Chicago is the city that most music fans probably associate with Ministry (due this Sunday, June 17, at the Ogden Theatre), and for good reason, as that’s where the band got its start. Before moving to the Windy City, where the Wax Trax! label was headquartered, though, Ministry mastermind Al…
Su Charles pulls you in with her voice, charm, and deep personal experiences. After an ill-fated stint on the latest season of American Idol, Charles was inspired and more determined than ever to make her dream of singing come true. Shortening her name to SuCh, the the endearing, Haitian-American songbird…
Perc (due at NORAD Dance Bar tomorrow night) emerged over the last several years as one of the key figures in the global techno scene by championing an aggressive, atonal and industrial-tinged brand of dance-music via his own production work and through his label, Perc Trax. We recently caught up…
Nestled in the hills of Nederland, you’ll find the Magic Beans, an outfit that is growing strong roots in the ever blossoming jam scene in Colorado with a sturdy base of jazz, rock, bluegrass and electronica. With an eye toward creating an ongoing sense of community with fellow members of…
Another strong week for Gotye, who held on to number one with “Somebody That I Used To Know.” If you haven’t kept track, that’s a tally of eight weeks at the top now. However, that could change next week, as strong pushes from both Rihanna and Katy Perry, not to…
Patrick Dethlefs (due Friday, June 8, at Swallow Hill’s Daniels Hall) has been building his name as a songwriter of note for the last few years. His debut album Stays the Same is credited to “Patrick Dethlefs & Friends,” which is a testament to Dethlefs’s unassuming persona and humility, not…
Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, a look back at when a Ray Charles concert at Red Rocks in 1962 turned into a beer-can-tossing melee. With the passage of time, our heroes become…
The Dandy Warhols (due at the Gothic Theatre and Twist & Shout on Tuesday, June 12) came out of the underground rock world of the 1990s to enduring popularity and fame. Over the course of the band’s career, the Dandys have consistently pushed their sonic boundaries and songwriting. They are…
Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, a look back at when Grammy winner Marc Cohn got shot in the head in downtown Denver during a car-jacking attempt gone awry. Marc Cohn might be…
Japanther (due tomorrow night at Glob) was started by a pair of art school students who wanted a way to create art beyond the confines of a specific medium or traditional methods. The resulting New York duo has been just as involved in the art world and performance art as…
Destroyer (due at the Bluebird Theater this Saturday, June 9) released its last album, Kaputt, in January 2011. More than a year and a half later, Dan Bejar, the act’s distant, notoriously cryptic frontman has no idea where the change — the romantic experiment and distinctly new direction — came…
By the summer of 1966, the Beatles sucked. Or at least that’s the way they felt for the band. “Performance, for us, it’s gone downhill,” Paul McCartney said of his band at the time. “Because we can’t develop if no one can hear us; so for us to perform…it gets…
Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, a look back at the first time the Grateful Dead played at Red Rocks in 1978. The origins of Colorado’s jam band “scene” are pretty nebulous, but…
Simian Mobile Disco (due for a DJ set tonight at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom) is two brilliant, slightly nerdy British dudes with a powerful, slightly aggressive grasp on man-made machine music. They create dirty club stompers and nostalgic, atmospheric, glitchy house anthems and blistering electronica, but despite a shared friendship and…
John Mayer knocks Adam Lambert from the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart this week as Mayer’s new record, Born And Raised, lands at number one. Lambert’s Trespassing, meanwhile, drops all the way to number twelve. Born And Raised is Mayer’s third number-one album, joining 2003’s Heavier Things and…
Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, a look back at the time when Radiohead had all of its gear stolen outside the Rockmada before a 1995 show at the Ogden Theatre. Okay, so…
Josh Abbott (due at the Grizzly Rose this Friday, June 1) got his start playing country music while attending Texas Tech in Lubbock, spending his nights watching artists like Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Roger Creager, Eli Young Band and Randy Rogers roll through the local country bar, the Blue Light…
Since first emerging in the mid-’80s, the Cult (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) has gone through some lineup changes and been on a few breaks. Through it all, the band’s core members, frontman Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, have continued to churn out some heavy records, including…
It’s a bit unnerving when Perry Farrell wants to start your interview with him by asking you a question. You’ve got about thirty questions you want to ask the Jane’s Addiction frontman and about ten minutes to do so, when all of the sudden he asks you if you’d pick…
Eminence Ensemble (due at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom tomorrow night) has been frequently making a name for itself among the Boulder-based acts that have been emerging onto the scene. In advance of tomorrow night’s show, we spoke with percussionist Nick Baum recently to find out a little more about the band…
Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today, a look back at Einstürzende Neubauten’s 1986 show in a Commerce City junkyard. Fabled Berlin industrial rock act Einstürzende Neubauten played perhaps one of the strangest shows…
Orchard Lounge (due tonight at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom with Mark Farnia and Lindstrom) has been spinning around the country for more than a decade. The trio, made up of Ben Silver and Bethany and Spencer Lokken, stay true the meaning of being a DJ, but recently the three have taken…
