Critic's Notebook

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

It’s a summer afternoon, and Joseph Olenik, better known as Partylord, is sweating his ass off. His backyard studio, which he shares with fellow artist and roommate Pickle Palmer, has no circulation, and the screen-printed beer koozies and wood cuts filling the space only serve as a sort of stuffy…

On August 17, the website Blabbermouth.net reported that Denver thrash metal band Havok had been kicked off of a tour with Megadeth, just as it was about it hit Mexico. The tour, which also features Suicidal Tendencies, Amon Amarth and Metal Church, was just the latest in a series of…

It’s been a while since music fans depended on TV channels like MTV to get their fix of new and favorite music. Today devices like Roku and Apple TV are becoming increasingly popular as people realize that the big cable companies are charging a hell of a lot of money for…

With multiple platinum albums under his belt, Josh Groban is among the most successful pop singers of the past fifteen years. He has also appeared on most prominent television talk shows, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 20/20, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. (He even performed…

The Go-Go’s formed in Los Angeles in the midst of the city’s rising punk scene, three years before their debut album, 1981’s Beauty and the Beat, shot to the top of Billboard’s Top 200 on the strength of pop hits like “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat.” “When…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

When you live in Los Angeles, you don’t really think about music scenes anywhere else. Why would you? L.A. has it all. Sure, you might occasionally give a passing nod to cool shit going on in other places. Kudos to Seattle for that grunge run way back when. And, yeah,…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

It’s been a couple of months since we published our list of “Ten of the Best DJs in Denver Right Now,” but the electronic music scene in Denver is so rich and vibrant that we were never going to do it justice with just ten entries. A follow-up was always…

This weekend two of the greatest rock bands of the ’80s are performing together at Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Typically, bands whose greatest commercial popularity happened more than twenty years ago find themselves playing a nostalgia circuit of state fairs and the like, but the Church and…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

In the fading afternoon light, Joe Mekan sits near the entrance to Gathering of the Juggalos, smoking a Marlboro and watching his fellow Juggalos pour into the festival. He’s wearing a black tank top and black beanie; tattoos cover his arms, including a work-in-progress he’s doing himself, starting with a…

Emo gods never die. At least ones with the passion and musical talent of Andrew McMahon, who last night opened a show lineup in Denver that included Panic! at the Disco and Weezer at Fiddler’s Green. McMahon began playing piano at the age of nine and by the time he…

Go West, young Juggalo! Whoop whoop! According to a seminar held on Saturday, July 23, Insane Clown Posse confirmed that its annual festival, the Gathering of the Juggalos, will happen in Denver in 2017. The unique festival has taken place in various locations in the Midwest since its inception, including…

Juggalos know how to hustle. At their annual Gathering, just about anything you could ever possibly need to have a good time, from drugs and booze to more, uh, creative fare, is available for purchase from wicked clowns advertising their wares via hand-lettered cardboard signs. Here’s a small sampling of…

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work…

Back in March, we wrote a feature about Violent J of the Insane Clown Posse, who was about to play a solo show in town. We interviewed J, and, as is the way with the man, he wasn’t short on a thing or two to say. As we noted at…

After a much-needed two-year hiatus from the madness that is Insane Clown Posse’s annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival, we’re happy to report that this year, we’re going back. L.A. Weekly is off to Thornville, Ohio, for the Gathering, which runs July 20-23, and will be reporting throughout the week on…

The decision to start a record label in 2016 may not be a sound financial one. For most labels, especially at the grassroots level, even breaking even may be an impossible goal. However, if your bottom line has more to do with passion, ethics and a profound love for the…

One night in June 2002, Bay Area-based drummer Scott Amendola finished recording the tracks for Cry, his second album as a bandleader. He and guitarist Nels Cline (who would join Wilco two years later) sat in the control room afterward. Commenting on the wide variety of material on Cry, Cline…