Google has announced a new plan to help combat copyright infringement by reshaping its search technology and offering an easier and more accessible takedown request form. The news comes hot on the heels of news that the U.S. government has begun a multi-tiered crackdown on piracy and counterfeit websites…
Known to early local hip-hop heads as Shag One and, more recently, Strange Powers, Josh Powers doesn’t fit into the mold of a typical hip-hop cat. He embraces his individuality and honors his own unique global view of music and ideology through his creative endeavors — from more traditional hip-hop…
It’s about time to start making plans for New Year’s Eve. Because the last thing you want to be when the slates get cleaned is sober. We’re doing our part by bringing you a series of Denver’s top events for every budget. First up, the $20-$75 offerings that we’ve whittled…
This past summer, Candy Claws lost all of its gear in a car fire, mid-way through an East coast tour. Fortunately, the band escaped physically unharmed and forged ahead with the remaining dates, and a late summer full-length sophomore release, Hidden Lands, followed. This week, the octet debuted a visual…
Sister-band Meg & Dia started out as just that — two sisters sharing singer-songwriter duties, with the Meg Frampton half on guitar. But after the duo’s 2005 debut, Our home is Gone, Meg & Dia expanded into a full-fledged five-piece, adding some electric weight to a formerly soft, acoustic sound…
Last month, Yale University Press released The Anthology of Rap, an exhaustive compendium of rap lyrics edited by CU professor Adam Bradley and his colleague Andrew DuBois. Although the book has been praised by some admitted outsiders, it has also been subjected to scrutiny by various hip-hop afficionados, who have…
Making connections between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Wonder Mike isn’t such a stretch for Adam Bradley. As one of the editors of The Anthology of Rap, a newly released collection from Yale University Press, as well as the author of 2009’s Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Bradley has…
In-stores last week by Elephant Revival might have helped the Nederland quintet grab the top spots at Albums and Twist, with its latest effort, Break in the Clouds, released last month on Ruff Shod Records (the indie imprint headed by Chad Stokes of State Radio and Dispatch). Nicki Minaj’s Pink…
Nearly a year after helping break in in the remodeled 1STBANK Center last March, Furthur, fronted by Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, is slated to return for another three-night stand on Friday, February 11, through Sunday, February 13. Reserved and general-admission tickets, which range from $55 to $59.75, go on…
Bob Ferbrache’s Absinthe Studios has been buzzing along for the better part of three decades, recording the likes of Ian Cooke, the Fluid, the Swayback, Frantix and many others. Now, friend and fellow sound engineer James McElwee wants to tell Bob’s story in a new documentary — but he needs…
While not all of us are particularly enthusiastic about Christmas music, that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize a good song when we hear one. This new Dressy Bessy single, “Hopped Up (on Xmas) Featuring King Scratchie” might be one of the few holiday songs worth a regular holiday rotation. It’s…
JonBenét Ramsey is the one who brought them together. Well, it wasn’t so much JonBenét as it was Jeffree Star’s desire for a tattoo of her. And it actually wasn’t even the tattoo itself. It was the pop star and his soon-to-be tattooist Kat Von D’s shared fascination with beauty…
Although Arvada doesn’t have a big rockabilly scene, Jimmy Nigg and his brother grew up there — and that’s where they decided to open Rock-A-Billies. The brothers had spent a year looking all over Denver for the perfect place to put a rockabilly-themed bar; when they found out that the…
If you ever heard or saw the name “The Legendary Beep Beeps,” you probably — understandably — thought it was going to be something dumb. But the band wasn’t, and despite the seeming commercial-rock aspirations in some of its songwriting, there was a core of something ineffably compelling in its…
In 1932, the Marx Brothers released one of their classics, a movie called Horse Feathers. The music of the Portland, Oregon, group of the same name may not possess the inspired zaniness and slapstick of the Marx Brothers, but the band’s earnest pastoral sound could have been created long ago…
In the decade since the Bad Plus has been together, the adventurous jazz trio has included cover songs on each of its recordings. Bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer David King have deconstructed and reimagined cuts by everyone from the Pixies and Nirvana to Bowie and Blondie. Last…
In southern Florida, Mike Diaz has been evolving MillionYoung from a promising synth-pop project into something that doesn’t really fit into that whole “chillwave” category so much as it captures the image those of us living in colder climates have of warm nights and lazy days in tropical climates. Florida…
Occasionally, an artist from in or around Denver will put out a release that captures the spirit of the moment and forever reminds you of that time. This seven-inch record from Gauntlet Hair is effectively that release for 2010. The songs echo and shimmer like spring sunshine through trees sporting…
Some folks say the more trichomes (or crystals) there are in your weed, the higher you’ll get, since there’s a lot of THC in them. Nowhere in the Fort Collins-based Trichome’s materials does it say that that’s what the band’s name alludes to. But considering that Trichome is a reggae…
Eolian’s connection to past prog-rock giants shows on Egg, the band’s 35-minute, single-track concept album. The group — frontman Ian O’Dougherty, drummer (and occasional Backbeat contributor) Sean Merrell and bassist Adam Edwards — offers a wide range of sounds and contours, summoning giants of the genre like Geddy Lee and…
Julia Libassi and Scott Conroy met while attending Tufts University and played in and around Boston with their band Stop Switch before moving to Denver in the summer of 2009. Upon arriving here, the pair sought out potential bandmates on Craigslist. A terse comment to their post — essentially proclaiming…
The first thing you will notice about I Know You, Rider is that it’s an instrumental band. But its music is not just spontaneous noodling: The outfit has been working on its debut EP for over a year now. The four tracks on La Bufadora are driving rock songs, albeit…
