Eazy hits…
Ah, the mosh pit. Keep your club night bumping and grinding and give me a good old fashioned pummeling. That’s where the adrenaline is, where some of the best kinds of release can be found in live music. Plus, there are way fewer boners. Every concert is improved with fewer…
It’s a good weekend for live music in Denver. Let’s start at the end, with Paul Simon’s Graceland collaborator Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Boulder Theater. The day before that, pop clinician Dr. Dog stops by on the same night as the collaboration between knotty rappers Madlib and Freddie Gibbs. There…
FRI | ADAM BEYER at NORAD | 3/8/14 It’s entirely appropriate that Adam Beyer’s techno label bears the handle Drumcode, considering that the techno enthusiast was a drummer in his teenage years before turning to electronic music in 1990, when he purchased his first set of turntables. Although the Swedish…
Though Angel Olsen’s music is often dubbed folk or indie rock, it is too diverse to fit neatly into such broad categories. Whatever it’s filed under, her music, especially her latest album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, is informed by a delicacy of feeling that allows her to channel…
Big Gigantic’s fifth studio album in as many years is a clear sign that saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli has truly stepped into his own world of music. “Clvdbvrst” opens the album with a plethora of styles; from there, listeners are treated to an explosion of jazzy saxophone foundations framing big beats…
With a name like Dwarf Planets and cover art that depicts the sun and two planets, you might guess that the music inside the sleeve has a prog-rock or even new-age influence. But about twenty seconds into “Ice Rain,” the opening cut on this seven-song disc, it’s evident that Boulder’s…
“Soul” is obviously the key word here, and the Soul Pros have plenty of it. Anchored by A-L, a fantastic producer and DJ with a deep understanding of sound, song progression and how to blend samples, Soul’d Out also features two excellent MCs who make A-L’s beats sound even better…
Rarely have a project and album name fit their music as perfectly as Weed Problem and its self-titled release. “Noddy Drug Kits” flows with a buzzy drone that is never fully resolved but just continues to build while hazy, echoing chants undulate amid syncopated crashing guitar and drums. The sprawling…
THU | SCHOOLBOY Q at OGDEN THEATRE | 3/27 Schoolboy Q just released Oxymoron, his latest album, to general acclaim. He has embraced a style that is dark and creative, using unique but effective beats and a persona that is difficult to put a finger on. He has definitely carved…
The world’s most maligned former Disney princess is strutting down the stage, leading a platoon of dancers dressed in (more) preposterous costumes, the most preposterous of them a pair of seven-foot foam finger outfits where the dancers’ heads stick out of the knuckles. It’s a direct reference to the moment…
American Babies at the 1Up Colfax 3/4/14 In 2007, Philly-based Brothers Past frontman Tom Hamilton went back to his roots and started American Babies, a band that focuses on songcraft and takes influences from everyone from Lou Reed to the Grateful Dead. The Babies’ live shows are high-energy, with surprise…
Sat | Propagandhi at Summit Music Hall | 3/8/14 In an era where many punk bands form and release their first album less than a year after starting, Propagandhi’s development seems remarkably long. Formed in 1986, playing its first live shows in 1989, the band released its early demos a…
THU-SUN | DENVER WINTER SHOWCASE @ BAR STANDARD & NORAD | 3/6 to 3/9 When Andy Roberts moved to Colorado a few years ago, he immediately recognized the scene here as something he wanted to be a part of, which ultimately birthed the idea for the Denver Winter Showcase. Now…
Hall & Oates @ 1STBANK Center | 3/3/14 With no opening act, Daryl Hall and John Oates took the stage with their six backing musicians. Parts of this band have been together for a long time, including sax player Charles DeChant and veteran studio and touring guitarist Paul Pesco. It…
Editor’s note: Hall & Oates are now going as Daryl Hall & John Oates, because apparently that’s the way you add gravitas to a catalogue that will turn your pants pastel and put shoulder pads in whatever shirt you’re wearing if you listen long enough. Here’s the thing: They needn’t…
Pentagram @ Summit Music Hall |2/28/14 Pentagram took the stage with a spooky soundscape coming through the PA, Bobby Liebling looking like a puppet woken up from a nap and blinking. He was all but twitching to life, pulled along by invisible strings. But when Liebling took the mic, an…
FRI | ICHISAN at BAR STANDARD | 2/28/14 It’s not often that artists like Ichisan get a chance to play in this part of the world, so dance lovers in Denver should be stoked that he’s headed here. The Slovenian musician began his musical career on stringed instruments — specifically,…
FRI | PENTAGRAM at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 2/28/14 If you’ve seen Last Days Here, you’re familiar with the frustrating tale of Pentagram. Formed in Virginia in the early ’70s, the pioneering psychedelic metal band should have, by all accounts, realized massive worldwide fame. Instead, success evaded the outfit, thanks…
