After a four-year stint with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers that included being the band’s musical director, alto saxophonist Bobby Watson went on to play on nearly thirty albums as a leader and close to a hundred recordings as a sideman with jazz heavies like Max Roach, George Coleman, and Wynton…
There’s nothing at all ironic about this band embracing ’70s power pop. In the ’80s, too many acts who were heavily influenced by the gritty glam rock of Slade and the sharp hooks of Sweet produced some seriously shlocky material. Bare Wires, meanwhile, seems to have taken stylistic cues from…
In contrast to the deafening blog-shouting that accompanied the Cold War Kids’ 2006 debut, this year’s release of their third LP, Mine Is Yours, prompted little more than a squeak. Now largely dismissed as simpering riders of a long-since-crashed wave of toothless indie pop, the Kids are getting older and…
Anyone living in the United States after 1970 — when Randy Newman’s classic 12 Songs was released — has heard Randy Newman somewhere, somehow. Because of his hit songs, including “Short People” and “I Love L.A.,” and his scoring of numerous movies and television shows, Newman’s presence and his knack…
Falling somewhere between Tin Pan Alley and bluesy Americana, this debut from Bonnie & the Beard sounds as if the band spent last year on an extended journey, collecting adventures and experiences along the way. The songs are the sort that come from people who once had dreams of running…
After forming the Denver-based rock group Stinos in 2006, Justin Harned and Brad Jones were looking for a new musical direction, and so they brought in violinist Harmony Greenhalgh and a bassist and drummer and started Left Foot Green in early 2008. On the band’s sophomore release, Fun With Vengeance,…
The Ebbets Field series from Listen Up is a thrilling documentation of Denver’s musical past. Ebbets Field, of course, was the storied downtown venue owned by promoter Chuck Morris in the mid-’70s. Located at the base of Brooks Tower, the club attracted a slew of legendary acts, from Muddy Waters…
Every society has its share of fucks. Across the board, there are, in all cultures, a handful of words deemed taboo or offensive; in some cultures, these words tend to relate to religion — like goddamn or hell — in others (like ours) they tend to denote sex or bodily…
DJ Irene — whose name is fairly synonymous with “hard house” — has been producing mixes and music at an exuberant rate since the late ’90s (her album-release rate has dropped since mid-2000, but she still tours incessantly and pounds her beats into dance floors all over the world). Although…
UPDATE: Okay, so it turns out, we got it a little twisted yesterday regarding the WESTAF TourWest grant program. According to WESTAF Deputy Director, Shannon Daut, the grant is actually earmarked toward “presenting entities” in the WESTAF region (venues in which an artist might play), as opposed to the musicians,…
We’ve just received word from AEG regarding the lineup for Pure Sunshine. Ten bands are coming together for a pair of back-to-back shows celebrating the life and honoring the memory of Rick Kulwicki, as well as raise funds for the two sons he left behind, Richard and Roman. Contrary to…
Even if Josh Radin’s name isn’t immediately recognizable, it is virtually impossible not to have heard his music. His songs have made dozens of appearances in the back and foregrounds of television shows like Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy, and Radin’s not-too-sappy love songs come in a satiating style of folk…
WINDOWS With Temples and Epileptinomicon Ash From Sweat House | February 26, 2011 The flier for this show said, in no uncertain terms, “NO COPS” and, as it turns out, none did appear to show up at the house where the event was being held. It was mostly an intimate…
LOVE Dubtribe Sound System*Doc Martin Frederick Gentry*Sunshine Jones with Jasun Lovejoy Casselman’s Bar and Venue|2.26.11 The aptly named LOVE party at Casselman’s last night featured two epic sets by some of the very best names in house music, Doc Martin and Dubtribe Sound System. The headliners brought the energy up…
PAPER DIAMOND with Raw Russ and Eprom Bluebird Theater | 2.25.11 The Bluebird Theater hosted the sold-out, Official Snowball Festival Kickoff Party last night with Raw Russ, Eprom and Paper Diamond. Alex B., who spins under the moniker Paper Diamond, spoke with Westword recently about his new sound, which, if…
One of the biggest acts in electronic music, the Prodigy exploded onto the British scene with its 1992 debut album, Experience, and 1994 follow-up, Music for the Jilted Generation. The duo of frontman Keith Flint and producer Liam Howlett went on to become one of the first dance bands to…
Last night at Summit Music Hall, Norwegian black metal band Immortal played with openers Absu. Photographer Aaron Thackeray brings back these photos: Immortal at Summit Music Hall…
Country may be the only form of modern music left with a consistent sense of humor, and Jake Owen definitely taps into that. The Nashville-by-way-of-Florida singer-guitarist slips a twangy “yee haw” in when he can (see the song by the same name), but he also uses his accentuated southern voice…
The Cool Kids have been stuck in label hell for over a year now trying to get their debut full-length released. Their relationship with previous label, Chicago’s Chocolate Industries, went bad, and none of the majors interested in the album could figure out an offer that worked for everyone. In…
It has been a long journey for Nappy Roots — the hip hop group formed in 1995 as sextet of friends, spent some time in the early 2000s on Atlantic Records during the radio boom of Southern rap and now run their own label as a five-piece…
When we heard about Nervesandgel’s ambitious project to get sounds from friends last week, we started looking into the idea of digitized found sound recordings. A few days later, we finally crawled out of the Internet’s rabbit hole with some interesting results and a peek into the private lives of…
The Naughty Prince had a nice run as “Denver’s premiere dart bar” at 7950 East Mississippi Avenue before it finally closed at the end of last year. Now Mugsy’s Bar has opened in about 1,800 of the 4,500 square feet (three strip-mall units) of space that the Naughty Prince occupied…
