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…
Like any other town, Denver has its share of cover bands. For the most part, the outfits here don’t just merely perform somebody else’s music, but rather they put time, energy and effort into really channeling the acts and eras they’re emulating. Often times these acts tend to get overlooked…
Update: Congrats to @MondayAdams. You and a guest will be our guests at the show. Check your email for details on how to claim your tickets. Thanks to everybody else for the entries. MGMT is making its way back to the Mile High City for a show at the Fillmore…
Opiuo, New Zealand’s liaison to funk, has built quite a following in this country with his Down Under sound. Residing primarily in Australia nowadays, the DJ-turned-producer is healing up from a recent surgery on his ear canal and turning his attention to hitting the road before returning to the studio…
Hip-hop and it don’t stop. Surely you’ve heard this expression. For those immersed in the culture, this is more than just mere words or even a category on the Backbeat blog — it’s a way of life. And this Friday, August at the Savoy Ballroom on 27th and Arapahoe, there’s…
With the exception of players like Thelonious Monk or Art Tatum, piano players don’t quite have the name recognition of their horn playing counterparts. All the same, these ivory ticklers play an equally integral role in jazz. As such, just like our lists of the ten best sax players and…
New York-based jam band moe. returns to the Ogden Theatre for a two-night stand on Friday, December 6, and Saturday, December 7. General admission tickets ($30) go on sale on Saturday, August 31, at 10 a.m. Keep reading to see what other shows are on sale, what songs are being…
Music and beer… seriously, can you think of better bedfellows? Yeah, neither can we, especially since we hail from a place that’s a veritable hotbed for both. In the latest example of what’s quickly becoming a welcome trend of musicians collaborating with brewers (most recently, Leftover Salmon teaming up with…
Patrick Lee has taken a Jekyll and Hyde approach to music. He leads several musical lives that rarely intersect — so much so that you could see him in one context and not recognize him in the next. There’s Patrick Lee, the virtuoso piano/organ/keyboard player, who views live music as…
