In Denver Metal, Khemmis Leads the Pack With Release of Hunted

Khemmis vocalist and guitarist Phil Pendergast remembers the moment he realized his new band might actually amount to something. The Denver quartet was in the process of recording its debut album — 2015’s Absolution — and Pendergast and bassist Dan Beiers took a quick break for some food. “We were…

Pianist Larry Wegner Releases First Album With CJ Nicolai

Starting at the age of fourteen, pianist Larry Wegner would sometimes play Glenn Miller hits with the Bob Murphy band at dances at American Legion and VFW halls in Yuma, near the eastern border or Colorado. He’d get home around 5 a.m., get some sleep and then play organ at…

Quixote’s True Blue Is Closing

What a long, strange trip it’s been, indeed.  Quixote’s True Blue will close at the end of this month, according to a Facebook announcement that owner Jay Bianchi posted yesterday. The venue, which Bianchi writes, began twenty years ago “as a sort of refuge for Deadheads who needed a place to…

Denver Taiko Celebrates Its Fortieth Anniversary With Two Performances

Denver Taiko is celebrating its fortieth anniversary with a pair of concerts at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Denver campus. The title of the concert is Okage sama de, which translates to “Because of you.” The nonprofit organization’s membership is composed largely of Americans…

Ten of the Best Cover Bands in Colorado — 2016 Edition

A few weeks ago, we published a list of “The Ten Finest Tribute Bands in Colorado,” and this is a sequel of sorts. Every city needs its cover bands, those groups that play out-of-the-way bars on a Thursday night, or weddings and corporate events, giving the audience exactly what they want…

Drake or Emo: Whose Lyric Is It, Anyway?

This weekend, Drake (aka the Canadian Crooner, the Wonder From Up Yonder, the Rihanna Whisperer) is taking over the Pepsi Center, and what better way to honor his arrival than by addressing the age-old question: Is Drake emo? Emo, of course, is a label ascribed to pop-punk bands who wax…

Boulder Songwriter Silent Bear Sings Out Against Dakota Access Pipeline

On September 13, Colorado singer-songwriter Silent Bear found himself singing a new song to a group of Dakota Pipeline protesters in front of the Boulder County Courthouse. “I ain’t gonna work on Kelcy’s pipeline no more,” the song begins. “They’re protectors of the water, they’re protectors of the land, they’re…

Longtime Denver Band Jux County Returns With Signature ‘Punktry’ Sound

Jux County is releasing its first album since 2001’s Junk Country. The new collection of songs, titled Coral, represents the group’s latest phase since it reconvened in 2014, after years of on-and-mostly-off-again live shows as its members focused on projects and life outside the band. Primary songwriter, guitarist and singer…

Blackstar Performer Donny McCaslin’s New Album Is Inspired by Bowie

Donny McCaslin felt a little shy when he first met David Bowie during a rehearsal of the latter’s “Sue (or in a Season of Crime),” which would be released as a limited-edition single and on Bowie’s 2014 compilation album, Nothing Has Changed. The New York-based jazz saxophonist leads his own…

Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant: Music Doesn’t Have the Same Value

The music industry and how music is disseminated these days is quite different than when Echo & the Bunnymen released significant albums like Porcupine and Ocean Rain in the 1980s. Guitarist Will Sergeant says that everything’s changed; the whole ballpark has changed. That’s why the band, which released its twelfth…

With Grande Orquesta Navarre, Denver Musicians Make Ambition Accessible

Grande Orquesta Navarre came together in the summer of 2015 when Evan Orman, Sara Parkinson, Susan Cahill and Tom Hagerman decided to ditch the genre confines of their former tango outfit Exstasis for a more open-format band. Drawing on their mutual interest and backgrounds in classical music, jazz, rock, pop…