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…
It’s a big week for American Idol this week. Besides the crowning of the season 11 winner, Phillip Phillips, the singing talent show sees another of its alums rise to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The first time in chart history, one Idol is succeeded by another, as…
When the Roadhouse Rebels come to the Oriental Theater this Sunday night, the act, which features Robby Krieger of the Doors and Particle keyboardist Steve Molitz, they’ll be joined by an all-star cast of players, including Oingo Boingo/Mutaytor bassist John Avila, the Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson and drummer Joe Magistro…
Denver’s Catheter recently issued its first full-length album in seven years, Southwest Doom Violence, the follow-up to 2005’s Dimension 303. The band’s latest effort — bolstering an extensive library of EPs and split releases — offers a healthy mix of grind, doom, sludge and even crust punk, building on the…
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 Black Flag’s 1984 show at the Rainbow Music Hall that ended with members of the opening act being arrested. You may have heard…
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 Michael Jackson’s week-long stay here in Mile High City in 1984 and the secrecy surrounding it. Long before Michael Jackson’s name became shorthand…
Among a handful of the local music-scene tributes to recently deceased Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, Time offered his respects for the fallen MC and activist on a new tune, “Too Sweet to Be Sour,” a cross-Atlantic collaboration with British MC Akira the Don. The track opens with a crisp horn…
Meet Kajmir Royale. He lives in Colorado Springs, but his view is global, his perspective dynamic and charismatic. Taking a Kanye West approach to the game with a goal of making “popular music,” Royale is an MC/producer who’s hitting his stride and knows exactly where he’s going. Originally from New…
This Thursday, May 24, Kool & the Gang is due at the Pepsi Center with Van Halen. While this might seem like an unlikely pairing, the legendary funk/R&B act opening for the equally iconic rock band, Robert “Kool” Bell, Kool & the Gang’s founding member, tells us it’s working out…
Over the course of the next few weeks, Backbeat will be counting down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. The series kicks off today with a look back at the Beatles’ legendary trip to the Mile High City in August 1964, and the pandemonium it created. The…
Many of previous weeks’ big-performing albums have rebounded on the Billboard 200 chart, thanks to a Mother’s Day sales surge. Adele’s 21 is the best example of this boost, as the album shoots up from number four to number two this week. It’s still not enough to reclaim the top…
Mickey Hart (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) was one of the Grateful Dead’s two drummers; along with Bill Kreutzmann, Hart helped weave the unique polyrhythms of the legendary band. Whether as a solo artist, with the Dead or as an activist, Hart always puts his heart and his…
By the spring of 1971, the heroes of the ’60s were dropping like flies. The Beatles had broken up, Angela Davis and Timothy Leary were on the run, and everyone in California was becoming a born-again Christian. The previous autumn, Jimi Hendrix asphyxiated on half-digested sleeping pills and red wine,…
