The best concerts in Denver this weekend

FRI-SUN | MURDER BY DEATH at STANLEY HOTEL | 1/17-1/19 When Murder by Death first formed in Bloomington, Indiana, nearly fifteen years ago under the name Little Joe Gould, the outfit was somewhat of an anomaly, as the whole chamber-pop phenomenon hadn’t happened yet — and wouldn’t for another five…

Backbeat’s 2014 Colorado bucket list: #15-6

What are the hundred things everyone should do in Colorado before they die? We posed this question to our writers and editors, and over the next week, we’ll be rolling out the answers across our blogs. Check back on tomorrow for the full list — and in the meantime, feel…

Ten reasons I love Lil B, and why you should, too!

I’m a huge Lil B fan. Now I wouldn’t call myself a Stan — although that would probably be entirely accurate — but that’s only because I don’t reference my love for Lil B in the context of other rappers’ songs. That would be an affront to The BasedGod. Lil…

What we’re all listening to right now

Music is life — or at least it is for us. When we’re not writing about it, we’re thinking about it, talking about it or listening to it. These are the things that were in heavy rotation for us this week. What are you listening to? What should we be…

Banjo master Tony Furtado returns to Denver this week

In sixth grade, Tony Furtado made a banjo out of a pie tin for a music-class project. He glued some paper to the pie tin, painted the makeshift instrument with latex paint, and then strung it up with nylon fishing string and tuned it all to one note because he…

The Samples

It won’t take long for faithful Samples fans to pick up on the nostalgic undercurrent of America. “It seems like it was 70,000 years ago,” sings guitarist, vocalist and sole remaining original member Sean Kelly on “Boulder,” a slow reggae jam that nods to the group’s beginnings over two decades…

Entropic Advance

With layers of sound over heavy beats and rhythm, like washes of color streaming with eddies of evolving hues hanging prominently as a compositional piece, the songs on Entropic Advance’s Industrial Noise Control recall the darker moments of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II. “Nothing Comes of It,” meanwhile,…

Dan Allen

On the inside cover of Dan Allen’s To the Left Will Go West, there’s a still from a scene near the end of Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law in which Nicoletta Braschi is explaining to Tom Waits and John Lurie how the road forks (“On the right will go east;…

Weapönizer

On “Spitfire,” which opens this eponymous effort, Weapönizer sounds like some kind of early thrash band fresh from hearing Venom for the first time — or like Darkthrone, if that band had drawn even more inspiration than it did from the first wave of grindcore. But while on the surface…

The most epic moments of Holy Ship!!! 2014

After three years of raging at sea, the Holy Ship cruise from Hard Events has proven to be one of the best nautical adventures you can have. This party boat has the most loyal fans, the edgiest lineups, and the biggest surprise guests. According to our friends at Miami New…

Atomga on its new EP and the power of Afrobeat

Atomga (due this Saturday, January 18, at Cervantes’ Other Side) was founded by three friends who shared a mutual love of Afrobeat. Early on, Atomga expanded to its current size of eleven members, and although the outfit has released live recordings in the past, it is finally releasing its debut…

Why do jam bands have such a stigma?

Jam. Band. Apart, these two words are innocuous. Put them together, though, and for whatever reason, they become instantly polarizing. Whenever the subject of jam bands comes up, it seems to send some people into a frenzy of dogmatic snideness. In some cases, you get the sense that they’d almost…