Music is a tough subject for writers of fiction. Because unless an author has actually lived the life of a musician or someone in the music business, writing with anything approaching legitimacy is nearly impossible. Even people who know the subject inside and out face myriad problems, the first of…
Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, rapper/producer Matt Brandyberry might not have made music his life’s passion if he hadn’t had to find something to do in a small city ninety minutes from Philadelphia. But it took a while to find his sound. Brandyberry wasn’t allowed to listen to anything but Christian…
In the two decades since East High grad Shane Endsley left the University of Colorado to attend the Eastman School of Music, the trumpeter went on to co-found the Grammy-nominated group Kneebody; tour with Ani DiFranco; perform with forward-thinking jazz players like Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane and David Murray; and…
Veteran music journalist and Denver-based author Steve Knopper, who will speak tonight at the Boulder Book Store, recently released his latest book MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson through Simon and Schuster. The current music-business editor at Rolling Stone, Knopper is a Colorado native and worked for several daily newspapers…
Noise rock/no wave band CP-208 split last month. While that development may not be big news to anyone who didn’t like the band (or didn’t even know about it), the dissolution quietly marked the end of a certain era of underground music in Denver — because the band’s membership and…
Prepare to have your brain rearranged by the soul-crushing doom of Windhand, Monolord and Danava, all playing at the Bluebird on November 4. This tour has been getting a lot of attention because of the unusual lineup: Windhand is signed to Relapse Records, and instead of playing with other bands from…
Tommie Phillips has one foot in the past and the other securely in the future. Having lived through the psychedelic sounds of the ’60s, the progressive rock of the ’70s, the revival of both in the ’90s and the death of numerous music formats and their subsequent resurrections, he’s seen…
There are a lot of places where you can hear live music in Denver, but there was only one spot where you could hear everything from soul to funk to death metal at just about any hour, day and night: the practice space at 2200 Larimer Street. Built in 1904,…
One of the sounds that has long been part of the Colorado music scene is lush, atmospheric rock. Even though Colorado boasts more than 300 days of sunshine each year, many significant Colorado artists have an indisputable attraction to music that, if not exactly dark, suggests an inward expansiveness and…
The ’90s in Denver, as in much of the rest of the world, was a time of great creativity in music — and if not for the lack of a spotlight directed at the Mile High City, some of the local talent probably would have enjoyed national as well as…
My daughter, Sidney, is somewhat of a punk-rock connoisseur, at least for a Boulderite, and especially for a five-year-old. Sure, she’s obsessed with Cinderella (the princess, not the band) and digs Frozen, but “Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill is near the top of Sidney’s favorite songs. Plus, when she heard…
Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. This week he profiles Lost Lake Lounge. Visit Karl Christian Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work. …
Glenn Danzig holds a unique place in the history of modern music. As the frontman for Misfits in the late ’70s through the early ’80s, Danzig helped to create one of the iconic sounds in punk rock with a visual aesthetic — the band looked like it came right out…
The Flobots have always tried to break down the line between the band members and their audience, but now they are actively seeking to get fans involved in their new album, No Enemies. And while crowdfunding for a new album is hardly a unique idea these days, the level of…
With the 7th edition of Titwrench in the rearview, now is a good time to consider the legacy of one of festival’s mainstays: Lust-Cats of the Gutters, which is no longer an active project. The duo featured former Westword contributor Robin Edwards on guitar and vocals and Alex Edgeworth on…
Wax Idols is making an appearance at Juice Church on Friday, October 23. The band has long been the outlet for songwriter and lead vocalist Hether Fortune, who started the band while she was living in the San Francisco area. Initially, the band was often described as garage rock, but…
Chris “Sizzle” Forsythe passed away in the early hours of October 14, 2015. Not long before that, he’d been dropped off at his home after a night serving as sound engineer at the Black Sheep, the club in Colorado Springs where he’d been working for a decade. He was among…
A Place to Bury Strangers has been long solidified as one of the pioneering bands of the shoegaze genre — a style of music that now pervades subgenres as diverse as indie pop and black metal. Born out of New York City and evolving into a complex and layered sound…
Saturday’s release party for Bob Rob Medina’s illustrated memoir chronicling the ’80s Denver punk scene packed Mutiny Information Cafe — and that was before most attendees found out The Frantix were going to play. The Frantic, who played their last show in 1983, said they got in a mere two…
Throughout the congested rows of seats in Armstrong Hall on the Colorado College campus in Colorado Springs, students and guests of all ages gathered in the tight quarters to listen intently to the legendary Chuck D of Public Enemy. Chuck had come to speak with Idris Goodwin, (CC’s own hip-hop…
The song “Collaborations Don’t Work” appears near the end of the self-titled new album by FFS, the inspired team of Sparks and Franz Ferdinand — and the timing is perfect. By that point on the recording, the combined efforts of the two bands, which will play October 11 at the…
Last week, A$AP Rocky and Tyler, the Creator headlined a show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Danny Brown and Vince Staples. By the time the main 2015 season ends, with the Mac Miller and Action Bronson show on Halloween, Red Rocks will have been the host to 130 shows —…
