Music

Bart McCrorey is probably best known for his skate-punk outfit Frontside Five. Throttlebomb (due Saturday, March 2, at the hi-dive) isn’t a quantum leap from that, but it’s more a synthesis of speed metal and glam. It’s a bit like Motörhead, but with more of a focus on melody: A…

Okalahoma band Broncho — the name is a term used for a mustang that has yet to be broken — plays back-to-basics rock and roll with an unvarnished sound that bears no affectation or appropriation of style. Frontman Ryan Lindsey is also the keyboard player and guitarist for experimental indie-pop…

For the better part of the past fifteen years, this band from Kalamazoo, Michigan, has toured like it was a life mission. True to its name, its roots are in bluegrass — but there’s also an improvisational side to the music that recalls the more interesting guitar work of Jerry…

What can you say about Ras Kass? You either love him or hate him — or you have no idea who he is. His debut, Soul on Ice, is a certified classic in the West Coast hip-hop underground, anchored by the eight-minute revisionist epic “Nature of the Threat” and “Sonset,”…

The men of Israel Vibration — Lascelle “Wiss” Bulgin, Albert “Apple Gabriel” Craig, and Cecil “Skelly” Spence — met as kids at Kingston, Jamaica’s Mona Rehabilitation Clinic, where they were each being treated for polio. Around 1970, the three formed a group and released their first single, “Why Worry,” with…

The rapper formerly known as Rockie is now going by Trev Rich. And now, fresh off an appearance on Joe Budden’s recent, highly praised mixtape, A Loose Quarter, Rich has dropped Heights, his own mixtape. Don’t let the somber, introspective serenade to God that opens Heights fool you: This is…

After releasing a five-song EP, Balance, in 2011 and a live album last year with Kyle Zender, Steve Law returns with a self-titled release that doesn’t stray too far from the acoustic-guitar-driven folk rock of the EP. While Law sounds like he’s influenced by the likes of James Taylor and…

From its opening salvo — the crushing sub-bass-and-glitch monster “Diamonds” — Skyrider’s The Tower explores some deep, dark corners in the halls of electronic beatcraft. Seamlessly melding hip-hop, dubstep, industrial, glitch and various bass-heavy subgenres, the instrumental mixtape pairs a steadily throbbing low end with intricately layered samples and brighter…

With a diverse collection of sounds and styles, often within the same song, the Constant Tourists have captured a warm, organic vibe on Carry On, especially with regard to the recording itself, which feels like it was done live, in a room with great natural acoustics. You can hear small…

James Zabiela is no stranger to the planetary techno scene, and he’s rocked stages in Denver before — but his longevity and consistent relevance to the scene are part of what make him such a draw for party people looking for mind-melting tunes on the dance floor. His first love…

Once upon a time when imposing creatures like Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch roamed the earth, we used to get glossy black and white publicity photos sent to us by the truckload along with CDs (I know, right?). The discs are obviously long gone, but we crammed the pics…

The lineup for the 2013 edition of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival has been posted. Among the most noteworthy acts scheduled to perform at the annual four-day mountainside festival (taking place Thursday, June 20, through Sunday, June 23, in Telluride) are, most prominently, Grammy-winning perennial favorites Mumford & Sons, making another…

We’ve heard rumblings about this for the past few weeks, but now it’s confirmed: Beatport is reportedly being sold to SFX Entertainment for $50 million. According to the New York Times, who broke the news last night on its Media Decoder blog, Robert F. X. Sillerman, who heads up the…