It’s easy, if all you’re familiar with is the shtick, to form a negative opinion of Violent J, one half of the Insane Clown Posse. Rarely seen in public without his trademark makeup, the man plays up to the role in which he’s cast himself like the most committed of method actors. There are…
Turner Jackson has a theory about the often overlooked hip-hop scene in Denver. According to him, Denver isn’t the kind of town to accept genre restrictions. Denver wants multitudes, what Jackson calls “alloys.” “Denver is a kind of town where alloys win,” Jackson says. “What I mean by that is…
By the time Melissa Aldana won the 2013 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition at the age of 24, she’d already logged nearly two decades of playing under her belt. This experience is thanks in part to her father, renowned saxophonist Marcos Aldana, who got her started on saxophone when…
August Burns Red and Between the Buried and Me co-headline the Summit Music Hall tonight and the Prettiots are at Lost Lake Lounge while Future is at the Fillmore Auditorium tomorrow night, John Hiatt is at the Oriental Theater on Wednesday and Jose Gonzalez performs with yMusic at the Paramount Theatre on…
For more than two decades, the Westword Music Showcase has celebrated Colorado’s dynamic music community — and this year’s festival promises to reflect the scene’s growth. The 2016 Showcase, on Saturday, June 25, will be bigger and better than ever, featuring national headliners and local favorites on two main stages,…
The fourth annual Trapfest, featuring Vinnie Mansicalco, Lookas, Nghtmre, PawS and Carnage, is at the Fillmore Auditorium tonight while Ty Segall & the Muggers are at the Gothic and Z-Trip is at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom. Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen play an acoustic show tomorrow night at the Boulder…
It’s almost 6 p.m. in New York, but Kay Kasparhauser and Lulu Prat of The Prettiots aren’t quite sure which time zone they’re in. They’ve just returned from a show-heavy two weeks in the U.K., and their luggage is still lost somewhere between Oslo Airport and JFK. They have less…
Gregory Decker owns Music Gear Guys, the guitar specialty store on South Broadway, and he’s a touring guitarist with four decades of playing experience. He also happens to invent tech for musical instruments and has over on hundred patents. He’s been working on one of his inventions, Lok-N-Roll, for several…
Bob Dylan and His Band headline Red Rocks on Sunday, June 19. Mavis Staples, who first met Dylan at a gospel concert in New York in 1962, will open the show. Tickets ($49.50-$134.50) go on sale on March 11 at 10 a.m. Lyle Lovett and His Large Band and Emmylou Harris…
Denver’s population boom has brought all kinds of new industry and opportunities to Denver — and also a steady stream of new musicians. While new bands continue to pop up left and right, the argument surrounding the deficiencies in Denver’s music scene has never been one revolving around lack of…
Audiodrome was born out of necessity. When artist and musician Mitch Pond returned to Colorado in 2011 after attending college in Wisconsin, he had trouble booking shows for himself. As Man Mantis, the crate-digging digital scientist performed music that was spacey, referential and beat-heavy, with hip-hop written all over it…
Andrew Trim was born near Chicago but in 1988, when he was five years old his parents, who were missionaries, moved their family to Nagano, Japan. Trim guesses that the six people in his family were probably the only white people in a city of sixty thousand people at the…
Since 2013, Denver Public Library cardholders have been able to download albums by local artists at the website volumedenver.org. The library, which pays artists a set fee to offer this music to patrons for a period of two years, has the ability to host 200 albums at any given time…
He drove from San Antonio to Boulder with a piano in his Prius. Say again? “It’s just the piano harp, actually,” says composer/performer Mark McCoin, referring to the massive steel-and-wire gut of a piano. “It was still pretty tough to get in there.” He needs it for the upcoming show…
Colorado has welcomed many newcomers to the state, and with recreational marijuana tourism many people are visiting to participate in that pastime — while catching their favorite bands at some of Denver’s world-class venues. Here are some tips, from a Colorado native with show-going and venue-security experience, to avoid mistakes that might ruin…
Though she was born in Seattle, Judy Collins will forever be seen as a Coloradan after basing herself here, forging a career and making a name for herself. She certainly sees it that way; Collins still speaks excitedly about the mountains, Denver, Boulder, and everything in-between. At 76, she’s also very young at heart…
Colorado is the capital of skiing, beer, legal weed — and failed music festivals. Sure, smaller festivals have thrived in this music-loving state (and the music-rabid city of Denver) — take Westword Music Showcase, the Underground Music Showcase, Folks Fest and Ride Festival as standout examples. But not every endeavor…
Joe Satriani brings his thirty-year career retrospective tour to the Paramount Theatre tonight while Yanni is at Bellco Theatre tomorrow night, Charlie Puth is at the Gothic Theatre on Wednesday and Jake Shimabukuro headlines the Boulder Theater on Thursday. See the full list of our picks below. MONDAY, MARCH 7 Joe Satriani…
Editorial Note: Yanni did not, in fact, grant Westword an interview, whether via words or music. This article is a work of imagination. In Yanni’s own words, his chances as a young boy of getting where he is today “were zero.” As an aspiring musician from the small Greek village of…
If you haven’t heard of Ephwurd by now, you should probably start taking a gander at their Soundcloud. This new collaborative project between two electronic dance music powerhouses, Datsik and Bais Haus, has become a booming sensation practically overnight. Currently on a short North American tour before they hit festival…
We have a feeling you’re going to like this: Pabst Blue Ribbon announced that an iteration of its music festival Project Pabst is coming to Denver on May 20, 2016, and will feature hometown heroes Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats as the headliner. The one-day festival, promoted by AEG,…
Lately, friends on Facebook and In Real Life have been asking me to name songs I consider to be “perfect.” Not favorite or critically-lauded or guilty-pleasure songs, but perfect songs. This is a tough question, changing at the whim of an ear, but many responses included pop songs, gilded by…
