Rock and Roll Is a (Radical) Girls’ Club

Though South Broadway was teeming with hundreds of fest-goers last Friday evening — it was day two of the sweet-sixteen edition of the Underground Music Showcase — it was still easy to spot my friends in Tacocat. Like shiny pastel buoys bobbing among a sea of beards and black clothes,…

Riot Fest After-Shows and All New Denver Concert Announcements

While there a ton of bands playing at this year’s Riot Fest there are several official after-shows that were just announced, including the Aquabats, Against Me!, Lagwagon, Thursday, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Pouya and more. Tickets go on sale on Friday, August 5 at 10 a.m.  Widespread Panic…

John Paul White Goes Solo for “Favorite Crowd”

“I’ll be playing some new stuff, if that’s okay with y’all,” John Paul White told his audience at the Bluebird last night. Enthusiastic cheers and applause rippled through the crowd, indicating they too were ready to look beyond White’s past achievements.  White, half of Grammy-winning duo the Civil Wars, has…

Robbie Fulks Celebrates Twenty Years of Country Love Songs

In 1996, Robbie Fulks and Bloodshot Records weren’t the oddest couple in the underground music scene, but they weren’t exactly a natural pair, either. Based in Chicago, Bloodshot was establishing its reputation as a hotspot for what it called “insurgent country,” putting out breakneck punk-meets-twang records by bands like the…

Open Music Session: The Take Gives Back at Open Media Foundation

On Friday, August 5, the Open Media Foundation hosts its next monthly free Open Music Session event, which will feature musical guests Me Me Monster, the Corner Girls and Kenny Lee Young, as well as comedian Miriam Moreno. Last month, the July 2016 Open Music Session welcomed indie rockers the Take. The…

Willie Nelson Launches Willie’s Reserve in Colorado

The who’s who of Colorado’s marijuana industry gathered Saturday night for the unveiling of Willie’s Reserve, Willie Nelson’s new cannabis company. To launch his new product, Nelson hosted two kick-off concerts, one last week in Washington state, and another on Saturday, July 30, at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Greenwood, Colorado…

With The Magic, Deerhoof Finally Captures the Energy of Its Live Show

Deerhoof has been unleashing frenetic, eccentric rock music upon the world since 1994. That the San Francisco-based band’s sound is impossible to pigeonhole has long been a part of its appeal. It has never aimed to embrace a single genre or genre at all beyond loosely categorized “rock.” “We’ve never…

In a Changing World, Hip-Hop Artist Time Keeps Calm.

This Saturday, hip-hop duo Calm. will play its first show in three years, opening for Extra Kool at the release show for his latest album, Eight. The two acts more or less came up together, forming the early core of local underground hip-hop imprint Dirty Laboratory in the mid-2000s. Calm.’s…

A Kinder, Gentler UMS?: Photos and Impressions

The 2016 Underground Music Showcase: four days of numerous shows, countless forms of entertainment and music fans spilling onto the sidewalks of South Broadway. Yet one of the most striking impressions of this year’s UMS is that it felt smaller. Not smaller in terms of lacking quality or crowds, but…

Vic Mensa Saves His Flow for the Stage

Chicago rapper Vic Mensa, real name Victor Kwei Mensah, is one of the most respected new names on the circuit. From his beginnings with the group Kids These Days to his collaborations with Chance the Rapper in the collective Savemoney, right through to his recent team-up with Damon Albarn’s virtual…

Ten More of the Best DJs in Denver – 2016 Edition

It’s been a couple of months since we published our list of “Ten of the Best DJs in Denver Right Now,” but the electronic music scene in Denver is so rich and vibrant that we were never going to do it justice with just ten entries. A follow-up was always…