Concerts

It’s a sad day for hip-hop. For anyone who was bumping gangsta rap in the early ’90s, the loss of Nathanial Hale, aka Nate Dogg, is profoundly sad. Largely considered the best hook executioner in the genre, the G-Funk crooner paved the way for artists like Trey Songz, Drake and…

A bunch of old white dudes and Darlene Love got trophies yesterday at a fancy hotel in New York. We’re referring, of course, to the inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an institution that exists to reaffirm our canonical certainties. This year’s class: Love, Tom Waits, Alice…

MIKE GORDON 03.14.11 | Ogden Theatre Last night, just a week after Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio took the same stage, bassist Mike Gordon brought the funk to the Ogden Theatre with a little help from Ian Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. Unlike Anastasio, Gordon doesn’t pepper his set list with Phish covers. Instead,…

It has been a long journey for Civil Twilight — from South Africa to Los Angeles to Nashville, the band has been towing its sweeping, piano-heavy rock compositions along for more than a decade. Even if the band’s moniker isn’t immediately familiar, its big sound, which has been featured on…

Last year the B.U.F.F. Brothers Group sold four of its bars, including the College Inn, Dirk’s, Gibby’s and Pifler’s, to the Little Pub Company. B.U.F.F. Brothers co-owner Rob Lanphier says the sale basically came down to money: Little Pub made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. The B.U.F.F. Brothers still…

Five years ago, the music made by Dr. Sunshine’s X-Ray Machine probably would have been called “post-rock,” mainly because it comprises ethereal introductions and gradual builds to a swirling intensity in sound. Even though the band has songs with titles like “Particles” and “Postcards From the Atomic Lighthouse” and there…

Last year’s The Big To-Do was Drive-By Truckers’ most hard-rocking album since 2001’s Southern Rock Opera. On To-Do, the Athens, Georgia, group told tales of four-day drinking binges, courtroom miseries and bar-room brawls. The Truckers, who formed way back in 1996, have always been considered by many to be the…

In recent years, Sic Alps has been tapped as an opening act on tours with Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Sonic Youth. But chances are if you saw these guys in Denver, it was up close and personal at a DIY space. The group’s ramshackle, lo-fi sound is akin to…

This isn’t exactly Mr. Van Driessen’s New Age Drum Circle for Men out in the woods. Oh, sure, the members of Foot Village perform in a big circle and they’re all playing drums, but there’s none of that namby-pamby, faux-civil keep-things-down-so-as-not-to-disturb-the-neighbors thing going on. Foot Village is more a raw,…

Years before Lady Gaga helped champion ambiguously oriented — and blatant — sexuality, Scissor Sisters went there without apology. Musically, the act wears its influences proudly, from disco and rock to New Orleans piano and even, once, bluegrass. The Sisters are too tricky to be straight pop, too glammy to…

They seem pretty different on the surface, but NFL football and the music industry actually have a lot in common: Both take place in arenas, both have draconian management structures that rake in grotesquely bloated profits by bilking the talent, both inspire insipid adulation and zombie-like loyalty.  And both, for…

Beloved Denver art-rockers the Inactivists have always seemed to stray a bit off the conventional path, but that’s one of the things that makes the band bizarrely endearing. On their fifth release and first double album (the second disc can be downloaded from the band’s website), the Inactivists declare war…

There’s an unmistakably classic sensibility to Robin Walker’s songwriting. Her versatile voice is central to the appeal of each of these songs, but like her creative use of ukulele in crafting gossamer atmospheres and drifty, daydreamy melodies, it’s Walker’s gift for subverting convention by actually knowing how to break the…

Bands best known for high-energy shows often don’t translate well in the studio. With Elevate, Apex Vibe has created an LP that’s enjoyable but not necessarily innovative or new; the reggae/rock outfit is more reminiscent of Sublime and 311 than Bob Marley and the Wailers. But while Apex Vibe isn’t…

Formerly Vonnegut, Take to the Oars has gone through plenty of changes since the first incarnation of the band in 2005. Since then, it’s locked in a steady lineup and defined a solid identity with its new moniker. American Volume, the group’s full-length debut, is a long wail of guitar…

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark came to the attention of a wide audience through early singles like “Enola Gay” and an appearance in the 1981 documentary Urgh! A Music War. For American audiences, OMD’s breakthrough came with the song “If You Leave,” made famous by the John Hughes film Pretty…

With a stage name like Someone Else, it’s clear that Philadelphia’s Sean O’Neal doesn’t take himself too seriously. O’Neal’s impressive musical pedigree (his grandfather was a high-school music teacher who played bass with Bill Haley and His Comets) combined with early experience in choir and musicals helped him become a…

The brainchild of guitarist and vocalist Adam Granduciel, The War On Drugs came to be almost a decade ago and has seen it’s share of line-up changes — Kurt Vile was a longtime member — but has consistently created a sort of Americana-meets-Sonic-Youth sound. Last year’s Future Weather EP continued…

As the labor protests wage on in Wisconsin, several prominent musicians have taken to using their art to express their support. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats recorded a hundred-year-old folk song “There is Power in a Union,” and Steve Earle rereleased a single of his own to benefit The…

STRING CHEESE INCIDENT Winter Carnival, Night Three 03.12.11 | 1STBANK CENTER See full slide show and read reviews of Night One and Night Two The String Cheese Incident brought its three-night stand to a close at the 1STBANK Center in front of the wildest crowd yet. Complete with a costume…