Forget everything you know about the man known as Nathaniel Rateliff. Whatever image that name conjures for you will be obsolete the next time you see him. The extraordinarily talented musician, whom we first came to know as the frontman of Born in the Flood and later came to love…
Born Jewel Cameron III, Esi Juey was born in California, and he moved around as a child, living in places like Ohio, before eventually landing in the Mile High City. One of the most promising local rappers to emerge in recent years, he’s swinging for the fences. “I’m trying to…
Prince became a household name after the release of his third album, 1982’s 1999. Over the years, his perfectly realized blend of rock, pop, funk and jazz has proved equally popular with audiences and critics. Throughout the ’80s, Prince released hit records that broke genre barriers, not just in terms…
Remember Bela Karoli, the band fronted by Julie Davis? Yeah, it seems like a bazillion years since we’ve heard anything from that act — and for good reason. Davis has been busy touring the globe with Nathaniel Rateliff and tending to her other groups, Fairchildren and Miss America. Now she’s…
Yngwie Malmsteen is a guitar god known for his supremely technical fretwork. The virtuosic guitarist burst into the world of international music in 1984 with Rising Force. At the age of seven, Malmsteen says, he saw a documentary about the death of Jimi Hendrix and was so taken by Hendrix’s…
Welcome back to another edition of That’s a Rap. This week, we’ve got another a fresh batch of homegrown hip-hop for you. Whether you’re looking for a rugged, classic sound or a laid-back joint, we’ve got you covered with new cuts from Atak One, Planes!, Foodchain and Zome of Diamond…
The parking lot is a perfect place to mingle and get your pre-game on before a show, particularly at Red Rocks. But Brandon Chavez is taking tailgaiting to another level. At select EDM shows, you can find Chavez, aka DJ Rufio, and his crew of party people gathered around a…
Seris is a mathy metal band with a footing in technical death metal that has found a way to blend all of that into something far more accessible than either would suggest. There is a groove and fluidity underlying the band’s sound that gives the heaviness a paradoxical kind of…
J.Rebelz is steadily making a name for herself in the local hip-hop scene. Known otherwise as Jaqueline Rodriguez, J.Rebelz came to Denver from El Paso more than a decade ago and says Nas is the one who sparked her passion for rhyming. We recently caught up with the MC, who…
Jimmy De Martini’s musical background is rooted more in Jimmy Page than Jimmy Dean, more in the work of rock acts like Guns N’ Roses than contemporary country artists like Alan Jackson. But for nearly a decade, De Martini has played fiddle for the Zac Brown Band, one of the…
The American Express Centurion Card is the ultimate status symbol. Otherwise known as the Black Card, the card is issued on an invitation-only basis — according to Wikipedia, whose word we’re going to have to take because we know precisely zero cardholders — to the upper echelon of the upper…
A genuine craftsman from the days when DJs played actual records and an encouraging reminder that some in fact still do, Derek Plaslaiko is truly a DJ’s DJ. The Michigan native was a fixture on the Detroit rave scene from the mid-’90s until 2004, when he relocated to New York…
A. Tom Collins, the five-piece band fronted by Aaron Collins, has a sound that’s equal parts ragtime, honky tonk blues and tin pan alley. The outfit, which has smartly left its rough edges intact, is driven by Collins’s piano and impassioned vocals, and while the act may teeter on the…
Backbeat is continuing to count down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today we take a look back at the time when Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson spit on a woman at 7-Eleven because she had the audacity not to recognize him. Two months after getting kicked…
Simon Posford of Shpongle sees the world through a unique creative lens, and he delivers his view with stunning visual imagery soundtracked by ethereal music that speaks to all the senses. This weekend, in honor of Earth Day, he’ll be at Feed the Rocks (with the Disco Biscuits and RJD2)…
Only 23 years old, New York’s Nicolas Jaar is turning heads in the electronic-music world with his cerebral take on left-field house and experimental techno that makes frequent use of live instrumentation performed by Jaar himself. A 2012 graduate of Brown University, Jaar released his debut album, the atmospheric Space…
With prime slots at this year’s Coachella and millions of YouTube views, alt-J is one of the hottest emerging acts in the country right now. Touring in support of its latest effort, The Lateness of the Hour, the U.K.-based folk-rock quartet is due to play a sold-out show at the…
Since 4/20’s this weekend, we would be remiss if we didn’t give you some great new local jams to smoke to. Nothing’s better than hip-hop whilst being blitzed into another realm of consciousness. And we’re representing all styles today: SP Double for the purists (though he gets a little rowdy…
One of electronic music’s fastest-rising young stars, Maya Jane Coles has become a major phenomenon over the past two years. Just 25 years old, the Londoner has been recognized as one of the hottest DJs on the planet by everyone from Rolling Stone to Resident Advisor, and she’s performed at…
Another fresh batch of local hip-hop. This week we’ve got J.Rebelz reflecting on her childhood, the members of Dope City proclaiming that they will never go broke, “The Originator” Jaz-O blessing a track by Morningstar, and Lkeys teaming up with the Squizzy Gang’s Trev Rich. Continue on to hear what’s…
Founded in 2008, Ghost B.C. created a bit of mystique for itself right from the start. The sextet is essentially anonymous in its elaborate costumes, with singer Papa Emeritus II decked out like a satanic pope, and his cardinals, The Ghouls With No Name, performing in uniform brown robes whose…
Johnny Marr is an iconic and influential guitarist best known for his work in the Smiths, which broke up in 1987. His guitar phrases and his genius for crafting textured and tonally rich rhythmic leads has influenced countless rock guitarists of the last quarter-century. Since leaving the Smiths, Marr hasn’t…
