PHISH @ DICK’S SPORTING GOODS PARK | 8/30/13 The night started with a familiar sight in the Denver skies last night over the Phish show at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park — the airplane that local grow supply store chain Way to Grow usually has flying overhead at concerts with its…
KID CUDI & TYLER, THE CREATOR @ RED ROCKS | MON, 9/16/13 Kid Cudi headlines this all-star lineup fresh off the release of his most recent, polarizing release, Indicud. Though his decision to self-produce has rubbed some the wrong way, he remains one of the premier hookmen in the rap…
RIOT FEST @ MAY FARMS | SAT & SUN, 9/21-9/22 When your band can be said to be a direct and obvious influence on the Ramones, the Sex Pistols and countless punk bands since, it’s fair to say you’ve made an impact on punk rock. But the Stooges didn’t look…
ONEREPUBLIC / SARA BAREILLES @ RED ROCKS | 8/29/13 “Fuckin’ Coloradans really love their music,” marveled OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder last night at Red Rocks, summing up a windswept evening of music from his band and co-headliner Sara Bareilles. Though Tedder’s outfit was last to take the stage, the group…
MIM0SA @ FOX THEATRE | SAT, 8/31/13 In just one short year, Tigran Mimosa went from bass-bombing Cervantes’ and playing free shows at Boulder record stores to headlining the Fillmore. His album 58 Degrees showcases his drum-and-bass influences while hinting at his progression into a finer, more complex realm of…
PHISH @ DICK’S SPORTING GOODS | FRI-SUN, 8/29/13-9/1/13 Phish is playing at Dick’s this weekend. You know what that means, right? Yep –the end of summer. Bye-bye, barbecues and basking in the sun. Besides signifying the conclusion of the iconic Vermont band’s summer tour, the now-annual three-day extravaganza represents the…
Earlier this summer, we noted that MC Hammer was one of the headliners slated for this year’s annual Taste of Colorado festival, which kicks off tomorrow, Friday, August 30, and runs through Monday, September 2, along with Aaron Neville and some American Idol alumni. We’ve now got the full lineup,…
In music, the term “remix” can mean a lot of different things, even in rap. But one of the most celebrated traditions in the rap industry is collecting verses from the hottest names in the game for a second go-around on a tried-and-true instrumental. On the one hand, you can…
BIG GIGANTIC @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 9/28/13 Last year, Big Gigantic’s show at Red Rocks was the best EDM show of the year, and that speaks volumes considering how many other shows there were to choose from. Their feeling of hometown pride was simply unmistakable as the outfit went…
PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND @ BOULDER THEATER | THU, 9/12 The Preservation Hall Jazz Band got its start at the legendary New Orleans venue that it’s named after over five decades ago. The group has gone through many line-up changes over the last fifty years with some of the group’s…
NO AGE @ GLOB | 8/28/13 When No Age kicked into “Fever Dreaming,” during a show that had already maintained a hyperkinetic momentum from jump, the title of the song was such a metaphor for the entire performance that you had to wonder if its placement was intentional. The song…
When we were starting,” recalls Dango Rose of Elephant Revival, “there was a back-and-forth on the actual name of the band. For a short period of time, we had the idea of the name It’s Evolving.” Seven years later, Rose, who sings and plays double bass, mandolin and banjo in…
Since releasing its debut seven-inch in August 2012, the Blue Rider has not refined its sound so much as honed its edge a bit. A chaotic energy marked its earliest efforts; the band has since found a way to maintain that level of excitement while channeling its vigor more directly…
As Late Night Radio, producer Alex Medellin combines the sensibilities of big beat with a distinctive crate-digger twist. He seamlessly blends traditional hip-hop samples like funk guitars, horn stabs and heartbroken vocal strands with such contemporary flourishes as thick, crisp saw basses and bleeping arpeggiation. “To the Moon” is anchored…
Founded more than a decade ago, the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts is a mentoring program founded for high-school and middle-school students to learn more about jazz performance, history and language. Hang Time features two groups of CCJA musicians headed up by local pianist Eric Gunnison (Group Gunn) and…
PIKE, a local rapper, and Mumblebee, a Bay Area producer, describe their new five-track project as “an acid trip on a space shuttle.” Future Sounds may not be that awe-inspiring, but the two musicians have definitely found a winning combination in each other. Mumblebee’s rich beatmaking, textured with a wide…
The vocals on Monday Surgeons’ Spirited Awasteland // Desperate Living are so blurred by delay that they almost resemble a repeating phantasm accompanied by spectral keyboards. The first side of this release sounds like someone took an old electronic score for a dystopian science-fiction film, put it to tape, left…
This Friday, August 30, Jazz Aspen Snowmass, kicks off at Snowmass Town Park, with Jason Mraz and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. The annual festival runs through the weekend with additional performances from Keith Urban, Train, Little Big Town on Saturday, and Journey, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and…
Supposedly, albums are where it’s at. That’s when the artist is supposed to bring their A-game, convert the doubters, all that good stuff. So why is it that a lot of the time it’s the mixtapes that are the most enjoyable? Maybe it’s because so many mixtapes are when artists…
Long before Miley’s now-infamous VMA performance this past weekend, there was another Cyrus offending the delicate sensibilities of unsuspecting Americans everywhere with a seemingly harmless song. And therein lies the root of the problem, my friends. See, it wasn’t harmless at all, for it essentially sowed the seeds for this…
BRONCHO @ LARIMER LOUNGE | 8/27/13 Broncho hit the stage last night like a great, long lost band from several eras. With its catchy melodies, and its infectious exuberance and aggression, Broncho recalled the Buzzcocks by way of the Stooges, except the guitar sweep and atmospherics were more like some…
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…
