We held the first Westword Music Awards 21 years ago, in 1995. There were 55 nominees on the ballot that year, including such enduring names as Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Ron Miles and Tim O’Brien. There was a lot of great music being made in Colorado then, just as there…
In a few short days, over local 120 bands will take over part of Austin’s notorious sixth street to bring a taste of the Colorado music scene to the SXSW music festival. The five day showcase, known as the Colorado Music Party, features not only Denver bands like Rubedo, CRL CRRLL, Steele…
Swallow Hill Music — a Denver-based non-profit focused on music education and performance — has announced its new CEO: Paul M. Lhevine, who formerly served as executive director and director of external affairs for the Aurora Public Schools Foundation. “I am coming to Swallow Hill Music for the opportunity to build…
There was never a shortage of diversions at Punch Bowl Social on South Broadway — the restaurant and bar’s offerings include(deep breath) ping-pong, shuffle board, darts, billiards, arcade games, marbles and, of course, bowling. And, as of last month, a pair of private karaoke rooms upstairs. Denver is home to…
The Fort Collins Music Experiment (or FoCoMX) has, for the past six years, served as the largest showcase for northern Colorado music. Featuring hundreds of bands throughout the city, FoCoMX continues to grow — the Fort Collins Musicians Association (which organizes the event) has just announced some key details about…
Church Fire and Morlox, both from Denver, might seem like unusual collaborators on a split cassette release. The two acts don’t have much in common at first glance: Church Fire could be considered a synth-pop act, and Morlox is more in the realm of IDM. (Each side of the tape…
In 1969, Miles Davis started recording sessions for his landmark jazz-rock fusion album Bitches Brew, using close to twenty musicians over six months. Pianists Herbie Hancock, who spent five years in Davis’s second great quintet, and Chick Corea were both on that album, as well as Davis’s In a Silent…
The 42nd Telluride Bluegrass Festival will take place from June 18 to 21, 2015. As they often do, four day passes sold out before the lineup was even announced (it took ten minutes for fans from all 50 states and several foreign countries to snatch them all up). You can…
Doro Pesch is performing this Wednesday, March 11th at the Bluebird Theater. Pesch got her start as a rock and roll singer at the age of three when she started singing Little Richard’s “Lucille” around the house. It was a perfect start for a woman who would go on to…
Colorado is set to take over Austin in a month, with the Colorado Music Party, as we originally announced last week. Over 120 bands will flock out of the cold winter, south, to the land of concerts and partying for SXSW 2015. Headling acts include Denver’s Rubedo, The Yawpers, Wheelchair Sports Camp, Kitty…
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an 80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book SAINT COLE from Fantagraphics books. Last Week’s Episode Of Rufus…
The Sloths will make its Denver debut on Tuesday, March 10th at the Hi-Dive. Early purveyors of California garage rock in the mid-1960s when its members were teenagers, The Sloths in its earliest incarnation released a two-sided 45 of “Makin’ Love” and “You Mean Everything to Me” in 1965 and…
Before essentially disappearing from live music in 2012 and quietly releasing its most recent album, Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time, in 2013, Candy Claws was one of the few bands around on a small budget that managed to create a genuine sense of the otherworldly with its music…
Over the last six months Scott Mattson and his wife Nicole have been transforming the building at 1330 27th Street from a warehouse-type space into Nocturne, a modern take on the 1940s jazz supper club, which opens to the public on Monday, March 9. Mattson, who graduated from Metro State…
“There was a time when there was a thriving music scene in Boulder. At least [there were] a lot of record stores and shows, places with interesting music,” says filmmaker Dan Schneidkraut, whose feature-length documentary Old Man — about his father, Andy Schneidkraut, and his iconic record shop, Albums on…
Join us on Saturday, June 20, 2015, for the 21st Westword Music Showcase, featuring the inventive producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Flume as well as Austin psych-rock titan the Black Angles, pop genius Misterwives and over 100 more of the best bands and artists from Colorado and beyond on a dozen stages in Denver’s…
Some of the most prominent members of the Denver hip-hop scene came together at the Bluebird Theater last night for a spotlight performance of the 3hree Project. Spearhead by Denver Promoter Francois Baptiste and born out of KMG studios, the 3hree Project vision started in late 2013. Over a year…
While inches of snow accumulated in Denver earlier this week, the evening becoming a quiet, the city felt quaint and the Bluebird Theatre was accosted by the guttural sounds of a pair of Detroit and New York’s finest, who combined form PRhyme. DJ Premier and Royce da 5’9 come from…
Musicians Daisy Mauterer and Brian Weikel live in a quiet Fort Collins neighborhood with bright street lights, lawns separating one property from the other and neat driveways. After returning from a gig around 2 a.m. recently, the couple chose sleep over unloading their packed CR-V. In the morning, when they went…
In its brief run, Fort Collins band Candy Claws made quite the mark, in Colorado and elsewhere. In fact, in the short time that Candy Claws was active, the duo of Karen McCormick and Ryan Hover earned a fan base big enough to include Ben Phelan, John Ferguson and Robert…
Editor’s note: Each week, illustrator Noah Van Sciver shares his ongoing story of an ’80s rocker on a road trip through his past with the readers of Backbeat. You can see more of Van Sciver’s work in his new book SAINT COLE from Fantagraphics books. Last Week’s episode of Rufus Baxter!…
Hey! I enjoy going to concerts. In order to do that, I have to spend some time outside. So I loved our unseasonably warm February! It was great. I didn’t even think twice about leaving my house. But now it’s cold, and there’s snow, and I’m not sure what to…
