Barber shop Roosters of Parker dedicated last month to local high school band programs. Jesse Shapiro, the shop’s owner, donated five percent of all sales between October 28 and November 28 to band programs at Legend, Ponderosa, and Chaparral High School. See also: Denver’s Newest All-Ages Venue Is Inside a…
Mad Genius Radio, which launched around Halloween this year, is Denver-based a service that allows subscribers to create their own radio stations. What separates it from a service like Pandora is that, it allows users to rate a song or an artist on a scale from to 5, rather…
If Jenny Lewis were to be considered the voice of any certain slice of this generation, it would be those steeped in rock culture. Her set last night at The Ogden Theatre (her third Denver show this year) gave those in attendance the opportunity to experience her recently released The…
The screaming was almost unbearable, but absolutely warranted. Last night at 1STBANK Center, Usher used the crowd’s unrelenting wails to his advantage, standing on stage in his own silence many times during the night, letting the crowd fill space in the arena with vocal adoration. He just flirted with every…
Like any great cover band, the Gin Doctors do not have complicated motives. Nostalgia is fun. Playing ’90s songs for thirty-somethings who want to relive a bit of their past is fun. And constructing an alter ego, complete with costume, is, well, fun.Co-frontman Tyler Despres plays Gin Doctors shows as…
Joe Bonner was a brilliant jazz pianist who collaborated with some of the genre’s legends and developed a worldwide reputation for his moving style. He passed away in his sleep on November 20 from heart disease. Bonner moved to Colorado in 1976, when he was 28 years old. By then,…
By Gabriel San Roman It was no coincidence that Rage Against the Machine released The Battle of Los Angeles in 1999 on what is traditionally observed as Election Day in the United States. The 2000 election season was already in gear, with Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore…
It has been a big year for You, Me & Apollo. The Fort Collins-based group released its second full-length album Sweet Honey to acclaim and set off on a successful national tour. What should be a joyous homecoming show at Hodi’s Half Note at the end of the month will…
Whenever an artist covers a song they take a risk, particularly if the song they are covering is a classic or at least already burned into everyone’s minds a certain way. Some covers don’t feel right because it’s a classic is getting mangled, other times it’s uncomfortable because a song…
First: If you’re a Courtney Love-hating troll and you’ve just stopped by this post to take a verbal shit on her existence with your misogynist insistence that she’s a fame whore who ruined Nirvana forever and killed Kurt, you can just stop reading right now. Seriously, go back to wanking…
After releasing Sonic Highways earlier this month and wrapping up the HBO documentary series of the same name that concludes this Friday, Foo Fighters head out on tour next summer and stop at Fiddler’s Green on Monday, August 17. Tickets ($42.50-$75) go on sale on Friday, December 5 at 10…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an ’80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book YOUTH IS WASTED. Last Week’s episode • BACKBEAT’S GREATEST…
Willie Lewis was a wild musical legend, a collector of supernatural talent, a label head of uncompromising values and, by some estimations, the best rockabilly singer of his generation. The Colorado native died earlier this year, and at his funeral, friends were still at a loss for words to capture…
What sets Seth Evans apart from most local bandleaders is that he understands the importance of making personal connections through marketing. Since his band Rossonian formed in 2012, Evans has used physical “thank you” notes and cards to not only grab attention, but to connect with fans. Before Rossonian left…
Unlike a few of the other area record stores, Black & Read doesn’t have many shows. So when a band does play at the store, it’s kind of a special occasion, especially when it features legendary ’70s psychedelic hard rock band Medusa. This was one of only a handful of…
There’s no shortage of places to listen to live music here in Denver. But when you are out with friends on a Friday night, you might want something nice to drink as well. While whiskey and Coors are always an adequate pairing, you can do better. When in your in…
Halfway through the Pizza Underground’s set at the packed Marquis Theater, something strange happened. Most of the band departed the stage and flannel-clad one member stepped up, and started playing straight Nirvana covers. The songs might have contained some wordplay or puns, like all The Pizza Underground songs do (which…
Shara Worden, the artistic force behind My Brightest Diamond, makes smart music for smart people. But if her descriptions of creating This Is My Hand, her mind-expanding new recording, can seem academic at times (she talks about searching for the album’s “thesis statement”), she’s hardly anti-populist, as the key inspiration…
The truth is that no one in his or her right mind wants to go shopping on Black Friday. So rather than waiting at the doors early morning at some big box store hoping to get one of the five rare items before the other barbarians at the gate can…
Dave Grohl with his mustache.By Rae Alexandra As you may have already seen, there’s been a fair amount of criticism leveled at Dave Grohl’s new HBO documentary series, Sonic Highways, since it launched five weeks ago. And, in the week since the accompanying Foo Fighters album of the same name…
House venues are unofficial by nature. There are no real rules at a house show other than to respect each other and the space. There are no tickets, only donations. There’s no promotion, no bar, no third-party marketing team. What is created right then and there at each show is…
William Lewis Klug was best known as the founder of Rock-a-Billy Record Co., a Denver-based label that has released nearly forty rockabilly singles since 1982.
