The way you find a band is important. I discovered Haim in a park in small town Illinois with five story oak trees towering over strings of warm lights. I was camping nearby and drinking wine straight from the gallon-sized jug. The three sisters from LA drew me around the…
Earlier this year, I read the following sentence on a popular music website about the Cloud Nothings album: “The band continues to make powerfully utilitarian music for people who don’t seek out this type of music just to be told what to think.” I read it over and over again…
What can be said about Paul Oakenfold that hasn’t been revealed in hundreds of prior interviews? When tasked with speaking to a pioneer, it’s hard to avoid the obvious questions: What keeps you producing music? Why do you still DJ? What is your favorite song? When we spoke with Oakenfold,…
Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Englewood is one of the largest concert venues in the state; it can hold more than 17,000 people. Recently, AEG Live Rocky Mountains took over management of the venue and is working to complete a $6 million renovation ahead of this summer’s concert schedule. Read about…
The Westword Music Showcase is one month away. On June 21, 130-ish Colorado bands and artists of every possible variety will play assorted venues around the Golden Triangle. Each of those bands is a nominee for a Westword Music Award, and they represent a music community that is easy to…
When you’re near the top of the grassy slope at Fiddler’s Green, the massive stage below dominates the foreground. It has hosted Bob Dylan, John Denver, Lollapalooza (back when it was still a touring event), Wiz Khalifa and plenty more, but in 1982 that stage was just an asphalt thumbprint…
The long-awaited debut album from Ross Etherton and the Chariots of Judah doesn’t have time for small talk. “I guess [this music] is a form of expression that’s divorced from the little things we do in everyday life to make social relationships run smoother — like saying ‘Hi, how are…
Amy Moore-Shipley was the host of Radio 1190’s Local Shakedown program from January 2012 through April 2014, but she’s been in Colorado music a lot longer than that. She came to Colorado from her home state of Iowa as a music major at UNC before transferring to CU in Boulder…
While trumpeter Joshua Trinidad is a deft jazz player and performs with his own quintet and quartet, he also plays with Wheelchair Sports Camp and Poets Row. As evidenced with some of his previous efforts, Trinidad, who sometimes runs his trumpet through guitar effects, is well versed in electronic and…
There was sad Lana, drowning Lana, sleeping Lana, smiling Lana. There was even a Lana on fire. But all of these Lanas were just projections on a screen behind the physical manifestation of Lana Del Rey, who held tight to a stoicism personified in a single pout. She wore the…
At just 21 years old, Porter Robinson already has to close to a decade of music production experience under his belt. After touring with EDM heavies like Skrillex and Tiësto, Robinson has been picking working his way up the ranks. In support of his forthcoming debut, Worlds, due in August,…
[jump] Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his sunny outlook with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work and even buy it on his website. • BACKBEAT’S GREATEST HITS • – The fifty best rap lyrics of all time – The ten…
Un-freakin’-stoppable.Roosevelt and Churchill. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Marvel and Capcom. Ghostbusters and Hi-C. Throughout history, there have been some truly incredible collaborations that have forever altered the course of humanity. But what about the memorable music combos when two brilliant music artists collide, shooting through the galaxies of both…
Gramatik (aka Denis Jasarevic) had played master of ceremonies for a long night of music. It started at 6 p.m. and included some of his friends and heroes: BRANX and Gibbz and Exmag were there, and legendary funk band Lettuce dropped a bravura performance in the middle of the show…
10. Stephen Stills came to Boulder on Saturday. He talked about his busted knees and encouraged fiscal responsibility. 9. Stephen Stills is capable of a particular confluence of guitar chords and mythology reserved for songwriters born before, say, 1953. Maybe their stories have simply had the time to become indelible…
Riff Raff mysteriously postponed a Denver show earlier this year. It’s back, just in time for a Texas-esque week of heat and thunderstorms here in Colorado. The Houston native should feel right at home. He does in most places. It’s a good week for other bands who get people angry…
The house show used to be something you could count on in Denver with some regularity. But in the last two or three years, such things have dwindled, becoming virtually nonexistent. What makes going to these kinds of shows special in a way that can’t be duplicated at a venue…
“I’m a man, I can take it,” Morrissey said on Saturday after being knocked to the ground by an overzealous fan during his show at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Looking a bit more grey than his last appearance in Denver seven years ago, Morrissey was genial if a bit…
Red Rocks’ season is in full swing, with Global Dub Festival tonight and country star Brantley Gilbert on Sunday. In between, you can catch Will Hoge at Grizzly Rose, Chris Robinson Brotherhood at Cervantes’ and, of course, the dude who wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” He’s playing the Boulder Theater…
As a clumsy and shy teenager, a pre-Smiths Morrissey began his first of many pilgrimages to the U.S. in 1976, visiting his sister in New York. “I manage three more trips to America before 1980,” Morrissey said in his recent memoir, Autobiography. “But by now Mary has moved to the…
When Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced their Classically Cannabis concerts, a series of bring-your-own-weed performances, it sounded like a great merging of the city’s classical music culture and its rising cannabis culture. But the City of Denver felt the shows violated the ban on “public” consumption of marijuana stipulated by Amendment…
Update, 5/16: We’ve added a couple dozen bands to the lineup, bringing the running total to 121 Colorado bands in addition to the five touring ones — the full list as of today is below! The Westword Music Showcase is less than two months away. On June 21, 130-ish Colorado…
