To get an idea of how versatile Adam Stern is as a guitarist, check out “Alchemical Rooms,” the first cut on Twang Shui: Opening with volume swells and a Bill Frisell-esque tone, Stern does some mean country picking à la Danny Gatton, then flips his pickup selector to rhythm and…
The latest release by this extremely prolific singer-songwriter from Bailey, Colorado, isn’t universes removed from his previous material. Smiley’s finds Porter speaking about life near Colfax in Capitol Hill as a poor, creative person trying to survive with his soul and creativity intact. Standout track “Wait for Another” is so…
The latest from electrified proto-folkie Dan Allen is a throwback to local recordings that were commonplace during the bad old days, before technology improved to the degree that an album made in a bedroom could sound almost as good as one cut in a studio. The production on Here is…
One of the many highlights of the sixth annual Rize urban art and music festival on Saturday, April 25, at the Paladium (1400 West 62nd Avenue), is a live laptop remix set of whiplash future breaks by Überzone. This California native, known as Timothy Wiles to his mother and Q…
Ahimsa. Evidently, it’s a “Sanskrit term meaning to do no harm.” It’s also the way that one Mr. John Baxter used to end all of his written exchanges. In the past few days, that word and Mr. Baxter have mysteriously reappeared, both here and on various other local blogs –…
Today at 4 p.m. Rowboat (a project of Sam McNitt of Blue Million Miles) will be appearing live on KVDU Internet radio. He’s going to guest DJ for an hour, then play live for an hour at 5 p.m. If you’re like me and still haven’t caught this bleak and…
The 2009 Westword Music Showcase ballot has been formulated and will be included in this week’s paper, which will beginning hitting stands in a few hours. Online voting will also begin later this week. In the meantime, though, as faithful readers of the Backbeat blog, we’re giving you the drop…
There was a ton of action with concert announcements this week, especially some great shows at Red Rocks including Ween (Sunday, September 6), Wilco (Friday, July 3), the Killers (Wednesday, September 9), Lyle Lovett (Sunday, July 26) and Slightly Stoopid (Wednesday, July 15). Fiddler’s Green roped in a pair of…
Making good on its promise to deliver unique multimedia bundles for download, Max3 is currently offering the latest EP from the Photo Atlas, To Silently Provoke the Ghost, for the recession-friendly price of $3.98. But that’s only part of the story. In addition to the record’s five fresh tracks, you’ll…
Just two short years ago, Virgil Dickerson’s long running local imprint, Suburban Home, was struggling. A decline in CD sales forced him to scale back and move operations back into his house. Things were looking pretty dire. Then a funny thing happened: People started buying vinly again, and the once…
Last month, we mentioned that both ManeLine and UmConcious made it onto URB Magazine’s Next 1000 list and were featured on the list’s main page for a week. ManeLine received the most votes, giving the act top billing for that week. We just received word that two more Colorado hip-hop artists…
When compiling our 2008 year end lists last year, we clumsily overlooked and left ReCollect, the ReMINDers’ stellar debut, off our list. Our bad. Really. The album is an excellent collection of head-nodding organic hip-hop reminiscent of the Fugees circa 1996. We’ve just learned that the duo, comprised of Big Samir…
Just finished screening Fear Before’s new video for “Fear Before Doesn’t Listen to People Who Don’t Like Them.” If you haven’t seen it yet, take a gander above. Directed by Bryan Schlam, the highly stylized clip recalls a number of similar boiler-plate alt rock performance videos from the early ‘to…
The Food Chain is an amalgamation of Colorado hip-hop artists who have united under one moniker to make some high quality hip-hop music. Over the last six months or so, the crew has leaked a collection of tracks showcasing their skills as rappers and producers. Now they have compiled all of…
For the second week in a row, Jadakiss topped the Independent Records best seller list for the week ending April 19. UGK and the Dream still sat in the top five for the second week in a row while Gorilla Zoe and Flo Rida stay in the top ten. See…
Here what the area’s local-centric specialty radio shows were playing this week. We’re currently tracking the playlists for five different shows: Radio 1190’s long-running Local Shakedown, KTCL’s Locals Only, the Colorado Sound, which originates at KRFC and is re-broadcast all over Colorado, and the Colorado Wave, which is syndicated on…
As music critics, the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, “What are you listening to?” The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation, our latest feature. For the benefit of those who happen to be curious, we’ve compiled a…
The brand new Silversun Pickups album, Swoon, grabbed the top spot at Twist & Shout for the week ending April 19. Since the store was pretty busy on Record Store Day (April 18), it’s not surprising that special releases for that day by Iron & Wine, My Morning Jacket and…
Ween, who brought a ton of shenanigans to town during its two-night run at Fillmore last July, will return these parts again Sunday, September 6 when the band plays Red Rocks. Tickets, which are $44.95, go on sale Saturday, April 25 at 10 a.m. If you can’t wait that long…
My Morning Jacket’s Celebración De La Ciudad Natal, a live EP recorded in Louisville and released especially for Record Store Day, was the top seller at Wax Trax for the week ending April 19. Death’s 1974 demo, For the Whole World to See, which Drag City released in February, grabbed…
So the music business is allegedly in dire straits right now, having endured the sharpest decline in CD sales ever this past year. Yet if you’re paying attention you can’t help but notice that act after act from Denver is being snatched up by various labels at stupefying rate, that,…
I had a very exciting conversation last week with Doug Bohm, co-founder of Bands for Lands. The Denver-based nonprofit, which has used live music and other arts to further the cause of conservation and sustainability for over a decade, is about to embark on a new initiative to increase awareness…
