Casiotone for the Painfully Alone started out in 1997 as a solo project for songwriter Owen Ashworth. Initially using just a keyboard and a basic drum machine, Ashworth challenged himself to make the most of minimal elements. The result has been a body of work that not only speaks directly…
Pavement is among the most influential rock bands of the ’90s, despite not quite becoming a household name, and you can hear the band’s influence in virtually all underground rock since then, from the slightly off-center rhythms, the jagged but melodic guitar riffs and the fascinatingly obtuse lyrics. Taking some…
DJ Low Key is certainly no stranger to the local hip-hop scene. And for the past few years, he’s been making a name for himself nationally putting in work with such heavy-hitters as TiRon, Tanya Morgan and, most recently, Che Grand, whose Fixtape #2 project, mixed exclusively by Low Key,…
Merton is a Colorado resident who has gained a good amount of Internet celebrity for the spontaneous songs he plays for random people he meets on chatroulette.com. But he’s not just an online phenomenon. In fact, he frequently takes his show on the road, literally, by playing to passersby on…
As much fun as he has touring with 3OH!3 and being a member of that act’s live band, and as fond as he is of playing in Young Coyotes with Zach Tipton, American Tomahawk is Adam Halferty’s baby, the place where he’s able to express himself the most freely as…
The Gamits were one of the classic, melodic punk bands of the late ’90s. Unlike many of their peers, they survived well into the new decade before calling it quits, shortly after releasing the best album of their career, Antidote, in the summer of 2004. After touring extensively across the…
Safe Boating is No Accident is the musical/performance art project of Leighton Peterson and Neil McCormick, who both came to Colorado within the last several years. Forming Safe Boating about two years ago, Peterson and McCormick found a way to combine their love of old timey music with a modern…
Turner Jackson is still a youngster in the game. Just shy of 22 years old, he doesn’t consider himself a “rapper.” You’d be hard pressed to find him spouting capricious odes of gratitude to the heart of hip-hop — he’s still a novice when it comes to the foundations of…
Joe Thunder is not a DJ. Nor is he an MC. Just the same, he’s a widely recognizable figure in the local hip-hop scene, and he’s equally as well regarded as those who are making the music. A tireless champion of Colorado hip-hop, Joe has been doing everything he can…
Ace Miyamoto’s his given name, but he’s known by a few other handles: Acezi, Ronin or just plain Ace, as we know him. Part producer, part MC, part promoter, Ace is involved in many diverse projects that require him to utilize all of the skills listed on his resume. Whether…
Okay, gonna go out on a limb here and say that tix for these dates are probably going to sell out in a little more than the time it takes to read this item: We just learned that Phish — hot on the heels of a pair of well-received dates…
As Pollination Population, Katherine Ersing folds volumes of personal stories into melodies made from bells, acoustic guitar and her trademark cassette tape samples. Finding beauty in the easily ignored sounds of traffic noise and passing conversation, the Buffalo, New York transplant makes them all unintentional players in her music, forming…
Julox, a southern native who relocated to Aurora in 1991 is a busy man. With more than twenty projects already under his belt and eight more on the way, including a joint project with UGK records, this dedicated rapper is proving that he truly is trill. Although he draws inspiration…
Seven years and more than six-hundred live shows into its career, Whitewater Ramble has completed work on its long awaited studio debut, All Night Drive. It’s been quite a road getting to this point. The Fort Collins-based act could easily write a book chronicling its path from playing tiny and…
When the crack epidemic hit the streets in the ’80s, it changed the social constructs of a generation. Not only did it birth a legion of children with addicted parents, but from Jay-Z to Rick Ross, it also served as thematic fodder for some of rap’s biggest names. Like hip-hop,…
DJ Quote is no stranger to controversy, having tangled with his fair share of detractors in the past. Actually, he’s no stranger at all: To date, he’s released more than 300 mixtapes, performed at parties at major sporting events across the country, and appeared on national television a handful of…
Its been over eight years since Eminem thrust the concept of battle rapping into the mainstream consciousness with his first feature film, 8 Mile. Even though hip-hop has thrived within different types of competition since its birth (including breakdancing battles, DJ competitions and crossed-out tags on walls), crowds in the…
By Matty Clark, bartender at Lost Lake Lounge (3602 East Colfax Avenue) in Denver. The bartender doesn’t actually hate you. Bartending is a stressful, complicated job that requires dealing with human beings at their absolute worst (when they’re drunk.)…
PHISH August 9-10, 2010 | Telluride Town Park Looking out over a crowd of roughly 10,000 people on the ball fields of Telluride’s town park after tearing through a cover of Traffic’s “Light up or Leave Me Alone,” Phish’s Trey Anastasio summed up the surroundings succinctly: “It’s still beautiful here.”…
J-Blev, the latest act out of Colorado Springs, has elevated his sound with the help of Turf DJ Ktone. The title of his latest mixtape, And Then There Was Me, alludes to the solitary nature of being a rapper, in which an artist must step out on his own to…
As half of the Benevento-Russo Duo, Marco Benevento played bass lines with his feet and held down organ and Wurlitzer parts with separate hands. But in the trio format, he’s completely at home behind the piano, which he says is totally his ax. The forward-thinking Benevento makes captivating music by…
As reported here last week, nearly half of the finalists competing for the US DMC title in New York City this past weekend hail from Colorado. Unfortunately, none of the five local contestants, who battled it out in front of a celebrity crowd against some of the most talented and…
