Guitar Hero franchise overdoses and dies

In a statement alongside it’s quarterly and annual fiscal report, Activision, the company behind the Guitar Hero series, effectively put the axe on the series. Over the course of the last two years, the series has seen dropping sales due to a market that’s completely saturated and an expensive peripheral…

Ozzy Osbourne at the Pepsi Center, 2.8.11

OZZY OSBOURNE With Slash 02.08.11 | Pepsi Center Ozzy Osbourne layeth the smack down last night at the Pepsi Center with Slash — he of the shaggy mane, top hat, Velvet Revolver and, of course, Guns N’ Roses — in tow. A chair-packed stadium floor might not be what the…

Tonight: Das Racist at the Larimer

Joke rap hinges upon one thing: Whether an artist is laughing at themselves, or if the rest of the world is just laughing at them. Das Racist are clearly laughing at themselves — best evidenced in the track “Hahahaha JK” where they explain they’re not joking, just joking, they are…

Woodsman open up a black hole over our heads

Sometimes all it takes to catch our eye is a nice big landscape on a flier. Even if we can’t quite make out what cities are being mashed together here, this one still manages to peak our interest in the show and the material based solely on our passing interest…

Tonight: The Dead Kenny Gs at the Fox Theatre

Do the Dead Kenny Gs exist as the antithesis of Kenny G’s existence? Absolutely. This is what makes them awesome, of course, beyond the simple fact that a band name like that sums up how the general listening public in 2011 probably feels about Kenny G — if they feel…

3OH!3 cameos on Hellcats with Ashley Tisdale

So this happened: In case you missed it — God knows we did — 3OH!3 recently had a cameo on Hellcats, in which the Boulder boys performed “My First Kiss,” with a scantily clad Ashley Tisdale serving as a sultry proxy for Ke$ha. Nice! Uh, what the hell is Hellcats,…

With Rare Forms, Woodsman focuses its musical experimentation

“I’m just interested in DIY culture and the whole aesthetic and idea behind creating your own existence,” says Trevor Peterson. “Especially in the creative world — not relying on outside corporate interests to fuck things up.” Peterson’s words echo a sentiment that has informed the efforts of acts from Black…

Johnny’s Cigar Bar and Cuvee join Boulder’s jazz scene

Two joints have joined the jazz scene in Boulder, already supported by Johnny’s Cigar Bar (1801 13th Street), the St Julien Hotel and the Hotel Boulderado. Cuvée opened in December in the former Blending Cellar spot at 946 Pearl Street; owner Ralph Reutimann renovated the space, creating a wine bar…

Hearts in Space, February 16 at the hi-dive

Anyone who has been around the Denver underground scene for the past decade or so has run into Ezra Darnell cheering on bands with an open, unaffected enthusiasm. Now the guy has put together a band of his own, called Hearts in Space (due at the hi-dive on Wednesday, February…

3 Inches of Blood

With the Big 4 tour (Metallica, Megadeath, Anthrax and Slayer) set to roll through massive arenas this spring, die-hard thrash-metal fans will be pleased to know that bands like Canada’s 3 Inches of Blood will still be sweating it out in more intimate settings. Despite having formed in 2002, the…

Sleeping in the Aviary

Never satisfied with trying out just one sound, Sleeping in the Aviary started out as a lo-fi pop band with a quirky live energy like that of Eat Skull before quickly evolving into something a bit more nuanced and delicate. Although the name of the group’s sophomore effort — Expensive…

Sebadoh

Lou Barlow is no fool. His sad-man side project, Sebadoh, released some of the first great lo-fi rock albums some twenty years ago, and he’s not about to stand idly by while the I Love the ’90s train rolls through contemporary pop culture. This tour coincides with the re-release of…

Meat Beat Manifesto

Electronic music of any experimental stripe has always been filed under the heading of “techno” and sometimes blurred together with “industrial.” Meat Beat Manifesto was — and still is — considered by many to be part of the wave of industrial music that was affiliated with the Wax Trax imprint…

Gem Trails

There is a cinematic feel to every track on this release. “1993” suggests the dream sequences in Brazil in which Jonathan Pryce’s character is a triumphant winged champion in armor, while “Mega Fortress” sounds like what might happen if an old computer tried to emulate the sound of rain falling…

John-Alex Mason

John-Alex Mason doesn’t sound at all like a 35-year-old skinny, blond-haired dude. His deep and booming vocal delivery sounds like it’s coming from someone twice his age and weight. The Manitou Springs-based Mason reaches back into Delta music from the likes of Charlie Patton and Skip James, but puts a…

Locus

Locus takes itself out from under the loose, ugly modern-rock umbrella with unexpected instruments — strings and tribal drums, mostly. The band is much better off leaning in that direction. When the players go for straight-up dead lifting with the guitar and testosterone-fueled vocals, as they do on “Vices,” they…

DeVotchKa

At this point, DeVotchKa (due at the Fillmore this Saturday, February 12) appears incapable of producing music that’s anything less than intoxicating; just listening to the band inspires a sense of romanticism in even the most hardened of hearts. Everything there is to love about DeVotchKa is present on 100…

Best Coast and Wavves play February 14 in Boulder

Bethany Cosentino and Nathan Williams are too good to be true. She makes surf pop as Best Coast; he makes surf punk as Wavves. They used to date when they were younger and stupider; now they’re famous and back together, happily tweeting out a new relationship. It’s like a stoner…

No Joy’s Jasmine White-Gluz: “Shoegaze is basically porn for guitar fans”

Sounding like the unexpected but inevitable pairing of Phil Spector-produced wall-of-noise pop and the free-spirited sonic experimentation of early shoegaze bands like Telescopes, Medicine and My Bloody Valentine, Montreal’s No Joy came to the attention of fans and critics alike on the strength of its debut seven-inch, “No Summer/No Joy,”…