THE SHINS @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 5/29/12 Fewer than thirty seconds into their set and the Shins already needed a do-over. Playing Red Rocks could make any band nervous, but its grip is especially tight on one for whom U2 were gods growing up and for whom “this Red…
Josh Abbott (due at the Grizzly Rose this Friday, June 1) got his start playing country music while attending Texas Tech in Lubbock, spending his nights watching artists like Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Roger Creager, Eli Young Band and Randy Rogers roll through the local country bar, the Blue Light…
Tim O’Brien, Dakota Blonde, Nick and Helen Forster and Dick Weissman performed on Saturday night at the L2 Arts and Culture Center as part of the Denver Folklore Center’s fiftieth anniversary, a weekend-long celebration that began on Friday and culminated with a concert at Four Mile Historic Park on Sunday…
Since first emerging in the mid-’80s, the Cult (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) has gone through some lineup changes and been on a few breaks. Through it all, the band’s core members, frontman Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, have continued to churn out some heavy records, including…
It’s a bit unnerving when Perry Farrell wants to start your interview with him by asking you a question. You’ve got about thirty questions you want to ask the Jane’s Addiction frontman and about ten minutes to do so, when all of the sudden he asks you if you’d pick…
There’s something about a dancing robot that cuts right through our collective cynicism and makes us laugh. The costume made from a refrigerator box, some tin foil and a few cans of spray paint, with arms made from dryer ventilation tubes. But while making a robot costume is easy to…
LMFAO @ RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE | 5.28.12 The long climb up the stairs at Red Rocks seems even longer when those stairs are littered with party rockers, all of whom seem too tired to trudge onward — or, as was the case with one particularly fascinating man, unable to bring…
The members of Fingers of the Sun love to push themselves. “The fun is in the challenge of utilizing everybody’s instrument without making it excessive,” says Suzi Allegra, one half of the songwriting team for the band. “It takes thinking more like an orchestrator,” agrees Nathan Brasil, the other half…
A few years back, a promising act called Makeout Point put out a couple of noteworthy releases that evoked a fascinating combination of Throwing Muses and Fire Party. Unfortunately, that group parted ways in early 2011, before it could really capitalize on the hints of greatness in the handful of…
When Bon Iver won a Grammy for Best New Artist earlier this year, most people who bothered to watch the awards ceremony had probably never heard of the band. But for the past six years, Justin Vernon has been touring and releasing albums with a small group of collaborators. Bon…
Occasionally relaxed but never repressed, London techtronica duo Simian Mobile Disco has existed outside of the mainstream since the moment its members pressed fingers to buttons. This is precisely where they want to be: Annoyed by aggro-electro and fascinated by the potential of technology, James Ford and Jas Shaw issued…
Lorin Ashton knows exactly what it means to put on an earth-shattering show. Every performance Bassnectar delivers is unforgettable, something heavenly, something deep. Accompanied by his own top-of-the-line sound system, Bassnectar reaches into the depths of all musical genres and pulls out only the finest pieces to display. It’s more…
Over the course of 21 releases since its inception in 2001, Brooklyn’s Japanther has evolved its hybrid of noise rock, punk and garage rock into a mutant form of music all its own. Throw in the performance-art aspect of Japanther’s shows, and you have a unique live experience often only…
With the release of Mosey West’s five-song debut EP, Vaca Money, the Fort Collins-based trio established itself as one of the better alt-country acts to come out of the area in the past few years. But while Vaca Money was a strong effort, the band’s seven-song follow-up EP, Merica, outdoes…
Ode to the Marionette’s previous album, 2009’s Uncomfortable Situation, was a kind of dusky pop album with jazz underpinnings. Since then, the band has tightened its arrangements a bit while expanding its atmospheric palette. On “Disappear for a While,” low-end swells hover at the edges, then give way to a…
Iman S. is back with Park Hill Logo 2, an ode to the streets that made him and cultivated his swagger. A long but listenable outing at twenty tracks, the album is drenched in “fly boy” lyrics and “you can’t fuck with me” attitude. On “Taking Over,” Iman shines with…
“Welcome to my jealousy,” croons lead singer Nick Sanders on Regret Night’s latest EP, Dirty Little Things — but it sounds more like hope. Forged in the pop-proficient rock of the late ’90s, the Denver quartet reveals its ambition from the start, strutting through all the usual topics and warping…
Hot Robots, which is preparing to release its new album, All Alone Together, this week, comprises members of a number of well-regarded Denver acts past and present, such as the Christines, the LaDonnas, the Inactivists and Local 33. You can hear the quintet’s collective love of power pop and guitar-driven…
You can call what Julius Papp produces and spins “house” — and it is, beyond the shadow of a doubt — but the sweeping, funky melodies and soulful beats have roots and branches in genres from disco to hip-hop. Papp started collecting vinyl in the 1970s and began playing with…
It was 1984 when the most METAL band of all time (Manowar, obviously) delivered the loudest documented show ever played. Clocking in at a max of 129.5 decibels — the sonic equivalent of a jackhammer — the show’s most brutal moment, as the legend goes, came during the playing of…
Last night Bethany Cosentino and her Best Coast bandmates played at the Fox Theatre in Boulder with Jeff the Brotherhood. Brandon Marshall, one of Backbeat’s resident shutterbug, was on hand for the show and brought us back some great pictures of the show. Page down to see some of the…
JOLIE HOLLAND @ WALNUT ROOM | 5.26.12 After the applause died down following her final song last night, Jolie Holland offered to pay someone in the crowd for gas if they could drive her to her next gig in Colorado Springs. It’s a shame that she was forced to ask,…
