Since forming in 2008, Sleigh Bells (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) have issued three records, a debut EP on M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Recordings in 2009, followed by two full-length albums, 2010’s Treats and its latest offering, Reign of Terror. The band’s combination of heavy, expansive guitar rock and hyperkinetic,…
Eight years have passed since the three members of Eve 6 — Max Collins, Jon Siebels and Tony Fagenson — released a new album together. During the break, they never stopped working on music; they just stopped working on music together as Eve 6. Nearing twenty years of working in…
We must learn to take Nicki Minaj with a grain of salt. Haters have argued that she can’t rap; her “Barbz” have argued that she redefined the genre. For barely a week now, Minaj managed to prove the latter: When Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded dropped last week, Minaj no longer…
Macklemore, one of the headliners at this year’s Westword Music Showcase, is playing two sold-out shows at the Fox Theatre this week, on Wednesday, April 11, and Thursday, April 12. The rapper and Seattle native, also known as Ben Haggerty, has truckloads of momentum right now. From being featured in…
It’s not easy to start a business that succeeds against the odds. With Sub.mission, Nicole Cacciavillano has managed to do that thanks to the help of a dedicated crew of interns, volunteers, resident DJs and eager supporters. At the five year celebration at City Hall this past Saturday, we sat…
Maulskull (born Jonathan Messinger) is in the midst of one of the more impressive undertakings we’ve seen in local hip-hop. His Death by Thr33s series is a massive collaborative effort between himself and more than twenty other artists. Every week for the last eighteen weeks has included the release of…
Madonna nabs the top spot on the Billboard 200 with her new album, MDNA. The set, her twelfth studio album, is also her eighth number-one; Madonna is now second only to Barbra Streisand with the number of top albums, and even then Babz only leads by one. MDNA shifted 359,000…
Hailing from Detroit — a city where punk rock, hip hop and blues all grow out of the same soil — Maria Kohler is giving Denver a taste of her rhymes and her eclecticism. “I think everybody has a pretty wide variety of music that they like,” explains Kohler, Kitty…
There weren’t too many people trying to play in rock bands around Cody, Wyoming, when Wes Roemmich, Levi Wells and Tyler Merkel were growing up there. They eventually crossed paths in high school, but they didn’t start playing music together until after they moved to Denver a couple years ago…
Another fresh batch of local hip-hop this week: D’Girl brings in a few of her homegirls on her latest video for “Sex Show,” ProCyse lets his flow loose over a laid-back beat, the Kool Crue spits lines over Drake’s “Headlines,” and we introduce you to a fresh new face in…
It’s telling that one of hip-hop’s most braggart raps from one of its most unpredictable MCs possesses 2012’s most ridiculous breakdown: “Dick in your face/Put my dick in your face.” A lyric like that, unique as it is, says a lot — mostly, there ain’t no one that does it…
A few weeks ago, Justin Bieber tweet-endorsed a new single by fellow Canadian Carly Rae Jepsen. No one outside of Canada had heard of her — and then, all of a sudden, she’s charting on the Billboard Hot 100. Behold the power of Biebs: “Call Me Maybe,” Jepsen’s single, currently…
There is very little argument to make against the suggestion that Prince ruled the 1980s. The decade was jam packed with memorable pop artists making music to treasure for generations to come, but none came close to the eclecticism, the energy, and the downright strangeness that was Prince Rodgers Nelson…
Tony Wilson (the Andy Warhol of Manchester, England) once made the hackneyed statement “Morrissey is a woman trapped in a man’s body,” to which the dandified frontman of the Smiths eventually replied, “Tony Wilson is a man trapped in a pig’s body.” The two were friends and icons of the…
Lady Gaga celebrated her 26th birthday earlier this week, and the Interwebz were aflutter with little monsters’ birthday wishes to her — Twitter, YouTube, even Billboard’s website were sending their well wishes. One person who didn’t tell her happy birthday, however, was Madonna. On the day of all days which…
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 bring their white hot melodies, thunderous vocal stylings and high vibration rhythms to the Boulder Theater tonight. But while Seun, the son of legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and his band are clearly the main draw this evening, you won’t want to miss the opener,…
Lots of noise on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the past two weeks, and it hasn’t been from Adele…for once. Last week, newcomers One Direction made history as the first British import with a number-one album debut — neither the Spice Girls nor the Beatles had albums ever debut…
The verses to Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” play through speakers undeniably, quintessentially and unexpectedly like Tyga’s “Rack City.” What the hell? When did the sugary pop we were to expect from this boy-band-of-one fizz out? It must have been when his voice started changing just before he released his Christmas album…
As if releasing “Part Of Me,” the I’m-better-off-without-Russell-Brand single couldn’t be autobiographical enough already, its accompanying video, which Katy Perry dropped late last week, really drives the message home. In the clip, Perry, who has become quite the character actress as of late — she just played a mustached prison…
On March 13, Say Anything, the indie rock band that came of age in the 2000s, released its fifth album, Anarchy, My Dear. The band soon launched its tour, which will hit the Mile High City this Friday, March 30, at the Summit Music Hall. In advance of the show,…
The Ting Tings (due at the Ogden Theatre this Saturday, March 31) were one of the first bands to emerge from the Apple iPod commercials in 2008. Thanks to the overnight exposure of “Shut Up and Let Me Go,” the band went from being a blogged-about British import to becoming…
While Denver’s electronic music scene is thriving, there are some producers who’ve found that it’s tough to make a name if you don’t have club bangers. Inspired by more experimental downtempo electronic acts like those found on Flying Lotus’s influential Brainfeeder label, local beatmaker Snubluck prefers the more musical approach…
