Picking up where Recidivist, the band’s audacious 2010 debut album, left off, this EP from the Raven and the Writing Desk displays an even more fully integrated band adept at making creative use of all the sounds and textures at its disposal. “Tiny” sounds like Danny Elfman got together with…
The music that Blake Brown makes with Bare Bones could be considered a throwback, so it’s only fitting that it all started in a museum. While working at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Brown struck up a conversation with co-worker and current bandmate Freida Stalheim, formerly of Munly and…
If you’ve already got your ticket to see Sound Tribe Sector 9 at Red Rocks this Saturday, September 10, you might want to get there early to catch the opener, too. LTJ Bukem is an intelligent-drum-and-bass god in the U.K., and for good reason. Bukem (aka Danny Williamson) is a…
Update (3:45 p.m.): Congratulations to Susan Levin and Ariel Gullberg, winners of our Gillian Welch ticket giveaway. Both of them and a guest will be our guests at tomorrow night’s show. Thanks to everybody else for all of your entries and for reading Backbeat. Make sure you’re checking the blog…
Kelly Clarkson is back. Again. After disappearing from the pop-music scene following her massive hit album Breakaway, then returning with the Clive Davis-hated project My December, then returning again with “My Life Would Suck Without You,” Kelly Clarkson makes another comeback with her new single, “Mr. Know It All.” Thank…
Tollund Men is no longer just a bunch of poor saps buried in a Danish peat bog from the time before the Roman Republic transitioned to Empire. In Denver, it’s the solo project of Neal Samples, with some help from genius musical chameleon Daniel Bouse when the project plays live…
Phish played three shows over this past Labor Day Weekend in Denver (Commerce City, actually) at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Read all about each Phish concert in Denver here. Being the tech-savvy — if shaggy haired and a little rough around the edges — fans they are, Phish-heads took to…
A virtual supergroup, Down (due tonight at Summit Music Hall with In Solitude and Ponykiller) is spearheaded by none other than the fear-instilling voice of Phil Anselmo, of super heavy legends Pantera. But Down is a band all its own — the group has been making sludgy, devastating metal since…
Yesterday, while I was doing the dishes, I inexplicably got the theme song from Jurassic Park stuck in my head. This wasn’t the first time. It happens all the time, in fact, no matter what I’m doing, and it’s just the main “catchy” part, not the rest of the song…
Early this year, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) decided to ban the Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” because of the use of a homophobic slur in the song’s lyrics. In a somewhat surprising move, the Council has reversed the decision, which means Canadian broadcasters can go back to…
Smartphones have quickly gained traction with all different types of apps, but music apps are hard to dig through to find what’s worthwhile. There are tons released each week, which is why we cut through the crap to bring you the best options. This round, we’re looking at options for…
PHISH at DICK’S SPORTING GOODS PARK | NIGHT THREE, 9/4/11Sunday night’s show at Dick’s seemed like a continuation of the relaxed, anything-goes mood from Saturday night more than a balls-out party to end the summer. In a way, this was fitting for a band that has been working for the…
BLINK-182 at COMFORT DENTAL | 9/4/11Seeing Blink-182 live is kind of like viewing a moment suspended in time: The music hasn’t changed, and the band’s NOFX-knock-off-style masturbation conversations are identical to a decade and a half ago. But consistency is a huge factor in a pop punk band’s success, and…
KE$HA at 1STBANK CENTER | 09/03/11 The floor at 1STBANK Center was blanketed with glitter and gold confetti on Saturday night. This was the aftermath of the pop-star hurricane known as Ke$ha. As the final blasts of confetti sent the crowd out on the best note possible, images of giant…
PHISH at DICK’S SPORTING GOODS PARK | NIGHT TWO, 9/3/11 On the second night of its three-night run, Phish continued at least part of its “S”-theme from the night before by being supremely solid. We headed in around 7:15 p.m., and the venue was already noticeably fuller than it was…
Update (09/04/11): Last night we posted an interview with Jon Fishman of Phish that was submitted to us by a freelancer yesterday and represented to us as an original piece of writing. Shortly after the item appeared on our blog, we learned that the interview had originally run in print…
Over the course of a line-up change or two, Ideal Fathers, playing its final show tonight at the Larimer Lounge, developed a sound and a stage presence that probably would have otherwise been lumped in with “dance punk,” but there was always an agenda in the band to inspire people…
From Lil Wayne’s on-stage clowning and Katy Perry’s cooing, to a perspiration-and-PBR soaked reunion of Planes Mistaken for Stars, and even those teenage, Danish punks Iceage melting the audience at Rhinoceropolis, the summer of 2011 was as good as any for live music in Denver. On this Labor Day weekend,…
PHISH at DICK’S SPORTING GOODS PARK | NIGHT ONE, 9/2/11 Like an episode of Sesame Street for big kids, last night’s Phish show was brought to us by the letter “S.” A few songs into its set, a theme began to emerge. To wit, every song the band played began…
Phish parking lots are a gold mine of bootleg memorabilia for fans. It used to be that a clever T-shirt design was the hot item on lot, but these days, fans have been moving into a different type of collectors item: hat pins. Below are our top ten hat pins…
What are you doing this weekend? Duh, partying like it’s the end of summer, because, well, it is! It’s also Labor Day weekend, and so hopefully you’ll have nothing to do on Monday except recover from said partying. To that end, we’ve got the drop on a slew of events…
If you’ve just joined us, earlier this week we gave away a pair of three-day, general admission field passes to see Phish this weekend at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Rather than just giving the tickets away at random, we asked folks to share their best Phish stories, and the response…
