Oko Tygra is one of the Denver bands representing the Mile High City at this year’s CMJ in New York City. The group is slated to play at Niagra on Wednesday, October 22. For a group that started in March 2014, getting selected for CMJ is certainly an achievement. For…
Editor: Please see the Author’s note on this new photo-driven series at the end of this article. In this second part (read part one here) of the Underground Bands of Denver Music’s Dark Ages, we’re going to use a few bands of the era to spotlight some of the important…
In the late 1980s, it was nearly unheard of for Japanese underground rock bands to play in the United States. But Shonen Knife, appearing at the Oriental Theater this Thursday, October 16, played a show in Los Angeles in 1989. By then, the band’s music had already spent several years…
Josh Ritter (due Saturday, October 11, at the Paramount Theater as part of Swallow Hill’s 35th Anniversary) is a gifted songwriter who has earned a bit of an international following for his imaginatively literate lyrics and simple yet sophisticated observational wisdom. In 2001, Ritter got a big break when he…
Editor: Please see the Author’s note on this new photo-driven series at the end of this article. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Denver music was in a time of transition. It was the local cultural equivalent of the Dark Ages. But like the more well-known Dark Ages, there…
You wouldn’t know, listening to the Felice Brothers’ latest LP, Favorite Waitress, that the record marks the first time they’ve recorded in a proper studio, abandoning the chicken coops and high-school auditoriums of their previous albums. Characteristically unhinged and scruffy without ever feeling unprofessional, the record has the warmth and…
Not many veteran bands make their best album more than a decade down the line. But the New Pornographers, who’ll appear Saturday, October 11, at the Gothic Theatre, have beaten the odds with the driving, melodic, pop-tastic Brill Bruisers despite an extremely high degree of difficulty. After all, the band’s…
Editor: Please see the Author’s note on this new photo-driven series at the end of this article. Ian MacKaye once said that the most relevant bands are those that exist right now, because they exist and you can go see them. I couldn’t agree more. One of the reasons I…
Tonight, the Savoy Events Center will once again be filled wall-to-wall with people from all walks of life who came for one reason: Rocking the mic. MCs from across Colorado will come together for the second Rap-A-Thon, which will feature art, fashion and hours of rhyming. See also: The “Controversy”…
Mark Turner is a dynamic and lucid jazz tenor saxophonist who’s been part of Billy Hart’s Quartet for a decade. He’s also been a member of Fly, the collaborative trio with the skilled bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. But Turner, who will be at Dazzle on Saturday, September…
While the current connotation of the term DJ involves neon-clad teens, lasers and confetti cannons, artists like DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist rely on the hip-hop tradition of the genre. On past tours, Shadow and Cut toured with only a collection of hand-picked 45s (the Hard Sell Tour, from 2007…
DJCHAP is off to a good start. So far, he’s earned the respect of one of his biggest musical influences, grown an online following from around the world, and just dropped an EP of fresh footwork tunes that has earned praise from influencers like XLR8R and Potholes in My Blog,…
The night before Minutemen played in Denver for the first time in 1984, at the now-defunct Rainbow Music Hall with Black Flag, the punk progenitors made up of singer and guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley endured what Watt called a “seventeen-hour hell ride” right after…
Shabazz Palaces is the adventurous hip-hop outlet of former Digable Planets MC Ishmael Butler and multi-instrumentalist Tendai Mariare. Based in Seattle, the group is signed to the historically rock-centric Sub Pop label. We talked to Butler before Shabazz Palaces’ show tonight at the Fox Theatre about consumerism, the innate power…
Riot Fest is bringing some loud bands along with the spirit (and hay) of May Farms to Sports Authority Field parking lot this weekend. It also comes with a carnival complete with games and rides. This could have been our only chance to ever ride a Ferris Wheel while a…
Failure is slated to perform at Riot Fest this Friday, September 19th. Though the band enjoyed a great deal of popularity during its first run before splitting in 1997, its influence has loomed large on a good deal of guitar rock that has come along since. If someone writes a…
While a lot of the focus during Riot Fest this weekend will be on the headliners playing the May Farms stage and the Byers General Store, the festival includes up and coming bands, local and otherwise, worthy of attention. These are generally not the bands riding in large tour buses…
The winners of the 2014 Unsigned Only Music Competition have been announced, and the Fort Collins band You, Me & Apollo won in the Americana category for its song “I Don’t Want to Be Loved.” The competition received more than eight thousand entries with a finalist group presented to a…
Now in its fifth and final year, Albuquerque’s Gatas y Vatas experimental music festival is preparing for a grand finale this weekend. Founding performer and festival organizer Marisa Demarco says that it was her experience as a performer and audience member at Denver’s Titwrench music festival inspired her to create…
Les Claypool and Larry Lalonde will be signing copies of Primus: Over the Electric Grapevine, an oral history of the band, at Tattered Cover on Thursday, September 18, at 7 p.m.. Primus is also slated to perform at Riot Fest on Friday, September 19. Formed in 1984 in the San…
Denver rapper Demario “Lil Bad” Gentry has been busy recently, releasing The Colfax District, Bad News and Shark Syndrome 2.0. He’s also played shows all over the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, and he hasn’t always found support for his home town during his travels. “This is my home,…
Paul Banker, aka electronic-music producer Real Cosby, is a homeowner. Not because his occasional live show and handful of EPs have made him any real money, but because he has a full-time job and a family and all the responsibilities associated with those things. While that same litany has been…
