Legendary rap label Rap-A-Lot has added local rapper G-Slick to its stable of artists. Not only did they sign him, but they made his home label G.O.D.N. a subsidiary of the imprint, as well. Although the interest G.O.D.N. received initially was by the negative videos the crew was putting out…
Although the two records that Butch Walker (due this Friday, November 15, at the Larimer Lounge) made with the Black Widows were collaborative efforts, from songwriting to production, Walker opted for a more personal approach on his latest five-song EP, Peachtree Battle. The album is about his father, who passed…
After more than two decades of living in the United States, synthpop pioneer Thomas Dolby (due at the Bluebird Theater this Thursday, November 14) returned to the coast in Suffolk, England, where he grew up and later built a studio called Nutmeg of Consolation in a 1930s lifeboat, and that’s…
Equally gifted as a bassist and composer, Ben Allison has released some outstanding and forward-thinking recordings over the course of his career, beginning with his 1996 debut, Seven Arrows, through his forthcoming release, The Stars Look Very Different Today. Slated for release in December, the album reflects his lifelong fascination…
Tonight at the Meadowlark, the Solution is presenting the third installment of the Art of Records, its unique artistic series, which combines music and art in a compelling way by having local artists offer up their interpretations of classic hip-hop albums. This time, the talented cast of artists include Xencs…
Pop. 1280, which formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2008, is a band whose music is informed by the energy of punk and the eruptive and menacing sounds of the darker end of post-punk and early industrial music. The surrealistic atmospheres are bracing and chilling rather than soothing. Pop. 1280’s…
Phish just finished a stunning run of shows on the East Coast last week in which the band debuted new material. While the new tunes will no doubt inspire much debate, the band’s already sprawling archive of performances provides endless fodder for discussions of which versions are the best. Admittedly,…
Although Chris Daniels will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of his group, Chris Daniels and the Kings, next year, he started out playing acoustic folk in the ’70s, first with the Rosewood Canyon and then with Magic Music, an outfit hailed as Colorado’s first jam band. We spoke to Daniels about…
Formed in Essen, Germany, in 1982, Kreator was one of the non-American pioneers of thrash. Like many of its peers, Kreator began as a speed metal band inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal, but the added influence of acts like Venom and Discharge produced an adrenalized thrash…
One of the pioneers of dub and electronic dance music, Mad Professor, was born Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser in Guyana. In the late ’60s, at the age of thirteen, he moved to London, where his father was living. Fraser, who was an electronics whiz kid and had built his own…
Prime Element began as 3 the Hardway, three hip-hop heads — an MC, a producer and a DJ — devoted to celebrating a culture they love through positivity, hard work and great music. Their name has obviously since changed, as has their label affiliation since Set in Stone, their last…
We’re back with another batch of fresh local hip-hop. We’ve got a new tune from Turner Jackson’s new project Black Electric Love and a new cut from Mr. Midas’s forthcoming project, Red Card and Green Bottles. Kruza Kid, meanwhile, channels his inner Doors, and Young Doe drops a powerful track…
While studying trumpet performance at St. Olaf College in Minnesota two decades ago, Jason Harrelson, owner of Harrelson Trumpets, became consumed with learning how the trumpet works and understanding the physics of playing one. In 1993, he began experimenting with trumpet mouthpieces, enlarging throats, backbores and adding mass, and before…
Death Angel was formed in 1982 by four cousins who were inspired by the new wave of British heavy metal. After releasing a demo called Heavy Metal Insanity, the band enlisted its roadie, another cousin, Mark Osegueda, to be its singer — just in time to open for the then-up-and-coming…
Although jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan, who’s just going by his first name these days, is only in his mid-twenties, he already has more than two decades of playing under his belt. Having started on piano at the age of three, he was already playing festivals by the time he was…
Gov’t Mule formed in 1994 as a side project of Warren Haynes and Allen Woody, who were then members of the Allman Brothers Band. While both men continued to play with the Allman Brothers, Gov’t Mule became quite a viable entity on its own, rooted in a similar blend of…
I’m a simpleton, in general, but particularly when it comes to beer — I know, a shameful admission in this town, beloved land of the microbrews. Sorry, dude. Most of that stuff gives me a headache. Still I can’t help but be hopelessly in love with TRVE Brewing Company. I…
Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia) is a one man force to be reckoned with. Armed with a vintage guitar, attention grabbing musical stylistics and a drum made out of a suitcase, this one man band grabs audiences like no other; you can hear a pin drop at his shows. In advance…
After years of refusing to play Soul Coughing songs, Mike Doughty, the band’s former frontman is not only performing entire sets of the band’s material, but he also released an album of Soul Coughing tunes reimagined. The title of the disc, issued last month on Doughty’s Snack Bar imprint, is…
What is trap music? According to T.I., on the title track of his genre-defining Trap Muzik, it ain’t no album and it ain’t no game. Indeed, the origins of trap go beyond music — beyond even the Atlanta corners where drugs are dealt and rubber bands are filled — into…
Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel formed the Helio Sequence in Beaverton, Oregon, in 1999. On their first few releases, the duo created vividly realized, playfully psychedelic songs that made a languid, rockist format seem expansive and upbeat, particularly 2001’s Young Effectuals, which was like a day-glo-hued daydream of an album…
Stevie Boiser is an omnipresent figure in Denver metal. He fronts Vale of Pnath, and recently stepped down from Enemy Reign to focus on Dissonance in Design, a progressive death-metal quintet that features brothers Harrison and Zac Patuto on guitar and drums, respectively, as well as Vale of Pnath guitarist…
