This Friday, Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan is teaming up with DJ Premier to celebrate 4/20 at the 420 Extravaganja this Friday, April 19, at HoodLab. This show marks the first time Raekwon and DJ Premier share a bill. We spoke with Raekwon about the prospect of performing with one…
Over the weekend, Suicidal Tendencies played to a packed house at the Summit Music Hall. Before that, we had a chance to chat with the band’s founding frontman, Mike Muir, the sole continuous member of the group, about how he first got into punk, how his group has successfully straddled…
Next week, stoners across the Front Range will converge upon Red Rocks to celebrate 4/20. Two acts will be on hand to help raise a toast roast commemorating the occasion, and you can hardly find a pair of more fitting acts, the hemp-hop icons of Cypress Hill and their SoCal-based…
Founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner, Death helped to codify the aesthetic of death metal alongside early pioneers like Possessed. Schuldiner was sixteen when the band formed and twenty by the time the outfit’s debut album, 1987’s Scream Bloody Gore, was released. The sonic brutality of the first two Death…
Fear Factory was a pioneer of the so-called nü-metal genre, before that designation became a bit of an insult. An early proponent of the fusion of industrial and death metal, Fear Factory first realized that sonic alchemy with its influential 1995 album, Demanufacture. Since then, the band has explored a…
Since the early ’90s, Insane Clown Posse has built itself into what is arguably the most successful independent band of all time. The cult of fandom surrounding ICP is unprecedented and notorious (the FBI considers Juggalos to be a gang). Outside its home state of Michigan, the polarizing act has…
When trumpeter Dave Douglas played at Dazzle just over a year ago as part of Greg Garrison’s Improvised Roots series, he was introduced to Crooked Still’s Aoife O’Donovan, who sang during the sets. Douglas went on to recruit O’Donovan — who is also joining Douglas’s two-night stand at Dazzle this…
Soilwork formed in Helsinborg, Sweden, in 1995 and developed out of the Gothenburg melodic death metal mold, incorporating aspects of NWOBHM and other styles of music to forge an angular yet flowing sound of its own. Though clearly rooted in prog, there is enough of punk frayed edges in the…
After playing with Denver-based bands including G-Force and Autobahn in the ’80s, James “Rooster” Olson made a name for himself with his company Trailer Trash Pedalboards. Olson essentially revolutionized the pedalboard industry with his award-winning designs, which have been used by top-notch musicians such as Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, Steve Stevens,…
Another week, another fresh batch of Colorado hip-hop. We’ve got a brand new mix from Chris Karns, who is retiring his DJ Vajra moniker. We’ve also got a new single from Pries, along with fresh cuts from Lil Bad and AP and J Dubb. Continue on to see what’s good…
Cicely O’Kain is a magnetic singer with incredible vocal chops. Her first album, Ms. Understood, which came out last October, is filled with feelings of infatuation, joy, pleasure and pain. Every note O’Kain sings is delivered with such conviction that she turns what would normally be a standard R&B jam…
Adam Lufkin and Josh Fairman of Kinetix have formed a new group called Laskin & Robinson that sounds nothing like their other band. The songs the outfit has posted thus far showcase a variety of styles, and they’re done pretty well, from synthy, funk-laden hip-pop on tracks like “Ass Work”…
In the heady pre-Tha Carter III days, Lil Wayne understood language so intuitively that he could skip through convention and construction and arrive at an expression that made him seem like the only dude speaking in colors, while everyone else was stuck in black and white. That’s why he was…
Backbeat is continuing to count down the twenty most fabled moments in Denver music history. Today we take a look back at when an early-’90s DJ Quik show at Mammoth Events Center turned into a bit of a melee. “But still my story ain’t over cause I got one more…
Before Yoko Ono even met John Lennon, she was an active and influential figure in international avant-garde art and music. In the 1950s, she went to school at Sarah Lawrence College, during which time she rubbed shoulders with the likes of La Monte Young. Her mentor was the godfather of…
Led Zeppelin was already a record-setting global powerhouse when Atlantic Records released the band’s fifth album, Houses of the Holy, on March 28, 1973. The English quartet had laid down the basic tracks for the record in the spring of 1972 at the Rolling Stones’ mobile recording studio at Stargroves,…
The battle-rap scene has grown tremendously over the past few years, thanks to video battles like Smack DVDs and Fight Klub, and leagues like King of the Dot, Grind Time and the UW Battle League springing up everywhere. Dizaster — in town this weekend to battle Detour as part of…
Fifty years ago today, the Beatles’ electrifying debut album, Please Please Me was issued in the U.K. Designed to reproduce the manic intensity of an early Beatles’ live performance and hastily produced to meet demand after the group’s song of the same name rocketed to number-one on the British singles…
A prominent figure in the late-’40s and early-’50s cool-jazz movement, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz performed on Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool and performed with Lennie Tristano and Warne Marsh around that same time. While a number of players were copping Charlie Parker’s sound, Konitz took a different approach, opting…
Exodus was founded in 1980 by a group of high school friends that included a pre-Metallica Kirk Hammett and Tom Hunting, the sole remaining original member of the act. The classic line-up also featured Paul Baloff on vocals and Gary Holt, who moved over to guitar when Kirk joined Metallica,…
KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid) started as a performance-art one-off in 1984 that evolved into an ongoing endeavor. Founding member Sascha Konietzko was joined by drummer and vocalist En Esch, who formed the core of the band until its temporary split in 1999. With various collaborators, KMFDM developed…
Never straying from its roots in pure house music, Above & Beyond has grown into one of the most sought-after acts currently touring, thanks to high quality music that evokes emotion and movement and, most important, forges a connection with the audience. The U.K.-based trio (Paavo Siljamäki, Tony McGuinness and…
