When MC Frontalot (born Damien Hess) coined the term “nerdcore,” which inspired his 2000 single “Nerdcore Hiphop,” he wasn’t part of a movement. But around then, when artists like YTCracker and MC Hawking became more visible alongside Frontalot and MC Chris, a phenomenon emerged, inspiring two 2008 documentaries: Nerdcore Rising…
Marni Pickens wasn’t always the easy-going bluegrass picker she is today. “I’m a rocker chick,” she says. “Even though I grew up in Colorado, I never listened to much country or bluegrass at all.” After moving from Colorado to New York City at eighteen years old, Pickens started playing bass…
In spite of a mind-boggling amount of personnel changes (including two members leaving and then returning), Corrosion of Conformity has nevertheless remained consistent for over three decades. Currently whittled down to the trio of bassist/singer Mike Dean, guitarist Woody Weatherman and drummer Reed Mullin, COC recently released IX, yet another…
Music has always come naturally to Kate Brady. “When I was little, teachers always had to tell me to stop singing in class,” she says. “I mean, I never even noticed I was doing it.” When she was a senior at Steamboat Springs High School, a classmate asked her to…
MF Ruckus, due at SummerGrind this Saturday, August 16, at the Gothic Theatre and Moe’s Original BBQ & Bowl, has more outrageous and humorous stories than most bands. The band started in 1997 as Forth Yeer Freshman when singer and sole original member Aaron Howell was, indeed, still in high…
Founded by Anna Smith, Megan Crooks, Cody Coffey and Derrick Bozich in the summer of 2013, Ancient Elk is actually only a little over a year old. Smith and Crooks had played together before in Birds of a Feather, a kind of avant-garde band with roots in bluegrass, folk and…
Best known as the leader of the legendary ’80s alternative band the Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn has found surprising success in channeling his love of baseball into his songwriting. A few years back, Wynn found another baseball junkie, Scott McCaughey (best known for his work with the Young Fresh Fellows),…
The Gaslamp Killer is making an appearance at The 1up on Colfax this Thursday, August 7. Born William Benussen, GLK has been involved directly in producing and creating some of the most innovative electronic music and hip-hop of recent years. When he moved to Los Angeles from San Diego in…
The album art for Computer J. Fox appears to be straight out of the ’80s. On it, a Patrick Nagel-style woman crouches over a soft-pink desktop computer, its clunky screen and keyboard juxtaposed with her sleek frame and Jem and the Holograms blue hair. A listen to the record reveals…
Cut Copy co-headlines Red Rocks with Chromeo this Tuesday, August 5. With Flume and Duke Dumont sharing the bill, the show will represent different facets of an international electronic dance music that isn’t directly connected with the EDM phenomenon. Cut Copy first came to the attention of audiences outside its…
Michael Hornbuckle was twelve years old the first time he shared the stage with his father, legendary Denver bluesman Bobby Hornbuckle, and at thirteen he was playing weekends with his dad. While he was getting an education on stage, he was also schooling himself in blues guitar by listening to…
Great White is due to play at the Buffalo Rose this Saturday, July 26th. The veteran blues rock band got its start in 1977 during the early days of the Los Angeles Hard Rock scene, when Van Halen was in its ascendancy and the glam metal with which it later…
Enrique Jimenez is a man about town — if you’ve been to more than a handful of local shows over the last several years, chances are you’ve crossed paths with him. His own band Altas (formerly Panal S.A. de C.V.) is an experimental instrumental rock band par excellence and can…
Denver’s Tim Gerak is in love with sound. So much so that, on Monday, July 28 , he will launch his own line of boutique audio gear under the name Mammoth Cave Audio. This isn’t Gerak’s first foray into sound, though. While growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, he started making…
Jux County is playing a rare show this Thursday, July 24th, at 9 p.m. at the Eslinger Gallery for the UMS. Since forming in December 1986, Jux County has become a fixture in the local music scene. Within the first few years of the band’s existence it had released its…
In February 5th, 2013, Denver MC Marcus “Arrilius” Hayes passed away. He left two-thirds of a trilogy of albums unfinished, and producer David “Fat Trak” Williams has spent the last year and a half putting together the pieces. Part two — The Meditations of Marcus Arrilius — is the first…
Denver’s Bullet Wilson, formerly known as Kevin Pistols, has accomplished a great amount since entering the rap game in 1998, recording songs and videos with the likes of Bun B, Snoop Dogg and E-40. But after a personal epiphany and after visiting some of the biggest record labels in the…
Jason Isbell, playing Tuesday at the Boulder Theater and Wednesday at the Ogden, embodies all the traditions, influences and stories that make up Southern folk and country. He was raised in rural Alabama and immediately took to singing and playing guitar. He toured and wrote with Drive By Truckers. He…
Tommy Metz works as a web developer and is unassuming and friendly. He’s also one of Denver’s more prolific musicians. His voice is unexpectedly powerful and brightly melodic, and it floats over his finely crafted beats. Lately, Metz has separated his work, releasing his darker, more experimental pieces under the…
Lily Fangz bounces on the balls of her feet, looking out on the crowd from the stage at Red Rocks. Her long hair flows past her shoulders. She raises the mic. It’s time to go. Fangz, aka Lileana Krenza, is a rapper and hip-hop artist, and she’s diving into reggae…
In his tongue-in-cheek rock-philosophy book, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group, Chain and the Gang’s Ian Svenonius argues that band names must appear mystically in a musician’s dream or revelation, and he offers such strategies as eating mold and running from the police until exhausted for helping…
It is known that there are still several hundred bodies somewhere beneath the surface of Cheesman Park, which was a burial ground during the late nineteenth century. Many of the dead were re-interred at Riverside Cemetery, but plenty remain. If there is a haunted place in the heart of Denver,…
