Our periodic feature, The Denver Boot, has been conspicuously dormant for the past, oh, six months or so. Perhaps you’ve noticed. Excellent reason for that: The master taper guy supplying the recordings, the illustrious Lance Stack from The Flat Response blog, has been a face on a milk carton for,…
If you’ve listened to KTCL even briefly in the past year, you’ve heard the handiwork of Lee Miles. You’ve either heard his band, Oh My Stars, who has one of the top played songs on the station, or you’ve heard his production on songs by Colorado-based acts like Tickle Me…
From the beginning, Ghostland Observatory has gone into its musical endeavors with a certain level of personal ambition to make it the kind of band they’ve always loved themselves. Mixing a variety of electronic music styles with rock, soul and funk, this Austin-based outfit is often compared to Daft Punk…
Superchunk never tried to be the biggest band in the land, but it did make music on its own terms and became an iconic outfit in its own right by embodying what it means to be an indie rock band. While the band didn’t enjoy nearly the same level of…
These days, there are dozens of well known electronic-based bands of all shapes and sizes. Back in 2003, though, the very mention of a band that took a DJ and fused it with live instrumentation would’ve conjured up thoughts of Linkin Park or worse, Limp Bizkit. When it formed, however,…
As you’ll see from the exchange after the jump, Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth isn’t much of a talker. It’s almost as if he’d rather let the music speak for itself — and it speaks volumes, as evidenced by the act’s latest opus, last year’s Bitte Orca. One of the…
By now, we’re presuming you’re already very familiar with Lilly Scott, the bewitching local siren who helped breathe new life into the tired American Idol franchise this year with her unique voice and unorthodox song selections. Given the other singers she was up against, we were certain she’d make it…
Alan Palomo made a name for himself trying to sound like someone else. His breakout, however, didn’t come until he settled for just sounding like himself. It was an unlikely break for Palomo, but then his entire career is full of such unlikely things, like Ghosthustler, his previous project, for…
Tickle Me Pink’s young career has already been filled with setbacks and shrouded by controversy. From the heartbreaking loss of original bassist Johnny Schou in 2008 to the recent parting with their label, Wind-up, the boys still had time to release an explicit video for their single “Typical Whore” in…
Contention between Single File and its producer, Howard Benson, almost shelved the band’s major label debut, Common Struggles, before it even came out. Single File felt Benson and Warner Bros. were trying to shape the band into something they did not want to be…
Texas isn’t big enough to contain Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights. After signing with Atlantic records in 2008, the Dallas-based quintet quickly started making a name for itself across the country, touring with high-caliber acts like ZZ Top and the Black Crowes before releasing Pardon Me, its major label…
Since 2007, Wesley Davis and Jewl Petteway have been organizing Transistor Festival as a showcase for electronic music artists of all stripes from our part of the country. Along with festivals and events like Communikey, Frequencee Mind Controlle and Denver Noise Fest, Transistor Festival is proof positive of the strong…
Not so long ago, MGMT was like many underground bands in America playing small clubs and relatively low key shows. But even by the time of the release of its second album, 2007’s Dave Fridmann-produced Oracular Spectacular, the band was already in the midst of its meteoric rise to popularity…
Andy Bothwell, aka. Astronautalis, has oft times been labeled as the Tom Waits or Hunter S. Thompson of underground hip-hop. Like many others in his position, he began honing his skills in high school, battling on corners while climbing rank amongst industry-friendly peers. His unhurried and intelligent prose quickly became…
Justin Mauriello, head of the I Hate Kate trio, is only in his mid-twenties and already has a seasoned career. At the beginning of the last decade with his first band, Zebrahead, he found respectable success both here in the States and in Japan. In 2004, he put all of…
Since 2005, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire has been fusing the spiky and hyperkinetic dynamism of grindcore with death metal’s unremitting darkness and sonic heaviness. Never content to settle on a mere sound, this Denver band challenges itself to create new depths in the expression of the…
With close to six months of postponed release dates under its belt, two official videos already out in advance of its supposed release on June 15, and almost every one of its tracks leaked all over the internet, Drake’s much anticipated first full-length, Thank Me Later, has generated a ton…
Our Rough Mixes entry focusing on 50 Cent in this week’s issue only contained excerpts of our recent conversation with the rapper. In advance of his show tonight at the Fillmore, we’ve posted our entire exchange with the stunningly emaciated MC after the jump…
For the second week in a row, album sales reached their lowest point in the history of the SoundScan era. “Indie” bands, meanwhile, continue to chart unexpectedly high: This week, The Black Keys are number three, Band of Horses is number seven and LCD Soundsystem is number ten. But these…
Trace Bundy has quietly been going about his business as a musician for about ten years now. But, really, calling him a musician doesn’t quite do justice to what the guy does with a guitar. With a pioneering finger-style technique that incorporates up to five capos across various strings of…
The Disco Biscuits aren’t just about the jam scene – this year’s installment of their summer music festival Camp Bisco will feature, among many others, LCD Soundsystem, Method Man, Ghostface Killah & Raekwon and Denver’s own Pretty Lights. The Biscuits have actually been incorporating electronics in their music since their…
This week’s signs of the music industry’s apocalypse: 1. The National had the highest selling debut album in the country this week, good for number three overall (behind Justin Beiber and Lady Antebellum). 2. This was the worst week for album sales since SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. Q:…
