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…
Since having her son, Kase Townes Murray, last summer, Jewel might have taken time off the road, but she’s still busy at home with a number of things, including working on a new Christmas album. Her free solo acoustic show this Saturday night at the Colorado Convention Center as part…
Sharon Van Etten (due this Wednesday, March 28, at the Bluebird Theater) saw more sides of the music industry than most of her peers before embarking on her musical career. She moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, as a teenager to go to school and became involved with Red Rose, a coffee-shop/music…
Update 4/12/12: Hot on the heels of its appearance on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, One Direction has announced a date at the Pepsi on Tuesday, July, 24. Tickets on sale next Saturday. With a slew of odd choices for musical guests lately, it’s not much of a surprise…
While Dustin Wong (who will be at Moe’s on Saturday, March 24) played in the duo Ecstatic Sunshine and the Baltimore-based art rock group Ponytail, who broke up last year, the guitarist does some enthralling stuff on his own. On his second solo album, Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads,…
Interviewing Alphabets (Colin Ward) is similar to listening to his music: you’re put through the ringer of an obnoxious charm, simultaneously witty and grating, aggressive and inviting. Combining both the underground music scene with demanding academic ambitions, the hyper and endlessly talented Colin Ward keeps himself busy with a creative…
In this week’s feature on Dale Bruning, the Longmont-based jazz guitarist talks about his five years of teaching Bill Frisell, who has since gone on to be one of the world’s finest guitarists, both in the jazz realm and beyond. We caught up with Frisell, who is performing with Bruning…
