ZZ Ward released her debut album, Til The Casket Drops, in 2012. Growing up, she honed a talent for writing bluesy R&B songs. Her knack for that can be heard prominently on that disc, and well as her proclivity for hip-hop, which is even more prevalent on her Criminal EP…
Kev Kash is a rising talent from the local scene who has songs with the likes of Innerstate Ike, Myrical and Mr. Midas. Kash says 2Pac is his biggest influence, but he says his style is comparable to Lupe or Kendrick Lamar. We recently caught up with the rapper, who…
A lifetime of music fandom and a voracious appetite for new things has given me a wide-ranging (if sometimes shallow) knowledge of musical styles, forms and history. Despite that, there are holes. Big holes. And some of those holes are, well, embarrassing. I’ve decided the time has come to fill…
There are many different versions of DJ Babyshoe running around Denver, depending on who you ask and when they last saw him. On any given weekend, Babyshoe (aka Eric Talledo) is crisscrossing the city spinning forgotten hits at the Lost Lake, playing a party hosted by TheHundred or unleashing late…
This week’s crop of new local hip-hop jams is particularly eclectic, ranging from boom-bap to electronic to jazzy to funk. We’ve got tracks from Wheelchair Sports Camp, Bullhead*ded, Molina Speaks and PIKE. Keep reading to see what’s good. See also: – Fresh local hip-hop from Atak One, Planes!, Foodchain and…
Kylesa got its start in 2001 when former members of sludge-metal band Damad teamed up with guitarist and visual artist Laura Pleasants. From the beginning, this Savannah, Georgia-based band has shown no loyalty to a specific genre; as a result, the outfit’s discography has been fascinatingly varied. See also: -…
Drawing on a hardcore background, Turbonegro combined glam metal with punk to create a sound it has cheekily called “death punk.” With lyrics and imagery that both celebrate and make a mockery of the gaudy aspects of glam and its thematic tropes. The band’s 1996 album, Ass Cobra, established the…
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club formed in the late ’90s after Peter Hayes left the Brian Jonestown Massacre, when he and his high school friend Robert Been, son of the late Michael Been of the Call, started the band, influenced by acts like the Verve, Loop and the Jesus and Mary…
More than fifteen years after the release of Three Dolla Bill, Y’all, Limp Bizkit is back with a brand new album, Stampede of the Disco Elephants, on the Cash Money imprint. In advance of the band’s return to Denver in support of that album this weekend, we caught up with…
Mike Servito is a New York-based DJ and resident of the monthly Brooklyn techno club night, the Bunker. He came of age in Detroit during the 1990s, and you can hear it in his sound, which pays a substantial debt to many of the legendary mixmasters of that era. Equally…
These days, South Broadway is a thriving nightlife district that has undergone a cavalcade of changes in the past few years. As much of a makeover as the strip has had, though, not everybody’s stoked with the changes. If you’ve logged on to Facebook, you’ve no doubt seen posts from…
Although Black Moth Super Rainbow’s dreamlike, psychedelic melodies sound like they could’ve been part of those ’70s era Sid & Marty Krofft shows, the band actually formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2003 in the wake of earlier projects from the act’s singer and multi-instrumentalist, the unimonikered Tobacco (aka Thomas Fec)…
Havok, on tour in Europe right now with Cephalic Carnage, Suffocation and Fallujah, is preparing to release its new album, Unnatural Selection, on Tuesday, June 25. The ten-track album, the band’s fourth release overall and the followup to 2011’s Time Is Up, was produced by Havok frontman David Sanchez, mixed…
The men behind the Hamburg duo Digitalism have been blowing out all the stops on their tour, which hits just nine cities. Their DJ-Kicks mix last year was well received, and they’ve got new remixes out showcasing their take on Bloc Party’s “Truth” and the Rapture’s “Sail Away.” We spoke…
Forget everything you know about the man known as Nathaniel Rateliff. Whatever image that name conjures for you will be obsolete the next time you see him. The extraordinarily talented musician, whom we first came to know as the frontman of Born in the Flood and later came to love…
Born Jewel Cameron III, Esi Juey was born in California, and he moved around as a child, living in places like Ohio, before eventually landing in the Mile High City. One of the most promising local rappers to emerge in recent years, he’s swinging for the fences. “I’m trying to…
Prince became a household name after the release of his third album, 1982’s 1999. Over the years, his perfectly realized blend of rock, pop, funk and jazz has proved equally popular with audiences and critics. Throughout the ’80s, Prince released hit records that broke genre barriers, not just in terms…
Remember Bela Karoli, the band fronted by Julie Davis? Yeah, it seems like a bazillion years since we’ve heard anything from that act — and for good reason. Davis has been busy touring the globe with Nathaniel Rateliff and tending to her other groups, Fairchildren and Miss America. Now she’s…
Yngwie Malmsteen is a guitar god known for his supremely technical fretwork. The virtuosic guitarist burst into the world of international music in 1984 with Rising Force. At the age of seven, Malmsteen says, he saw a documentary about the death of Jimi Hendrix and was so taken by Hendrix’s…
Welcome back to another edition of That’s a Rap. This week, we’ve got another a fresh batch of homegrown hip-hop for you. Whether you’re looking for a rugged, classic sound or a laid-back joint, we’ve got you covered with new cuts from Atak One, Planes!, Foodchain and Zome of Diamond…
The parking lot is a perfect place to mingle and get your pre-game on before a show, particularly at Red Rocks. But Brandon Chavez is taking tailgaiting to another level. At select EDM shows, you can find Chavez, aka DJ Rufio, and his crew of party people gathered around a…
Seris is a mathy metal band with a footing in technical death metal that has found a way to blend all of that into something far more accessible than either would suggest. There is a groove and fluidity underlying the band’s sound that gives the heaviness a paradoxical kind of…
