Concerts

Although there have been bass-and-drum duos before, Pittsburgh’s Dark Lingo takes that basic formula and twists it into compellingly nightmarish shapes. Making human voices inhuman by passing them through various guitar effects pedals and then making them swim through the thick churn of hypnotic, distorted bass patterns and insistent drumming,…

David Dondero invented Conor Oberst. Well, that may be a slight overstatement, but it’s no big secret that the poignant songwriting and uniquely emotive vocal style of the former were heavily influential on the latter. His work, however, stands up as far more than the jumping-off point for Bright Eyes…

Many people think of folk music as precious and pretentious in equal measure — the equivalent of arming whiny occupants of reality-show confessional booths with an acoustic guitar. But Canada’s Rural Alberta Advantage, performing with Great Room Victorian and Sandusky, proves that the genre doesn’t have to be a drag…

Plenty of haters ripped into 2007’s Worse Than a Fairy Tale, accusing Drop Dead, Gorgeous of softening its assault to up the accessibility quotient – and the act’s latest will likely be slapped with the same criticism, even though The Hot N’ Heavy is frequently both. Sure, there are missteps,…

The urge to release must be mighty, but Tangible Stereo isn’t doing itself any favors. True, you can’t sell product if you don’t have product, but when your product is as shoddy as this one — a beat-up CDR with the group’s name scrawled in Sharpie, in an ugly-ass, brown-paper-bag…

With analog synths blending in with the most cutting-edge sounds these days, this album sounds like it could have come out at any time post-Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise? Except that Kyle Person, the act’s only member, couldn’t have composed and put together the music alone as well…

When the fusion of hip-hop and rock was first conceived, it was meant to amplify the respective appeal of each style of music. Yet the hybrid has consistently resulted in prosaic lyrics and inferior beats. Broken Tongues’ debut does nothing to buck that trend. Worse, the duo delves into a…

Since Michael Jackson’s death, DJs worldwide have been putting together different mixtapes honoring the King of Pop’s music and legacy. While there have been some a good ones, a majority of them aren’t mixed and you can get the same effect by selecting shuffle on the MJ music in your…

Just received word from our friends in Rexway that the Harmony Interactive Music Experience event they were slated to play at this weekend in Glendale has been postponed. The inaugural event, presented by Ryan Dykstra Nightlife and Colorado Music Buzz Magazine and slated to take place this Saturday, July 11,…

In the realm of unlikely collaborations, it seems as if Magic Cyclops joining Lion Sized to cover the Germs would be near the very top of “least likely to happen” category. After all, Lion Sized is a balls-out, kickass rock band seemingly without pretense or pose. Magic Cyclops, on the…

Imagine that you are a member of the Rouge. You’ve just completed your first tour. One of the stops was at L.A.’s Knitting Factory, where you played for six labels and a couple of them showed interest. Less than a week later, you come home and play Red Rocks, which…

Just received word from our friends over at Theaters and Arenas that the Denver Film Society is planning some sort of special Michael Jackson tribute tonight after the Rouge’s set, which kicks off at 6:45, and just before the screening of Jaws at dusk. Despite our dogged persistence, our peeps…

Jon Snodgrass and Cory Branan have completed work on their split LP/cassette. Notice we didn’t mention anything about CD? That’s right, this release will not be available on disc. Inexplicably, however, it will be available on cassette. (?) Before you head over to Suburban Home Records to pick up your…

In between dates on his band’s current tour (which will be making its Denver stop next weekend at the Mile High Music Festival), Fray singer/guitarist Joe King found some time to hit to hit the studio with Kris Allen, the winner of last season’s American Idol, to record an as-yet-titled…

There’s been rumors swirling for the past two or three months regarding the Oriental Theater, the most intriguing (and viable) of which being that the owners of 3 Kings Tavern, Jeff Campbell, Jim Norris and Marty Kilorin, were in the process of negotiating the purchase of the theater. While we…

Clearly, Michael Jackson’s memorial, which is being held in a few hours in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, is the biggest music news story of the day — and perhaps the year. Amongst all the wall-to-wall coverage (KCRW, the public radio station out of Santa Monica, is slated to…

Wilco and Okkervil River Friday, July 3, 2009 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Better than: Wilco’s show at the Pikes Peak Center last year. Just as Wilco took the stage, the theme from the Price is Right played and two people cloaked in a camel suit pranced across the stage. Sure, it…

We stumbled across this enlightening graphical breakdown yesterday as we made our way across the Twitterverse. Somebody named Ethan Hein, a cat who evidently has a great deal of time on his hands, took the time and painstaking effort to deconstruct and then chart Michael Jackson’s influence on the hip-hop…

Jonathan RichmanWednesday, July 1, 2009Lion’s LairBetter than: Seeing an energetic and earnest singer/songwriter play at the Bluebird or the Fillmore. It seemed perfectly appropriate that Jonathan Richman opted to perform in the cramped confines of the Lion’s Lair. The bar’s small scope and understated feel served as a perfect complement…

During a two-day photo shoot for Wilco’s new album, guitarist Nels Cline, a reluctant rock star of sorts, had a rock-star moment. “I felt like I was in the Beatles or something,” he explains, “doing this photo shoot in Milwaukee, standing outside drawing traffic with a camel with a party…