Failure is slated to perform at Riot Fest this Friday, September 19th. Though the band enjoyed a great deal of popularity during its first run before splitting in 1997, its influence has loomed large on a good deal of guitar rock that has come along since. If someone writes a…
While a lot of the focus during Riot Fest this weekend will be on the headliners playing the May Farms stage and the Byers General Store, the festival includes up and coming bands, local and otherwise, worthy of attention. These are generally not the bands riding in large tour buses…
While Colin Bricker, owner of Mighty Fine Productions, is one of the area’s best sound engineers, he’s also played in the cover band Peter, Paul & Gary since he and some buddies formed the band they were in high school in Greeley. Over the years, some of the band members…
The winners of the 2014 Unsigned Only Music Competition have been announced, and the Fort Collins band You, Me & Apollo won in the Americana category for its song “I Don’t Want to Be Loved.” The competition received more than eight thousand entries with a finalist group presented to a…
Riot Fest isn’t just for the punks anymore. This festival, coming to Denver’s Sports Authority Field at Mile High this weekend, is bringing an eclectic, loud lineup, and there will surely be a diverse crowd roaming the Byers-themed parking lot. To help you prepare, and maybe even dress, we’ve rounded…
Now in its fifth and final year, Albuquerque’s Gatas y Vatas experimental music festival is preparing for a grand finale this weekend. Founding performer and festival organizer Marisa Demarco says that it was her experience as a performer and audience member at Denver’s Titwrench music festival inspired her to create…
Last month, Dorchester Social Eatery opened in part of the space that was formerly Lavish. On Friday, October 3, Privé Social Club, a late-night extension of the Dorchester, will celebrate its grand opening on the other side of the space (with the entrance on 15th Street) with a performance by…
Les Claypool and Larry Lalonde will be signing copies of Primus: Over the Electric Grapevine, an oral history of the band, at Tattered Cover on Thursday, September 18, at 7 p.m.. Primus is also slated to perform at Riot Fest on Friday, September 19. Formed in 1984 in the San…
Earlier this week, the popular Boulder based electronic and hip-hop music blog, ThisSongIsSick.com announced that Soundcloud, the audio distribution platform has temporarily suspended their account, which blog creator Nick Guarino said gets approximately 1.5 million listeners every 24 hours…
Denver rapper Demario “Lil Bad” Gentry has been busy recently, releasing The Colfax District, Bad News and Shark Syndrome 2.0. He’s also played shows all over the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, and he hasn’t always found support for his home town during his travels. “This is my home,…
Earlier this month. Swallow Hill Music announced that CEO and Executive Director Tom Scharf was resigning after seven years of running the Denver-based nonprofit organization that runs music education programs and organizes many concerts in the area. Scharf last day is September 30, and the organization is hoping to have…
It is impossible to ignore Itchy-O. At full capacity, the band comprises 32 members, all dressed in matching costumes, all masked, delivering truly alien vocals and playing marching-band instruments along with guitars, basses, taiko drums and electronics attached to portable amplifiers. There is also a Chinese lion named Larry. “I…
Paul Banker, aka electronic-music producer Real Cosby, is a homeowner. Not because his occasional live show and handful of EPs have made him any real money, but because he has a full-time job and a family and all the responsibilities associated with those things. While that same litany has been…
Allout Helter began in 2008 as a melodic hardcore band with some metal chops. In 2010, the group put an ad on Craigslist for a lead vocalist and attracted the attention of Ross Hostage. Hostage had spent the previous decade playing in Action Friend and Suburban Hostage. He brought a…
Filming live music outdoors can present all kinds of problems, from moving clouds obstructing your light to changes in the wind messing with your sound. But if it all works out, you have the opportunity to give the music a remarkable backdrop. With The Gondola Sessions, filmmaker John Austin set…
With the legalization of cannabis for recreational use starting January 1, 2014, Colorado has become a destination for touring bands. However, a steady stream of artists have been moving to the state for years. Some seem to use it purely as a base of operations, but some have engaged with…
The poster and fliers for Rubedo’s show over the weekend at the hi-dive featured the trio as comic-strip space explorers, holding laser guns. The fliers came with bags of crystals, and the Facebook page for the event encouraged people to bring the crystals to the show. They were both part…
New Jersey-based newgrass act Railroad Earth, who has played the Ogden Theatre many times, return to the venue for a three-night stand from Thursday, January 22 through Saturday January 24. Tickets ($34.50) go on sale on Friday, September 19 at 10 a.m. John Mellencamp brings his Plain Spoken tour to…
As usual, the pamphlet for Goldrush was a work of art in itself, printed on quality paper with a thick, textured cover bearing a mountain landscape and a stylized G. The band profiles, written by people who clearly get the music and have a personal connection to it, were laid…
The best new band in town at the best new bar in town. That’s a bold statement, but it’s that statement that lingered as Miss America by Wheary, a new project featuring Joseph Pope III, Julie Davis, Nathaniel Rateliff, James Han and Patrick Meese finished its set at Syntax Physic…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80’s 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. Rufus Baxter: Part Ten Rufus Baxter:…
You might hear Rubedo anywhere. In its four and a half years of existence, the Denver trio has played at bars in San Diego and rallies in Civic Center Park. It has played a dance music festival in the shadow of an NFL stadium and an art festival on the…
