Geeks love metal more than the computers on which they listen to it. They yearn for heavy metal that was forged by Orcs in the mountains of Mordor, smuggled halfway across the universe on Serenity and then discovered by Silver Surfer while scouting for delicious planets. These bands aren’t necessarily…
Selina Albright tried the saxophone once. She got dizzy, though, and that’s pretty much all it took for her to realize that the sax wasn’t for her. “I’m just going to use my lungs for my vocal cords, and that’s it,” says Albright, whose father, Gerald, is renowned in contemporary…
During the 1980s, Denver and Boulder both had thriving experimental-music scenes, with acts like Architects Office, Walls of Genius, Human Head Transplant and the Bruce Odland Big Band, which included Ron Miles and Mark McCoin. But the longest-lasting and most prolific of these is Thinking Plague. Rather than being grounded…
On Whiskey Tonight, their seventh album, the Indulgers, led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalists Damien McCarron and Mike Nile, step things up a bit, injecting a considerable amount of vigor into many of the fourteen original cuts, particularly the buoyant “It’s You” and “Doin’ Fine,” an instrumental. Drummer Francesco Mannone’s tom-heavy tribal beats…
On the Dizzo Drizz Dotta EP, Benjamin Banks deserves credit not only for his selection of musical ingredients, which are as diverse and unconventional as hymnal chants and telephone rings, but also for his contextualization of those ingredients into consumable entrees. Banks has broken out of the box of traditional…
On Million Dollar Mixtape, MDZ affects a king-from-the-gutter persona. In rap and beyond, it’s a classic, always viable story. The challenge is telling the story in a way that’s fresh and new. While the opening track, “STRONG,” includes some personal moments that help explain MDZ’s character, most of the tape…
It’s rare to find a free CD in the front of an independent record store that’s worth more than a casual listen. Greasy Demos, by Pizza Time, was crudely recorded, it sounds blown out, and the music is raw, primitive stuff. There are no track titles on the cover or…
Rockmount Ranch Wear has a slew of regular and returning customers. Among the latest: the Arctic Monkeys! In town this week for a show last night at the Ogden Theatre, the band stopped by Rockmount. Again. Last time the guys were in town a year ago warming up for the…
Yuzo Nieto is best known for his stint as the gifted sax player in Pee Pee and the ringleader of avant-garde jazz and Afro-Cuban outfit Pink Hawks, the latter of which is still a going concern. Nieto has been a music teacher at SOAR Charter School in Green Valley Ranch…
SOUNDGARDEN @ 1STBANK CENTER | 5/28/13 Five songs into its set last night at 1STBANK Center, with the stage bathed in emerald light and Chris Cornell appearing sans guitar for the first time in the set, Soundgarden performed “Outshined,” one of its first radio hits. Cornell put his mic toward…
ARCTIC MONKEYS @ THE OGDEN THEATRE, 5/28/13 During the decade Arctic Monkeys have been together and the seven years of space since their debut album, the guys have exchanged their polos for panache. While their lyrics continue to question their lives and loves, the stage is reserved for charm. They…
JUICY J @ CERVANTES’ MASTERPIECE BALLROOM | 5/28/13 Juicy J is like the frying pan that you don’t wash. You’d never show your guests you’re cooking with him, but he is just so damned flavorful. With the crowd at Cervantes’ already in his hand, and the energy fading somewhat, Juicy…
While you’ve already got well over a hundred compelling reasons to pick up your tickets for the nineteenth annual Westword Music Showcase, here’s one more: Last night, in the basement of Boettcher Concert Hall, I got a sneak peek at the highly anticipated and ground-breaking collaboration between the Colorado Symphony…
MUSICFEST @ MAGNESS ARENA | 5/25/13 The Head and the Heart took the Magness stage at around 10 p.m., after the outdoor acts played earlier in the day and the three other groups played the main stage off and on for about three hours. At that point, folks seemed far…
Soundgarden formed in 1984 as a three-piece with Chris Cornell on drums on vocals, Kim Thayil on guitar and Hiro Yamamoto on bass. Though noisier in the beginning, the band would go on to be one of the main purveyors of a slow, sludgy, intense, punk-rooted rock that was dubbed…
ZZ Ward released her debut album, Til The Casket Drops, in 2012. Growing up, she honed a talent for writing bluesy R&B songs. Her knack for that can be heard prominently on that disc, and well as her proclivity for hip-hop, which is even more prevalent on her Criminal EP…
ZZ WARD @ GOTHIC THEATRE | WEDS, 5/29/13 While riding the bus to school as a child, Zsuzsanna Ward spent her time in headphones, thinking about just how much she wanted to become a singer. As an adult better known as ZZ Ward, she reached the crux of that dream…
Update 5/24/13: Contest is over. Winners have been chosen. HaloEleven, russ.christiansen, candy.I.angel, ej8085 and ajgutierrez77, check your email for details on how to claim your tickets. Thanks to everybody else for all the entries. See also: – The ten best concerts to see in Denver this week – Review: The…
Kev Kash is a rising talent from the local scene who has songs with the likes of Innerstate Ike, Myrical and Mr. Midas. Kash says 2Pac is his biggest influence, but he says his style is comparable to Lupe or Kendrick Lamar. We recently caught up with the rapper, who…
Time (aka Chris Steele) has long been focused on enacting positive change and has rarely been shy about voicing his opinions. As a journalist, he’s written on controversial subjects ranging from UFOs to the government’s role in the death of Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party — and has…
Rob Garza has a lot going on besides Thievery Corporation — he’s also a touring DJ in his own right who ignites dancefloors everywhere he spins, and he has a new album out entirely comprising remixes he’s tweaked. We caught up with him to talk about the album, how he…
THE HEAD AND THE HEART @ MAGNESS ARENA | SAT, 5/25/13 Formed in Seattle in 2009, this project started out playing open mics and within a year after playing countless shows, the Head and the Heart independently released its debut album. The band, whose self-titled album came out on Sub…
