Critic's Notebook

The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz.

Shane Franklin, who raps under the name SF1, has dropped a minimalist music video for his catchy pop hip-hop song “Honest” that nods back to the freewheeling chock-full-of-humor spirit of De La Soul, one part goofy and another part charming as all get out.

Two years from the day I belted out Taylor Swift songs at a concert where the singer sashayed across the stage of the 56,000-seat Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, she won a countersuit for sexual assault. It was August 14, 2017. I was in the courtroom. At the 1989 tour stop, Swift was in full pop-goddess mode, wearing a glittery crop top, her face magnified on a screen so fans like me could see her sing and strut amidst a sea of male backup dancers even from the back of the football stadium. But twenty feet from me on the eighth floor of a Denver federal courthouse, hand on her mother’s as she awaited the verdict, Swift was simply a woman in the all-too-common position of waiting for someone to take her at her word that a man had touched her body without her consent. And for a scary half-second, I was afraid that, despite a clear case argued by a high-powered legal team and backed by both witnesses and photographic evidence, the answer would be no.

The Family Dog may be the most influential rock-music venue in Denver history. Yet it’s also the most mysterious.

The legendary Broadway building where Rory’s Tavern stands was built in the early 1930s, opening not long after Prohibition ended. By the late ’40s, it was the Red Lantern Cafe, which was purchased in the early ’50s by twenty-year-old DU law student Jerry Feld, who wasn’t old enough to own a bar.

Phil Bianchi, who died on July 14 at the age of 51, helped make Sancho’s Broken Arrow, the bar he opened with his two brothers in 2000, a Cheers for Deadheads. He would give customers nicknames and make sure they knew they were welcome there.

A brief comic history of the 15th Street Tavern.

Colorado Springs-based DIY space Flux Capacitor, in partnership with Pikes Peak Library District, re-opened to the public on July 15 in the Knights of Columbus building at the Penrose Branch complex in downtown Colorado Springs.

Blondie emerged in the mid-’70s underground rock scene, hitting mainstream airwaves with its third album, 1978’s Parallel Lines.

The Insane Clown Posse blew it like a two-liter of Faygo.

A brief comic history of the Rossonian

“I don’t think my eyes really opened up until the first time I got shot at,” says Tim Burdick, Denver pop-punk singer turned Army ranger. Dodging bullets was the last thing on Burdick’s mind when he was a high school musician in the late ’90s, playing in the pop-punk band Suburbia’s Finest.

WTF is rock ‘N’ roll? is the latest album from Denver’s Hot Apostles. The record’s title is a fitting question for the band’s guitarist Tay Hamilton, who has been asking what constitutes rock-and-roll from a young age.

Denver has a rich tradition of metal and a thriving doom scene. Influenced by Black Sabbath and rock and roll’s slower side, doom revels in heaviness and bleak, introspective lyrics delivered mostly at a snail’s pace.

Thomas A. Blomster has been exploring other cultures’ music for decades.

Mathematician by day and rock-and-roll photographer by night John Koontz, 63, was at the Larimer Lounge catching the Hot Apostles, one of his favorite bands, the evening he died.

The Westword Music Showcase is all about trying new things — listening to new bands, exploring new venues — but it helps to know the basics before you head over: basics like where to find restrooms, water and entrances. Keep reading for ten tips on how to enjoy the best Saturday of the year.

Playing Red Rocks is a rite of passage, and the unique beauty of the venue often prompts particularly inspired performances.

Sure, Colfax Avenue boasts many of the city’s best music venues, but Broadway has its share of spots to hear live music, too. Walk down that strip and you’ll find places that host punk, metal, indie-rock, honky-tonk, jazz and pretty much everything in between.

Queer In the Headlights 2017 Pridefest Party will mark the debut of Eyebeams, a band fronted by Denver underground music staple Suzi Allegra.

It’s been five decades since guitarist Bill Frisell played his first jazz tune in public as a junior at East High School.

Tonight, Dazzle is closing its doors for the last time at 930 Lincoln Street, where the iconic jazz venue has been for nearly two decades, before moving to much bigger digs at the Baur’s building at 1512 Curtis Street.