As a genre, metal has made an incredible amount of progress over the past decade. Denver County Death March couldn’t give a fuck. Not that the band needs to: Packing meat-hook riffs and more misanthropy than a serial-killer convention, the foursome uses its self-titled full-length as a blistering tirade against…
Among the most popular and successful of the bands associated with the Elephant 6 collective, Of Montreal started off as a sort of indie pop band with an experimental edge. Instead of sticking to a strict formula, however, the band evolved dramatically across several records, fearlessly exploring lyrical themes of…
Trip-hop producer and live PA artist Emancipator (known day-to-day as Doug Appling) got his start producing electronic music in 2002 at age fifteen when he procured a copy of ACID Pro software. After dabbling as a drummer, Emancipator moved into producing trance and electro-pop before settling on his current sound…
Adept at both production and turntablism, Gaslamp Killer — known for many years as the Motherfucking Gaslamp Killer (he’s since dropped the Oedipal reference) — is as new-school as it gets. A frequent guest on L.A.’s Low End Theory monthly podcast, the Killer’s hip-hop stylings are all over the place:…
Woodsman and Gauntlet Hair have joined psychedelic forces for a two-week West Coast tour, starting November 5. While the former act has already made a few trips to the closest coast, aligning with its fellow ambient wave-crashers in Gauntlet Hair will offer a nice taste of what Colorado has been…
Sufjan Stevens’ The Age of Adz, released last week on Asthmatic Kitty, and Belle & Sebastian’s latest release on Matador, Write About Love, took the top two spots at Albums on the Hill and Twist & Shout for the week ending October 17. Lil Wayne’s new album, meanwhile, I Am…
As you might have heard or read, Social Distortion was in town over the weekend, playing Friday and Saturday night at the Fillmore Auditorium (Read our review of Social Distortion at the Fillmore on Saturday.) Photographer Aaron Thackeray, ever a man of the people, brings back these photos from Social…
Did you catch Undercover Boss staring Bryan Bedford, the CEO of Frontier Airlines? No? Yeah, can’t say we blame you. The show, which premiered with a fairly promising premise, has quickly devolved into a one-dimensional series with almost Real World-worthy typecasting. Each of the boilerplate vignettes, which seem to center…
PS I LOVE YOU With Van Louvin and Paean 10.17.10 | hi-dive Van Louvin opened this show. Those who have been around the Denver scene long enough would recognize its members from some of best indie pop bands of the past decade, namely Kent Phillips and Al Rich from Thank…
Sad news this morning coming out of Minnesota. Over the weekend, City Pages, our sister paper in Minneapolis, reported that Michael Larsen, better known as the underground hip-hop artist Eyedea, passed away. The cause of death of the young rapper, who was just 28 years old, is uncertain at this…
Considered one of the “big four” of the thrash metal era, Anthrax (see our preview here) put New York on the map with its inventive take on infusing metal with a punk rock spirit. When singer Joey Belladonna joined in time to record 1985’s Spreading the Disease, that band had…
Social Distortion With Lucero and Frank Turner Fillmore Auditorium| 10.16.10 See Social Distortion at the Fillmore photo slideshow When Social Distortion opened the second of a two-night stint at Fillmore with not one, but three songs from Mommy’s Little Monster, you’d think a crowd would have gone bat shit to…
VINEFIELD AGENCY SHOWCASE 10.16.2010 | Casselman’s Bar & Venue It’s an ambitious task fitting close to a dozen diverse acts into a five and a half-hour show, but the folks at the Vinefield Agency pulled it off as part of new company’s launch party and showcase. Local standouts like the…
In a audacious move yesterday, T.I. intervened and helped convince a suicidal man from leaping off a 22-story building in Atlanta that houses radio station V103. The, rapper also known as Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr., reportedly caught wind of the situation on the radio and phoned in to offer his…
Fresh off two successful nights at the Fillmore, DJ Deadmau5, aka Joel Zimmerman, rocked Beta on Thursday night. Photos by Soren McCarty. Here’s the full slideshow: Deadmau5 at Beta. Below are a few highlights…
Last year, PS I Love You, from the university town of Kingston, Ontario, made some waves beyond its immediate environs with the release of a split 7-inch with Diamond Rings. The energy and spiky sound of the duo’s songs are at times reminiscent of Hüsker Dü and Pavement. Singer and…
A couple of days ago, Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne posted a video of himself screen-printing a poster using his own blood. While the notion of Coyne doing anything weird at this point is hardly surprising, the clip got us to thinking about other artists that have likewise injected…
After taking a summer break, DJs Low Key and Sounds Supreme are firing The Solution back up again starting tomorrow night, Friday, October 15, at 3014 (3014 East Colfax Avenue). The duo launched their widely popular weekly underground hip-hop night more than three years ago at Milk with the simple…
Prime Element. That’s the new name of the trio formerly known as 3 the Hardway. But that’s not the biggest news coming out of that camp today. After years of hard work, the threesome, made up of A.V.I.U.S., Cysko Rokwel and Es Nine, has linked up with Kamikazi Airlines, an…
As people who think about, talk about, listen to and make music, the most common question we encounter is, “What are you listening to right now?” Whether you’re looking for recommendations, trying to get a feel for our individual sensibilities, or are just curious, we’ve compiled a list of all…
Update: 10:17 a.m., November 8: Congrats to our winners! We’ve contacted you. Keep reading Backbeat for info on how to win more free stuff. So, according to votes cast by fans on The DJ List, Dutch-born DJ Tiesto is the best DJ on the planet. Agree? We’ve got several pairs…
Here’s what the area’s local-centric specialty radio shows were spinning this week. We’re currently tracking the playlists from a number of different shows, including KTCL’s Locals Only, 99.5 the Mountain’s Homegrown Show*, KBCO’s Local Edition, KCSU, The Colorado Sound, which originates at KRFC and is re-broadcast all over Colorado, and…
