Husband and wife Cory Obert and Andrea Lecos marry fiddle and banjo and tell the story of their lives. They are inspired by bike rides, blackbirds, their two dogs and, most significantly, the amber-trapped past. They know words are inadequate and don’t use them very often, relying much more on…
Building on some of the ideas presented on her last album, 2008’s Beat Beat Pound, Andrea Ball once again sidesteps the well-worn singer-songwriter template on Dial Tone, her latest effort, in favor of more plodding, piano-heavy arrangements. Fleshed out by an array of interesting sounds, the dynamic range here swings…
Lots of bands use cello and violin. Strangers Die Every Day, though, rocked those rarefied strings in a way that evoked everything from hardcore punk to the Constellations Records roster. But when the Boulder-born instrumental band moved to Portland in 2007, where it dissolved after releasing the stunning Aperture for…
Christopher Crisci is a man of few words. Well, that’s only partially true. When he’s not performing, the lead singer and guitarist for the Appleseed Cast is a relatively talkative guy. But when he’s making music, Crisci’s words are few — especially on the band’s latest full-length, Sagarmatha. “On this…
Robbie Rivera is one of those incredibly prolific artists who make normal musicians look like slackers. Since releasing his first track (“El Sorullo”) in 1996, he’s produced dozens and dozens of tracks, a seemingly unceasing stream of funky, dirty house music, incorporating everything from progressive to Latin influences. His first…
Just two more days until we get to hear the new Flobots record (they are going to have copies of the new disc, right? It is a CD release party, after all). Suffice to say, we’re eager to hear how much, if any, the outfit has grown since issuing its…
Derek Vincent Smith, who performs under the Pretty Lights moniker (due tonight at the Boulder Theater), has announced plans to release three new EPs, the first of which, Making Up a Changing Mind, was just posted to his site last week. With three albums already under his belt that have…
It has been rumored that Jessica Simpson and Billy Corgan are dating , but we thought they’d at least have the decency to spare the public the fruits of their love. Then we remembered who we were talking about and suddenly the idea that they would record music together seemed…
“Parental Advisory. Explicit Content.” Remember that little sticker? The little black and white one that used to rest in the corner of only the most bad-ass of cassette tapes? The first albums I remember seeing with this warning were Danzig’s self titled album, Soundgarden’s Louder than Love and Guns and…
Not everyone’s got mad graphic design skills and access to Adobe’s powerful design and art tools. And not everyone likes what results from fliers created that way, either. Sometimes, all it takes to make a killer flier is a quick sketch and some nice hand-lettered info. Especially if the sketch…
If Lilly Scott doesn’t win this whole thing on the strength of her talent, she should win just by virtue of the fact that she’s infinitely more interesting than, well, everyone else on Idol this season. Really. Her song choices alone (“Lullaby of Birdland,” “A Change Is Gonna Come” and…
In case the heated debate between music games being viewed as a teaching tool or as a hindrance wasn’t convoluted enough, a new guitar related peripheral is attempting to make its way into the already crowded and slightly confusing market. Meet Seven 45 Studios’ Power Gig: Rise of the Six…
Fresh on the heels of issuing his white hot Western Conference mixtape with DJ Bedz, on which Spoke In Wordz spits with an absolutely venomous freestyle fire (don’t miss the lines, “Fuck the Westword, I ain’t kissing ass to perform” on “Get Rich to This Freestyle”), comes the MC’s new…
What you see above is Gomez’s tour bus. Gomez was playing at the Ogden last night, which meant that their bus was more-or-less in front of a certain (ahem) Backbeat contributor’s apartment. It was parked in the exact same spot as every other tour bus that chauffeurs a band to…
If you’re like us, you’ve been on pins and needles for the past three months or so, anxiously awaiting word on whether the Monolith Festival will be happening again this year or not. While we’re no closer to knowing the fate of Monolith than we were this past November, when…
Remember the halcyon days of the Colorado drum-and-bass scene, when DNB nights were plentiful, frequently rivaling trance as the top draw? These days dubstep, a slower, more spacious evolution of drum and bass’s frenetic sci-fi breakbeat sound, is siphoning off most of the love that used to get thrown to…
Here what the area’s local-centric specialty radio shows were spinning this week. We’re currently tracking the playlists a number of different shows including, Radio 1190’s Local Shakedown, KTCL’s Locals Only, the Colorado Sound, which originates at KRFC and is re-broadcast all over Colorado, 99.5 the Mountain’s Homegrown Show*, KBCO’s Local…
His stage surname is a nod to Curtis Mayfield, a pioneer of funk and architect of politically conscious African American music. Drawing inspiration from the same tones of rhythm and history, Boonie Mayfield, aka Boon Doc, is cut from a similar cloth of soul greatness. A dancer, songwriter and beat…
Now that Lil Wayne is for real, finally, absolutely, behind bars with no possibility to escape for at least eight months, we figured we’d send him a few choice clips to help him pass the time. We can’t imagine going nearly a year without his trademark hair (will he have…
Between touring, backing up Booker T. on his Grammy-nominated album Potato Hole, releasing a live disc and a collection of b-sides and recording a new album, the Drive-By Truckers have been pretty damn busy. Next week, the band releases its tenth album, its first on ATO Records, The Big To-Do,…
NBC’s new show The Marriage Ref got a lot of promo time during the Olympics, which has more to do with the continuing power of Jerry Seinfeld than anything resembling real quality (although it deserves mentioning that host Tom Papa is both genial and funny, with a sort of a…
Johnny Cash’s American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the sixth and final installment of his American album series, and Joanna Newsom’s new three-disc set Have One on Me grabbed top spots at local record stores for the week ending March 7. Peter Gabriel’s covers albumScratch My Back, released last week on…
