Could Denver Have a Better Music Scene Than L.A.?

When you live in Los Angeles, you don’t really think about music scenes anywhere else. Why would you? L.A. has it all. Sure, you might occasionally give a passing nod to cool shit going on in other places. Kudos to Seattle for that grunge run way back when. And, yeah,…

Ten More of the Best DJs in Denver – 2016 Edition

It’s been a couple of months since we published our list of “Ten of the Best DJs in Denver Right Now,” but the electronic music scene in Denver is so rich and vibrant that we were never going to do it justice with just ten entries. A follow-up was always…

The Church and Psychedelic Furs on Their Appeal Beyond Nostalgia

This weekend two of the greatest rock bands of the ’80s are performing together at Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Typically, bands whose greatest commercial popularity happened more than twenty years ago find themselves playing a nostalgia circuit of state fairs and the like, but the Church and…

Gathering of the Juggalos Is Coming to Colorado

Go West, young Juggalo! Whoop whoop! According to a seminar held on Saturday, July 23, Insane Clown Posse confirmed that its annual festival, the Gathering of the Juggalos, will happen in Denver in 2017. The unique festival has taken place in various locations in the Midwest since its inception, including…

We’re Going Back to the Gathering of the Juggalos

After a much-needed two-year hiatus from the madness that is Insane Clown Posse’s annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival, we’re happy to report that this year, we’re going back. L.A. Weekly is off to Thornville, Ohio, for the Gathering, which runs July 20-23, and will be reporting throughout the week on…

Scott Amendola Band Gets Emotional at Dazzle

One night in June 2002, Bay Area-based drummer Scott Amendola finished recording the tracks for Cry, his second album as a bandleader. He and guitarist Nels Cline (who would join Wilco two years later) sat in the control room afterward. Commenting on the wide variety of material on Cry, Cline…

Colorado Music Festival: Home to the World’s Classiest Pick-Up Band

The violinists are fiddling around. They’re staggered among the darkened rows of wooden seats in Boulder’s 117-year-old, barn-like Chautauqua Auditorium, standing apart from each other in little pools of concentration, tuning their instruments. On stage, the brass and woodwind players and percussionists are tweeting, honking and booming. At 10 a.m.,…

Legendary Prank-Call Artist Longmont Potion Castle Releases Boxed Set

Today, Colorado-based prank-call artist Longmont Potion Castle releases a career-spanning box set of his recordings. Before the Jerky Boys began their long career as high-profile prank callers, there was Longmont Potion Castle. LPC’s debut release was a 1987 cassette called Butcher the Paleontologist under the moniker Implement of Prognosis, and…

Mark Fox Quartet Steps Into the Sun With Album Release

Jazz saxophonist Mark Fox was never really an inside player. Rather, he came in from the far outside, immersed in the music of avant-garde jazz innovators like Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and David S. Ware before ever checking out Charlie Parker. The album that set Fox down that…

Comic: Cha Cha Cha at La Rumba!

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work. …

Sailor Records Charts Its Own Course in Denver

Denver-based Sailor Records, which is celebrating its first five years this weekend, started as both a labor of love and a tax write-off. When founder Oscar Ross put out the first album by his hard-rock band Lords of Fuzz in 2010, he did it just to have an imprint on…

Once Upon a Time, There Was a Denver Sound

At least that’s what you’ll hear if you hang around enough Denver music people. Though Denver’s musical reputation outside the state is as a hotbed for all things EDM and jam band, those genres don’t seem to influence what’s called the “Denver Sound.” Press a knowledgeable Denverite for further details,…