New Year’s Eve is packed full of amazing shows and events, but few will compare to the party that is in store at City Hall with Amon Tobin. Before the spectacle begins, we caught up with the longtime experimental producer while he was on a holiday trip to Quebec, and…
As we gear up for the New Year’s Eve weekend, it’s looking like an epic line-up for shows, including Yonder Mountain String Band’s four-night stand at the Boulder Theater, String Cheese Incident’s three-night run at the 1STBANK Center, the Lumineers’ two-nighter at the Odgen Theatre, the Black Angels’ two-nighter at…
Well, you made it to the end of the year, and we know you’d like an event or two to entertain you while you’re winding up for the big countdown on Monday night. That’s why you’re here, and that’s why we’re here: to tell you all about all of the…
Update: Julian Anderson’s memorial service was held on Saturday, January 5, at Mile High Church; it was well attended and quite touching. A number of folks got up and shared their memories of Julian, including close friends and former bandmates, and even his doctor. Julian was clearly very loved and…
As people who think about, talk about, write about, listen to and make music, it’s not surprising that the most common (and favorite) topic of conversation among us is the same: “What are you listening to right now?” Stick a quarter in us, and, boy, wouldn’t you know it, off…
Let’s face it: 2012 can go down in history as the year that dubstep came out. Granted, the scene and genre have been around since the late ’90s and early 2000s, but it was in 2012 that they finally took over the airwaves. With Denver being a mecca of dubstep…
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary last April, had been playing annual New Year’s Eve shows at the Bluebird Theater for the past eleven years. This year, the band is playing two nights at the Oriental Theater — with the Sterling Sisters (which features Slim’s son George)…
It’s been a few years since Kam Mohager (aka the Chain Gang of 1974) has called Denver home, but if cellphone area codes are any sign of geographical allegiance, then he still keeps a little bit of Colorado close to his heart. He returns to the Mile High City to…
If any band typifies the Colorado approach to contemporary bluegrass, it’s Yonder Mountain String Band. The quartet built up its chops playing in venues in Boulder, Nederland and beyond in the late 1990s, and its fusion of traditional instrumentation and progressive musical structures resonated with local crowds. The quartet has…
Update: Congratulations to marissawichman, jmrod721 and glytle81! You’ve each won two tickets to see String Cheese Incident. Check your inboxes for more details. Original post: In case you don’t already have enough options for New Year’s Eve, with our Amon Tobin and Twista giveaways, here’s another one. How about tickets…
When most people thought of the music coming out of Denver this past year, odds are they thought about the Lumineers – with good reason. The outfit had a banner year: From being certified gold on the strength of a breakthrough single and garnering a pair of Grammy nominations, to…
Kenny Glasgow and Jonny White were both thriving underground electronic-music producers before Damian Lazarus and his Crosstown Rebels label brought them together in a brand-new way. The two artists had been friends for years — both have been instrumental in putting Toronto on the map as a serious dance-music town…
Brian Eno’s 1977 album Before and After Science marks the end of an era. In the four years before it came out, starting in January of 1974, Eno released no fewer than three solo pop albums, and this, his fourth, was to be his last for almost thirty years. By…
Update: Congratulations to mzgoodgood! You’ve won two tickets to see Twista on New Year’s Eve. Original post: Do you have plans for New Year’s Eve yet? If not, you should probably get cracking, considering it’s less than a week away. We’ll be posting a full rundown of everything that’s happening…
This year, ambitious new books tackled the lives of music legends from Neil Young to Pete Townshend — and many of these 2012 releases managed to burst through genres to offer significantly more than the average biography. We at Backbeat explored memoirs, historical surveys, ruminations on philosophy and even self-help…
Update: Congratulations to Don194, who even included bass in his comment. You’ve won tickets to see Amon Tobin on NYE! Original post: Here’s another swell option for New Year’s Eve in case you’re still looking: We’ve got our hands on some tickets to see Amon Tobin at City Hall. If…
While many of you might be heading (or headed) out of town for the holidays, those of you who decided to stick around will be treated to a variety pack of local and national talent, with Speedwolf delivering some up-tempo trash at the hi-dive, Men In Burka dropping yet another…
The year 2012 has been a great one for those us who immersed ourselves in the EDM scene. We got a lot of great music, both locally and internationally — but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a plethora of crap released alongside the worthwhile. To honor those lackluster moments, Backbeat…
For as many ill conceived hip-hop Christmas cuts that have been produced over the years, there have been as least as many that were great. While they’re not all necessarily fun, feel good songs meant to get you in the spirit of the season, and some deal directly with the…
Every holiday season, we’re blessed with great renditions of classic Christmas songs to warm our spirits, but along with that also comes a lists of well meaning yuletide flops. This is especially the case in hip-hop, in which rhyming about Christmas has not always produced the best results. Here are…
It felt pretty safe to make a prediction about the winner of Channel 93.3’s Hometown for the Holidays contest by the time My Body Sings Electric finished their set at Cassleman’s on Saturday night. It wasn’t as if Monroe Monroe hadn’t delivered some dynamic moments during their forty-minute set, and…
Some sad news coming out of Texas this morning. We’ve just got word that Mike Scaccia of Rigor Mortis and Ministry has died at the age of 47. Last night in Fort Worth Texas, Scaccia reportedly collapsed on stage during a performance with his band Rigor Mortis and was subsequently…
