ZZ WARD, ALICE IN WINTERLAND at SUMMIT MUSIC HALL | 12/12/13 Zsuzsanna Ward got her start singing classic blues and R&B in her father’s band at age twelve. The experience instilled in her a keen sense of melody and vocal expressiveness that served her well when she moved to Los…
We’ve got a good news/bad news scenario for you regarding this year’s edition of Icelantic’s Winter on the Rocks: Duck Sauce is no longer slated to appear at Red Rocks on Friday, January 31, with Jurassic 5. The good news: The act has been replaced by another Westword Music Showcase…
Nelson Mandela was a pivotal agent for change who inspired a rich musical legacy of resistance. Biographer Richard Stengel describes Mandela, who passed away yesterday at the age of 95, as “the last pure hero.” And while he was all that and more, the music the iconic historical figure inspired…
We’re back with another fresh batch of Colorado hip-hop, all with stimulating videos to bring the tracks to life. First, the often controversial Kevin Pistol returns with a track about his superior mike control, while Jahni Denver drops an inspiration track with help from Krizz Kaliko. Catch Lungs, meanwhile, attempts…
The Fray’s new video for “Love Don’t Die,” the first single from the band’s forthcoming fourth album, Helios (due out on February 25), just dropped. It’s mildly entertaining as far as videos go, which is to say it has something of a narrative, which a great many these days don’t…
Master luthier Scott Baxendale (once long-time owner of the Colfax Guitar Shop and now has his own shop and lutherie academy in Athens, Georgia) has repaired or restored guitars for a ton of legendary players over the last four decades, including Billy Gibbons, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Jr., Steve Howe…
FRI & SAT | MOE. at OGDEN THEATRE | 12/6-12/7 The latest studio album from moe., 2012’s What Happened to the LA LA’s, features the kind of lengthy improvisations and folk-rock structures that made the Buffalo natives such hits in the jam-band scene starting in 1989. The group’s live shows…
EOTO started as a String Cheese Incident side project between Michael Travis and Jason Hann, a studio musician who also played with Dr. Dre and was a member of Isaac Hayes’s band. Out of the practicality of the living situations of both musicians, EOTO began as more of an electronic…
Formed in 2003 as a side project of the more ska-punk-oriented Disasterbators, the Dendrites became a primary concern when the band’s members became more interested in the roots of ska, particularly in artists from the late ’50s and the ’60s. The all-instrumental band soon made a name for itself with…
Do know what the difference is between a good show and a great show? The sound. It’s always the sound. When it’s bad, you certainly know it. On the other hand, when it’s a great mix, you might not even notice, unless you’re a particularly astute listener. You might just…
Amanda Palmer has caught a lot of flak in the past few years for her seemingly iconoclastic ways. From raising a then-unprecedented 1.2 million dollars to finance her album via Kickstarter to then putting out a call to local musicians to perform with her for free at tour stops across…
In his new column, award-winning goofball Shea Serrano, whose recent exploits include Bun B’s Rapper Coloring and Activity Book, writes about his life and times. Here’s what you need to know about Robert Sylvester Kelly: He’s the fucking best. At singing. At wearing masks. At making videos of himself having…
EOTO (due this Saturday, December 7, at Fillmore Auditorium) started as a String Cheese Incident side project between Michael Travis and Jason Hann, a studio musician who also played with Dr. Dre and was a member of Isaac Hayes’s band. Out of the practicality of the living situations of both…
Music is in the Larson brothers’ blood. “It’s what we’ve known the longest,” declares Seth Larson. “I feel as comfortable on stage, maybe more comfortable on stage, then I do just walking around in life.” Seth and his brother Josh, two-thirds of Something Underground, were born to musical parents. A…
Right Beneath Your Feet , the new six-song EP from Krooked Drivers, is packed with big-beat styles that take a hip-hop head’s sensibility for sample chopping and merge it with the kind of thick synth bass and pad washes that have taken over the post-dubstep world. The duo’s intricately layered…
It’s tough to find moments on Liars & Outliers where 4H Royalty frontman Zach Boddicker takes himself and his music too seriously: As on the outfit’s last two albums, there is plenty here in the way of levity. That light mood comes in the airy titles and lyrics of tunes…
Soul School, one of the busier acts in town, has dozens of covers in its repertoire, everything from Motown and R&B tunes to soul and funk to disco and hip-hop. On Chapter One, Soul School’s ten-song debut of original material, the group draws from the same genres it covers, opening…
The title track of Courage, the new Prism Waves EP, establishes an overarching aesthetic of melancholic yearning, which can be heard not just in the plaintive singing, but in the way the guitar notes are plucked, arranged and paced. The song sounds like something the Cure might have done for…
moe. returns to Denver this weekend for a two-night run at the Ogden Theatre, fresh from recording a brand-new album. These jam-band veterans will be celebrating their 25th anniversary next year, but they’re still creating interesting new stuff while refreshing old classics. Bassist Rob Derhak spoke with us recently and…
JELLO BIAFRA & GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at SUMMIT | 12/31 Jello Biafra first came to the attention of the world as the charismatic, hyperkinetic and relentlessly intelligent frontman of the Dead Kennedys. Never one to mince words, Biafra became a lightning rod with his unapologetic critiques of the regressive…
After more than two decades of being in the local music scene, from playing in Rubber Planet to booking places like the Cricket on the Hill to owning the Toad Tavern for the last five years, Brice Hancock is selling the venue and moving on. On Friday, December 13, a…
SAT | DENVER BLACK SKY at GOTHIC THEATRE | 12/14/13 December is a leaner month than usual with regard to the number of metal shows booked. But quality more than makes up for quantity thanks to Denver Black Sky. This absolute must-see metal festival is being curated by Sherwood Webber,…
