The streets of Denver are safe now that Maris the Great, king of the gay undead, has returned to his crypt for winter hibernation. For those unfamiliar with Denver’s resident revenant royalty, Maris can be seen at rock and metal concerts throughout spring and summer clad in elaborate royal attire…
From 1963 until March 15, 2008 The Cricket On The Hill (located at 1209 East 13th Avenue) was a dive bar that hosted bands of pretty much every conceivable genre and level of notoriety. Denver’s godfathers of noise Page 27 played there — so did nearly every other band in…
Bright Channel was one of the most widely respected bands in the Denver underground scene during its relatively short existence. From February 2002 through the fall of 2007, the trio flooded small bars and large venues with its colossal sound. Though it would probably today be called a shoegaze band,…
On November 15, Austin Wintory will return home to conduct the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in a program devoted to “Comic-Con”-themed music, including his own compositions for the universe of video-games, where he’s found his greatest success. At 30, Wintory is already an accomplished veteran and trailblazing composer. He received the…
As Banshee Tree, Kalyn Pembridge and Thomas LaFond make a surprisingly original and enticing mix of gypsy jazz, folk pop and swing. They moved to Colorado from upstate New York four years ago, and can be seen seemingly every night of the week along the Front Range, playing a mix…
This weekend, the hi-dive is celebrating eleven years of existence, with two years under its current ownership. When the club opened for business in the old location of 7 South and Quixote’s True Blue, it represented a sea change in places where one could see original, underground music. In its…
Before Adrian Belew, who’s due at the Boulder Theater on Tuesday, November 4, performed and recorded with King Crimson, David Bowie and the Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails and a slew of other artists, the adventurous guitarist spent a year working with Frank Zappa. Belew sees that year between 1977…
You may want to include Lipgloss at Beauty Bar in your Halloween plans this Friday for a DJ set with Cold Cave’s Wesley Eisold. It’s a fitting guest for the venerable party: while what often passes for goth today is very far removed from the music and subculture that laid…
In 2009 and 2010, Yuzo Nieto of Pink Hawks and Adam Gildar put together a festival of a different stripe: The concept was that Denver bands covered songs by their own favorite Denver bands. The result was an eclectic and affectionate affair featuring obscure and more well-known artists. The covers…
Cut Copy has found plenty of success in Colorado. The Australian electronic band, which formed in Australia in 2001, fit right in with the burgeoning scene here in the genre. After sharing a co-headlining bill with Chromeo at a sold-out Red Rocks earlier this year, Cut Copy returns for a…
Steven “Steakhouse” Pampel and Jordan “Funny Biz” Polovina started Whiskey Blanket ten years ago, when they were still teenagers. Originally focused on beatboxing and keyboards, the two friends soon transitioned into rapping over live instruments. That change came about after they met Joe “Sloppy Joe” Lessard at a house party…
It’s been a busy month for the Department of Music at Metropolitan State University. Its accreditation was renewed by the National Association of Schools of Music, and it added a new Jazz and American Improvised Music Performance concentration (also accredited). We interviewed Peter Schimpf, associate professor and chair of the…
In the mid-2000s, guitarist Enrique Jimenez was playing outside the usual circuit of rock clubs and DIY spaces in town, on stages in northwest Aurora and southwest Denver. And that exploratory spirit has benefited his current band, Altas. Formerly known as Panal S.A. de C.V., Jimenez formed the band with…
“Everyone else in my family was an addict, and I was an addict of creativity, and that saved my life,” says rapper Jericho Son of None. He’s been active in the Denver hip-hop community for years, spending time in a group called Educated Figures. He now teaches history and geography…
Courtesy of ATO RecordsBy Roy Kasten Onstage — his hair whipping like a battlefield banner, his piano splintering, his gnarled voice bellowing and his band crushing out something like rock, something like the blues — J. Roddy Walston is surely a force, but not really a force of nature, as…
Iceage (due this Sunday, October 26, at the Hi-Dive) from Copenhagen, Denmark made a splash when it first started playing in the U.S.A. over three years ago. Synthesizing the raw energy of hardcore with the moodiness of post-punk, Iceage was and still is an electrifying live act. Even then, though,…
Oko Tygra is one of the Denver bands representing the Mile High City at this year’s CMJ in New York City. The group is slated to play at Niagra on Wednesday, October 22. For a group that started in March 2014, getting selected for CMJ is certainly an achievement. For…
Editor: Please see the Author’s note on this new photo-driven series at the end of this article. In this second part (read part one here) of the Underground Bands of Denver Music’s Dark Ages, we’re going to use a few bands of the era to spotlight some of the important…
In the late 1980s, it was nearly unheard of for Japanese underground rock bands to play in the United States. But Shonen Knife, appearing at the Oriental Theater this Thursday, October 16, played a show in Los Angeles in 1989. By then, the band’s music had already spent several years…
Josh Ritter (due Saturday, October 11, at the Paramount Theater as part of Swallow Hill’s 35th Anniversary) is a gifted songwriter who has earned a bit of an international following for his imaginatively literate lyrics and simple yet sophisticated observational wisdom. In 2001, Ritter got a big break when he…
Editor: Please see the Author’s note on this new photo-driven series at the end of this article. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Denver music was in a time of transition. It was the local cultural equivalent of the Dark Ages. But like the more well-known Dark Ages, there…
You wouldn’t know, listening to the Felice Brothers’ latest LP, Favorite Waitress, that the record marks the first time they’ve recorded in a proper studio, abandoning the chicken coops and high-school auditoriums of their previous albums. Characteristically unhinged and scruffy without ever feeling unprofessional, the record has the warmth and…
