As the summer festival season approaches, there are a number of things to consider when deciding on which festival to attend. First of all, how far is it? When is it? How much is it? Is it worth my time? Who’s on the bill? Jam fans, rejoice! There’s a brand-new…
Spatula (due this Friday, February 10, at the Climax Lounge) was a band you often heard about between 2004 and 2005, if you did not actually see it. The band was musical, but more to the point, it was always a ridiculous spectacle with simple but effective props, elaborate homemade…
Time to bring out your best! The Westword Best of Denver® 2012 Readers’ Poll is now live, and we’d like your input. Have a take? Give us yours on these questions and more: Best new band? Best new recording? Best karaoke night?…
Westword caught up with the Fray’s chief songwriters, Isaac Slade and Joe King, for a track-by-track breakdown of Scars & Stories, the new record. If you’ve bought the record and you’re listening right now wondering what “Run for Your Life” or “Here We Are” is about, wonder no more. Or if you came here hoping to find out the full story behind the rest of the songs, rest assured you’ve come to the right place. Page down to see what the guys had to say.
Ah, J Dilla. His influence and production style brought forth beat-makers carrying their backpacks filled with treasures from the basement into the mainstream. Even more so after his death. A cult-like following surrounds his legacy. Born James Dewitt Yancey in February 1974, Dilla grew up in Detroit and made his…
Sole and the Skyrider Band have always played by their own rules, but with their new video for “Bad Captain Swag,” the Denver quintet illustrates how iconoclastic tendencies can change the idea of music video to sci-fi flick with impressive results…
See Also: Q&A with Ted Stevens of Cursive, sharing the bill this Sunday. At this point, much has been mythologized about the badassery of Ume (due at the Larimer Lounge this Sunday, February 12). The heavy-rocking Texas trio is fronted by an almost precociously petite blonde, but Lauren Larson has…
DJ Cavem, the local O.G. (organic gardener), has been literally feeding the community through events geared toward the “green” movement for years. Using a hip-hop agenda (even rocking with a children’s choir), Cavem has broadened his audience to include discussions that involve enhancing the community through the one thing that…
Formed from the ashes of the erstwhile Tulip Wars, Goer is a new local duo pushing an intriguing mix of electronic and psychedelic influences. Consisting of guitarist Sean Geisthardt and drummer Dan Barnett, the pair has just completed a four-track EP titled Invisible People that draws on the dreamy, somber…
Here’s what’s hot this week in music on the Front Range: On the concert front, new shows featuring the Shins, James Taylor and Explosions in the Sky were announced; In the Whale, Tennis and FaceMan got spins on local radio; and recent albums from Leonard Cohen, Matador, Young Jeezy and…
In Flames (due this Friday, February 10, at Summit Music Hall) was one of the flagship bands of the Gothenburg scene in Sweden of the early 1990s that included death-metal luminaries like At the Gates and Dark Tranquility. Those bands injected the savagery of death metal with melodic elements that…
Sometimes an artist has to go deep into himself in order to produce a product built from pain, tragedy, triumph, motivation and creativity. Whenever this watershed moment happens for the greats who make and love music, the explosion is ground-shattering and usually changes the artists’ repertoire forever. Turner Jackson is…
BLKHRTS are on a pretty solid run right now. Just before the first of the year, Yonnas Abraham released Sextape, and here we are barely into the new year and the trio has prepared an onslaught of material poised to color the entire first and second quarters BLK with their…
Kyle Harris began writing songs at the age of twelve, but it was another two decades before he decided to play them publicly. “I just never saw a reason to play any of it for people,” he says. “I’d been writing songs regularly that whole time, but I never thought…
In about three to five years, the subgenre of “doom” — and, to a lesser extent, its subset of “drone” — may become as ubiquitous and stale as “surf garage,” or whatever happens to be the flavor of the moment enjoying underground-bordering-on-mainstream popularity. But it won’t be because of the…
Originally formed as a side project of Ceremonial Oath, In Flames quickly became a full-time endeavor. While retaining some of the sharp edges of its founders’ death-metal leanings, the band successfully joined melodic hooks, vocal and otherwise, with nervy aggressiveness and sharp dynamic shifts. In 1995, the core members recruited…
As a pop band, you could do a lot worse than having your first-ever show be opening for Amy Winehouse and then getting tapped to serve as the opening act for her European summer tour. But that’s essentially what happened to the Asteroids Galaxy Tour after Winehouse heard the band’s…
In the music video for the Darkness’s greatest hit, 2003’s “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” the band’s alternately naked and jumpsuited lead singer, Justin Hawkins, is repeatedly groped by a motley crew of space aliens. He appears, for all intents and purposes, to be into it. His band’s…
Lady Antebellum’s star has risen in an unparalleled way over the last half-decade; conquering both the country and pop-music worlds, the trio’s three records have garnered Grammy, Billboard and CMA nominations and awards along the way. All three members — Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott — pen and…
Unless there’s some kind of cruel Carrie-style joke going on, every high-school kid pretty much knows what to expect from the senior prom: The weird alienated kids will be absent, the male and female establishment favorites will be coronated in a quickly forgotten ceremony, and everyone else will just be…
It’s tough to pin down a dominant sound or overarching musical theme on Flight or Fight, the new full-length release from Achille Lauro. The feel of the album’s nine tracks ranges from breezy to meditative, and the sound veers from the danceable pop of “Lightning” to the amorphous experimentation of…
With an extensive background in classical and prepared guitar, Janet Feder has focused primarily on instrumental recordings. But on her latest effort, the aptly titled Songs With Words, Feder sings on most of the tracks, and her voice sounds stunning throughout, particularly on cuts like “O the Sky Falling Moment”…
