Sleepdial

Each song on Sleepdial’s Leadpiles comes in like a dimmer switch on a slow march toward increasing illumination, but the parade stops just short of “dusk.” In the haze are glimmering guitar tones, electronic textures in processed white noise and an overall impressionistic aesthetic that’s soothing to the ears and…

The Oak Creek Band

On the Oak Creek Band’s sophomore release, the six-song Fingerprints, the group sets a relaxed tone with “I Want You Around,” which gradually ramps up in verve without quite crossing over into rock-anthem territory. Part of the EP’s charm is that, for the most part, it’s a cozy affair that…

Enjoy these dance-move GIF’s from Global Dance Festival

Sexy, silly, hyperactive — everyone has a look to their dancing and every sensibility under the sun was on display this weekend at Global Dance Festival at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. In appreciation for those who shake it without inhibition, we present these animated GIF files we spotted at Global. Footage…

Photos: Airistotle wins U.S. Air Guitar national championship

Airistotle — a.k.a. Matt Burns of New York City — won the U.S. Air Guitar Championships on Saturday, July 21, 2012 at the Bluebird Theater and now is Finland-bound for the global championships. This year was the first year Denver hosted the finals, after hosting a regional event last year…

Photos: People of Global Dance Festival 2012

What was launched more than a dozen years ago by KTCL as Rave on the Rocks and later came to be known as the Weekend of E has since evolved into a three-day electronic festival. Global again went down last weekend. Aaron Thackeray brings back these photos from the annual…

Fiona Apple at the Paramount Theatre, 7/20/12

FIONA APPLE @ the PARAMOUNT THEATRE | 7.20.12 Any Fiona Apple concert is a study in contradiction. The audience last night at the Paramount Theatre show was privy to a vast frontier of human emotion, Apple braiding herself in and out of binary worlds, slipping from robust woman in command…

Herman’s Hideaway debuting new patio this weekend

Herman’s Hideaway, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary and thirty years of live music this year, is debuting a new patio tonight at the Railbenders show. Mike Roth, the venue’s co-owner, says they’re still putting the finishing touches on the open-air patio, but it will be completely functional starting this…

Backbeat has a new commenting platform

Westword and Backbeat rolled out a new user profile platform dubbed My Voice Nation and your voice and opinion in our comment sections will now be amplified through a fancy, new commenting program called Livefyre (“live fire”). Read all about it below…

Big K.R.I.T. at the Bluebird, 7/18/12

BIG K.R.I.T. @ BLUEBIRD THEATER | 7.18.12 See Also: – Big K.R.I.T. at the Marquis, 10/21/10 – Mr. Midas and Big K.R.I.T. collab on “Back On” Big K.R.I.T. calls himself the King Remembered In Time, an appropriate name, because he truly is timeless. When the big king stepped on stage,…

Colorado sets the stage for Global Dance Festival

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in early spring, and Ha Hau is sitting in his office at the Triad Dragons headquarters at 1235 Elati Street. He and his crew are in the planning stages of this year’s Global Dance Festival. As dance music plays in the background on satellite radio, he…

Ghosts of Glaciers make some noise at Mouth House on Friday, July 20

Post-rock has enjoyed a certain popularity of late — and it’s easy to see why music that loosely fits that designation often gets put under of the umbrella of instrumental rock. Ghosts of Glaciers — due this Friday, July 20, at Mouth House (2858 California Street) — doesn’t bother to…

Dirty Projectors

David Longstreth was living in western Colorado when he befriended the Love Letter Band’s Chris Adolf. The future Bad Weather California frontman put out Longstreth’s debut album, The Graceful Fallen Mango, on his This Heart Plays Records imprint. Since then, Longstreth has released music under the name Dirty Projectors, with…

Shabazz Palaces

In the first half of the ’90s, Ishmael Butler went by the moniker “Butterfly” as part of the rap trio Digable Planets. After the outfit’s 1995 split, the group performed one-off shows here and there, but since 2009, Butler has released music with Tendai Maraire under the name Shabazz Palaces…