Concerts

See photos of the fans who woo-hooed their way around Day One of the Mile High Music Fest at westword.com/slideshow…

See photos of Day One’s fans on the slideshow page. It’s here: The second edition of the Mile High Music Fest is underway, and our gaggle of writers and photogs are shvitzing their way around the grounds to bring you ongoing, as-close-to-live-as-my-fingers-allow coverage of Denver’s biggest music festival. Check back…

As you’ve likely surmised, the Mile High Music Festival is this weekend. We’ll be there, sweating and shooting and watching and writing, and posting it all to this little blog and this little twitter feed. So check in for the latest news, reviews, photos, whatever, and check back Monday for…

D1g1tal Mayh3m, a new site for showcasing the work of Colorado DJs and electronic music artists launched recently. The site aims to offer a forum for some of the less commercial strains of electronic music to be heard. Specifically, the site offers free, streaming mixes in the genres of ambient,…

Tomorrow night at 6 p.m., the Sputnik will be hosting Face the Music, a photo exhibit featuring the portraits of Todd Roeth, who’s emerged in the past year as one of the most talented photographers in the city. His bright, colorful style is as vibrant as it is distinctive. “I…

Frontside Five, Git Some, Speed Wolf, St. Fall Apart Thursday, July 16, 2009 Marquis Theater Better than: Attending a show devoted to only one subgenre of punk music. Frontside Five’s new full-length album, Resurrection Cemetery, veers from the Denver ensemble’s skate-punk roots in many ways, incorporating new sounds and textures…

Even though ManeLine is continually doing shows around town and the Pirate Signal is hard at work on its new album, rapper Mane Rok and DJ A-What have found time to connect and put together a mixtape project called Mane Rok and DJ AWHAT! Present Rok Stars Mixtape. The project…

Boulder-based jazz/afrobeat/electronic (and it’s no coincidence that those initials almost spell “jam”) outfit the Motet are releasing their new album Dig Deep for free. The impetus behind this altruistic act is simple, according to drummer/bandleader Dave Watts: no one is buying records anymore, so you may as well give them…

Joe Thunder and Selector Sam’s Special Addiction mixtape has been available for almost a month now, but it’s still making its way around the web. The new collection features Street Philosafee, a group that consists of rappers Mr. Verbal and J Cook and features appearances from Dent, Tetrahedron Crew, Pontius…

Looks like we’re not the only ones psyched for this weekend’s Mile High Music Festival. This afternoon, the folks at Spin.com weighed in with their top five must-hear bands. As it turns out, their picks mirrored  ours: Tool (natch), Duke Spirit, 3OH!3, Gogol Bordello and the Black Keys. We’ve got…

Christie Front Drive may very well be my all time favorite Colorado band. You should have seen me at the Marquis a few years ago when the band reunited for Denver Fest. I was giddier than a school girl. For years, I’ve kept my copy of the split 10-inch the…

In a unique arrangement, Suburban Home Records has come to an agreement to do distribution and, through the Vinyl Collective sublabel, a vinyl release of Gregory Alan Isakov’s self-released record This Empty Northern Hemisphere. Under terms of the deal, Suburban Home will handle distribution of the record and help make…

Now that’s what we call representing the home team in word and in deed. Talking about the old school Broncos sticker affixed to Adam Halferty’s drumkit. Attaboy, Adam! When he’s not keeping time for Young Coyotes, Halferty and his former Chain Gang of 1974 bandmate, Kamtin Mohager are touring members…

For years, we here in Denver watched enviously as festivals such as Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Rothbury and Sasquatch cropped up in cities across the country, and wondered when the Mile High City would have a major gathering of its own. We’ve had great festivals in the mountains…

A lot can change in three years. When Frontside Five released its last full-length album, three years ago, it was, in many ways, a very different band than it is today. Then a quintet, the group boasted a single lead singer, a frenetic sound and lyrical cues solidly rooted in…

As the owner of Suite Two Hundred (1427 Larimer Street), 5 Degrees (1475 Lawrence Street) and Monarck and 24K, both at 1416 Market Street, Lotus Concepts’ Francois Safieddine has a good feel for the trends in that part of town. “In Larimer Square, for example, the crowd is extremely upscale…

Initially, Motel Saints can sound a bit too familiar. But pinpointing the source of that musical déjà vu is difficult, and then suddenly it dawns on you that maybe the group is on to something. Borrowing some phrasings from mid-’70s David Bowie, the early solo Iggy Pop records and the…

Dr. Eugene Chadbourne is one of those genius avant-garde musicians that most people don’t readily recognize despite his long career and influence. But he’s worked with similarly minded artists such as John Zorn, Fred Frith, Carla Bley, Camper Van Beethoven and Sun City Girls. Like the Sun City gals, Chadbourne…

Just as punk rock embraced the stripped-down, authentic aesthetic of rock and roll from a bygone era, the current wave of electronic-pop songwriters have embraced the analog-synth sensibilities of early-’80s new-wave and electro-post-punk acts. Forest World is clearly part of this phenomenon, and not unlike well-known artists such as M83,…

Florida’s Fake Problems may be proof that evolution is real — musically, anyway. The quartet, which has since added cello and trumpet to its live show, was, at its earliest inception, often compared to its Florida brethren in Against Me! This prompted one unnamed Gainsville rocker to refer to the…

The Veronicas are a good example of that old aphorism about books and covers. Although they are nominally a teen-pop phenomenon, they don’t come from the same assembly-line printing process as most of today’s pop idols. Crafting a sound that splits its time between sugarcoated yet punked-up pop numbers and…